How To Pick a Plant-Based Recipe
You’ll be eating well all summer! (and beyond!)
One of the most challenging things about cooking is coming up with dinner plans every single evening.
I say this as a writer, who writes in excess of 1 million words a year, and has experienced writer’s block a time or two.
In many ways, the two walk hand in hand.
Gurus would have you believe I can solve writer’s block by:
Setting up a writing ritual
Changing my environment
Setting small goals
Freewriting
Taking breaks
Reading and researching
Engaging in creative activities
Outlining and planning
Changing my perspective
Seeking inspiration
As a writer, I know all of those can work. Of course, it’s not as simple as a phrase. It’s all those things and more.
Mindset? Definitely. What works more than anything is an end goal. I want to be a writer. Therefore, I write.
I would say cooking works similarly.
Plant-Based Overwhelm
A quick search for plant-based recipes told me everything. On the first page, I could click links to:
30 plant-based recipes
50+ tasty plant-based recipes
31 easy plant-based recipes
41 easy plant-based recipes
53 best plant-based recipes
33 beginner’s plant-based recipes
55 plant-based recipes worth trying
I was only halfway down the page. Hundreds of recipes, and yet I still don’t know what to cook for dinner.
That’s because plant-based cooking doesn’t start with a recipe. Instead, it begins by eliminating cooking block, which I believe can be done in much the same way as the writer’s block tips from above.
If I click any one of those links to plant-based recipes, I have to scan through dozens of recipes. Which one looks good? Which one do I think my family will eat? Which one is easy enough to have ready when I need dinner on the table?
That’s where mindset kicks in. And the stories begin.
I’m not a cook.
I hate cooking.
I never have the right ingredients on hand.
I don’t know what half of these ingredients are.
I don’t have the time.
I don’t have the energy.
Who do I think I am? Definitely NOT Gordon Ramsay.
And on it goes.
Picking up the phone and ordering is easier. Maybe tomorrow …
It’s Tomorrow! 📲📞☎️
A reader recently commented:
“I know I need to spend more time in the kitchen. Quite honestly, I have so many stories around it. You’ve nailed it in your articles. I often get home after a busy day and have no idea where to start. It’s easier to fall back into old patterns …”
I get that.
But I also believe life operates that way to drive you further into what the Big Corporations want - more $. Big Food makes cooking easier by giving you over-processed meal starters that aren’t good for you. We rely on them. We put them into our kitchens and our lives because they SEEM easier.
When what you really have is a Cooking Block.
Remember those “writer’s block” solvers from above?
Setting up a writing ritual
Changing my environment
Setting small goals
Freewriting
Taking breaks
Reading and researching
Engaging in creative activities
Outlining and planning
Changing my perspective
Seeking inspiration
What if we applied them to your Cooking Block?
Solving Cooking Block
Cooking doesn’t come naturally to us anymore because we haven’t been taught. Think back to your K-12 experience; any cooking in there? I had a semester of “home economics” in my 6th grade year. Today, it’s worse. (My daughter had zero.)
Yet cooking requires so many skills. Math - you bet. Try doubling a recipe, or cutting it in half. Life skills - a lot of that too. Who doesn’t have to cook to ensure they can take care of themselves? We’ve proven these past few decades that our new approach to food isn’t working …
What most of us need is to set up a cooking ritual. The only way to incorporate it into your life is to do it. Day after day. Week after week. I promise you you’ll get better if you do it every day.
I started spending more time in my kitchen when I made it a place I wanted to be. Sure, you can have all the fancy appliances … but are you using them?
I love the “minimalist” concept of boxing everything up. Then, only put stuff back into your kitchen if you actually use it. And what you do use, ensure it’s the best. My Vitamix blender is just one example - I use it daily, and can’t imagine not having it in my toolbox.
It’s also about making it inviting. I place a big bouquet on my counter because it’s gorgeous. It shifts my mindset when I work near it. I have pretty dishes to display food in. I display my favorite cookbooks because it motivates me to use them. You CAN change your environment one little thing at a time.
Plant-Based - All In. Yep, I’ve spoken to so many people who state this. They receive a diagnosis or have a BIG event, and suddenly they’re all-in. Except you’ll be back to old patterns almost as fast. Because a change this massive doesn’t happen overnight. It takes goals, it takes time, it takes one change and making it stick.
Give yourself a goal and stick with it. “I’m going to perfect a dessert to bring to the party on Saturday night.” Then have fun with it! Back three brownie recipes - plant-based, of course. Learn from your failures. And see how you can change it to make it better. I can take any recipe and veganize it - I get what it takes. But it’s only because I’ve set goals and played along the way. I have failures all the time, and that’s okay. I perfect my skills and have these as resources when I need them. For potlucks. For big family dinners.
Can you do this without reading and researching? Nope. But you have my Cookbook Club for that. I’m well into my second year, which means you have more than 18 cookbooks to bring into your own collection. These aren’t just for recipes. They’re also for reading and learning from. Plant-based authors are especially good at providing tips and tricks to improve your cooking skills.
Me? I rarely get to 5 o’clock and say: What’s for dinner? Because I’ve mastered the art of planning.
On my fridge is a whiteboard. We work one week at a time, each family member picking a recipe for a couple days a week. Then we all meet in the kitchen and cook. Family bonding at its finest!
We have fun. We challenge ourselves. Sometimes we build our own recipes; sometimes you pull down our favorites. Right now, I love picking up veggies I’ve never used before, and finding fun ways to cook with them.
That’s how kohlrabi, nopales, and fennel have made their way to my table in recent years.
Of course, you don’t have to start there. Start where you are.
This is all about you. Pick a recipe, and get cooking tonight.
Who knows where it’ll lead tomorrow.
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