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May 30, 2024 15 mins

Ever find yourself staring at the contents of your fridge and feeling completely uninspired? In this episode of Blasphemous Nutrition, we tackle the common struggle of food boredom. Join Aimee as she delves into the monotony of meal planning and offers creative solutions to keep your taste buds excited and your meals interesting.

Aimee knows firsthand that the desire for variety and excitement in our meals can often make sticking to meal plans or elimination diets feel impossible. Adjusting to dietary changes that eliminate or curtail former staple foods tends to lack the diversity our palates crave, leading to that dreaded food boredom. But don’t worry, Aimee has got you covered!

In this lively episode, Aimee shares her expert tips and practical strategies to help you overcome food boredom by making small changes and embracing experimentation to break out of food ruts and rediscover the joy of cooking and eating. Whether you’re struggling to stay motivated with your current meal plan or simply looking for ways to spice things up, this episode is packed with inspiration and actionable advice.

Takeaways:

  • Meal planning can become boring and monotonous, especially when relying on a limited variety of staple foods.
  • A perspective shift is necessary to see dietary changes as an opportunity to broaden culinary horizons and discover new flavors.
  • Utilizing a wide range of spices, exploring different grocery stores, and incorporating new protein and produce options can add variety to meals.
  • Keeping a list of tried and true favorite meals and utilizing prepared foods can save time and make meal planning more enjoyable.
  • Experimenting with different cooking methods, textures, and ingredients can help break out of food boredom and add excitement to meals.

Resources:

Photography by: Dai Ross Photography
Podcast Cover Art:
Lilly Kate Creative
 Blasphemous Nutrition on Substack
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey Rebels, welcome toBlasphemous Nutrition.
Consider this podcast yourpantry full of clarity,
perspective, and the nuanceneeded to counter the
superficial health advice sofreely given on the internet.
I'm Aimee, the unapologeticallycandid host of Blasphemous
Nutrition and a double degreednutritionist with 20 years
experience.

(00:22):
I'm here to share a more nuancedtake.
On living and eating well tosustain and recover your health.
If you've found most healthadvice to be so generic as to be
meaningless, or so extreme thatit's unrealistic, and you don't
mind the occasional F bomb.
You've come to the right place.
From dissecting the latestnutrition trends to breaking

(00:43):
down published research andsharing my own clinical
experiences, I'm on a mission tofoster clarity amidst all the
confusion and empower you tohave the health you need to live
a life you love.
Now let's get started.
Welcome back to blossom asnutrition.
I'm your host, Aimee and I'm afood hoarder.

(01:05):
There are a lot of reasons whymeal planning is challenging to
do consistently over thelongterm.
Aside from challenges inscheduling sometimes it just
gets really damn boring.
While some people are fine toeat the same thing over and over
again for years, many of uscrave variety and interest in

(01:26):
our meals.
And we struggle with meal plansor elimination diets when we're
accustomed to a wider variety offoods.
When we're making a dietarychange, it can seem at first
that there is nothing to eat.
Whether a client is simplyavoiding gluten or is going on a
complex elimination diet likeautoimmune paleo, or a low

(01:48):
FODMAP diet, this complaintremains the same.
The actual reason for this isbecause by and large, much of
our modern diet is variousconcoctions of the same few
foods, wheat dairy, egg soy.
And corn.

(02:08):
Meets generally rotate betweenchicken, pork, and beef.
And when you think about it,it's not actually a lot of
variety, which is one of thereasons why people panic.
If one of these is suddenlytaken out of rotation, So
firstly, a perspective shiftneeds to happen.
The reality is there are loadsof different produce and protein

(02:33):
and even starch options outthere.
And if you're facing anelimination or a significant
reduction of a food or multiplefoods that have typically been a
staple item.
It's actually a wonderfulopportunity to broaden your
culinary horizons.
Now to keep things interesting.
In my kitchen, I have anobnoxious amount of spices to

(02:56):
choose from, to season both myvegetables and my proteins.
Various different spice blendsfrom all over the world,
seasoning packets, and even somejarred sauces can have a place
in your kitchen to shake it up.
And additive free jarred Alfredomixed into a bag of spinach with
a sprinkling of salt andRosemary warmed until the

(03:17):
spinach is wilted is anexcellent way to get those
greens in when you are sick ofsalad.
If you're dairy-free that samebag of spinach could be wilted
down with coconut milk and maybeyou toss in some garam masala or
an Indian seasoning blend for anIndian inspired sod.
My spice cabinet has a varietyof different chilies, spice,

(03:38):
blends, and individualseasonings that easily allows me
to pull together LebaneseIndian, Mexican, or generic
Asian flavors on a whim.
Now the first couple of weeks ofa new plan, whether it's
creating a menu plan fromscratch or using one like prep,
dish, or having a mealsubscription box delivered to
your home is all about trial anderror.

