Home Cooking is Trendy in 2009

More people are spending less money on restaurant dining and more on basic ingredients to prepare home cooked meals. Most home cooked meals are healthier than what you would get at a restaurant, but just like restaurant meals are controlled by the chef in the kitchen, home cooked meals are controlled by the "nutritional gatekeeper," or the person who does all the shopping and cooking.

These "nutritional gatekeepers" determine how the rest of the household eats, so if they have unhealthy eating habits they will most likely pass those habits onto the rest of the family and the same is true if they have healthy eating habits.

A recent study looked at the type of cooks out there. Here are the profile types that most people fall under.

"Giving" cooks love to cook, but mostly prepare comfort food like baked goodies.

"Methodical" cooks rely heavily on recipes, so their ingredients and how healthy they are is strongly determined by the cookbook they use. 

"Competitive" cooks care more about making an impressive dish and not as much on how healthy it is.

"Healthy" cooks tend to put pride in the fresh ingredients they cook with, but care less about the taste.

"Innovative" cooks like to experiment with different ingredients and try out different cuisines. This type of cook often prepare healthier dishes.

Do you fit one of these profiles or do you fall into several of these? The truth is whether you are a giving, methodical, competitive, healthy or innovative chef in the kitchen you can make all of your meals healthy. For the giving cooks you can make healthier baked goods with the right ingredients. For the healthy cook you don't have to sacrifice taste. Check out these recipes for healthy and delicious meals—including desserts!