Make Cooking at Home Easier with Online Grocery Shopping

Let’s be honest. One of the big deterrents to cooking at home is the unpleasant and time consuming trip to the grocery store. Sometimes it seems like the meal planning and shopping part is more time consuming than the actual cooking! But what if you could skip the driving, endless aisle wandering, and the checkout line?

Good news Richmonders! You can!

Online grocery delivery options are becoming more prevalent in Richmond and we think it’s great! Removing the chore of getting in your car and going to the store will only help to make cooking at home easier. In fact, it could help us change the way we eat for the better.

Not only is cooking at home cheaper than eating out, studies have shown that it’s healthier. According to a study by the University of Washington, “people who cook at home more often, rather than eating out, tend to have healthier overall diets.”

Another study, done at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, found that when people cook most of their meals at home, they consume fewer carbohydrates, less sugar and less fat than those who cook less or not at all.

Other benefits to cooking at home include:

1. The ability to control what goes into your food (as opposed to not knowing what fats, sugars, and sodium went into the dish you ordered).
2. When you cook your own meals, you have a greater appreciation for the food you’re eating. You become more aware and mindful of what you’re putting in your body, which leads to healthier eating overall.
3. Portion control. Restaurants are notorious for serving giant portions, which are hard to resist.
4. Family bonding. Cooking and eating meals together provides a bonding experience and an opportunity to talk about the importance of healthy eating. It also helps build healthy habits that your children will take into adulthood.
5. It saves money. It’s just cheaper to cook at home.
6. It boosts creativity. Finding new recipes and making up your own is a great way to flex your creative muscles.
7. It’s easier to resist junk food when it’s not staring you in the face around every corner.

Online Grocery Services

Have we convinced you to cook at home yet? Want to know how to get fresh groceries delivered to your door? Check out these great local services.

Door to Door Organics

Door to Door Organics (previously Relay Foods), delivers organic produce, farm-fresh dairy, humanely-raised meat, sustainable seafood, and natural groceries right to your doorstep. The service is subscription based and offers plenty of great recipes to go along with your delivery.

Instacart

Instacart is a grocery delivery service that allows customers to order goods from various stores in the area. Instacart currently takes orders from Whole Foods, Wegman’s, CVS, Farm Fresh, and Petco (depending on where you live).

ClickList

Kroger recently got in on the online shopping game with a new service call ClickList. You can order and pay for your groceries online and then pick up your order at the store or have it delivered (where available), at a time that’s convenient for you.

With these great, convenient options, how could you say no to cooking at home? Give it a shot and you will reap the benefits of a healthier, more cost effective diet.