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CAN'T DECIDE WHAT'S FOR DINNER? | HOW I FIND TIME TO COOK GREAT FOOD EVERY DAY! | Cooking with Anadi
Oct 26, 2020
You can't decide what to cook for dinner.
Yeah, been there, done that. In fact, I ran into this issue for tonight's dinner!
But I'm here because I want you to avoid this dilemma!
In this video, I'll be showing you how to organize your meals and cook more often! Also: One question I get so often is how do I find the time to cook all this great food every single day! This video will give you the answer!
So stay tuned and get motivated to get cooking something great tonight! You have no reason not to hone your cooking skills and become excellent in the kitchen! Your own limitation is yourself, but I believe in you!
Feel free to contact me about anything at any time! I'm always here to help out and explore new exciting recipes! I'm also always open to any recipe suggestions, so don't hesitate to reach out and shower your suggestions to me! I'm ready to hear you, and I'm happy to get you on your feet to start your culinary journey. Let's do this together - you're in for an exciting and thrilling ride! Join the Cooking with Anadi community over at www.cookingwithanadi.com and check out my other social media to join many passionate cooks with diverse experiences!
VISIT MY AMAZON SHOP: https://www.amazon.ca/shop/cookingwithanadi
Check out these recipes - perfect for any level!
Healthy veggie pizza bagels: https://bit.ly/3juYuCI
Guacamole and Chicken Bruschetta: https://bit.ly/34wxCy1
Healthy & Easy Protein Pumpkin Oatmeal: https://bit.ly/2J3efnP
Spaghetti & Meatballs with Classic Marinara: https://bit.ly/2G1wZTN
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
picture this you've had a long long day
0:02
at work and
0:03
all you can think about is coming home
0:06
kicking back on the couch and just
0:07
relaxing with some good food like who
0:09
doesn't want that
0:10
i know i want that but what do most of
0:13
us
0:14
do well when we are relaxing on that
0:17
couch
0:18
then we don't want to get up i don't
0:20
want to get up
0:22
i never used to and what you end up
0:25
reaching for is your phone
0:28
or your ipad or whatever and you go in
0:31
your favorite delivery app
0:33
you get your favorite food watch tv
0:36
and ding dong that's the doorbell your
0:39
food is here
0:40
how awesome is that we truly live
0:43
in a great great time
0:46
and i was stuck in a similar circle for
0:49
a long time
0:51
until i developed a few habits that
0:54
forced me to start cooking a bit
0:58
more and eventually a lot more
1:01
and i want to share how i went about it
1:05
what i learned from it and if you stick
1:08
until the
1:09
end of the video i can share how
1:12
i cook so often and how can i make the
1:14
time
1:15
for cooking so stay until the end so you
1:18
can get the answer to those questions
1:21
because i know a lot of you dm me on my
1:24
instagram
1:24
and ask how do you make all this food
1:26
all the time when do you get the time to
1:28
make this food
1:29
well kick back and relax it's coming so
1:32
first i want to talk about
1:33
planning so i'm sure most of us
1:37
know we should be planning most of us
1:39
know we should
1:41
be ahead of the game and know what we
1:42
should eat
1:44
so that we don't have to worry about it
1:45
but none of us do it it's just too hard
1:47
nobody wants to
1:49
spend the time to write down a bunch of
1:52
meals of what they're gonna eat during
1:54
the day
1:55
i get it i get it but i want you to ask
1:58
yourself have you ever
1:59
truly given it a chance
2:02
what turned you off from it let me tell
2:05
you what i
2:06
like about it and i hate planning my
2:09
meals
2:10
but when i do it i kind of trick my mind
2:13
into getting excited for it and then
2:15
when i do start planning i'm actually
2:18
really into it
2:19
and it's actually a lot of fun by the
2:21
end of it
2:22
which gets me excited to start the week
2:26
the planning for me usually happens
2:28
towards the weekend friday saturday
2:30
so then i can get the groceries on the
2:33
sunday
2:34
for the rest of the week and the key to
2:36
be successful
2:38
in planning your meals is two things
2:41
awareness and a theme
2:45
so awareness let's come to that point
2:48
first you should always know what you
2:50
