I’m no Martha Stewart. On the average day, the domestic tableau unfolding in my own home can best be described as a tire fire, a cacophony of noise, chaos, and destruction swirling around me. I do find some solace and peace in the kitchen when I can get it though, and inspired by an article I came across on Real Simple, here are some of my favourite tips to help you avoid kitchen burnout and meal-time ennui from the team at Real Simple, along with a few of my own:
Cook a substantial protein at the beginning of the week
Cooking a pot roast, a brisket, a pork loin, or a whole chicken on the weekend can help set you up with flexible leftovers to be repurposed over the course of the week into quick and easy meals like quesadillas, sandwiches, wraps, salads, bowls, or pasta dishes.
Go flat
Charcuterie boards can be fun, interesting, and playful takes on a dinnertime meal, and the combinations are endless. Try different types of meats, cheeses, fruits, and vegetables, and experiment with pickles, crackers, and spreads of all kinds to get a board you can get on board with.
You can also go flat with a flatbread for dinner. Flatbreads can be a quick and easy way to repurpose leftovers. Leftover steak can be paired with gorgonzola or goat cheese and arugula; leftover smoked salmon can accompany cream cheese, dill, and capers; leftovers from taco night can be added to corn relish and crema. Play around with different flavour combinations, try them sweet or savory, and get the whole family involved in the process for a refreshing change-up from pizza.
Get some solid basic tools
Nothing is more frustrating than wasting precious time sawing vegetables with a dull knife. Investing in some core kitchen staples like sharp knives, a good Dutch oven, and some mixing bowls can help make things easier for you when it comes time to pull a meal together with your sanity intact. Your setup doesn’t have to be fancy, but if you focus on a few core good-quality kitchen essentials, you might just find cooking becomes more efficient and less of a chore.
Cook in volume
When making soup or pasta sauces, burgers, meatballs, or cookies – pretty much whenever possible I try to double or even triple the recipe so I can refrigerate or freeze the excess and net future me an extra meal or two when I need it. The same goes with starches, grains, and legumes – by cooking sides like rice, beans, and potatoes in volume, they can be repurposed as parts of other meals through the week. On week’s where I really have my stuff together, I’ll apply this volume principle to breakfast as well; I’ll cook a large pot of steel-cut oats at the beginning of the week and refrigerate it for breakfasts all week long.
Leverage pre-made components
I’m also a big fan of using store-bought frozen pizza dough and jarred sauces when needed to help pull together a speedy dinner. Would it be great to make everything from scratch? Sure, but it’s neither practical nor realistic for many of us, and leaning on pre-made components to help build your meal can help shave valuable time off meal prep while getting something home-cooked on the table. One of my favourite speedy pasta recipes relies on a jar of store-bought bruschetta mix paired with italian sausage (add a couple of ladlefuls of pasta water and any veggies you have on hand and you’ve got yourself a tasty dish in 15 minutes or less).
Don’t forget the small stuff
Getting friendly with small, sometimes overlooked ingredients can be a great way to liven things up in the kitchen. Fresh herbs, sprouts, and citrus zest can transform a salad, sauce, or vegetable side and add a pop of freshness. Spices can also be a great addition to a meal and can impart a completely different flavour profile to a dish depending on their infinite pairings and combinations.
Our friend Tatiana Da Silva at Revel & Glow Nutrition recommends toppings as a way to bring balance, flavour, and texture to meals when you’re short on time. Adding nuts (think walnuts, pecans, and almonds), seeds (like pumpkin, sunflower, flax, and hemp) and other items like toasted coconut, dried cranberries, goji berries, and cacao nibs can be a great way to add healthy fat, protein, and fibre while adding extra crunch and flavour to your meal.
Try a sheet pan dinner
Real Simple has a great tip about trying sheet pan meals. You can find a plethora of recipes online for tasty meals that can be cooked entirely on a single sheet pan, saving you valuable time and making post-supper cleanup a breeze. Delish has some great sheet pan recipes to help you get inspired. Side note: investing in some compostable parchment paper to use on your sheet pan saves lots of dish-doing time.
