We're an ingredient household

Who knew social media was sometimes educational? Sure, you can look up tutorials on how to do an haircut, learn to crochet, or even learn a new language... But that wasn't exactly what I was talking about. 

Some months ago, on my social media, short videos kept popping up about people (usually in a complaining manner) talking on how they were raised in an "ingredient household". I didn't know there was a thing like that, or rather, that it had a name - this is where I learned something new. So an "ingredient household" basically means that it's a household where not a lot of pre-made/convenience foods are present, and most foods they have are seperate ingredients to make your own dishes/snacks with. Apparently, this is something beyond traumatic for children growing up, especially for teenagers. Can you imagine the horror of not being able to grab an unhealthy snack whenever, however? (ok, sarcastic mode off 😅) Yes, I know that in the end it's social media so things always need to be exaggerated. How else will they reach all those thousands of likes? But, even if it is exaggerated, there probably is *some* truth to it. Especially for teenagers who have peers that don't live in an "ingredient household" and they can grab all kinds of (usually unhealthy) snacks whenever they like. There must be some sort of peer pressure even with what people eat. If a kid brings a homemade snack to school, when all of the classmates bring store bought snacks, the average teenager probably wouldn't really like it to be standing out, only to learn later on in life that his/her parents did it in their best interest: to save money so they can spend it on more important things, and perhaps even more importantly, to keep them healthy. 

I must say, that's one of the pros of where we live. Snacking isn't really a big thing. Not that cookies, chips etc. do not exist in the stores, but people just tend not to have a lot of those at home. They're usually purchased at the nearest corner shop when needed. "When needed" usually means: when they have unexpected visitors and want to serve them some snack alongside the tea/coffee/fizzy drink. That is, when they don't have enough time to make their visitors a treat themselves; because in an ingredient household, people make most foods from scratch. People here are big on making things themselves so it's not really unheard of when you're only served homemade cookies/cakes or homemade popcorn. If you're raised in such an environment, you'll later learn that other people's breakfasts came out of a box, and that soup was some powder in a sachet. You do have to put a bit more effort in having a snack when there are just separate ingredients, which is probably a big reason why people here don't snack a lot (and also, that you're just satiated longer with homemade food compared to convenience foods). 

One of the videos in which the person was complaining, showed what she snacked on as a teenager. It was a sandwich (probably bread was already present so she didn't have to make her own bread with flour, yeast and the other ingredients needed to bake bread) with bread and butter. Not bad, I'd say... But the way she portrayed it was as if she was the most pathetic girl in the world. As I mentioned, it's probably somewhat exaggerated, and people will do anything to gain fame through social media. But if there is some sincerity, which there probably is, it means that they feel they were missing out on... junk. Let's just hope that later on in life, people will be able to see the positive side of homemade food and will be able to appreciate the skills they have learned growing up. 

Back to our own "ingredient household", and what that means practically. Usually, we're not big on snacking. In fact, my youngest especially doesn't eat particularly good and at times I need to bribe her to have a snack, because she often refuses to have a real lunch. Sometimes that doesn't work either, though. But I try to have at least some foods at home that we can eat without a lot of effort. There are always dates at home, as well as fruits, which they know can eat unlimited (well... obviously not a kg in one go or something but that's never happened). Bread, also, they can eat if it's there. We keep our bread in the freezer so when there's bread it's usually leftovers from breakfast. The toppings might be a bit limited compared to what most people have, but there's enough to satisfy hunger (or, let's be honest, cravings) and they'll have some choice. Eggs I usually boil about 6 at a time. Not only because it's saving water and electricity that way, it's a very good snack to have on hand. We always yogurt at home, which comes in small individual packages (one package being about half a cup). If they want to flavour it up they can add ground almonds (which we also have on hand), or honey etc. They usually eat it plain. 

As for main meals, being an ingredient household can be a bit different from non-ingredient households too. I don't claim I make everything myself, but we do make quite a lot. Something we don't make (yet?) is pasta, as that would turn out to be more expensive, which isn't worth the labour in my opinion. So we have that at home. Sauces is a thing we make ourselves, wether it's white sauce, or marinara sauce, or the stew to serve with couscous etc. Sauces aren't really being sold here anyway, so it's just necessary, even if I wanted to buy them ready made. The only thing we've been buying lately is mayonnaise and that is because the oil prices have risen tremendously which made making our own mayo very cost inefficient. Tinned vegetables/beans etc are expensive here, much more expensive than buying fresh (fresh tastes so much better anyway, in my opinion). So that's another thing you won't find in our home. This makes it a bit more difficult to make meals in a pinch. I mean there's always meals we can make in a pinch, but not just every imaginative meal. Due to this, planning is important (which I'm still not very good at, unfortunately). You do learn to eat what's on hand and that it's OK not to be able to eat whatever whenever. 

I think the most outstanding thing when it comes to main meals as an ingredient household is packaging, or the lack thereof. A lot of people are so dependent on packaged foods. I once read a complaint by a woman, saying that she would like to be able to just cook a pasta meal without the garbage bin being half full. At first I didn't really get it - because I've always cooked from scratch. But now I get it. The sauce, the meat, vegetables, the salad used as a side, sometimes cheese, and of course the pasta all are individually packaged. That's a whole lot of packaging for just one evening meal! For us, the only thing in such a meal that's packaged is the pasta itself. I even learned to re-use the wrapper to be even a bit less wasteful. Yes, I know it will eventually be thrown away, but it does save me another disposable bag. The meat we buy package free, and it eventually needs to be packed when it goes into the freezer, which is still less than a store bought meat packaging. That is if we do use meat, as a lot of our meals are vegan or vegetarian. 

That being said, I honestly can't imagine to make a meal with so much waste (that is, if nothing of the prepared food goes to waste). Not trying to be judgemental or something, but I sometimes can't really relate to being not waste conscious. Perhaps that's even more clear when it comes to breakfast foods. Most people have so many packaged things for breakfast. We usually have bread, either homemade with bulk bought flour or bought package at the bakery. Then we eat it with olive oil (which is poured into our own bottles when buying) and dates from our local market, along with tea (loose leaf tea from a big sachet). I sometimes crave other foods like oats, which we buy package free. I'm a bit more wasteful than the rest of the family as I like my oats with yogurt, although I do have other ways to eat oats. We do have "real" bread toppings, but save them for when we have a bit more special breakfast, or when I make pancakes. 

This is kind of how our imperfect ingredient household works. It's easy for us because this is how we've always done it, but switching from an un-ingredient household to an ingredient household, it's probably a bit of a challenge. Taking one step at a time will make it more doable.