A Resolution You Can Keep

You've made your health and diet related new year's resolutions: to eat more veggies, go to the gym as often as possible (or at least more than last year), drink fewer alcoholic beverages, cut back on the sweet snacks, stop drinking soda, consume fewer sugary cereals, take it easy with the salt, and on and on the list goes. But did you make any resolutions that aren't so vague? A resolution that doesn't have you hating yourself every time you break it? Or how about a resolution you'll actually remember to do? How many of this year's resolutions did you make last year (which you clearly failed to adhere to)? Seems to me like you need a resolution that you can actually stick to, that is easy enough to follow and yet satisfying in its simplicity. That is exactly the type of resolution I made last year - a resolution I could keep.

By the end of 2010, I was sick of coming home from work and always eating my concoctions of refrigerator ingredients. I'm sure that many of you can empathize...there is no fun in eating the same random mixture of food night after night (pasta with sauteed vegetables again?), and it's expensive to order take-out food on a weekly basis. So when it came time to make my 2011 new year's resolution, this is what I decided: make one new recipe (NOT my own jumbled mess, but from a real cookbook or online recipe site) at least one time per week. But how? I lucked out and during the holiday season I received a cookbook from my brother - Quick-Fix Vegetarian: Healthy Home-Cooked Meals in 30 Minutes or Less (by Robin Robertson) - which became my go-to cookbook during the beginning stages of my new year's resolution. I refer to this cookbook as my training wheels. I didn't have time (or so I thought) to make complex meals, but thirty minutes or less? Heck ya! I could make some of those recipes. 

So, I began 2011 by making one recipe per week (all the other nights were my signature refrigerator mixtures), for about the first two weeks of January. But then I realized the easiness of the recipes from this cookbook. And so, as long as I decided on a recipe one night in advance (so that, if need be, I could go to the supermarket to pick up any ingredients), I could make a real recipe 2, 3, 4, even 5 times a week! I was ecstatic about cooking and would take a picture of every dish I made, to prove to myself (and show off to others) that I could make coherent and delicious meals. Some of the recipes from the cookbook were not appealing to me, but by the time I'd exhausted my favorites I felt comfortable cooking from other cookbooks. Who says that cooking during the week is impossible? All you need is a little planning.

I'm not saying that I have just given you the key to a magical resolution that will have you signing up for culinary school by the end of March. What I am saying is that this is a simple resolution - cook one new recipe a week, from a cookbook - that you'll be able to follow, will ease you into the world of cooking, allow you to make healthier food choices (like eat more veggies or use less salt), and help you save some money (time and again it is proven that, despite the misconception, it is actually cheaper to cook your own food than to eat out). So, go to your local bookstore to pick out a cookbook that looks interesting, but easy (and compatible with your lifestyle) or sign up for a website like Epicurious, which sends you monthly emails of new recipes and also has a huge archive of healthy recipes. Get on the metaphorical bicycle of cooking and find yourself a pair of training wheels. Make the resolution you can actually keep.