No More Drive-Thru Food, Queens!

Since 1/3 of Americans eat fast food regularly for dinner, roughly 85 million consuming it daily, and there are so many benefits for families to sit down at dinner and eat together, I am on a mission to help families slow down a bit! I get it, cooking can be a chore and a total bore. Let's start with this - 3 Ways to Enjoy Cooking!

1) Don’t Complicate Your Recipes, Keep It Simple! Take the pressure off of trying to be perfect or to make Instagram worthy meals! Take shortcuts, even semi- homemade is good!! You will still get amazing results and you will enjoy cooking so much more when you don’t feel the need to make it perfect!!! For example, no need to slow cook tomatoes all day, use that jarred sauce but just doctor it up with some fresh garlic, fresh basil, and voila you’ve amped up the flavor in no time!!

2) Make Your Own Rules, or Better Yet, Be a Rule Breaker! When it comes to cooking, there is so much room for creativity!! You can think outside the box to make cooking so much fun!! For example, if you love lasagna but don’t want the heavy meal on a Tuesday night, make a lasagna soup!! Or if you love the flavors of a sub but aren’t in the mood for a big hoagie, use the ingredients and flavors of your favorite and turn it into a hot hoagie dip with little crackers!!

3) Keep It Real! Allow yourself to make mistakes and know there’s always a way to recover! For example, if your taco shells are stale or crumbly, throw all of your ingredients into pasta and make taco pasta instead! If the soup is too salty, a little water goes a long way, or if it’s too thin, add a bit of butter and flour to thicken it up! If you overbake your cookies, throw them in a blender instead of the garbage and make a delicious topping for ice cream or a homemade pie crust for s’mores!!