Cooking mindset: How to refresh your outlook on cooking

Cooking. There are so many styles of cooking, including fancy Michelin star cooking, street food cooking, or even ‘hobby’ cooking. However, there is one style of cooking that everyone experiences in life. That is good old home cooking. We’ve all got to eat right? Therefore the majority of us HAVE to cook to feed ourselves and our loved ones. Without food, we won’t survive. It’s as simple as that.

However, it’s this NEED to eat that can take the fun out of cooking for so many people. Therefore, it may lead to a poor cooking mindset. Which in my heart is a tragedy. Food is one of life’s best pleasures. So if you can cook food that makes you feel good, it can do wonders for your physical and mental well-being.

So it got me thinking. Cooking comes easy to me because I have found my flow with it. I cook the food I love, which makes me happy and feel good about myself. I’ve worked on having a positive cooking mindset. However, in contrast, I can relate to those who don’t feel the same as I recently faced my own life nemesis – CAMPING.

I embarked on a campervan holiday that I believed would be my one and only time. Previous camping experiences have been hideous. Up until this point, I had been haunted with memories of a tiny cold damp tent once in the early noughties, holding my nose stepping into the filthiest toilets and eating beige crap for three days. To be honest I was even surprised that I said yes to this camper van holiday in the first place.

However, deep down I wanted to give it another go and see if I could change my current perception. I wanted it to be FUN. And even without realising it, I had taken an important step as now I was OPEN to having my opinion changed. I was finally ready to leave behind that cold damp tent and face up-and-coming challenges with a new POSITIVE attitude – this was the game-changing moment.

However, our first night in the campervan was not my idea of fun. It was so friggin cold. My sleeping bag wasn’t cutting it and I couldn’t get warm. Then my bladder decided to play havoc. I had no choice but to get up in the middle of the night in the pitch-black freezing night. With only the tiny torch on my phone, and my heart racing I had to leg it to find the toilets. And I’m SCARED of the dark. It was like being in my own Blair witch scene. HORRENDOUS. However, I found the loos, emptied my bladder and made it back safe.

Now at this point, I could have decided to check into a B&B for the next four nights However, I knew that wasn’t the answer. I was prepared to do whatever it took to make it warm, comfortable and fun. We found a local Asda and bought puffa coats, duvets and wine. We were open to giving it another go. and let me tell you….

That next morning I woke up feeling refreshed from a comfy warm night’s sleep. Followed by a delicious healthy breakfast that I had cooked up in the campervan, and enjoyed in a sunny green field. At that moment I knew I had managed to transform my opinion on camping trips and had created beautiful brand new memories. So much so another trip is being planned for the autumn.

Camping vs. Cooking

So how does this story relate to those who find cooking a chore? The message is simple and the same. If deep down you want to transform the way you feel about cooking, then open up your mind. If you want to inject some fun and love into your cooking, it’s not about making it difficult and learning fancy dishes or techniques.

Just let go of what you know. Be open to a brand new cooking experience and don’t let it default back to an act of survival. But you have to REALLY want to transform that feeling of dread into a sense of fun and enjoyment. Take on cooking challenges with a positive mindset and let me tell you, your efforts will pay off over time. We all have to eat every day so why not make it fun right? 

A simple way to do this is to start cooking dishes that you love to eat, that make you feel good. Or it could be discovering different flavours or even creating a kitchen environment that you want to cook in (for example declutter or play some music while cooking). Start with one small change and build from there.

Ultimately, it’s about refreshing your cooking mindset and transforming the time you have to cook into a pleasurable fun moment of the day and saying goodbye to that dread.

Would you like some help in getting some motivation and kickstart your cooking mojo?

Why not check out my Saucy Society – it’s a monthly membership that’s here to kickstart your cooking mojo alongside an incredible online community all from the comfort of your own kitchen.

Or if you would like to join my FREE newsletter with fun cooking inspiration to help you take those first steps to help out with your motivation in the kitchen. Sign up here.