I remember when I first started cooking (proper meals – not vegemite on toast) regularly, and I thought it was so hard and time consuming that I hated it. So I find it really funny that now I actually prefer to cook at home most of the time! Its not that I enjoy it any more now than back then, and I still refuse to cook anything that takes longer than 15 minutes to make haha, but now that I have a bit of an idea for what to do and know what I like, it’s actually really easy, and I can make it exactly the way I want it. Here are a few tips that I wish someone shared with me when I was starting out…
Experiment to find your favourite healthy combos, and then use this as the “sauce” to every meal. For example, some of my favourites are eggs and sweet potato, tomato and avocado, avocado and fetta, fish and lemon juice, lamb and peas, lamb and greek yoghurt, salad and olive oil, salmon and beetroot, Dukkah spice and olive oil, pumpkin and nutmeg, buckwheat noodles and lemon juice, eggs and fetta, eggs and chives, beetroot and fetta, sweet potato and fetta, sweet potato and anything, any cooked vegetable and fetta, haha…
So then almost everything I eat would contain one of these combos. All the other ingredients in the meal are just “filler” ingredients depending on what else I need to eat for my bodies’ nutritional requirements (eg. other veggies/salad, protein, etc). Once you find a few key flavour combos that you really love, it’s pretty easy to come up with something quick and nutritious you know you are going to enjoy!
Get to know your herbs and spices. It can be a daunting process at first because there are so many of them, but if say every time you make an omelette (or whatever recipe) with the same ingredients, use a different herb/spice in it. You’ll soon get to know what they taste like and your favourites and will start to get an idea for what would taste good with what! Herbs and many spices contain almost no calories but a lot of flavour and nutritional value, so are a far better option to enrich your food than sugary or salty, high calorie sauces/marinades/dressings from a jar.
Read the “serving suggestion” on food packets, and find inspiration from your favourite restaurants. Some of the best recipes I’ve come up with started with a recipe on the back of a noodle packet, and then I added a few things (or one of my favourite healthy combos above) to make it amazing.
But above all…
Keep it simple. Even just reading recipes that contain loads of ingredients can make anyone’s head spin and dread the thought of what’s to come, plus you know you’ll never remember it for next time. And anyway, too many different ingredients can sometimes make a meal taste bland as there is just too much going on and no distinct flavour. If you’re like me, the fewer ingredients and faster cooking/prep time, the more encouraged you are going to be to cook more often!
Like anything new, it can take a little time to learn and become good at cooking. But it doesn’t have to be hard and is something that’s worth sticking with if you want to be healthy! In just a few weeks, I will be releasing BodyBAM (my online fitness program) that contains 100’s of my favourite super easy, healthy recipes for you… I can’t wait!!! If you subscribe to my blog you’ll be the first to know when its available. But for now, I hope my tips have helped, or even just reinvigorated some desire in you to have another crack in the kitchen! Enjoy 😉
