I won’t try to explain to you how home-cooking and special diets can get complicated. If you know, you know. So much can get between me and the perfect meal plans. Life revolves around the kitchen and the need to eat never goes away. When this overwhelms me, the best advice is to simplify.

Several summers ago, I made an announcement about food during a time of building house, busy summer jobs and getting ready for a son’s wedding. I was only going to cook about 5 things that I could make without a cookbook – tacos, hamburgers, stirfry, roasted meat and vegetables, pizza. Surprisingly, everyone in the family was okay with that.

And it was so easy.

Being weary with cooking lately, I decided to try it again. This time around, we aren’t so busy, but I am tired of planning menus, following recipes and decision fatigue. I’m tired of advice about what to eat and specialists changing their minds so much. Home cooked food is important, health is precious, but I want to do other things, too.

About Variety

This time around, I did some research. Various articles say we eat less variety than we think. (I linked to two of them in this article.) Less variety actually can lead to more nutritious meals if we choose intentionally. Menu planning can take a lot of time. Making new recipes takes extra brain space. Shopping for new recipes or specific menus can be frustrating. Some of us plan and then don’t follow up. This all amounts to a lot of wasted energy and resources.

Cookbooks are a type of fiction, even fantasy! They are written according to the authors values, not yours or mine. I like them because by owning and cooking from them, maybe I will become better in some way. For that to happen, I need to change my taste buds, my routine, my grocery list and my perspective. My style of cooking and eating has changed gradually over years of practice, but it hasn’t been because of a cookbook.

The idea that we can optimize everything is a myth. Many of our kitchens have several kinds of flours and sweeteners, milk from more than cows, and spices for a trip around the world. But everyone knows a banana or an apple or any fruit in season is a better dessert than anything we could bake. I have nothing against these ‘special’ ingredients and use some of them myself. But sometimes I take a step back and see the value in simplicity.

You need to make a recipe many times to get good at it. Mom’s best brownies don’t become that with one try. Maybe the recipe isn’t even so great, but the memories connected to it add flavor and sweetness. Food needs to fill and satisfy us, but it doesn’t need to wow us every time. There’s more efficiency with shopping, cooking and serving the same things over and over. There’s less food waste, fewer flops, a humbleness in eating familiar food. It cultivates simple tastes which in turn make us easy to be impressed. You might even eat less and accidentally improve your health.

Variety is over-rated. If you would rather have freedom, make meals simpler. You don’t need very many dinner menus to create a list that will feed you for a week. The easiest lunch is to use leftovers from supper the night before. Make enough the first time and you did a favor for your future self. You will get a lot of variety in seasonal fruits and vegetables, when dining out, or socializing. Variety will present itself in spite of our efforts to limit it.

Simple food is good. It is interesting that the things requiring few ingredients often take more practice to get them right: sourdough, caramelized vegetables, a viniagrette. If I don’t put in the reps, I can’t learn it. In this way, limiting options could make me a better cook.

If the formulas become familiar and easy, I can use my energy to upgrade my systems or ingredients, or find better tools. The kitchen will become highly efficient and uniquely suited to our particular tastes.

Is this legal?

What would Grandma do? I wish I had her cooking sense.

My grandma was born in 1918. She married my grandpa andhad 14 children. She was a busy, farm wife and from-scratch cook. I don’t think she had time every week to scroll Pinterest and carefully plan out her week on a dry-erase board. She simply gathered food and cooked it. Dad recalls her hacking the head off a chicken and serving it alongside homemade white bread, vegetables and a homemade pie for dessert. In there summer there was lots of fresh produce. She cooked what she had and set it all out on the table. If it wasn’t meat, it was beans. If it wasn’t fresh, it was canned. –Lisa Bass, Farmhouse on Boone

Grandma didn’t worry about variety, nutrition (because it was real food cooked the traditional ways) or impressing anyone. I’m not against plans and knowledge about nutrients. They have a place, maybe a season. But it isn’t the only way to eat well.

I’ve had my hangups with diets and super foods and believing scientists who say eat more of this and less of that. Encouraged by success in simplifying other areas of my life, I see the kitchen as the last frontier and my apron is on.

