{"id":835,"date":"2022-03-21T12:42:32","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T12:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/?p=835"},"modified":"2022-03-21T12:44:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T12:44:32","slug":"tips-to-get-creative-in-the-kitchen-and-excited-about-food-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/?p=835","title":{"rendered":"Tips to get Creative in the Kitchen and Excited about Food Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Tips to get Creative in the Kitchen and Excited about Food Again<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Chicken again for dinner?\u00a0 Another apple in the lunchbox.\u00a0 Yogurt for breakfast for the past two years\u2026. Having a routine for meals is healthy and convenient, absolutely.\u00a0 Not having to think about what to eat for every\u2026.single\u2026.meal\u2026. can make things a lot easier and less stressful.\u00a0 That being said, it can get pretty boring.\u00a0 However, the idea of thinking of new things to eat means spending time googling, or taking longer in the grocery store to find new foods.\u00a0 Now you have to learn how to prepare a new food or risk messing up a new recipe.\u00a0 (No? Breaking into a sweat thinking about trying a new recipe only happens to me\u2026.great<\/em>).<\/p>\n

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Fear not!\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t have to be that overwhelming.\u00a0 Adding some new foods or recipes into your routine can be easy and gasp\u2026.dare I suggest<\/em>\u2026.fun?\u00a0 Check out these suggestions and see if anything tickles your fancy.<\/p>\n

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Instead of a whole new recipe, pick one item on the menu<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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If you make a mean chickpea curry over rice with peppers, try switching out the rice for couscous or swap the peppers for cauliflower.\u00a0 Maybe you make the best mac and cheese; try pairing it with different proteins like tofu.\u00a0 Love your burger, fries and side salad?\u00a0 Keep everything the same and try a new burger- black bean burger, salmon cakes, veggie burger, chicken burger, turkey burger stuffed with cheese, so many options to keep it interesting.\u00a0 Swapping out 1 item (instead of the whole meal) can be much easier to handle.<\/p>\n

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At the grocery store, narrow your new food down to a specific item<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Wandering the aisles looking for a new food to try might lead to a lot of wasted time since there are so many options.\u00a0 Or for me, who is very indecisive, it will lead to nothing, since picking an item amongst all the options will leave me completely overwhelmed.\u00a0 Next time you go to the grocery store, pick one item, say, salad dressing, or a fruit, or a snack food.\u00a0 Then when you hit that section of the store, you know you\u2019re walking away with something new to try.\u00a0 It might be as simple as a new yogurt flavor, or as complicated as an artichoke heart (I\u2019m Irish\/German, there would be a lot of googling to see how the heck to eat that thing).\u00a0 Next week, pick a new section to browse, I\u2019m thinking a fun new salsa\u2026.<\/p>\n

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Ask your family, or yourself!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Next time you sit down to a meal, alone or with your family, talk about the meal!\u00a0 Think about what you like in the meal, or what you might like better.\u00a0 Really enjoying a meal and tuning into the tastes and textures, is not only healthy, but can lead to better recipes!\u00a0 Less or more of a certain spice- maybe a different spice altogether, possibly adding a sauce to the chicken next time to keep it from drying out.\u00a0 Zhush up the quinoa with some lemon pepper seasoning.\u00a0 Take the meal you made and see if you can make it better!<\/p>\n

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Use Social Media to your advantage<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Instead of watching funny cat videos, try following some people who cook (I mean, keep watching the cat videos, but add some new accounts too<\/em>)!\u00a0 There are tons of people posting recipes and pictures of their food.\u00a0 Find someone, or a few people, who inspire you.\u00a0 Want more vegetarian dishes, look for people who are plant based- like Vegetarian \u2018Ventures<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 Not a lot of free time- watch for Easy Family Recipes<\/em><\/a> to show you how to get dinner on the table\u2026.well\u2026fast!\u00a0 You can even follow your favorite cooking celebrities, or the entire Food Network<\/em><\/a> for inspiration.\u00a0 My husband loves following America\u2019s Test Kitchen<\/em><\/a> for the best recipes for things he didn\u2019t even know he wanted to make.\u00a0 He\u2019ll save the recipe, add the ingredients to the shopping list on his phone and boom, new recipe in the rotation for next week.\u00a0 Works for me, I get the benefit of that one:)<\/p>\n

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Replicate something<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Did you know there are recipes out there for the Big Mac sauce?\u00a0 Me either, until I looked it up for a client who said the reason she likes the Big Mac is not for the burger itself, but for the sauce.\u00a0 Now she makes the sauce at home and can eat it with anything she wants. If you like it, there is probably a recipe out there for it: Panera copycat soup recipes, lemon cake from Starbucks, pretty much anything from Taco Bell. Try your hand at making your favorite restaurant recipe at home.\u00a0 Aim for one a month and see where it gets you.\u00a0 You might find yourself eating in more often, and that\u2019s never a bad thing. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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Another option is to take ideas from eating out and try them at home.\u00a0 Let me explain: my basic lettuce, tomato, cucumber salad at home is SO BORING.\u00a0 Eating out, I love getting a salad with goat cheese and\/or sunflower seeds, maybe some pear slices.\u00a0 Hello<\/em>\u2026I can totally do that at home.\u00a0 Next time you eat out, ask yourself what appealed to you about the meal you ordered and think about that when you’re making your meals at home.<\/p>\n

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Trying one new food or recipe a week will get you 52 in a year.\u00a0 That\u2019s a lot of new foods\/dishes to spice up your routine.\u00a0 Having kids get involved in choosing new foods makes it more likely they\u2019ll try it.\u00a0 Packing yourself a \u201cfancy\u201d new lunch (and by fancy I mean a pita wrap in place of your standard old bread) can make lunch something you look forward to, instead of eating just to eat it.\u00a0 Cooking at home is healthier in general since you get to control the ingredients.\u00a0 All signs point to – try some new foods!<\/p>\n

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Comment below with a new food or recipe you\u2019ve been wanting to try, we\u2019d love to hear about it!<\/p>\n

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Stay Happy, Stay Healthy<\/p>\n

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This blog was written by Chris Henigan MS, RD, LDN, co-founder of Simple Start Nutrition.\u00a0 For more blog posts and nutrition information follow @simplestartnutrition on Instagram and Facebook.\u00a0 Also feel free to contact us, by visiting our website (simplestartnutrition.com<\/a>) to schedule an appointment to discuss your nutrition related needs.\u00a0 We\u2019re here to help.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t<\/i>Prev<\/span><\/span>Previous<\/span>March is National Nutrition Month: Celebrate a World of Flavor<\/span><\/span><\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tNext<\/span>Time to Start Thinking about Fiber:\u00a0 How to Boost your Intake and Make it Work to your Advantage\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/i>Next<\/span><\/span><\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chicken again for dinner?\u00a0 Another apple in the lunchbox.\u00a0 Yogurt for breakfast for the past two years\u2026. Having a routine for meals is healthy and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/simplestartnutrition.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Tips-to-get-Creative-in-the-Kitchen-and-Excited-about-Food-Again.png?fit=1640%2C924&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=835"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":840,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions\/840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}