Hectic schedules are affecting our meal times! It’s not surprising that dinnertime has become unexciting for the majority of us at some time or another when life is so fast paced; I know at one stage I was just relieved to get some sort of meal on the table that everyone would eat at the end of the day. Admittedly, said meal made an appearance in previous weeks, and would go on to grace the dining room with its presence in the weeks to come, and I know I’m not alone! The sad fact of the matter is that the vast majority of us have a select number of dishes we can prepare relatively effortlessly and thus far too frequently! No wonder we’re falling out of love with food when preparing it becomes a chore and eating it becomes monotonous!  Do not fear! Your passion for food can be reignited! You just need a dash of confidence and sprinkle of creativity! I broke free from my food rut with two easy steps: tweaking and getting some good ol’ inspiration!

1. Tweak tweak tweak

Start a ‘tweak of the week’ routine on recipes you already know well.

Why not start a ‘tweak of the week’ routine where you slightly alter one recipe you know well? After all there is nothing wrong with your old recipes, just how many times you create them! Substitute some of the ingredients or change the seasoning balances a little! Not confident enough? Start slow and make easy changes to the meal as a whole. Try quinoa instead of cous cous as an accompaniment for instance.

2. Cozy up with a cookbook

Nothing’s better at getting those creative juices flowing than sifting through recipes! Blow the dust off your cookbooks or better yet look online and note down all the dishes you like the look of! If one recipe looks particularly challenging, save it for the weekend or a day where you have a little more time. If a certain recipe really inspires you then throw caution to the wind and take it in a new direction!

Shake up your routine! You can do it!