This week I’d like to have some discussion around the ‘template’ or ‘blueprint’ recipes because they are one of the key pieces to making our Planning System work…
Do you normally use a recipe?
Or are you more likely to just make things up as you go along?
Are you finding the template recipes helpful?
Is there anything you can think of that would help to make them more useful?
I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below…
Back to: Master Your Meal Plan Overview.
Add to my Old Favourite Recipes
The templates are great, absolutely freeing. I just need to read one or watch a video to feel inspired again. The only templates I had in my head were for soup and for a pasta & greens dish but I never thought of either as a “template”. This is how my grandmother cooked; I think it was my mother’s generation who started exploring recipes clipped from magazines. Of course my mother can cook with or without them, but somehow I got stuck at the “collecting” and filing stage without mastering techniques or recognizing templates.
Love,love,love the template recipes…have always been put off recipes because they are so complicated or I didn’t have ingredients….so thank you….my 18yr old daughter always used to complain about how boring my meals were….she was right…now when she comes home to visit she is impressed…hehehe…I have a secret weapon….my husband is a good sport with my experimenting…
Tried the stir fry template wonderful to be able to be creative myself.
Mary!
Very excited that you’re impressing your daughter.. that’s great.
And really happy that you’re being more creative. Awesome!
I’ve always used recipes, so this “free-form” cooking is quite foreign to me. I’ve watched others who seem to be able to just throw things together at short notice with what they had on hand and turn out a lovely, delicious meal. Always wished I could do that but never had the know-how or confidence. In recent years I’ve been trying to get away from using so many processed foods that recipes call for and trying to incorporate more vegetables into our meals.
It’s going to take me some time and practice to adapt to the template recipes but this is the very thing I’ve wanted to learn for a long time now – thanks Jules! I know cooking like this will give me more confidence in the kitchen. Love the class!
I love all your variations and tips, etc. at the end of each recipe too!
I made the poached eggs for my husband the other day and he really enjoyed them! He often orders poached eggs when we go out, so I tried making them once following the instructions in a cookbook but they were a real flop. The egg whites were all over in the water and they were a mess! Also,they got too hard and he likes them runny. Well, when I watched you make them in the video, you made it look so easy that I thought I’d try it again and they turned out perfect! I was thrilled. 🙂 The tip about putting vinegar in the water made all the difference! Also, seeing how much you had the water boiling was helpful too. Can’t tell you how much the videos help!
Like others, I’d love to see flavor profile templates too.
Thanks for all your hard work Jules!
Geralyn!
Thanks for sharing your story. You’re exactly who I had in mind when I was thinking of the template recipe concept. You’re right.. it’s all about having the confidence to try and a little guidance.
Sounds like you’re well on your way but just shout if you have anything you need help with.
So glad you liked the poached eggs.. and really glad the video was helpful.
I’ve added a bonus 5th week to the class so we can go over flavour profiles.. thanks for letting me know you’re interested
J
Hi Jules ~ another week and another AHA light bulb moment ~ yippee ~ thank you!!!
My menu planning has been totally shaped by how I was taught as a child ~ set dishes for days of the week and work from recipes. Like others I end up with odd ingredients left over, or last minute change of plans as I’m missing something.
I’m in UK and lived and learnt to cooked with my grandparents so I basically learnt postwar ration menu planning ~ each day was a set dish and making the most of leftovers. so monday would be curry or pie from sunday’s roast meat. wednesday was spagehetti bologanaise or meatballs. I think my grandmother had a stock of two or three options for each day of the week that didn’t change for nearly half a century! The only exception was her baking ~ friday was bake day and she would experiment and make the most amazing things.
At school we were of course tought to follow recipes and techniques. Then enter ready prepared meats and the wonders of the supermarket for quick dinners, which I’m sooo tired of. And that is as far as my approach to cooking/menu planning has come.
For the past three months I have been diligently selecting recipes and planning a weekly menu but it has been time consuming and hard to stick to. I love the idea of templates and have used one for soup for ages but never applied it elsewhere. Am super excited to now reverse my process (and recipe filing) and use our favourite types of dishes as a starting point rather than the ingredients. We love bbq, curries and stirfry but don’t make them so often… am planning to change that now, especially as I want to pass on a heathly love of food to my baby daughter who is busy tasting and playing with everything I give her to eat.
we’re starting with templates at the end of week ~ I’ve just placed my first food order based on the SPF formula.
