52 Recipes

 I have been thinking a lot about the good parts of 2022. Though paying double for groceries over what I paid in the prior two years and triple what I paid in 2019 is not a good thing, cooking and eating excellent meals has been. I have enjoyed learning and experimenting with new dishes. I want to focus that a bit in 2023. 

I gave myself a simple goal. I want to try one new recipe each week on average. Why phrase it that way? Imagine a moment that I take a week's vacation to Disney World. I am unlikely to cook in that fantasy vacation. Likewise if I end up traveling for work. 

I gave myself the same type of wiggle room for my blog in 2022. I wanted to post twice per week on Monday and Thursday. I wrote very few of those posts on their due date. At my best (like this post) I am writing several posts ahead and scheduling them to drop. 

Likewise, I plan to work in a new recipe per week. If I have weeks where cooking isn't my focus for one reason or another then I will simply double down in the weeks before or after. I suspect that there will be weeks where I try a few new recipes at a time. That happened quite a bit this year. Hitting fifty two new recipes really shouldn't be difficult from a time and logistics point of view. 

I have some other advantages going for me. Dad gifted the family a smoker for Christmas. Granted, he did this a few weeks early. It is a nice gift and I have been slowly experimenting in simple ways. Part of my easing into the great world of smoking is to stack the deck for next year. I have a cookbook on the way and so many ideas from things I have already looked at online. 

I also have an Instant Pot that I have allowed myself not to experiment with. I tried to get excited about it earlier this year by buying an Instant Pot specific cookbook. Nothing really jumped out at me. My comfort and prowess with my slow cooker has me spoiled. I often plot meals for supper by prepping them at breakfast or lunch and letting them cook in the slow cooker. 

The real trick is going to be preventing myself getting into a rut. I rotate through a lot of potato side dishes. I also cycle back through my favorite recipes in a decidedly predictable way. By taking the time to track what I cook on a calendar and write down the recipes as I use them, I should be able to avoid this. I also think there is some validity in visiting variations. For example, I have mastered my own recipe for meatloaf. Making that obviously wouldn't count as a new recipe even if I substituted some ingredients. If I found a recipe that was completely different using a different seasoning pallet and different secondary ingredients then I could consider that a new recipe. 

I have a library of cook books that belonged to my Mom and Grandmother. I have bought a few of my own and made use of only a few recipes from them. Even without getting incredibly creative, I think it will be entirely easy to find new recipes with nothing more than a visit to my storage area.  

The bigger challenge is going to come each quarter as I work at becoming more healthy through better nutrition. I won't be making any sweets after the 31st of December. Come 1 April, I will eliminate bread which I admit I don't currently over do. Still, taking away breads, biscuits, and a variety of sandwiches limits the field on new things. I will likely keep tortillas in the mix a bit longer. Starting in July I will move away from pasta dishes. The elimination in October is still up in the air, but rice and tortillas are a couple of possibilities. 

The trick in all of this is replacing those things with healthier choices. Replacing a roll or biscuits with some greens or broccoli is clearly a win. I just want to have enough options that I genuinely enjoy to keep my plates interesting and tasty. Recommendations are always welcome. I have to admit squash on the smoker sounds kind of awesome. Smoked asparagus doesn't sound awful either. I have had my eye on the challenge of making Brussel sprouts palatable for a while. 

Still, replacing or reducing potatoes is going to be a beast. Such a staple! This is also why I am shaped like a potato. Ah well, I enjoy a challenge.