Tips: How to Cook More Often

Happy New Year!

Around this time of year people set all sorts of goals and resolutions.  Even I did it! One thing that I hear over and over again is that people aim to cook more often instead of just grabbing take out or eating a frozen meal.  As someone that cooks practically every night cooking has just become so routine to me that I don’t even think about it, but I understand that some people think that cooking takes too long.  Here are some tips to making your life easier and making a home-cooked meal more often.

1. Menu Planning: I got into the habit of mapping out what I’m going to eat for the week while in university and it makes my life a lot easier.  If you sit down to think about what you’re going to eat for lunch and dinner all week it makes it easier to buy groceries, you end up with less waste because you can see how different ingredients factor into multiple recipes AND you can get excited knowing that you’re making chili on Thursday.  It also makes life easier knowing that I don’t have to come up with a dinner idea for that night since I already have a plan.  Through experience I’ve also realized that it’s helpful to factor in a flex night or two in each week.  This allows for unexpected dinner dates, missed meals or time to consume excess leftovers.

2. Do One Big Shop: Menu planning allows me to map out all of the ingredients that I need each week to make my meals.  This means I can do one big shop (usually on the weekend) and not have to worry about picking up ingredients throughout the week.  This saves time because it means no after work grocery shopping!  Sure there are times when I have to buy something random during the week but for the most part once I do my big shop on Saturday or Sunday I’m good to go.

3. Stock Your Pantry: There are certain things that I always have on hand including spices, pasta, canned beans, dried beans, chicken broth and lots of other stuff.  Having these ingredients on hand makes cooking often more accessible.  It eliminates the “ingredient shock” I get sometimes when I see long ingredient list and having these ingredients sitting around makes me want to use them!

4. Watch the Food Network: say what you want about the Food Network but it really is a great resource to learn how to cook.  Most of the chefs do an excellent job of simplifying recipes and the process involved in putting a meal on the table.  You get to see what certain culinary techniques look like in action and given the time constraints of TV cooking there are a great deal of recipes that can be made in a limited amount of time. Plus, it’s great inspiration to see what you can make as most of the recipes are available on the website.

5. Be Adventurous: My thriftiness has really improved my cooking.  I LOVE to go out to eat but don’t love spending the money.  This imbalance has given me a lot of motivation to try and recreate restaurant dishes at home.  Craving butter chicken but don’t want to do take out? Find a recipe and do it yourself!  Sure, some recipes are a bit labour intensive – skip those ones! Focus on what seems realistic for your schedule.

6. Prep Ahead: If you’re following a recipe read it through the night before to make sure there aren’t any surprises when you start cooking the following night. There might even be things you can do the night before.  For me I hate peeling butternut squash.  If I know I’m making something with squash on Tuesday I’ll try to peel it the night before so that I’m less grumpy on Tuesday AND I’ll have my squash peeled and ready to go.

Hopefully these tips might encourage you to realize that cooking regularly is accessible and downright easy – with some planning.  Feel free to comment or email me with questions.