have in your pantry
2:51
what you have in your fridge and that'll
2:54
already inspire you
2:56
to start cooking because you know an
2:59
ingredient is going to go bad or maybe
3:01
you bought
3:02
these fancy beans at some point all
3:05
excited that oh i can't wait to eat this
3:07
but
3:08
it has been months and it's still in the
3:11
bag
3:12
that has happened to me and i do come
3:14
back to them and when i do
3:16
taste them that has happened to me a lot
3:20
actually
3:20
it especially happened with kidney beans
3:23
where i got
3:24
like this two for one deal and uh
3:28
i just didn't use it i forgot about it
3:30
because i got
3:31
excited about other things but i did
3:33
start using it i'm like oh my god
3:35
this is so tasty and then i use it in a
3:38
bunch of ingredients and
3:39
i now have only one bag left so just
3:42
just open your cupboards and take a look
3:44
at what you have and
3:46
let yourself decide what you want
3:50
based on that and deciding what to want
3:52
is
3:53
extremely difficult there are hundreds
3:56
upon hundreds upon thousands of recipes
3:59
online
4:00
and blogs youtube you name it
4:04
and it makes it so hard
4:07
to really pick what you really should
4:09
eat because i don't know about you but i
4:11
really don't function well
4:12
if i have a ton of options to choose
4:14
from like let's say on a menu because
4:16
i want to eat everything so that's where
4:18
the concept of deciding on a theme comes
4:20
about
4:21
so if you've seen my instagram stories
4:23
or instagram posts
4:25
um there are times when i make a big
4:26
batch of burger buns
4:28
and i make about a dozen or so at a time
4:32
and i freeze half and i have
4:33
six on hand in the fridge and that just
4:36
sets the theme for me right there
4:38
i usually do this on the weekend so i
4:40
know that because i don't want my buns
4:43
that i worked so
4:44
hard to get ready i don't want to go bad
4:47
i don't want them to go bad and it
4:49
really allows me to experiment with
4:50
different types of proteins
4:52
to use in my burger and that goes the
4:54
same for sides
4:56
you can do so much with it and that
4:58
really helps narrow
4:59
the the field or the uh recipes you're
5:02
looking for
5:03
because there's only so many burgers you
5:06
can have
5:06
and there's only so many types of
5:08
burgers you can like like for me it's
5:10
chicken
5:12
maybe some potato or paneer burger and
5:14
that's basically it
5:15
and then you can do a few different
5:17
twists with it like a spinach burger or
5:19
a
5:20
crispy chicken burger or potato burger
5:23
and
5:23
it makes it so much easier so you can
5:26
get like your
5:26
lunches or dinners prep to be burgers
5:29
and try different much of sai it's like
5:31
coleslaw
5:32
or fries or salad whatever you want and
5:35
there you go that's like three or four
5:37
meals already
5:39
ready for you and currently my
5:42
team is south indian i have never been
5:45
able to like
5:46
make the dosa batter properly and last
5:49
weekend i actually kind of nailed it and
5:51
i was pretty good at spreading out
5:52
the batter as well so i was like well
5:55
i'm gonna make
5:56
way more batter and i'm gonna have
5:58
everything south indian
6:00
even if you're having the same dish
6:02
again and again because
6:03
i am like that if i like something i'm
6:06
gonna keep having it
6:07
again and again until i'm sick of it and
6:10
it's great
6:11
it gives you the chance to really
6:13
experiment
6:14
and perfect and fine-tune your skills
6:18
and by the end of it
6:19
you'll be mastering that dish you'll be
6:22
great at it
6:23
so what i want you to do is take a look
6:25
in your fridge
6:26
take a look at the pantry and then
6:29
decide
6:30
what you can make with it and pick a
6:32
theme
6:33
anything mexican italian pizza
6:36
also knowing what you already have
6:39
the money you've already invested in
6:42
food
6:42
will or should really push you to not
6:46
allow that money to go to waste
6:48
so you'll be forced to work with stuff
6:50
you already have
6:51
and personally for me some of my best
6:54
dishes came about
6:56
because i had to finish a few things and
6:58
really forced me
7:00
to be creative to get these dishes
7:02
together to make it taste good
7:04
and look nice going back to the point
7:06
about themes
7:08
buying a subset of ingredients
