I’ve recently gotten pretty into cooking. Now, I’m trying to get better at planning and cooking meals. Honestly, I think cooking might be my perfect hobby as someone who is both creative and immensely logic-driven.
I tend to fixate on hobbies, buy a bunch of crap to do them (looking at you, pom-pom maker, scrapbooking supplies, and bottles of paint in the corner of my office). But then I don’t do them, even though I was excited.
And I think I cracked the code! I don’t do them because … why? I don’t have a ton of free time and the time I do have I don’t want to spend doing something that, at its core, is kind of useless. (Listen, not everything in life needs to be useful or productive but this is how my brain works.)
But cooking? It’s a task I have to do because I have to eat food. Except, I can make it feel more fun and special and cool and I can be creative. I can learn useful skills — as nice as it is to know how to make pom-poms, being able to dice vegetables has been handier lately.
Plus, cooking gives me a result I can do something with (eat!) and share with others (eat!).
So, here are some of my tips for my fellow 20somethings who are trying to get into cooking or, at the very least, are trying to get better at planning and cooking meals. Because sometimes a handful of Cheerios and spoonfuls of peanut butter don’t cut it.
Get cookbooks from the library and use them to figure out what to make
Half of the pain of cooking and planning dinner is simply thinking of what the hell to make.
Something that’s been good on all fronts — forcing me to leave my apartment and go on a walk while inspiring me and not costing me money — has been getting cookbooks from my local library.
I’ll take out a book or two, put sticky notes on recipes I will REALISTICALLY make and want to try, then map out what I need to buy to do so.
The good thing about using cookbooks from the library is that it also motivates me by way of a time limit. I have until the book needs to be returned to actually make the recipes.
Or, finally, go through your Pinterest boards
I have so many (well-organized) recipe boards but haven’t actually made most of the things on them. Recently, I’ve just been opening the boards and tapping on a recipe at random.
No overthinking. Boom. I’m making this one. I can get lost scrolling through the recipes to try to decide, but it’s honestly been best to just pick one and commit.
Watch videos to learn basic skills
If you feel intimidated by a kitchen trick or cooking method, just watch someone else do it. You can search on YouTube or TikTok.
I recently learned an easy trick for cutting romaine lettuce super quickly! (You cut a “V” into the stem first.)
Take stock of what you already have
Before you start your journey and go grocery shopping, go through everything. Empty your freezer, fridge, and pantry. Throw out things that have been sitting there for months because you feel bad about getting rid of them even though they’re expired and you’ll never actually use them.
Give yourself a fresh start!
Batch your ingredients to save money
If I buy a big pack of chicken from Costco, I’m going to plan to use the chicken twice that week and freeze the rest. If I’m buying balsamic vinegar, I want to make sure two recipes use it.
A big bag of onions? I’ll make a few recipes that use them this week. If I open a bottle of red wine for a recipe I usually plan another recipe with that ingredient within the next two weeks.
Don’t buy ingredients you’ll never use again
You can often substitute them. For example, I will never buy sherry when I have a few bottles of red wine collecting dust in my pantry.
Honestly — and maybe this is a bad idea — sometimes you can leave ingredients out when you follow a recipe. I mean, you probably don’t want to do this for core ingredients but I never have fresh herbs and I don’t even have basil. I usually just skip them and my recipes have still been tasting fine.
Track the ingredients you have
I have an archive of my cluttered, messy pantry on my phone notes. It’s shared with my boyfriend and I keep track of all of the boxes of pasta, cans of sauce, and other items in the pantry as we use them.
This helps me know what I have on hand to cook with during the week and what I need to buy when I’m at the grocery store.
Don’t buy tools and pans until you need them
Remember what I said about getting super excited about hobbies, buying a bunch of stuff, and then not using it? We are not going to do that. I’m mostly not doing that anymore because my kitchen is very small and I no longer have many places to store extra stuff, but it’s a good tip all around.
Avoid aspirational purchases! Instead of buying a pie pan to have “just in case,” buy a foil one when you are actually making a pie. If you find yourself making a pie again (and again), buy a pie pan.
Don’t buy a lemon zester or juicer unless you’re regularly cooking with citrus. Can you make a different tool in your kitchen work instead?
Just think about how helpful a tool or pan would be to you, right now, before adding it to your kitchen. Think of it like you’re cultivating a minimalist wardrobe with essentials (not that I’ve done that at all, but still).
When planning your meals for the week, keep it loose and make a list
I cannot predict whether or not I’m going to want to cook an intense meal on Thursday. I can’t predict if I’m going to go out for spontaneous dinner with someone on Monday night. And maybe I just won’t be in the mood for homemade Japanese curry on Tuesday!
So I make plans with a lot of loopholes. I only map out three or four meals a week to save room for if we decide to dine out, give up, and eat something really basic like scrambled eggs, or eat leftovers or something from the freezer.
And while I make these plans I write down what I’m using from our stock (e.g., thawing the chicken from the freezer, two cans of tomato paste from the pantry) and what we need to buy at the grocery store (usually produce).
Grocery list and meal planning are done in one go!
Lastly, add recipes to your collection if you love them
I like to write mine on tiny grid-lined cards and store them in a recipe box. Whenever you don’t know what to have for dinner, pull a recipe! Make it!
You can even turn it into a spreadsheet and then randomly choose a number and then make that number for dinner, or you can put them on the wall and throw a dart … you get the point! Make choosing what you make as easy as possible.
I hope this helps you get better at planning and cooking meals, too. When in doubt, add honey, olive oil, and garlic powder to full-fat ricotta and whip it with a hand mixer (if you have one, if not a fork is probs fine). Dip toasted slices of cheap French bread you got at ShopRite into it. It’s my go-to easy, fancy “meal.”
