Empowering your Wellness. Ways to ENJOY eating at home more!
Why and how to eat at home more for your wellness.. and more importantly: how to enjoy it!
Cooking at home can save your budget and your waistline in so many ways. You can choose nourishing foods that promote wellness and fuel your body properly, and it doesn’t have to be a dreaded chore. Especially true at the end of the day when you are drained and well.. just ready for take out. Eating out does have a place in our lives and it should be those special moments. The ones that are spent laughing with friends, romantic endeavors, or a comfortable meal with family. Grabbing take-out, however, should be a minimal one. Our bodies and our bank accounts can definitely benefit form spending a little more time and effort at home. Here are three ways that I have made eating at home easier and more enjoyable.
Purposefully pleasant.
I haven’t always loved cooking at home consistently and regularly. Now, it is a time I look forward to during the day. That is because I made it time for me. Time that I invest and allot for myself. To make me feel good. That is all because what I am putting into my body is nourishing. Plus I always try to make it a little fun or a time to unwind. Little music, cute apron to be festive, glass of tea or my favorite Kevita. It has become a time I really enjoy rather than dread. I’ve made it purposefully pleasant.
Two other things that I have purposefully done to make things more pleasant in the kitchen include:
- Make the manual part easy. Invest in a good knife. This was a game changer. When chopping and slicing is easy, its no longer a chore.
- Plan a little. Chop and have some of your ingredients ready to go so you’re not overwhelmed trying to do it all at once during your cooking. A few extra minutes for a smooth session in the kitchen. Its totally worth it. I am pretty sure it has insanely decreased my meal time and stress because I am no longer daunted by chopping and slicing while I am h-angry and thinking about all the things I need to get done that night.
We are all creatures that love ease and convenience. Being able to streamline meal time can increase your relaxation or productivity time. More time for you, your significant other, maybe kiddos if you have them.. or maybe just netflix. I don’t judge.
It’s okay to be a BASIC B.
It is amazing how many simple items I keep in my kitchen as staples. All the fancy and swanky ingredients are all fun and have a place, but spending a ton of money and time on ingredients that you don’t always use can be well.. silly and wasteful.
Just starting out it is so important to keep it simple. Cook with ingredients that are versatile and can allow you to build that arsenal of staple “go to” recipes for the week.
Some of the best and BASIC B things: spinach, sweet potatoes, zucchini, garlic, chickpeas, black beans, and rice or pasta. Mixed and matched, these ingredients are big players in all my different recipes and meals during the week.
Don’t forget that even BASIC B recipes that you literally just toss the ingredients in the bowl allow you to simplify things and enjoy more time outside of the kitchen too. This also saves your sanity when sometimes you’re just really not feeling it, and that is okay too.
Cleanliness is close to godliness.. or ease in the kitchen.
Clean as you cook. This is the biggest thing I do in the kitchen when I prepare meals. It is so important. When I use a bowl, I give it a rinse and tuck it in the dishwasher. If it looks like I can reuse it as I am cooking to either toss ingredients in, start a sauce, or even eat from later. That quick rinse/clean saves me another dish to clean and more time in doing so. My pots and skillets are usually rinsed right after and either tucked in the dishwasher or sink so that I am not wasting time scrubbing later when everything is dried and stuck to the pan. Feeling like the kitchen is not wrecked also helps me sit back, relax, and really enjoy what I just made. The more you practice this little habit, even in small forms, will make you more and more efficient at it. You will even get to the point where you have cooked a decadent meal and it doesn’t look like the kitchen was touched!
