For the most part, you can almost always find sauces, dressings, and soups ready-made for you. However, there are plenty of times when you’re going to want to put your own stampon all the flavor possibilities, especially when you are trying to either be healthy or figure out how to set yourself apart as an individual.

Five times, in particular, you might want to take this route include when you want to use sauces, dressings, or soups with pasta, on salads, with sandwiches, to go along with store-bought items, or when you’re competing for attention, for example, if you are at some sort of cooking competition.

On Pasta

Using fresh, homemade sauce on pasta is a great idea. You can never quite be sure what is in a lot of the store-bought sauces that you can buy, and many times the fact that they are in powder form before you add liquid should tell you that there leaves something to be desired. You can create fresh tomato sauce, for example, and it will go on pretty much any type of Italian recipe, and taste great within your flavor target.

On Salads

When it comes to eating salads, many people try to munch on the green, healthy stuff because they think it’s better for them. However, once you start adding store-bought salad dressing to the mix, the calorie count goes through the roof. To combat this, consider making your own salad dressing, so at least that way you’ll know exactly what is in the flavor that you’re adding to your healthy, green mix. Lime and lemon juice are great initial substances to start with.

With Sandwiches

As far as soup goes, whenever you make any kind of sandwich, soup is a natural side dish. If you choose to create your own soup recipes, they can have some of the ingredients that would match naturally with whatever you are putting between your pieces of bread. This simple option can make a meal go from ordinary to gourmet.

To Go With Store-bought Items

Many times, you will find that store-bought items can taste a little bit bland. If you want, you can create your own sauces to go on top of these items, thereby creating your own version of what otherwise might be an extremely dull meal. You’d be amazed at how much change you can make simply by adding a few new fresh flavors.

When You’re Competing for Attention

If you’re in any kind of a cooking competition, then obviously you want to have the most specific types of sauces that you can. These can be secret recipes that have been passed down over the years, or you could potentially have come up with them on your own. But, as they say, the secret is in the sauce.