Tips for Starting a Cooking Habit

With the economic crisis and the sustainable living trend picking up, more and more people are coming home to eat. But what if the idea of cooking freaks you out? You just know you’ll cut off your finger or start a neighborhood fire. Or maybe you just don’t know where to start or don’t have the time. How can you start a cooking habit?

1. Get the tools.

Invest in a few cookbooks. What kind of food do you like to eat at restaurants? American, Thai, sushi? Browse some cookbooks and open the book randomly to a few recipes. Would you actually make or eat what you see? You can always take it home and try out a few things and return it if you find that the cookbook author’s style just doesn’t suit you.

Check out online recipes and sites. Many food magazines have websites that post most of their recipes. Vegetariantimes.com has all of their recipes searchable by nutritional need: gluten free, vegan, etc. Nutritionmd.com is also a great site to customize your food. Most of the food is easy to prepare and you can plan out your meals for the week and they will provide a grocery list for you.

Make sure your cookware is up to par as well. You don’t need to have the fanciest gadgets if you don’t want to, but make sure your cookbooks don’t only contain recipes that require food processors or inversion blenders. If you have the means to go all out, by all means, do it! Many of these gadgets make cooking super simple and quick. But it’s not necessary. Most cookbooks have a basic ‘must-have’ list of cookware. If you are scrimping, hit up garage sales for your missing tools.

2. Plan.

I can’t speak enough about planning. It’s essential for saving money, eliminating waste, and ensuring that you will stick to a cooking schedule. Get one of those cheesy, domestic “what are we eating” lists that detail the day-to-day. Give yourself a night of eating out if that’s what you’re used to. Or have a PB&J night…whatever works for you!

Ease into the cooking habit. Try two new dishes in your first week. Invite a friend or your significant other to help, it’ll make it more fun. Keep it simple with a one-pot meal or casserole or pasta. Prep all your ingredients before you touch a pan so you don’t stress out or cut off an appendage trying to keep up. This is supposed to be fun!

3. Leftovers and sharing.

Learn to love leftovers. Take them into work for lunch the next day or have a leftover night. If you find that you’re not cooking enough to yield leftovers, double your recipes. Triple them even. Many soups and casseroles also freeze well. If you are short on time in the evenings, leftovers and pre-frozen meals will be a wonderful thing for you.

Share food to save money. Making double or triple of a dish doesn’t cost much extra. Grab a bunch of friends and have them each bring a large dish to share and a few Tupperware containers. You can potluck, but there should be enough so that everyone takes home a few different kinds of leftovers for the week. This is a great way to promote community eating and you can share some recipe ideas.