Tips For Trying New Recipes

As I have spent the last few years testing out new recipes that come my way I have figured a few things out, sometimes the hard way.  So to help you out on your journey to new cuisine here are a few valuable tips:

1.  Find recipes – Cookbooks, magazines, the internet, and friends are all good places to get new recipes.  Look for ones that have ingredients you use often already or something new that you’ve always wanted to try.  Keep in mind your family’s individual tastes and likes.  I also look for ones that use the abundant amount of seasonal produce that I have in my garden or that we’ve purchased from orchards, etc.  Sometimes I buy something new at the grocery store (like a vegetable I’ve never tried before) and then go looking for a recipe specifically for that ingredient.    

2. Get your recipes out of the cookbooks, magazines, printer, etc. and put them all in one place so that you can see and compare them.  I found I was collecting stacks of magazines and cookbooks and never using any of the recipes in them not to mention the storage space they were taking up.  So I started ripping magazines apart and putting all the recipes in a “recipes to try” book.  It was just a repurposed photo album, but it works.  Now when I sit down to plan my meals (more on that later) I sit down with my “To try” cookbook and a grocery list and make sure that I try at least one new recipe every two weeks.  It is often more than that, but at least one.  Once I’ve tried a recipe it either gets thrown out (very few do) or put in my permanent cookbook.  I found that if I am excited to eat it, then I’ll be more excited about cooking it.  Extra bonus, more shelf space!

3. PLAN YOUR MEALS – I don’t care how you do it, but do it.  I have a list of things that I make often that’s attached to the back of my calendar.  I then sit down and write in each dinner (I don’t plan lunches or most breakfasts, those I don’t mind flying by the seat of my pants, but dinner is a different story) for two weeks out and then I write on my grocery list, which is with me as well, all the things I need to buy for that meal.  Don’t forget to think about side dishes and add those ingredients to your grocery list as well.  Now, I do this every two weeks and it takes about 10-20 minutes, but it saves me hours of fretting each day over what I am going to make for dinner.  And just because I scheduled say hamburgers for Wednesday doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what will happen.  Life gets crazy and things come up, I simply look at the meals I’ve got planned, find the one that will work on that day and I know I have everything needed to prepare that meal on hand.  This helps tremendously when you’re trying out new recipes because then you can also note prep times, cook times, thawing times, marinating times, etc and plan accordingly.  If you don’t like the idea of assigning a meal to a particular day, just make a list of meals you’d like to make in the next two weeks and make sure you have everything you need for those dishes.  You feel more organized and you’ll eat healthier and you’ll save time and money.  You’ll thank me, I guarantee it!

 

4.  Read through the entire recipe before you start cooking (maybe more than once if it has a lot of steps).  My mother taught me this and it’s amazing what trouble I have gotten into for not following her advice.  It takes a couple of minutes, but it’ll save you from a lot disasters and tears. 

 

5.   Follow the recipe exactly, at least the first time. This rule obviously has exceptions.  For instance, I don’t like mushrooms. So if I see a recipe that sounds good, except that it has mushrooms, I’ll leave the mushrooms out.  But as a general rule of thumb I don’t mess with salt, sugar, flour, etc. amounts until I’ve tried it the way it’s written. Then if the recipe passes muster, but it just needs a little tweaking then I note that and try it again. 

 

6. Plan to share and have a good exercise program in place. This is merely a suggestion, but I’ve found that I love to share food that I’ve made.  It has made me a much more social person.  I’ve gained a lot of confidence in my abilities from sharing my cooking.  I can’t possible eat a whole cheesecake by myself and still maintain my figure, so I share whenever I can and exercise when I can’t (or don’t want to J).  My husband, on the other hand stays thin and trim no matter what I feed him, it’s just not fair.