Another new year is rolling around, and you know what that means: making outlandish promises to yourself to get in shape and eat right. Which one is easier? Eating right! With simple tips and tricks, you can keep that promise to yourself and revel in a new year full of home-cooked dishes of which you are sure to be proud. Here are six ways to really spice up your cooking in 2018 and leave you excited to wear your apron time after time.
Invest in the Right Tools
No one enjoys scraping the charred remnants of their meal from the bottom of the pan hours after a soak you thought for sure would do the trick. By investing in the best quality cookware, you can save the headaches and get downright to what you love, cooking and eating. Be sure to find good, nonstick cookware and cutlery that will last and take on any culinary project you have in mind.
Clean As You Go
Admittedly, this isn’t that spicy, but another simple way to make cooking a more enjoyable experience is cleaning up after yourself as you go. Have a few minutes to wait for the onions to caramelize? Take that time to throw away the trimmings or wash your previously used pot. Practices like these can save you time and make cleanup minimal once you are comfortably full and ready to relax.
Explore Your Local Grocery
Have some time on your hands? Take a trip to the store without your list and just explore what is available. Is there a vegetable you don’t recognize? Google it and see what exciting things you can do with it. How about that spice you’ve never encountered? Pull up a few recipes calling for it and see if it is something you feel confident enough to take on. Who knows? You might have just stumbled upon your new favourite food.
Try New Recipes
With those new vegetables and spices, it is time to venture beyond the regular Taco Tuesday. We all know that cooking is a habit, but how often do we default back to our beloved mac and cheese? Sit down once a week and seek out new recipes to try. Make it a plan to get adventurous with an unfamiliar dish regularly. Mark it on the calendar. Transform “Taco Tuesday” into “check out this new recipe I found on Pinterest” night. If it turns out to be bust, so what? Take that one off the board.
Color Coordinate
We all know that vibrant, colourful fruits and vegetables are healthy for us, but the colours can also make our plates fun in appearance. Not to bash mac and cheese again, but how often do we accompany it with something like potatoes or corn to make a meal full of yellow? Boring! Inject your plate with a variety of colours for beautiful looking meals. Even a salad can house the rainbow with the right ingredients.
Host Regular Dinner Parties
Ready to show off those new recipes full of colour? Make hosting a dinner party something you look forward to once you’ve perfected those dishes and are ready to show them off. Not only does cooking for others have its benefits, but you can share your meals in a way that is so much deeper than Instagram.
Don’t let cooking at home be the resolution that is a bust! With these six ways to keep the act of cooking fun, you can look forward to coming home with a meal plan already in mind and become the best in the kitchen.
