I’m not going to give you a long spiel about the reasons you should cook at home. Let’s just cut to the chase. Who knows what the heck is going down in that restaurant kitchen!
Restaurants buy food in bulk, which typically means poor quality. When you cook your own meals, you know exactly what you’re eating.
But, I don’t have time Robyn! Oh, if I had a dollar…
Cooking at home is actually faster than dining out. Add up the time you spend driving to a restaurant, waiting for a table, deciding what you want, waiting to order, waiting for your food, waiting for the bill, and then driving home. In that amount of time you could have prepared a healthy and delicious dinner at home and avoided all that waiting!
Here’s the deal-io Chickadees, cooking doesn’t have to be drudgery. Are you crazy? Yeah, maybe a little, but if you follow my Cooking With JOY tips, you too can hop on board the crazy train and learn to LOVE cooking.
1. First stop, Pinterest! Have you heard of it? If not, you’ve got to check it out. I save all of my favorite recipes there. Instead of sorting through cookbooks and random print outs, everything is located in one convenient location online.
Pin what? No worries, check out my recipes here.
You’ll need an invite to join the site. Want one? Just shoot me an email via my contact form on this site and I’ll send you one. Easy peasy!
2. All you need to do is find at least ten recipes that you like. That’s it, just ten. You may not believe it, but that’s all most families use.
3. Designate a specific day and time for your cooking fun. Choose a time when you can block off at least 2 hours and won’t be rushed or disrupted. I can usually whip up three big dishes during this time and that’s all I need to get me and the hubby through the week. Can you say delicious leftovers?
4. Sprinkle on some FUN! This may be the most important step. I tend to do my cooking on Sunday afternoons and I usually plan my recipes that morning and head out to store for any last minute ingredients.
Once I’m ready to rock and roll, I’ll open up a nice bottle of red wine and pour myself a glass. Next on the agenda, great tunes! Play music that inspires you. For me, it’s crooners like Frank, Dean, Etta, Rosemary or Louis.
That’s it, four simple steps. And once you’re in the zone, cooking can be quite meditative. All it takes is a simple mind shift. So replace those negative thoughts about cooking with a shiny new one like…
I am nourishing myself and my family with healthy and delicious food, all while having FUN.
And don’t forget to sharpen those knives. Hmm, might make for a good video post down the road. Stay tuned and buon appetito!