(04:01):
When you find a winner, make anote of it and keep a list of
those tried and true favoritesto come back to Eventually you
will kind of get bored of yourcurrent rotation.
And you can go back to this listand then rediscover meals that
you have forgotten you adored.
This takes so much stress out ofmeal planning because these
meals are both tried and true.

(04:23):
But they're also new again.
If you take pictures of yourmeals, you can scroll through
your phone and even type in foodin the search bar of your phone
to find meals over the past yearthat you really enjoyed that
were also aligned with yourhealth goals.
Have something like this.
To lean on when you arecreatively exhausted.
It feels a little bit like whenyou get to pull out your summer

(04:46):
clothes from the closet.
Recipes that you find online canbe organized into Pinterest
boards that you can thenorganize by protein source
ethnicity or any other meansthat make sense to you.
Creating subcategories likekids' favorite or 30 minutes or
less.
Can further allow you to findexactly what you need when
you're planning ahead.

(05:07):
And that way you don't have tolike open up a Pinterest board
of recipes and then that's findtwo or 300 different things and
go scrolling through that.
Those sub folders are incrediblyhelpful.
When I find a recipe onPinterest that I like, I.
Shifted into a tried and truePinterest board that I can pull

(05:30):
up and look through when I don'twant to think about something
new to make, but I'm bored withsort of the same old baked
chicken soup meatloaf thing thatI'm actually currently rotating
through.
When you have a little extratime, even going to a new
grocery store, it can shakethings up.
Maybe you discover a flavor ofpoultry sausage that isn't

(05:50):
available at your go-to grocerystore, or they carry rainbow
carrots.
And your home grocer does not.
These little variances issometimes all it takes to shake
things up and break you out of afood boredom funk.
The more open toexperimentation.
You are the better you canweather these bouts of boredom.
A trip to a dedicated butcherfarmer's market or a fishmonger

(06:11):
will likely expose you toprotein and produce varieties
that you're unfamiliar with.
And then a conversation with theperson behind the counter can
give you great tips on how toprepare meats or veggies that
may be unfamiliar to you.
You might even get a good recipeto put into your repertoire.
One of the ways I step out ofboredom is to step into an

(06:32):
Asian, Indian or Halaal grocerystore and see what kinds of
spices and foods are availableto play with there.
Sometimes you find vegetablesthat you have never heard of.
But this is where Google comesin super handy.
A quick Google search will pullup a recipe that incorporates
that vegetable and often it's afairly simple recipe.

(06:54):
You can build an entire mealinspired by that vegetable and
the Google recipe.
For instance, a shrimp stir frythat uses an unknown green that
you've never encountered beforeat your local Asian grocery
store.
For some of you, the biggestobstacle to consistency is time.
And this is where using someprepared food can be extremely

(07:16):
helpful.
Uh, quick and easy proteinoptions are rotisserie chicken,
which we've talked about in ourepisode with Kathy Davis.
Frozen salmon patties, precooked shrimp either fresh or
frozen; canned chicken and evencanned seafood.
These can be used in a varietyof ways or stretched out among

(07:38):
several meals.
A whole rotisserie chicken canbecome chicken salad, chicken
burrito, bowls, or chicken soup.
Canned seafood can be useddirectly on a salad as your
protein for that salad or mixedwith Greek yogurt, lemon, and
spices to make a seafood salad.
Or you can mix that cannedseafood with panko and form it

(07:59):
into patties that could be bakedor used over several meals.
Pre cooked shrimp is great insalads and soups and stir fries.
And the wonderful thing aboutpre cooked frozen shrimp is that
you can pull it out of thefreezer and take it out of the
bag, put it in a bowl of coldwater and it will be thawed and
ready to go in less than 10minutes.

(08:22):
Having already prepared proteingoes a long way and reducing
meal prep time when you aretired or rushed, or simply do
not want to spend time in thekitchen.
So having these prepared.
Proteins in the freezer can be alifesaver on those crazy chaotic

(08:43):
days when you're overwhelmed.
On the produce end of things,bad and precut vege can be a
massive assist, but they dooften go bad more quickly.
So you will need to look themover before bringing them home.
Some vegetables like pre-cutbroccoli.
Will last a while while otherslike precut melon or butternut

(09:05):
squash is pretty delicate and itwill spoil rapidly.
More robust veggies likecauliflower carrots and broccoli
can be saved for end of weekprep.
While more delicate veggies likecucumbers, zucchini, and
tomatoes.
May want to be used earlier inthe week.
Using precut veggies is also agreat time saver for meal

