The picture above is of me recently going through all of my cookbooks. It got me thinking about the endless number of recipes that are out there. In addition to cookbooks, you can search for any recipe online. Really, we don’t even need cookbooks. Yet they are still out there and often do well.
And despite this plethora of recipes, many people still struggle to come up with meals. I know for every good cookbook I have, I end up making one or two meals from each one. A recent question on my Facebook page showed that others experience something similar.
This got me thinking of diets. There are lots and lots of diets out there. There are commercial diets and popular diet books and advice on the web. Yet with all these diets, people still have trouble eating well and managing their weight.
When I talk to people who are what I think of as “natural cooks,” they tell me they don’t even use recipes. Yes, they use them for inspiration and love their cookbooks, but most do not cook from recipes. I find that nutrition professionals view diets similarly — most do not use them, they simply balance their intake of different foods to manage their health.
The structure of both recipes and diets is what attracts people to them, but their inflexibility ends up being a problem later. Recipes tell us what ingredients to use and how long to cook the item. Diets give very specific rules about what to eat and what not to eat and how much. But what happens when you come home and realize you’re missing that one ingredient to make a certain recipe? Or in the case of diet, life gets hectic and one day you can’t plan to have the right food at the right time?
So relying on recipes and diets actually keep us stuck because we don’t learn how to cook or how to eat.
I’ve come to realize that there’s no substitute for doing the work to come up with my own meals, focusing on foods my family likes and ingredients I prefer to use. This has been kind of liberating as I’m finally embracing my inner cook instead of trying to be like someone else. I will still buy cookbooks and look to recipes for inspiration, but I no longer will rely on them to fix what isn’t working. That’s not their job, it’s mine.
What do you think? Are you a recipe follower? What food challenges do you still face even in a world full of recipes?
I’ve mostly stuck to recipes for my first 31 years…BUT, as I’ve started branching out more and trying new recipes, I’m learning I can actually come up with my own “recipes” just by ‘winging’ it. I still get most of my ‘inspiration’ from tried and true recipes, but I rarely stick to them and am always changing up ingredients and amounts to fit our tastes.
That’s what I’m finding too. I look at a few different recipes and get ideas for ingredients and then make adaptations that work for us!
What a perfect analogy! I love cookbooks, but rarely cook from them directly, they are more a source of inspiration. And I pick and choose from different “diets” to form a way of eating that works for me.
Such an interesting insight! I do see the alignment like this: as you learn to cook, you can get away from recipes to experiment and “fix” as you mentioned; as you learn proper nutrition, what your body needs and how to eat intuitively you don’t need to follow a strict diet. I love it, Maryann!
Thanks LeAnne — you said it perfectly!
Interesting comparison, Maryann. I have many cookbooks, most of which I treasure. I make an effort to use my cookbooks because it helps me grow as a cook. But truth be told, most of my cooking comes out of my head. It is more work to follow a recipe than to just make it up on the fly.
Katie — this is always the response my cooking friends give me — love their cookbooks but don’t rely on them. I’m slowly turning that corner.
Hm, really interesting idea. But I think there are lots of people it doesn’t work for. Like myself, heh heh. I’m definitely not a natural cook and will never be one. I’ve (finally) gotten so I can make small adjustments for our family’s preferences, but I still absolutely need the recipe itself to make the meal. And I’m fine with that. For me, being able to rely on the recipe for everything (meal planning, shopping list, food prep, etc) means I can relax in the kitchen and just follow instructions. And I know lots of folks who will always need the same guidance for diets, and do well that way (hello weight watchers!) Is it best if you can be a natural cook/eater? For sure. But for some of us it’s just not meant to be =)
Megan,
I agree and realize that recipes do work for some people. I probably will never be a natural cook either. My problem was I would try new recipes often but very few stuck around as winners. So now I’m making an effort to develop my own using other people’s recipes as inspiration. After many tries I finally have a fish taco recipe I love. Most recipes call for pan frying but this never works for me. So I tried baking the fish in a breading mix we use and it worked great. I’ll be blogging more about all of this ; )