Fall Back In Love With Cooking – 5 Easy Ways

I had a conversation with a friend not too long ago about how she really doesn’t enjoy cooking very much anymore. “I just wish you could help me fall back in love with cooking again,” she sighed.

I totally understand these sentiments. Like so many of us, my friend found it challenging to cook pretty much every single day during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.  Most of us were planning and preparing 3 meals a day 7 days a week. I know we all managed the occasional take away and meal in restaurants between lockdowns but that’s still somewhere around 1100 meals plus without much of a break. It was definitely a bit wearing, even for someone who loves to cook as much as I do.

On the positive side, I loved having lunch with my husband nearly every day. It was a joy to have extra time together and I miss it now he is back in the office a few days a week. However there were days even I found myself thinking “Don’t tell me it’s time for us to eat again?”

I wanted to help my friend, so I have put together these easy suggestions to help her – and anyone else who may need to fall in love with cooking once again.

5 Easy Tips To Help You Fall Back In Love With Cooking

1. Make Recipes You Really Like

If you are feeling a bit jaded about cooking, now is definitely the time for comfort food!  Choose recipes you really want to make with ingredients you enjoy.

Don’t let others dictate what you want to cook. The preferences of family members should not preclude you enjoying foods you love. You don’t necessarily have to cook two meals. Instead, try making all the same sides, but cooking two different proteins. For example, if your family hates fish, you can cook a piece of cod for yourself and chicken breasts for them. There is a small difference in the cooking time, but you could put the cod in the oven a few minutes after the chicken has started to cook. Or serve vegetarian fajitas with optional slices of chicken breast or steak for the carnivores. You get the idea!

2. Keep Things Simple

Don’t feel you have to make complex or complicated recipes. Every night’s dinner doesn’t have to be exceptional, it just needs to be nourishing and delicious. Let yourself use ready meals from time to time. I don’t often recommend a pre-prepared meal, but we all need a little help these days. Or try a meal delivery service like Hello Fresh.

Slow cooker recipes really can help you fall back in love with cooking. Most are very straight forward and there’s nothing like being able to get on with your day knowing that dinner will be ready when you want it.  I love my slow cooker. It even helps keep the kitchen cool in the summer.

3. Fall Back In Love With Cooking by Making It Fun

Ask each family member to write down a new to them ingredient on a slip of paper and then pop them in a jar.  Once a week, let people take turns to pull a slip out of the jar. Then you can all look up recipes using the new ingredient. Choose a recipe to make together. Whether you live on your own, as a couple, or you are part of a big family, this can be fun.

My son Alexander suggests planning a one night a week to make something fun or creative for dinner to help you fall back in love with cooking. You can look at the ingredients in your fridge and put together something new or you could buy a new to you ingredient (as above) just for fun. As Alexander says, “The creativity and allowing yourself to be out of routine can really help.”

Another fun way to fall back in love with cooking is to make an easy, DIY dinner. These dinners can be a great way to involve kids in cooking, and help them to enjoy eating more.

• Family Pizza Night – Make individual pizzas together. Offer a selection of toppings so everyone can choose their own.
• Baked (Jacket) Potato Bar – Bake enough potatoes for everyone and serve them with a selection of toppings. Everyone can top their own potatoes with their favourite things.
• Taco Night – Cook up your favourite taco filling and offer a selection of toppings for everyone to help themselves from.

4. It’s Easier When You Have A Plan

Meal planning can seem daunting, but it saves time and money. It also avoids that sinking feeling when you realise it’s dinner time and you have no idea what you are going to cook. It’s hard to fall back in love with cooking if you approach meals with a sense of dread!

Need inspiration? If you have a cookbook collection, this is the time to use it. Alternatively, treat yourself to some new foodie magazines or check out some of your favourite food blogs. I like to write down the week’s meal plan and post it on the fridge. It’s fun to use a pretty meal planning pad. (affiliate link)

You can also make meal planning a family project. You might want to have a suggestion box (an actual box or a virtual Dropbox folder) for family members to share recipes and ideas. Or you can all sit down with a cup of tea or your favourite drink and brainstorm the next week’s meals. If you have small children this is a great way for them to feel involved, and when kids feel involved they are often happier to sit down and eat.

5. Cook Seasonally and Use Local Produce

Shopping locally and choosing ingredients that are in season is an environmentally friendly way to shop and cook. It’s also the best way to enjoy foods at their peak of freshness and flavour. For example, strawberries grown locally in the summer are always going to taste better than strawberries grown thousands of miles away in the winter and flown in.

Today more than ever, it is important to support local producers and suppliers, and shopping locally and seasonally is one of the easiest ways to do it.

Fall Back In Love With Cooking – A Fresh Start

As the Proverb says, “A change is as good as a rest.” A few simple changes and fresh ideas can often help reinvigorate our pleasure in everyday things. I hope these tips will contribute to a fresh start and help you fall back in love with cooking once again.