7:11
usually helps you to use the same
7:14
ingredients
7:14
coming back to the point about the theme
7:18
if you buy a certain type of ingredient
7:21
or ingredients it can really stretch out
7:24
and be really useful in all kinds of
7:27
different recipes
7:28
so i don't want you to plan five
7:30
different meals for the week breakfast
7:32
lunch and dinner
7:33
and have some specialty ingredient be
7:36
used and everything
7:37
your grocery bill is gonna go way high
7:39
and
7:40
that's gonna demotivate you to spend all
7:42
that money
7:44
again and again and again and really
7:45
worry about the specialty ingredients
7:48
going bad
7:49
and your money going to waste after the
7:50
fact so some things that i
7:52
always have on hand is pasada
7:55
onions ginger garlic some sort of
7:58
protein
7:59
so either fish or chicken or shrimp
8:02
and some sort of oil and a small variety
8:05
of vegetables
8:06
which would include some tomatoes onion
8:09
peppers spinach and i just pick a theme
8:13
based on these few ingredients so let's
8:16
say with the ingredients that i just
8:18
listed
8:18
you can make so many things you can make
8:20
and of course you need your grains so
8:22
some sort of beans
8:24
rice and you're set you're honestly set
8:27
because you can get these in bulk so
8:29
from some of the ingredients that i just
8:31
mentioned
8:31
you can make such a variety so you can
8:33
make some sort of curry
8:35
with chicken you can make chicken and
8:37
rice one part
8:39
you can make soup with the pasado you
8:41
can make pasta
8:43
easily you can make pizza because flour
8:46
is a
8:47
really common ingredient and it's and
8:50
you don't have to
8:51
go out and buy a bunch of different
8:53
ingredients because you have everything
8:54
already
8:55
get cheese cheese can be used in so many
8:57
things salads
8:58
burgers sandwiches put in your rice if
9:01
you want to
9:02
it's it's great it's great so
9:05
don't worry too much about all the
9:06
ingredients you need to buy and also
9:08
if you have these few key ingredients
9:11
already on hand you don't really have to
9:14
go that crazy about planning
9:16
because the few ingredients you use to
9:19
create these variety of dishes
9:22
you already have it so
9:25
the only thing stopping you is your
9:27
imagination and i really want you to let
9:29
that
9:29
run wild okay so i don't want you to
9:32
have a case of the mondays
9:34
you've planned it you've bought the
9:35
ingredients and you're great
9:37
the first week and then the next week
9:39
comes
9:40
and for some reason you just don't feel
9:43
like it you don't feel like planning you
9:45
don't feel like cooking
9:46
so you tell yourself okay this week
9:48
let's give it a break
9:50
i'll come back to it next monday and
9:51
then next monday and then next monday
9:54
and then you just have dropped the ball
9:56
so
9:57
resist the temptation always try to
10:00
resist
10:01
that temptation and i'll tell you some
10:04
of my
10:04
personal experiences when i used to work
10:07
um
10:08
at my restaurant job as you can imagine
10:10
the hours were pretty brutal
10:12
so you would start early in the morning
10:13
and you would end like
10:15
i don't know like 9 8 p.m at night
10:18
and by then you're just exhausted you're
10:21
dragging your feet home
10:22
and all you want to do is eat and just
10:26
relax
10:27
and after cooking all day long you don't
10:30
want to cook for yourself
10:32
you want to cook for yourself you've
10:33
done enough already so there were so
10:35
many times that i would like
10:37
on the way back get a box of pizza
10:40
get home and that's it that's my dinner
10:44
and i remember always after the fact i
10:47
would feel
10:48
bad for eating pizza because i know i
10:51
shouldn't be having it so often
10:52
and then i wouldn't really feel that
10:54
much better either it would always make
10:55
me feel bloated and the next morning
10:58
i'll be dehydrated because of the salt
11:00
and i would repeat that again the next
11:02
day
11:03
so one day i walked towards the pizza
11:05
place knowing exactly what i wanted
11:08
but then i just walked right by it
11:12
and i got home just relaxed
11:15
for a few minutes grab some water
11:18
watch some tv and then i'm like okay
11:22
what do i want to eat and i had those
11:25
ingredients that i just listed
