I’m in a cooking rut.
When I moved into an apartment this year, I started cooking all of my meals. I cook about three times a week and eat leftovers on the days in between.
But here is the problem: I’m tired of my cooking.
I have about five go-to meals that I have been cooking over and over since the beginning of this year. I stick to the same five meals because they are healthy and delicious.
However, it has been almost a year and I am sick of the same things week after week. I find myself wanting to eat out more just to taste something different. And I know eating out often is an easy way to gain weight.
I’ve tried experimenting, but many of my experiments have been failures. I tried making a vegetable stir fry (yes, it’s the simplest meal) but added too much soy sauce and just ended up with soggy veggies.
But today I decided to snap out of this rut. I have a few recipes that my mom gave me before I left for college, so I decided to flip through them.
When I came across a chicken shawarma recipe my mouth started to water, and I knew what I would be eating for dinner. Shawarma is a Mediterranean dish, usually served with a pita stuffed with tomato and cucumber salad, hummus and spiced chicken. Hummus was buy one, get one free at the grocery store, so I have plenty extra to eat throughout the week.
I felt very satisfied after I ate dinner tonight. I tried something out of my comfort zone and don’t regret it. I think it’s important to mix up your menu to avoid getting bored of what you are cooking. It’s also exciting cooking a new dish and loving it. Of course, not all experiments have a positive outcome, as in the case of my vegetable stir fry. But you never know until you try, right?
From now on, I am going to cook one new dish every week. If I keep it up, I will eventually have 20 go-recipes instead of five.
What are some of your favorite recipes?