If you follow me on Instagram @stylestomakeyousmile, you’ll know I post a LOT of food pictures. I LOVE food, so I thought I’d share where I get my inspiration to create new recipes each week.
1. Grocery Store
2. Food Network
3. Social Media
1. Grocery Store-On my fridge, I keep a list of foods to buy each week at the grocery store. This helps me remember everything I eat on a regular basis. Before going to the grocery store, I can reference my list to make sure I don’t forget to buy something. Some of the regular items I buy weekly are: chicken, mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes. When I get to the grocery store, I’ll think of something new to make with my regular ingredients. This past week instead of buying pasta or quinoa I decided to try zucchini noodles. I bought a big container of them which lasted the week, just like pasta would. I know you can buy a spiralizer and make your own zucchini noodles however I liked having the precut version to save cooking time (since I had veggies and chicken to cook). I got the idea to buy the noodles just by walking around the store-mainly spending a lot of time in the produce department. If you’re walking around the grocery store and there’s an item you’ve always wanted to try cooking, then I encourage you to buy it! If it’s an item you aren’t sure how to cook then look it up online and read about it or watch a video on how to cook it properly.
2. Food Network-Food Network has been a big inspiration throughout my life, mainly because I grew up watching it with my parents. I found the avocado cream sauce recipe (featured on my Instagram) on Food Network’s website. I simply went to the site, typed in chicken quinoa and the recipe Quinoa Bowl with Chicken and Avocado Cream appeared. Since avocados are on my regular grocery list and none of the other ingredients were very expensive, I decided to make it. I really love this sauce because of its versatility-I use it on quinoa, sandwiches, eggs and zucchini noodles.
*For the record I only used the avocado cream recipe from the link below.
Quinoa Bowl with Chicken and Avocado Cream
3. Social media- This is a wonderful resource for food inspiration. Similar to how I found the avocado sauce recipe, you can search for new recipes on YouTube, Pintrest, Facebook, Instagram and blogs. I’ve learned how to make breaded chicken tenders (pictured below) and boil eggs from YouTube. The best part about learning to cook from a video is that you can pause and restart it when needed. I’ll watch the entire video first (to make sure the recipe is doable and the person cooking is easy to follow along with), pause it while the chicken cooks then continue to finish the cooking process. With the other social media platforms you have the ability to save the recipe and refer back to them while cooking.
Parmesan and Panko Baked Chicken | BuonaPappa
Tip: When making a new meal, if you don’t have every ingredient listed you can sub ingredients already in your home, even if it’s only the seasoning.
All of these ideas will keep your weekly meal planning exciting. How do you meal plan each week? Where does your inspiration come from to make new recipes?
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