11:27
already on hand and i went up i made
11:30
something
11:31
it was actually relaxing it was more
11:34
relaxing to me
11:35
than watching tv and then i ate it
11:39
and i felt great i felt great in two
11:42
ways
11:43
i accomplished something i visited the
11:45
temptation
11:46
i saved a bunch of money and i felt good
11:49
after
11:50
it was light home-cooked simple food
11:54
and i'm sure you guys would love that as
11:58
well
11:59
why would you not want to feel good or
12:01
would you not want to feel light after
12:02
the food
12:03
why would you not want to feel light why
12:05
would you not want to feel accomplished
12:08
tell me tell me in the comments below if
12:10
any of you
12:11
want the opposite and i have lots of
12:14
urges
12:15
lots of them i love pizza hut i love kfc
12:20
and i really wish you could eat it all
12:22
day
12:23
every day but you can't you're gonna
12:25
kill yourself
12:26
and i don't wanna do that so this is
12:29
another thing i'm not sure if you've
12:31
tried this already
12:32
and it's pretty silly to some of you
12:34
it's okay whatever
12:36
but this is what i do to resist those
12:39
sudden temptations where you're like oh
12:40
my god i want that bucket of fried
12:41
chicken or i want some
12:43
crispy chicken sandwich or a pizza so i
12:46
go on the website i actually go on it
12:48
on my phone or whatever and i get
12:52
i put everything that i want in the cart
12:54
everything
12:55
and instead of checking out i just
12:58
closed the tab
12:59
and after i've seen it on the screen and
13:01
i've imagined myself having it
13:04
i realized i don't need it and i can
13:06
just make
13:07
something else home-cooked and it'll be
13:10
just as great because i
13:11
lived that moment briefly in my mind it
13:14
was fun it was so much
13:16
i i'm not sure like if there's some
13:18
psychologists out there
13:19
you might know more about this but
13:22
i think the rush that you feel when you
13:24
are ordering out
13:26
that's all that i wanted to experience
13:29
and
13:30
then i could just move on with my life
13:31
basically if some of you have some of
13:34
your own
13:35
strategies to resist the temptation let
13:37
me know in the comments down below i'll
13:39
be
13:39
open to try them because i have cravings
13:42
all the time now i don't want you guys
13:44
to misinterpret what i'm saying
13:47
as you should never eat up you should
13:50
never give in given
13:53
at times and how many times
13:56
that you should decide you may have your
14:00
own course and i'm not going to tell you
14:01
go once a week go twice a week i don't
14:03
care
14:04
you do what works the best for you
14:08
but be mindful of the times when you are
14:11
going to be eating out
14:12
treat it as a reward or as a planned
14:15
meal
14:16
because then you'd be mindful about it
14:18
and
14:20
subconsciously you will plan the rest of
14:23
the week
14:24
towards this big meal and eating out can
14:26
also give you so much inspiration
14:29
to fuel your home cooking fires like
14:32
anything else in your life like your
14:33
career education
14:35
or fitness if you don't set
14:38
goals well you never really
14:41
feel a sense of progression and if you
14:44
don't
14:45
progress towards anything what you're
14:48
doing just seems pointless
14:50
let me know if i'm wrong about that if
14:52
you kept giving tests all your life but
14:54
you're not
14:55
getting anywhere if you're not getting a
14:57
degree at the end of it or
14:58
not learning anything you're not getting
15:00
enlightened well why would you keep
15:02
giving tests
15:03
think about that so why would you want
15:07
to keep
15:07
cooking at home if you're not getting
15:09
anything out of it
15:11
so try to set some goals for yourself
15:13
these goals can be however
15:15
big or however small as you want
15:19
as long as you have some of them
15:22
and these goals can be really basic so
15:25
making the perfect scrambled eggs
15:27
or making the perfect al dente pasta and
15:30
trust me it's not that easy to nail
15:33
these basic techniques
15:35
and set small goals in the beginning
15:38
because as you keep meeting these small
15:40
goals you'll start
15:42
seeing how far you can go or how far you
15:45
want to go
15:46
and you can really make some larger
15:48
goals
15:49
