Frugal Kitchens 101 - The Dreaded Cooking Rut

Every home cook has at some time experienced the dreaded cooking rut.  The cooking rut happens for many reasons with one of the biggest causes being the comfort zone.  It's easier to turn to a tried and tested family favourite meal rather than try a new dish that may not be well received.  Adding to the problem is some home cooks rely rather heavily on menu planning  or they have a system of a particular dish for each day of the week (eg. chicken on Sundays, fish on Fridays, and etc.).  Like many home cooks I have recently been in a cooking rut although not a full blown one.  It's been a long winter so homemade soup has been a weekly meal and while the soups differed the homemade bread and presentation remained the same.  Now that the weather is getting nicer the meal of choice is grilled steak and potatoes.  Cooking ruts can end up costing in that there is a greater temptation to eat out or buy take-out.  This week's Frugal Kitchens 101 focuses on a few of the ways I deal with cooking ruts.

• inspiration - One of the most effective ways of breaking a cooking rut is finding inspiration for making a new dish.  Inspiration can come from a variety of sources.  
• change one ingredient - Small changes in a dish can make a big difference.  For example if you always make mac and cheese with cheddar cheese try making it with a different cheese or stir in salsa for a change in pace.  What this does is make the dish feel like a new dish and creates a bit of a spark to tweak a bit more.
• nix the menu plan - In many ways menu planning encourages the cooking rut.  I do not menu plan unless it is for a special occasion.  Rather I find cooking from the pantry helps to prevent a cooking rut stimulating creativity in the kitchen.
• buy one new ingredient - This is one of my favourite ways of breaking a cooking rut.  I will purposely put one new food item in the grocery cart when I'm shopping.  It doesn't matter that I don't know what to do with it, it matters that I am going to learn what to do with it.  The neat thing is this tip does not have to cost a lot of money either.  I usually keep this type of purchase to under $5.  Occasionally I may go over that but not very often. 

Chinese Take-out

Friday nights are traditionally our going out to eat night. Occasionally though we decide to pick-up take-out instead. It's a bit more difficult at this house because we are so far away from any take-out that any food is usually cold by the time we get it home. This defeats the purpose. Last Friday night we decided Chinese take-out was in order since both of us were tired so lounging around the house was more appealing that going out.

Chinese Take-out

Chinese take-out is one of the few foods that can handle the traveling time to get from the nearest town of any size to our house. We ordered the Dinner for Three for $29.99 that included egg rolls, soo guy, sweet and sour chicken beef chow mein, chicken fried rice and fortune cookies. This place gives us 10% off for pick-up which is a nice bonus. The price is less expensive than if we ate out and with Chinese take-out we have left-overs that tend to warm up rather nicely. We can usually get 2 meals out of a dinner for three so in terms of price it isn't bad at all.

Where we live the red sweet and sour sauce is quite popular. This is a very thick sticky sauce with a characteristic bright orangy red colour. I haven't found a comparable product in the stores. VH® Sweet & Sour sauce comes the closest but still isn't the same. Chinese food is so easy to make at home and we often do because it is also quite quick to make. Getting Chinese take-out just gives a few more ideas of what we can try making at home.