PS: the SPF was great last week ~ I used it as a check before I placed my food order and discovered that I actually didn’t need to buy any where near as much as I had in the basket. So I cleared the basket and have managed to get through a week with much less food waste than normal ~ result!
Hannah
So excited that this method is working for you! Thanks for the feedback and keep up the great work.
And loved hearing about your grandmother’s planning system 😉
I have been a die-hard recipe user for, well, as long as I’ve been cooking for myself and others. Starting out, I think recipes are great, since they teach you technique-how to cook this or that, appropriate flavor combinations, that sort of thing. In recent years, as my confidence and skills have grown, I’ve veered away from recipes and have been experimenting with more free-form cooking. I can’t say I’ve been successful! Somehow my dishes always fall short of my expectations, especially with ethnic cooking, like Asian or Indian.
I love the template recipes, they fit in with where I’m at in my cooking now, and your variations lend themselves to creativity and flexibility. I’d love to see flavor profile templates, since I have two drawers full of lovely spices that I just don’t use fast enough.
Maeghan!
So glad you’re finding the template recipes helpful… don’t give up on free form cooking.. it’s definitely something that will come with practice…
And thanks for the reminder about flavour profiles.. thinking they might be good in a stand alone class..
I struggle just to cook at all (as opposed to eating out). When I do, I’ve used recipes; that means that I often have leftover ingredients that I may never use again like odd-ball spices. Last week I did make a supper with canned collards, chick-peas, baby pepperoni and fresh parmesan. It was delish! Using template recipes has the potential to make cooking quite freeingl
I need help in the flavor combination/knowing what spices to use area. I look forward to this information.
BTW, the videos are great. The reinforce to me that cooking really doesn’t have to be as complicated as I have made it.
Amy!
Your collards with chickpeas sounds right up my alley.. nice one
And thanks for the video feedback.. they take a lot of time so it’s really great to know they are helping you.
J
I love the notion of template recipes with multiple variations. So often, I’ll skip a recipe because I don’t have a certain ingredient. It’s nice to change that mindset and simply sub something else in for the missing component (and that it is okay to do so). I’ve also been able to use up most of our leftovers by using something we already have rather than incorporating something new. If we can keep this up, we’ll drastically cut down on waste and save time and money too! I’m loving this class; thank you!
That’s great Elizabeth that you’ve cutting down on waste!
And so glad you’re loving the class.
If you can think of anything to make it even better.. please let me know.. I’m all ears!
I tried the curry this week and I liked it but everyone else was ok with it…. new flavors they have to get used to. We do use a template recipe for broth soups(broth, 1 starch, 1 protein, 2 veg, and seasoning) and for meat pies to use leftovers up(1 meat, 3 veg and a homemade cream soup that is easy and a pie crust for top). These are the 2 I use for leftovers that have helped so I don’t have too much waste. I am excited to have some new formulas for everyday meals so we won’t eat out as much. Thanks!
Sounds like you’ve got a tough crowd Stacy… hang in there!
I tend to use recipes as inspiration for my dinners, but I usually leave out what I don’t have and use up what I do. The template recipes have been very helpful–I have used the Thai Curry and Shaved Veg Salad this week!
A couple resources that I would find very useful would be a template of flavor profiles to make a dish have a different vibe. Another idea would be the process you use to pare down a recipe from say 20 ingredients to 5-10. Which flavors are essential? And which can easily be left out?
Sometimes I get discouraged from trying something new when I don’t have all the ingredients. I’m really hoping this class will give me a little more confidence in the kitchen as well as more freedom to be creative with these recipes.
Keep up the great work–I’m really enjoying this class!
Allison!
Great suggestions on the flavour profiles.. when I was writing this weeks content I searched for something like that online and couldn’t find anything. Will add to my list of things to include.
And love the suggestion on how to pare down other recipes… actually that could be a whole class on it’s own.. love it.
And so glad you’re enjoying the class… if you think of anything else to improve it let me know!