(09:27):
planning services, where theseveggies are included in a
recipe.
Just because your food plan,shopping list calls for one head
of cauliflower doesn't mean youcan't swap that out for precut
cauliflower to save yourselfsome time.
Just be sure that you know, howit's being used in the recipe

(09:47):
before you make that swap.
So if the recipe is for a wholeroasted cauliflower and you buy
pre-cut cauliflower florets,that's kind of defeating the
purpose.
Right?
Most of the time though, it isabsolutely worthwhile to make
these swaps to save time.
Sometimes you feel bored anduninspired by your meals and you

(10:08):
can't really pinpoint why.
To figure out which switch tomake, to shake things up,
consider the texture of yourmeals.
The.
Means of cooking your meals andthe ingredients in those meals
to ascertain what you'reactually bored of.

(10:30):
If the textures of your mealsall have the same consistency or
you've been relying too heavilyon one or two main protein
sources.
That alone, you know, changingthose things may be all it
takes.
Changing the method by which youprep your sides or your mains
can be helpful.
Grilling season is oftenexciting simply because we've

(10:52):
been in a long season of stewsand baked proteins.
Right?
So if you tend to throweverything in an instant pot or
a slow cooker, maybe it's timefor a stir fry.
Sometimes we just have a side ofraw veggies with hummus at
dinner, because I don't want towork too hard or I'm tired of
roasted veggies.
And that tends to be my mainstay.

(11:13):
And my go-to.
And given that our stapleproteins are usually chicken or
beef.
Adding in some pork or fish orseafood, or even more exotic
proteins like lamb, duck orvenison can not only get you out
of a food rut.
But also introduce a differentvariety of micronutrients that

(11:36):
you may not reliably be getting.
So ask yourself if you'recooking methods tend to be one
way, or if you're limiting yourchoices to what is familiar and
easy.
And this is creating thatboredom that has you dreading
stepping into the kitchen again.
If you're one of those peoplewho gets absolutely no joy from

(11:56):
cooking.
Finding a way to entertainyourself.
while in the kitchen can go along way to making food prep and
homemade meals, a sustainablehabit.
Your favorite uplifting music, ariveting podcast, or a favorite
TV show can pull you out ofruminating over the drudgery of

(12:18):
kitchen work or exercise forthat matter.
Having a family member join youfor conversation or one of your
kiddos acting as a prep chef.
Also take some of the burden outof the task.
Remember, historically, we livedin larger multi-generational

(12:38):
household and it was rarely justone person making meals.
Our sisters, our aunts, and evenneighbors would participate in
the process of putting food onthe table.
That community aspect aroundmeal prep has largely been lost
in the modern age, but I thinkfor some of us, it doesn't have

(13:01):
to be that way.
If you have access to friends orfamily members that won't make
the process more of a burden foryou.
Start recruiting them, even ifit's just one day a week or
even, you know, like if I have aday where I am feeling,
especially resentful of havingto be in the kitchen.

(13:23):
And my husband isn't busy.
I'll ask him to come and eitherhelp with some.
Preparation.
Or just keep me company while Ido the work.
And that way it's not just me inthe kitchen.
Feeling this.
Anger about being a woman in thekitchen, making the food.

(13:44):
Right.
Because sometimes that happens,which.
I don't know, it's the burden ofmy ancestors or whatever.
And just having someone there totalk to makes the process so
much more enjoyable.
Well, I hope this short, butsweet podcast episode to wrap up

(14:04):
our month on food preparationand food planning has been
helpful to you.
If you've enjoyed listening andyou have not yet left a review
as always.
I'm going to ask to please leavea review.
I have actually included how toleave a review on apple iTunes
since that seems to be wheremost of you are listening from

(14:24):
so you can find that below inthe show notes.
And leaving reviews is extremelyhelpful for allowing this
podcast to reach more people whomay not know it exists.
In addition to doing this, ifyou can share any episode that
you've enjoyed with someone thatyou care about, that's also a

(14:46):
wonderful way to spread theword.
And to spread blasphemy among usall.
Thank you so much for listeningand I'll talk to you next week.
If you have found some Nuggetsof Wisdom, make sure to
subscribe, rate, and shareBlasphemous Nutrition with those
you care about.
As you navigate the labyrinth ofhealth advice out there,

(15:07):
remember, health is a journey,not a dietary dictatorship.
Stay skeptical, stay daring, andchallenge the norms that no
longer serve you.
If you've got burning questionsor want to share your own flavor
of rebellion, slide into my DMs.
Your stories fuel me, and I lovehearing them.

(15:28):
Thanks again for tuning in toBlasphemous Nutrition.
Until next time, this is Aimeesigning off, reminding you that
truth is nuanced, and any dishcan be made better with a little
bit of sass.
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