Recently it hit me – the past 3 to 6 months I’ve been cooking the same 6 or so dishes on HIGH rotation – I’ve found myself stuck in a cooking rut!
No complaints have been lodged and the meals have been enjoyable, there just has been a distinct lack of new Yummy Inspirations being created in my kitchen.
This revelation occurred a few weeks ago and since then I’ve taken the following steps to pull myself out of my cooking rut:
Incorporate New Ingredients
My weekly food shop included the SAME ingredients week in, week out. So, logically the same ingredients would equate to the same meals.
I took it as a personal challenge to choose different protein and vegetable options, so I was forced to cook NEW dishes.
I also added new, interesting items to my pantry so I would have new staples to incorporate into my dishes.
Find inspiration in books and blogs
I turned to some of my favourite blogs and cookbooks for inspiration.
One of my favourites in these instances is The Flavor Thesaurus by Niki Segnit – it’s full of ingredient combinations I would never have thought of and I’m always inspired to create something unique as a result of findings from this book. (You can get yours here!)
Cook seasonally
A quick google search will reveal what’s in season in your area right now. For example, I searched “food in season in Melbourne in Spring”.
This should give you a few ideas to cook meals using beautiful fresh, seasonal produce.
Scour social media for inspiration
In particular I LOVE Pinterest for a visual smorgasboard of tasty ideas. Once you’ve decided on your seasonal ingredients above, head to pinterest for some inspiration!
All of this effort paid off in my family enjoying new found favourites like Overnight Oats and Asparagus with Feta. We also became reaquainted with old favourites from my recipe index which I hadn’t cooked in AGES.
Have you ever found yourself in a cooking rut?
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