Have you ever felt like you were stuck in the same cooked meals rut? I did. Last year I challenged myself to have (notice I didn’t say cook) a year of different meals and here is what I learned from 365 meals.

1. It’s okay to ask for help.

At the beginning of last year, I started posting questions to my Instagram followers asking what their favorite meals are. I also asked my family what meals they love. After I received some responses, I made a running list. I even included restaurants that I loved. My overall goal was to get out of the rut of making the same meals over and over. Whether we ate out or cooked at home did not matter as long as I was experiencing a different meal.

Asking for help or input regarding meal plans opened up my knowledge to different family traditions and different cultural foods. It was enjoyable trying new recipes.

2. Use a meal service.

After asking friends and family for meal ideas, a friend recommended the meal service company Hello Fresh. At first, I thought a meal service would be too expensive; however, with the increase of food cost, I cannot even take my family of five to McDonald’s for under $40. I would much rather have a home cooked meal than fast food. There are a variety of meal service companies (Blue Apron, HomeChef, EveryPlate, etc.) My friend gave me a coupon code for Hello Fresh and I went with this meal service company. My experience with them has been a mostly positive one. The biggest positive from using a meal service is it hits my goals of providing different meals. Hello Fresh gives you a variety of meal options to choose from then sends three meals per box your way. I selected the meals for a family of 4. While we are a family of five, I selected meals that would go farther (rice or pasta based meals). Through this meal service, I discovered I love roasted vegetables.

3. Save recipes and ideas.

We live in an amazing time of technology. I used my access to social media to help meet my meal goal. Instagram reels, Pinterest pins , and YouTube videos all provide a wealth of opportunities to find new recipes to try. Instagram reels were remarkably easy to save then reference at a later time when I wanted to recreate the meal I saw. I also shared in a post from 2021 some tips in helping to plan your dinner menu. You can check it out here.

Grateful is what I feel for my year of trying to have 365 different meals. This experience allowed me to push myself to try new recipes and meals. Let me know in the comments if you would like me to share the list of meals we had in 2022.