and you can really make some bigger
15:52
goals over time like
15:54
making a gourmet meal making a chocolate
15:57
ganache
15:57
or something fancy like that and if you
16:01
have nailed
16:02
some of these smaller goals you'll have
16:04
the confidence in yourself
16:06
to even attempt you cannot expect
16:10
somebody who just learned to cook to
16:12
make a chocolate cake
16:14
or to roast the chicken it's too
16:17
intimidating
16:18
and this is not something i want you to
16:20
make a formal
16:22
curriculum towards just as you're
16:24
cooking
16:25
think to yourself okay last time when i
16:28
had this
16:29
this was a bit off so i want to try to
16:32
improve on that factor
16:36
and slowly but steadily you will become
16:38
a better cook
16:40
i really appreciate all the comments i
16:42
receive about
16:43
how great of a cook i am or how great
16:45
the recipes are
16:47
but when i'm cooking i'm always
16:49
second-guessing myself
16:50
and i feel like i don't want to mess up
16:53
for you guys
16:54
and um i i mess up a lot
16:58
i actually mess up a lot like what i
17:00
told you earlier about the dosas
17:02
you probably didn't see it because i was
17:03
too embarrassed to show it
17:05
so there's a lot so there's a lot of
17:07
stuff behind the scenes
17:09
which you may not know about but if i
17:12
just gave up
17:13
because i couldn't do anything the first
17:15
time well first of all that's
17:16
unrealistic and second of all
17:19
how would i learn ever right so
17:22
keep that drive going don't give up like
17:25
anything else in life
17:27
and you want to cook at home
17:30
because you have these goals for
17:32
yourself it's actually fun
17:34
you will be proud of yourself i'll try
17:37
to find
17:38
some of my old attempts at
17:41
dishes that i've had and perfected over
17:43
the years and you'll see the progression
17:46
that could only have happened if i kept
17:49
things going and now i want to come to
17:51
the top
17:52
question how do i find the time in the
17:56
day
17:57
to cook all the time well firstly
18:00
doing all of these steps before that
18:03
really prepped me
18:05
to where i am right now and that is i
18:08
prioritize cooking i like
18:11
eating at home and i want to eat at home
18:15
as much as i can and there are so many
18:17
reasons for that
18:19
maybe it's the fact that i've had quite
18:21
a few bad experiences
18:23
i have had great experiences
18:26
which sets the benchmark and helps
18:29
identify
18:30
what's not good so so since i know i can
18:34
really make some tasty food that i like
18:37
i don't know if you're gonna like my
18:38
cooking at all
18:39
i know i like it so i keep making it i
18:42
really appreciate the messages that i
18:43
get
18:44
about the passion that they see in my
18:46
cooking or
18:47
while i'm in the kitchen and things like
18:50
that but
18:51
to me i'm just living my life and i'm
18:53
sharing a
18:54
subset of it with you guys i think every
18:57
meal
18:58
should be a delicious one you should
19:00
always enjoy
19:01
your next meal and which really help
19:04
like
19:05
create some good habits when it comes to
19:07
eating healthy or just eating well
19:10
and and when you're at this point no
19:13
matter what
19:13
ingredient you have to work with you
19:15
will find a way
19:17
to make it taste great and to your
19:19
personal liking
19:20
if i'm not in the best mood well i'll
19:22
cook for therapy
19:23
if i'm in a great mood well i'll treat
19:26
myself
19:27
and even if i feel okay
19:30
i like to eat well it's just fun to me
19:33
and it's rewarding at the end of the day
19:35
and that's what i'm here for i hope i
19:37
can inspire you
19:39
to get in the kitchen and start cooking
19:41
more than you did yesterday
19:43
and if you have any comments or
19:45
questions along your journey
19:47
well i'm right here so comment down
19:50
below leave a like
19:51
dm me whatever you want to do i'm here
19:54
if you want more videos just like this
19:56
and if you want me
19:58
to make a video get more tourist
20:00
motivation when it comes to cooking
20:02
let me know and don't forget to
20:05
subscribe
20:06
hit that notification bell so you don't
20:08
miss out
20:09
on any new videos and i'll see you guys
20:12
again on the next one thanks a lot for
20:14
giving me a few moments bye guys
20:21
[Music]