Finding Inspiration for New and Exciting Meals

We’ve all been there. Staring aimlessly into the fridge, then the freezer, and finally the pantry and still finding yourself not having any clue what to make to eat. Sure you are fully stocked with plenty of wonderful fresh raw ingredients, but they are just laying there lifelessly giving no hint as to how they should be orchestrated together. A creative block in the kitchen is the absolute worst, especially when your belly and family is looking to you to come up with something brilliant and delicious quickly! So what do you do in this time of peril? Call for take out? Sit and cry on the floor until someone else cooks? Make baked chicken and broccoli AGAIN? NO!!! You become a mad scientist and make your kitchen your laboratory!

Now, where to start? Sometimes I have an ingredient that has to be cooked before it goes bad and that is where I begin. What am I going to do with this (fill in the blank)? If it’s produce, I’ll think about the best cooking method first; can it be roasted, saute’d, boiled and mashed or does it have to be cooked into a sauce (as in the case of tomatoes)because of the state of over ripeness? Okay! I have over ripened tomatoes that need to be made into a sauce of sorts and plenty of fresh basil in my fridge, therefore I can make a quick red sauce. Now that I have that determining factor I can proceed to the next step of deciding the protein. In this example I would make the obvious choice to do something Italian in nature.

What if I have to cook the chicken tonight? Now what? In the case of having to use the protein first, I go to my spice cabinet. There are many flavors and aromas just waiting to season that pound of (fill in the blank). Peering into the cabinet I find a Tandoori spice mix and this sparks some inspiration! This particular blend has paprika, ginger, cumin, turmeric, pepper, nutmeg, red pepper, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. The Indian inspired blend will pack a ton of flavor to the chicken either saute’d or baked and paired nicely with either sweet potatoes or some variation of squash. How exciting!

Remember all of those sweet potatoes you bought on sale a few weeks ago and have yet to cook? Now is the perfect time to be extra experimental. Potatoes are one of the most diversified foods to prepare. Mashed sweet potatoes with lemon baked chicken sounds amazing. Better yet, make a hash with pan seared pork chops. Get creative and let your imagination go wild. Have a bunch of brown rice on hand? Make it an Asian theme night with some veggie fried brown rice with sesame chicken. My mother used to make rice and hamburger for dinner all of the time in my childhood. An updated version would be grass fed ground beef with onions, garlic, cumin and green peppers and served on top of cilantro brown rice. Chef’s block has been lifted.

There have been times I’ve made simple meals from staple ingredients on hand similar to what my mother or grandmother used to make like in my previous hamburger and rice example. I’ve simply given them a healthy makeover. Every food item in your home is game for inspiration, even if it just happens to be a box of raisins, or that queso fresco you bought for tacos last week. Let your kitchen be your creative lab and have fun! Throw on some music, pour a glass of wine (or any beverage of choice) and let the magic happen. You may be surprised at the next family recipe created in the making!