Foodie Friday: A new year for new recipes

We’re almost ready to ring in the New Year

For most of us, this time of year is full of reflection and planning. What are your favorite moments of 2016? What are your plans for 2017?

Document your SMART goals

If you’re anything like me, then you’ve probably started a list of goals for next year both at work and in your personal life. I believe that if you want to achieve something, you must start by verbalizing it, talking it over with someone supportive in your life, and writing it down! Ensure that your goals are SMART:

• Specific - quantify or describe exactly what you want to achieve
• Measurable - can you measure if you’ve achieved your goal?
• Achievable - is the goal realistic? Keep it simple and be realistic with yourself
• Relevant - do you actually want to achieve this? Is it important to you?
• Timely - establish a deadline, maybe even a few

Try a new recipe at least once every two weeks

A challenge that I often face is getting into a rut of making a rotation of the same five meals. This leaves me feeling a bit bored with meals and unmotivated to cook. Broadly, I want to add more supper meals to my biweekly repertoire. To make this fit into SMART goal format, I can say: “Try a new recipe at least once every two weeks so that I can have at least 10 new recipes to add to my repertoire by June 2017”. Luckily, I have gastronomically creative people (like you) in my life to give me inspiration!

Host a soup exchange

If you’re looking for a fun way to discover new recipes, you may be interested in a recent soup exchange that my group of friends just had. Ten people participated, so each of us made 10 litres of soup, bagged it up into 10 one litre freezer bags and then got together for a social gathering to exchange soups. The best part is you get to leave with 10 litres of different yummy, healthy, and homemade soups and recipes to stock your freezer and build your meal repertoire. You can do this with any food item – stews, casseroles, you name it! If you are interested in hosting your own soup exchange, I’d like to share the following recipe with you to try: African Peanut Stew from the Oh She Glows cookbook featured in the Canadian Running magazine. This stew is deliciously flavourful and full of fibre, healthy fats, and comfort. Triple this recipe if you’re interested in making 10 litres, or just keep it as is – the choice is yours.