A key part of Meal Making Transformation is staying inspired. You’ve no doubt heard the saying, “The hardest part about cooking is deciding what to cook.” So it pays to have a good system in place for inspirational recharges.

My Latest Inspiration Spark Over the last few months, the New York Times’ cooking newsletter has been a wonderful inspiration source for me. Every few days, it gets me jazzed up with descriptions and pictures of several seasonal dishes.

A Little Creativity Game The downside is that the free newsletter’s descriptions are just a couple sentences. To get the full recipe, I’d have to subscribe to NYT Cooking. Since I already subscribe to six newspapers to support good journalism, I don’t want to add one more publication to the list! (You’ve heard of “subscription creep?!”)

Instead, it’s become a little game for me. Can I create some kind of good-tasting dish based on just the picture and short description? No doubt my dish is different (maybe a lot different) than the actual recipe, but it comes out good enough and adds a lot of fun and creativity to the daily cooking routine. Fun and creativity are critical to sustainable healthy eating as I’ve mentioned often. (See “Why You Need to Battle Blandness“)

5 Inspirational Sparks

If finding inspiration to get motivated is a struggle, try setting up a system. That can make it easier and more automatic to recharge. A couple examples:

• You might have a favorite blog site (like The New Kitchen!)
• Do you have a few recipes on a kitchen counter waiting for a trial?
• I used to get recipes from The Spice House’s newsletter which automatically inspired me to use more spices and seasonings.
• Maybe you get recipes from a cooking show.

Or how about signing up for the free NYT newsletter and playing my creativity game. Or heck, just subscribe to the whole NYT Cooking site and get full recipes. But VERY IMPORTANT, don’t get overwhelmed. Focus on no more than one or two at a time to avoid overwhelm paralysis.

Key Takeaway Whatever system you use, every week or so, kick yourself in the you-know-what and find some recipe, meal idea or even just a new ingredient to provide a jolt of motivation. Otherwise it’s too easy to just let the inertia of boredom bring your good eating efforts to a halt. See “Boring Food Is Dangerous!”) Plus new-ness is a whole lot of fun!

Have a favorite Inspirational spark system? Share in the comments!

Meal Making Transformation doesn’t just help us tap into a sustainable source of inspiration and motivation. It also helps turn the whole meal making process into something that is entirely manageable–and rewarding and fun—even for ordinary home cooks. Read the story of how I transformed everyday meal making so I could successfully make meals that saved my and my children’s health.