As it says on our blog, this is a couple’s blog and we’re also dealing with every day struggles in our home. One of them is lack of ideas in our kitchen. What does that even mean?
Well, when you live alone and work/or go to school/ university you don’t care much about cooking. The greatest meal you make is probably a can of soup or pasta with some sauce. You mostly eat at work or bring a sandwich from home. (Yes I’m aware there are many healthier versions but some of us aren’t that well prepared)
On weekend you meet with friends or order something so that problem is also solved. I like making sweets but don’t like to eat them so I’m making cakes for my family or friends. It was more like a hobby in my spare time and it still is but that was the story of me and my usage of the kitchen.
Then there is Big. He is a professional cook. All what a girl can dream of 🙂
We had a long distance relationship for over two years and in the time we were seeing each other not so often we sometimes cooked together but we just wanted to spend time with one another no matter what we were doing. Now it’s different. We still want to do stuff together and to cook but we’re struggling because we’ve come into the cycle of the daily routine. We eat everything and don’t have any special preferences. Mostly meat with some side dish, pasta or rice and vegetables. We take care that our plate includes proteins, vitamins and healthy carbs. The only thing we regret is that we can’t always eat/cook together and at the same time because our schedules don’t often match. What we try is, to eat our last meal before 8 pm because it’s healthier and we feel better not to go sleeping with a full stomach.
But the main problem that we wanted to write about is – what to cook every day? People who are well organized make a menu for the whole week over the weekend and only go shopping once a week – we could do that to – but (yes; excuses, excuses) we can’t even decide what to eat today, especially not the next Friday. How do you decide when and what to make? If you have any great ideas, please, share them with us, we’re kinda desperate.
We read blogs about ‘fast’ meals which can be prepared in 40- 50 minutes, search the Internet for any ideas and even go trough Jamie Oliver’s books about fast and easy to be made food and discover that for every meals we’re missing at least one special ingredient. I’m pretty sure you know what I’m talking about – you’re going through the list, everything seems to be normal and easy and you have everything at home – EXCEPT that one thing which is kinda making the meal so special. In that moment you’re thinking oh F it and make a meal that is well known for you. But we’re not quitters. At least we make something. Our pro tip is to have different ingredients at home – meat/ fish (if you’re not vegetarian/vegan), pasta, vegetables/ fruits, diary products and you’ll be on the safe side for sure.
Why are we mentioning this? In this modern world people just take the easy road and order something. As a medical student I can assure you that, if you read the statistics, there are much more illness than lets say 15 years ago. I don’t even want to start the topic about everything that is put in our food, the processes used to make our food last longer, etc. So any meal you decide to make at home, no matter how unhealthy you thing it is, it is better than the same meal ordered in restaurant. We can’t tell you what happens behind the kitchen door in very expensive restaurants but we know what happens in the ordinary ones, in the middle priced ones at least. The food comes half prepared, waiting to be thrown in the water or oil and served on the plate. The quality is not that important for most of the restaurants, it’s the money that counts. Yes, it’s like that with almost every branch but, come on people, we want to live after eating take out food or somewhere outside our house.
There is also an option to make food for two days, something you can ‘eat with a spoon’ (that’s the literally translation of the expression from our mother language), a soup or goulash. You save time and it’s really healthy! It’s only a little bit hard when you live alone and make a bigger amount of it because you could it eat it for days and it’ll get ‘boring’ for you but sometimes it’s really worth it, especially in the winter time.
Experiment! How bad can it get? Don’t try the most unusual things at the beginning. Start with a salad (if you like it) or some basic pasta. Try to cook something every day. Sometimes if you’re not lazy and make a meal after you come home from a hard day, you can take the rest to work tomorrow. I, for an example, love to eat chicken. And if we eat it for dinner, I make one piece more on purpose and make a sandwich in the morning or cut it into small pieces and add it to a salad. In case you don’t eat meat you can prepare bulgur, a really cool dish that comes from Turkey, with tomatoes and zucchini. That one is delicious, both warm and cold. Always have fruit by your side. We recommend it more than a protein bar or something similar. You can change it every day and depending on the season. Spring is great for strawberries, cherries, blueberries, avocado, etc. It gives you enough sugar to make your day sweeter and energy to keep going through the day!
We’ ll try new techniques with our grocery shopping and if it works out, we’re surely tell you all about it!
The point is, don’t be lazy! Making food can also be fun if you do it together and the feeling that you get from eating your own meal is incredible! Just try it out and let us know if we could inspire you to do something new in your kitchen!
Yours,
Smol n Big
Smol & Big 