A recent poll of 1,000 adults revealed that a third regularly turn to basic pasta or a bowl of cereal for their evening meal and a fifth rely on the contents of the biscuit tin. We blame long working hours, the mess of cooking from scratch or not having the right ingredients for why we regularly turn to our ‘speciality’ dishes for dinner.
Topping the popularity poll as our go to meals which we cook over and over again is pasta, followed by the humble jacket potato, stir fry and beans on toast. Whilst all these dishes are nice once in a while we should be branching out and trying new and exciting meals instead. Regardless of how quick and easy to prepare our go-to dishes are nearly 40% of the adults surveyed confessed to being fed up with regularly eating the same meals.
The popularity of cooking shows and celebrity cook books has really taken off in the last few years and according to the survey the average Briton watches 121 hours of food programmes a year and has a collection of nine recipe books. As we become more educated about different combinations of foods and cuisines from around the world we are still reluctant to try recipes out at home.
Cooking nutritiously doesn’t mean you need to be a slave to the kitchen. Healthy meals, which are packed full of flavour, can be just as easy to prepare as beans on toast, but give you all the vital vitamins and minerals you need. A varied diet is key to staying healthy and happy; therefore you should aim to create a diet, which incorporates the five food groups; fruit and vegetables, starchy foods, milk and dairy, meat and fish and foods high in fat and sugar.
As it’s the start of a new year why don’t you make a resolution to cook healthy meals from scratch? We’ve given you five recipes to help you on your way, Beetroot Risotto, Prawn and Scallop Linguine, Mackerel Fishcakes, Orange Chicken and Apple, Walnut and Cinnamon Dessert Jar.