There are some days where it's just so easy to say, "Hey, do you wanna go get food somewhere?"

The days where your feet hurt from being on your feet at work, the exhaustion from the lack of sleep is catching up to you, going to the store to buy all the ingredients just seems like too much of a hassle and the kitchen is a mess so you'd rather just go with the simple resolution of take-out food.

I get it, I do. I play this card a little more than I should. My wallet usually suffers from driving to the restaurant my friends and I want to go to (usually we drive to Glendale for good Korean BBQ, which is expensive in itself), buying a nice drink (like a Pina Colada from the Cheesecake Factory) and one too many appetizers that always fill you up before you get your meal.

But even though the food is really good and we leave smiling with a proud, protruding belly, sometimes I'd just rather stay in because, well, 1) I'm a poor college student, and 2) I love making and eating a home-cooked meal in the comfort of my own pajamas.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, beats a good home-cooked meal. I'm sure there are college students out there who would love to go home to have a home-cooked meal right now! Isn't that why you went home for Thanksgiving? For the deliciousness embedded in each dish your family made?

Sometimes when my family and I go on a week-long vacation somewhere and we have to rely on eating out, by day three, I really yearn for the taste of something other than greasy, fast food or big, over-garnished portions on a plate at a restaurant. I don't mind eating out every once in a while, but the food cooked in the comfort of your own kitchen is incomparable to that of a restaurant.

Not only that, but sometimes going a week without eating rice really makes me feel incomplete, per my "Asian tendencies."

Growing up, I've learned a lot from being my mother's "shadow" in the kitchen, fetching ingredients from the fridge and the pantry at her every command, and hosting an imaginary cooking show with my grandma, which we named "Martha and Akeelah's Cooking Show" (Martha, from Martha Stewart, and Akeelah, from the movie "Akeelah and the Bee").

For other cooks, I'm sure these same memories of being their parent's helper or watching other beloved family members preparing delicious meals to come flooding to their mind, some of which were reminisced upon at the Arizona Storytellers Food and Family Night.

Not only that, but I find satisfaction in making people smile with my cooking and being able to try new things with what I cook, putting my own twist on a recipe to make it unique to me.

Cooking is such a necessary skill to have in life. With it, you are able to not only nourish yourself but nourish others around you. It's a magnificent craft where you are able to give soul to your food. For me, it's another creative outlet that allows me to connect with people through their palate.

When was the last time you decided to stay in with your friends and cook together?

I think that cooking at home with your friends, family, and significant other is probably one of the best bonding experiences that you can do. Everyone has different backgrounds when it comes to food, so through the diversity of culture, you can experience numerous flavors that they learned growing up, while at the same time teaching some of what you learned growing up as well.

There are nights where I will refuse to eat out with friends just to eat something my mom made for dinner, where I will invite my friends over just to make a meal for them, or where my boyfriend and I would rather cook something together at home than eat at a fancy restaurant on date night.

So, I challenge you to try to stay in for one night, invite your friends over, and cook a meal together. It can be anything, from the simpleness of a grilled cheese sandwich to the complexity of homemade Tonkotsu ramen.

Learn from each other, bond over the good and the bad, and most of all, try your best to put your heart into it. You never know, maybe you'll want to cook more often!