Follow fellow foodies on social media
A lot of simple and delicious meal ideas can be found on Instagram and discovering new foodies can give you inspiration in the kitchen. Some of my personal favourites include @smittenkitchen, @halfbakedharvest, @kids.eat.in.color, @ohsheglows, and @5oclockapron.
Embrace brupper
When you’re stumped for meal ideas, don’t be afraid to turn the tables on your day and have breakfast for supper (or brupper). This can mean almost anything you’d eat for breakfast becomes a suitable dinner – omelettes, bacon and eggs with toast, quiche with beans, pancakes, waffles, a bagel buffet – whatever. A quick and easy breakfast-inspired dish can help you shake up your dinnertime routine.
Get better acquainted with your food sources
It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that much of our food travels long distances before it meets our mouths, but this is the reality for much of the food we buy at the grocery store, which is often engineered to withstand the rigours of long-distance travel and is picked early to ripen in transit, all of which can come at the cost of taste. Eating seasonally means you’re typically eating produce at its best – it’s ripest, most flavourful, and most enjoyable. Admittedly, for those of us in colder climates this can be a bit of a challenge, but it’s not impossible to lean on a few seasonal staples to keep things interesting and delicious year-round no matter where you are.
Eating locally also helps to embrace the seasonality of produce while supporting local farmers and small business owners. Check out local farmers’ markets and CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture farms), or try your hand at growing your own food. Planting a small garden can be a great way to get more connected to your food and where it comes from, and nothing is fresher than a tomato eaten the day that it’s picked at full ripeness.
Do a regular fridge and pantry audit
Food waste is a big problem. Roughly 20%, or 11 million tonnes, of the food produced in Canada becomes what’s considered avoidable food loss – food that could have been consumed, but that instead ends up in landfills, incinerators, or compost piles. We often find ourselves overbuying – food we intend to use spoils when overbooked schedules and busy lives override our intentions. Doing a quick fridge and pantry check a couple of times a week can help you keep food costs down and avoid spoilage. Use the stuff you have on hand as inspiration for your meals for the week. A bag of spinach can be tossed into salads, soups, quiches, and pasta sauces, or use a food processor to speedily chop up veggies that might be a little long in the tooth – most can be tossed in the freezer to be used at a later date.
Take a team approach
No matter what your personal situation is, you can share the load of meal planning and prep with others. Getting kids involved in the process is a great way to help them cultivate culinary skills while building confidence, providing much-needed support for mealtime prep and a mechanism for some quality time. Share the load with a partner – consider dedicated nights for kitchen duty, or divide meal prep and cleanup between the two of you (kids can also pitch in here too) to balance responsibilities. You can also make meal prep a social event by inviting a friend over on a Sunday to cook some make-ahead meals together. You can split both the effort and the output, setting you each up for a less chaotic week ahead while also netting you valuable time together.
Cut yourself some slack
When you’re feeling low or lacking energy to cook, ask for help, make use of a meal service, order takeout, or pickup something from the freezer section – and don’t feel guilty about it. So often we either power through and exhaust ourselves in the process, or beat ourselves up for outsourcing meal prep. I try to be realistic about my own capacity, and most days breakfasts for my kids are whatever they can get for themselves (toast, bagels, instant oatmeal, toaster waffles, yogurt…that sort of thing). I try to save my meal-time effort and energy for dinner, which I generally enjoy making when I have the time to do it. In the grand scheme of things, listening to your body and having something in your belly should be the priorities, so give yourself some grace, know your limits, and take a break from the kitchen when you need it.
Resources:
Check out the full article from Real Simple here: 8 Clever Ways to Cure Your Kitchen Burnout—and Enjoy Cooking Again
To learn more about eating locally and seasonally, check out Barbara Kingsolver’s excellent book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.
For creative tips to add flavour and nutritional oomph to your meals, follow Tatiana Da Silva on Instagram @revelandglownutrition.