My list of things I can make without a cookbook includes roast meat and vegetables, make grains in the instant pot, create a passable stir fry with whatever is in the fridge. Tacos. Basic grilling happens occasionally, tended by me. I can make an egg edible in various forms without a cookbook.

Yes, it is legal to make meals this simple.

The meals that regularly happen around here are not recipes I have memorized, but formulas. Tacos can be made with ground beef, leftover roasted meats, grilled chicken, pork in any variation from sausage to canned, scrambled eggs or fried eggs. If you don’t have cheddar, use the white cheese. No cheese? Call them street tacos. You are only limited by what you can find in the fridge. If there isn’t a lot of protein, add beans, or make quesadillas to stretch it. Sprinkling on chili powder, cumin and garlic and adding salsa makes almost anything taste Mexican. I serve tacos every week and we don’t get bored because they are different every time.

I am going to choose one bread and make it until I memorized it. Also I might try to memorize a dessert. I think I could make a fruit crisp without a recipe, homemade ice cream is pretty close too. Most of my items I am content to serve to company with a garnish and added sides.

If you think the things you can make are too SAD (standard american diet) or you are on a special diet, don’t discredit this method yet. Add a raw vegetable as an appetizer, or a salad. I can go gluten free by skipping bread at the meal, usung lettuce instead of the hamburger bun, or a caulicrust for the pizza. Make home fries instead of chips. (chips are only eaten one way, potatoes are versatile. That makes them better options for a minimalist kitchen.) I like plain food so sauces aren’t an issue for me. The health of a meal begins in the grocery store anyway, when you select ingredients.

Since simple can mean different things to different people, this tactic will need to feel simple to you. Don’t compare to someone who has been cooking for years. Start from where you are. I love to see other cook’s lists like this so here is mine. If you would write down your easy, no-cookbook meals, how would your list look different than mine?

Like a River

A kitchen needs a flow of ingredients coming in and going out to stay current. There are weekly tasks, seasonal tasks and everyday tasks. When the flow gets clogged with unfinished tasks, cooking is harder than it needs to be. A routine relieves us from following trends and alleviates decision fatigue.

There are hundreds of ways this could go. Try to recognize the flow you already have and work with it, instead of inventing some perfect scenario. The most important task in my kitchen is getting it back to ready. I learned about this MIT while reading a book on time management for children with ADHD. For a space to be usable next time you enter it, it needs to be back to ready. Think of it as doing something nice for your future self. Basically, folks, that’s doing the dishes and putting leftovers away. It doesn’t matter if you do the dishes after every meal or after supper. But they need to be done at least once a day for the kitchen to remain usable. Clear counters are a thing of beauty!

I took my list of supper options and listed the ingredients. I consulted a recipe or two just to be sure I thought of everything. I rewrote the list, grouping like items to facilitate shopping. First on the list are things on the perimeter of the grocery store- the fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy. I think these are the most nourishing foods. I will need to go down a few of the center aisles but not all of them!

Included in my grocery list is all the breakfasts and basic meals. I don’t keep all the dessert or party ingredients on hand all the time. Too much inventory to manage, makes order more difficult in the kitchen. We each need to judge for ourselves what is too much. The first clues you have too much is disorder and waste. Here’s my master grocery list. What’s essential to you?

And there are two new habits I’d like to add to my routine. I want to fill a 9 x 13 with various cuts of meat, either from the freezer or the grocery store, to be ready to use anytime during the week. I don’t have a specific day or menu in mind. The other habit is to wash and cut up vegetables before putting them away (or buy them that way). I love it when the fridge is nearly empty, before I go shopping. It’s a good time to wipe the shelves off.

A routine needs to be followed many times to become automatic. Routine, by it’s very definition is a bit boring. Managing kitchen inventory takes attention and reducing that inventory has to make things easier. Without intentionally simplifying, complexity creeps in.

I’m still sad to know cookbooks are (for me) in the fantasy genre. I’ll remember that when I read them.

How do you keep inventory down or spend less time in the kitchen, while still eating well?

–Liz

Want to keep reading?

Flights of Fancy

In Spring, Look Up

6 Books in a Garden