Quick and easy tips to get you started in the kitchen

Should you want to start spending more time in the kitchen, you have to transform it into a place you’ll enjoy. Once you feel like spending time in the kitchen and do the grocery shopping regularly, you’ll start cooking in no time.

This article will tell you how to start cooking and use your kitchen appliances to make healthy and nutritious meals. Furthermore, we’ll mention overcoming some of the common obstacles and excuses that make people stop cooking.

Figure Out What Is Stopping You

Some people have a problem with figuring out what’s stopping them from getting into the kitchen and cooking. That’s why you need to figure out it is the old oven or a small kitchen where you feel uncomfortable. Whatever it is, try to put all those things on a piece of paper and try solving them.

Sometimes a new set of knives or a clean counter with fruit can make all the difference and motivate you. If you can’t find the time, try preparing something simple or buy food that’s already prepared.

If you’re one of those people claiming how they find cooking overly demanding, try watching cooks like Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Oliver to see their energy while preparing food.

Get Everything You Need

Nobody can feel the motivation to cook if you don’t have the right utensils in the kitchen. When you open an empty fridge or realize that you don’t have salt, the easiest solution is simply giving up.

But, if you break the cycle and do a large grocery shopping, you’ll feel more like cooking some of that food. Places like https://www.swagbucks.com/shop/gopuff-coupons will give you a chance to use various discounts and get all your groceries for a bargain. Also, make sure you have a good pan, a few pots, and a chopping board to begin with. Once you break the cycle, it will get easier to prepare meals.

Create a Routine

Since it’s impossible to go from no cooking to six meals in a week, you’ll have to find a routine that will work for you. For example, you can start by cooking on Friday or Saturday. Start with one day per week, and once you start feeling more confident, introduce one weekday. After a while, it will become easier to plan your week and order your groceries to start cooking. When you go shopping with a list of groceries, you’ll know what to focus on if you want your pantry to be filled with all the things you plan to use for cooking.

Using apps that will remind you when to cook or offer a selection of recipes is great for beginners. Meal prep services like Mealtime or Blue Apron can give you a detailed shopping list with the weekly meals plan. That way, all you need to do is buy the right groceries and enjoy preparing them. And, if you forget to buy something, the app will recommend something else as a substitute so that you don’t have to go to the store more than once a week.

Even if you decide to cook once or twice per week, make sure you make more food to take to work or use later. This way, you’ll eat homemade food two days a week, and that’s already progress.

Some people love to spend their Saturdays or Sundays cooking and prepare food for at least three or four days. If this sounds too complicated, don’t burden yourself with those long cooking sessions. Instead, focus on enjoying the process and delicious food that you’re eating.

Prepare Food You Love

For most people, the strongest motivation for cooking is to become healthier or lose weight. That makes some cooking beginners focus on the most nutritious food without considering whether they would like to eat it. Instead of making the food you dislike, it is better to discover healthier versions of meals you enjoy. Even if that’s a veggie burger, zucchini lasagna, or sugarless brownie, it will still resemble something you enjoy eating.

Many cooking novices give up once they try certain types of healthy meals. Instead of eating lentils four times a week, try to make the change as gradual as possible. Acknowledge that every step towards a new diet is an important one, and every time you don’t order food but cook, it is a win.

Relax and Enjoy in the Process

Every cook will tell you how their first days in the kitchen were hard. However, once that phase passes, you’ll notice a big shift in the way you behave in the kitchen. When you’re relaxed with a glass of wine or cold beer, you’ll appreciate the process as well as the outcome.

Cooking can be a great solo activity and the best way to spend time with your loved ones. While seasoned cooks say that chopping works like meditation, you can use the food preparation to unwind, relax and spend some time without your phone, computer, or anything related to work.

Share Your Food with Others

One of the toughest situations that you can have been to cook for one. Instead, you can always cook for two and invite some of your friends, parents, or siblings to come and share it with you. Or you can take extra food in the office and offer it to coworkers.

You can invite your friends and showcase your new skills or make a romantic dinner for your partner. That way, you’ll see that staying in can be equally interesting as going out. In the beginning, invite-only your closest friends as they’ll understand even if you burn your potatoes or overcook the rice.

Building Healthy Habits

Acquiring new habits is never easy, especially when it comes to something as complex as cooking. However, it’s not a mission impossible if you start small and be consistent. Some apps and websites can keep you on track with discounts, recipes, and reminders. After just a few weeks, when you start noticing changes, a new wave of motivation will appear, and that’s when you’ll start enjoying the process.

Now that you have all of this in mind, you’ll take your time and have realistic expectations from cooking. Sometimes it starts as a hobby or a healthy habit and turns into a business that might transform your life.