Cooking

Battling Cooking Burnout

  1. How-To

Five Ways to Battle Cooking Burnout

If you are feeling the mental fatigue that comes from planning and cooking meals day in and day out, you are not alone. Cooking burnout or fatigue is a common occurrence. We have put together some tips and tricks on how to help you re-light the fire in your cooking and eating routine and even added some delicious recipes and menus to get you inspired.

1. Switch it up - Boredom and burnout can come from being in a cooking rut. Renew your cooking mojo by trying something completely new and out of the box. New foods can be enjoyable to make and will give you something to look forward to. 

Try these:

  • Baba's Favourites

    If learning how to make traditional Ukrainian food such as cabbage rolls and perogies have been one of your goals, we have got you covered.
  • Superfoods

    Try some superfood recipes to boost your energy and feel great!
  • International Flavours

    Perfect for the households that want to try something new and expand their meal choices.

2. Get everyone involved – if you are cooking for the whole family, the responsibility should not fall completely on you. Assign other family members days of the week to come up with meal ideas. Even your youngest helpers can get involved, from washing fruits and vegetables to setting the table. Passing on even the littlest jobs can be a weight off your shoulders. As a bonus, teaching little ones or inexperienced cooks is a valuable investment of your time – eventually you will be able to step back and allow others to do the work for you. 

Tips for Working with Kids in the Kitchen

See Tips

3. Get out or order in – Sometimes you just need a reset button. It can be hard to break a cycle of monotony and sometimes you just need something completely different. Instead of putting pressure on yourself to make yet ANOTHER boring meal, get out and try a new restaurant or order takeout from your favourite place. This might help you renew your love of food and inspire you to make your own “take-out” at home next time.

4. Make your life easier – Set yourself up for success by coming up with a system that works for you. This could be a “hybrid” of combining premade heat-and-eat meals, frozen foods, or meal kits with your homemade foods to give you help where you need it. You can also make double batches of your dinners and freeze one to have on hand the next time you feel burned out.  Plan to use these as tools throughout the week to ease the burden of making everything from scratch. 

Freeze Ahead Meals - Have a stash of these on hand to pull out when your motivation for cooking has run out.

View Recipes

5. Meal planning help –Maybe you’re feeling burned out because you have not learned how to properly plan. Work smarter, not harder! Check out our menu planning how-to page for ways to get started planning or to switch up your planning routine. 

Menu planning will help you save time and money and will take the guess work out of your weekly cooking routine. 

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