Cooking doesn’t have to be hard, but it is worth putting effort into. Here are my top tips for eating real, good food on a regular basis.
Organize
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Organize Your Recipes: Find a system that works for you. You may go fully digital while others stick to paper. I do both.
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Pinterest: I have two primary boards: “Recipes to Try” and “Successful Recipes.” If I tried and liked a recipe, I move it to “Successful Recipes.” If a recipe didn’t work for me, I delete it.
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Trusty Notebook: I use a notebook to track our weekly dinner menus. When I’m struggling to come up with an idea, I can refer back to past menus for inspiration.
Plan
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Plan Your Menu. For consistency, pick a day to sit down (it’s usually Saturday for me) and plan what you will cook that week.
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Switch It Up: Eating the same meals over and over again isn’t sustainable, so allow some variety. Plan to have Meatless Monday, chicken a few nights, ground turkey once, and salmon another night. Choose things you want to eat.
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Make Enough for Leftovers: As a family of two, I always cook four servings — two for dinner and two for lunch the next day.
PRep
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Get Your Groceries: I am a faithful grocery pickup customer. It keeps me from overspending and saves my introverted brain the trouble of dealing with strangers. I usually order on Saturday and pick up on Sunday morning.
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Cook Ahead: The advantage of getting groceries Sunday morning is there’s time to prep. Make what you can ahead of time. I especially like to make sauces and toppings, like pico de gallo, early because they keep well.
