Green curry tofu + how to get back into the kitchen

The hurdle of getting back into a cooking routine when you have gotten out of one becomes taller the longer you avoid it. I put some ingredients on the grocery list last week to make just one recipe - Ali Slagle’s green curry glazed tofu (gift link) - and even that proved to be too lofty.

(Listicle alert!) Here are some ideas about how to jump that hurdle, getting back into good kitchen habits when you’re out of practice. This is my current advice to both you and myself: (Giving advice soothes me thank you for listening.)

• Think outside of dinner - making a cute breakfast or lunch recipe or meal prep counts as cooking and takes some of the pressure off of busy times of day - whether that’s cooking at dinnertime, or answering the question of ‘What healthy lunch can I prepare and eat in under twenty minutes between meetings?’

• Assembling = cooking - tacos count as a home-cooked meal, even if they just consist of store-bought tortillas, salsa, and rotisserie chicken alongside other toppings. Chopping a tomato is cooking.

• Remember the seasons - if the seasons are changing, incorporate new ingredients and recipes that make sense with the change in the weather, especially seasonal ingredients, and warm/cold foods (e.g., soups in winter, smoothies and salads in summer).

• Start (and stay) small - focus on easy dishes with minimal prep and dishes so that you get the rewards of meeting your goal with fewer hassles. Rebuild from there in terms of recipe complexity and frequency of cooking. Or just stay there, if that’s what you need.

• Remember your dedicated following - and feel guilty for not providing your loyal Substack readers with more interesting content. Imagine them scratching their heads wondering about the state of your microbiome after countless Domino’s orders and takeout. Now pick up that wooden spoon!

Oh, and another one I just thought of:

• Curate your feed - if you are back on social media after an extended instagram vacation, as I am, ONLY follow cooking accounts that inspire you to cook, and give you practical recipes and tools. UNFOLLOW ANY ACCOUNT that pushes “easy, 20-minute meals” that obviously are not. Girl, I do not have a sous chef to do all of that chopping for me. If it contains more than one vegetable, it’s def gonna take me more than 20 minutes thank you bye.

Here’s what it would look like if I took my own advice:

• Making a batch of chocolate overnight oats (gift link) for breakfast during the week.

• Making sure we have ingredients for easy lunch tartines such as smoked salmon with avocado, or preparing some tuna or salmon salad with capers, olives, and celery.

• Planning ahead to have 5-6pm free to cook the recipe I chose last week.

Here’s what we ate this week:

• Friday - Italian wedding soup from specialty store.

• Saturday - Dinner out with a friend. Italian dream heaven dinner galore. Every time I do this, I think, ‘I should do this more often.’

• Sunday - I doctored up a beautiful leftover pizzocheri pasta dish containing potatoes, cabbage, and cheese with a fried egg (perfect runny yolk courtesy of Seb), and a small handful of torn arugula.

• Monday - Leftovers.

• Tuesday - Green curry glazed tofu (gift link).

Green curry glazed tofu. This felt like what people would describe as “clean eating.”

• Wednesday - Leftovers.

• Thursday - Lamb merguez sausage with couscous, served with harissa. I swiped a few microwaved broccoli florets from Clara’s pile to round out the dish.

It occurs to me that I’ve written on the topic of how to get back into the kitchen before, and that I could search my own archive for listicles on this topic. It’s just too much fun to write them fresh, though! Thanks for listening.

xo Ellen