Staying Inspired with Cooking

This month, we’re exploring health and wellness strategies. This week, we are eating well and enjoying food and today we’re exploring the wonderful world of spices. 
I mentioned in yesterday’s episode that I was a vegetarian for about a decade, and a vegan for about six of those years. While I am not anymore for health reasons that I checked in with a few doctors about, I learned a lot about keeping food interesting from having such a highly limiting diet. Let’s take tofu as an example.

Tofu tastes like literally nothing. It’s texture. It’s a sponge. It’s kind of weird if you aren’t used to it. But the beauty of working with a sponge is that it soaks up flavor. When I was a vegetarian I started filling my spice rack by finding recipes that looked delicious and flavorful, and buying those spices as needed. I would strongly recommend taking a step back from a pre-designed spice rack, because we all use different spices based on what we cook in a given season and what we prefer over time. But developing a spice collection that is consistently used can help keep you engaged with cooking yummy food and also help you save money--think about it. If you have various spices, you can give a single chicken breast endless flavor combinations. 

This winter, I decided to focus in on cooking Indian food. I had only ever ordered Indian food at restaurants and was actually super intimidated. So I hopped on Pinterest about ten recipes that looked easy enough to make. I let those recipes guide my spice purchases so I didn’t over buy. I pulled back on the standard Greek and Italian spices I lean heavily on and leaned into garam masala, curries, and coriander. It was so nice to use so many of the same other ingredients I’m used to working with--lentils, chicken breasts, rice, tomatoes--to create food that was completely new to me! I also finally learned what I was ordering at restaurants. 

So if you’re feeling bored with cooking healthy foods, mix up your spice game. Experiment with creating your own spice blends. Swap spices with a neighbor for a week for a challenge. Order some new spices you haven’t tried before and go to town. You can do it, I can help.

I would love for you to share about how you’re spicing up life on Instagram or Twitter and tag the show @nowthatimnotyourteacher. If you haven’t left a rating and review on your podcasting app of choice, I would really appreciate your taking two minutes to do so--it helps others find the show faster. I’ll be back tomorrow to talk about indulgence mindsets.