Lost my cooking mojo

[Anonymous]

I used to cook and bake all the time. I tried fun and challenging recipes every week and hunted online for new things. Now, no interest and I do just the bare minimum. I'm mid 50s married with one teenager and I work full time in the office so I think it is part of getting older and not as much energy. Now it is just the bare minimum for simple meals at home (eg, meatballs, baked fish, breaded chicken/pork chops, salads, pasta etc). Anyone get their love of cooking back after they lost it?

[Anonymous]

You need inspiration from a cookbook or NYT cooking section online.

[Anonymous]

Yup! I used to make creative meals 5 or 6 night a week for my family of 5. Totally lost my mojo as well. I retired this year, and mostly am alone for lunch. Once a week for the last 3 months, I make 2 small tacos using the Masienda masa and press you may have seen on Instagram. I vary the tortilla recipe every week to mixed results. I’ll eventually make tortillas for the rest of the crew, but for now I love the experimentation with zero pressure.

[Anonymous]

Time to teach that teenager how to cook!

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I did do one of the meal delivery kits of a short while to get some new ideas.

New reason, I’m actually dealing with food aversions now and that makes it really hard. Family still needs to eat and a lot of foods make me gross out.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I go through fits and spurts — and I do some freelance food writing and blogging — so I normally REALLY love cooking.

I find it’s like a lot of things — if my focus is elsewhere or I’m extremely stressed, my creativity just goes down. Sometimes I like to cook for an escape from whatever it is, but that is generally less practical “get dinner on the table on a weeknight” meals, and more creative, aspirational, fun things that might take the better part of a weekend afternoon.

I go with the flow. We are fortunate in that we are not on an extremely tight food budget so when there are times when we’re getting more takeout or eating out more, we don’t beat ourselves up over it. Also, I have tried the HelloFresh type kits occasionally and I find that they have their place — when you don’t have time to grocery shop or prep ingredients, or when you don’t want to add a bunch of extra items to your fridge (we do them the week before a vacation now).

[Anonymous]

Get a subscription to Milk Street. Every issue has several 30-minute meals that are very tasty.

[Anonymous]

There are a couple YouTube channels that got my mojo back…not another cooking show and meat church. Find your YouTube channel…there’s one out there for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Right there with ya, OP. I also lost my desire to garden, which I used to like to do.

IMO, it's depression - from menopause and the stage of my life. I've also been more anxious and have a harder time sleeping through the night. I started on a low dose. SSRI

[Anonymous]

My problem is the grind of having two picky kids and a job. I’m cooking spaghetti, chicken chili, and tostadas this week. How much more boring can it get? At least it’s soup season.

[Anonymous]

I'm digging cubed steak (tenderized by pounding) in crock pot lately.

I dip in flour, fry 3 minutes each side in olive oil on medium high, put in crock pot. I use about 3 pounds of steaks at least. Can cut in half before flouring.

I pour sauce over it that I whisked in a large bowl:

- 1 Campbells French Onion
- 1 Campbells Cream of Celery
- 1 Campbells Cream of Chicken & Mushroom (it exists!)
- 1 Swanson Beef broth.

Cook on low for 6 hours. Serve with rice or mashed potatoes

[Anonymous]

Can add McCormick Montreal Steak seasoning to flour - 1 tablespoon