10 Kitchen Habits to Adopt in 2015

‘Tis the season for resolutions of the grandest scale — learn Chinese, join the gym, stop procrastinating. I don’t know about you, but my list is typically pretty ambitious. Unfortunately, resolutions are often a long-lost memory by March.

This year, though, I’m aiming to follow through on a few more — especially a few in the kitchen.

Don’t worry, none of these new kitchen habits have to do with that old, pre-requisite New Year’s resolution — to lose that extra 10 pounds of holiday pudge.

Rather, I urge everyone to be a better cook in 2015 with these 10 kitchen habits. Won’t you join me in this one?

1. Bake more. I’m sure tons of you love baking, but it’s definitely not my strong suit.
2. Waste less food. Although I’m pretty savvy about using up what’s left over in the fridge first, there’s definitely an unacceptable amount of wasted food in our house: any at all. This year, I’m making it my goal to use up every last bit.
3. Be more adventurous. So many recipes I’ve bookmarked and pushed to the wayside when it seems like too many ingredients or too expensive an experiment. In 2015, I’m aiming to schedule in one adventurous recipe a month (at least!).
4. Branch out. What cuisine do you truly love, but almost never make at home? In our house, we rarely cook complicated Asian cuisines, for example. Beyond cooking new recipes, I want to seriously branch out and try new cuisines.
5. Take a cooking class. All my life, I’ve wanted to take a cooking class, and it’s never panned out. This year, I’ll be learning something specialized, like how to make fresh mozzarella!
6. Plan ahead. This one definitely helps with #1, but planning ahead always tends to make cooking that much easier and rewarding.
7. Host more dinners. While I love throwing dinner parties, a busy schedule gets the best of me. In 2015, I’m making this happen more often!
8. Master a new dish. Above all, my favorite meals to cook are those that I know by heart. I want to add a few more this year.
9. Say goodbye to old items. There are older items in the kitchen that I cherish, and then there are those disgusting, old, plastic food-storage containers. 2015 is the year to update and toss what we’re not using.
10. Have fun! At the end of a long day, cooking in the kitchen is my favorite place to be. This year, I’m vowing to remember this most important fact.

What are your kitchen resolutions?