Lately, my recipes haven't been flops so much as I have been really, really tired. I love to cook, but it's actually been a bit of drudgery the past few days. I think it has a lot to do with the house reno still not being done and with my husband needing to devote so much time to his PhD candidacy exam. Which means I feel like I'm doing everything, even though I *know* he needs to devote every minute to this exam.

It didn't help that I spent a ton of money on ingredients for paella this week, and the paella turned out just okay.

I'm not sure how to get out of the rut. I've planned for us to have dinner out on Friday, but I'm not sure if that will work out!

I just started my food blog (dembellyfull.com) so I'm keeping it fresh because I don't want to post the same recipe twice, LOL.

I've also started cooking lighter dishes since it's summer and my neighbors are bombarding me with extra veggies from their gardens. If I'm not careful, I'll turn into a vegetarian :)

The other thing I do, as inspiration, is think of trips I've been on or of foods that I've had out at dinners with my wife. Sometimes I just pick an animal (like bison, ostrich, or venison) and try to make something with that specific protein. If all else fails, I'll tell my wife it's her turn to cook (I cook 29 days out of the month).

Hope that helps!

Cooking depressed is fun too. After you are just too tired to even look at the kitchen and you are on your third day of take out you start to realize just how bad it is. The chocolate cake for breakfast does not help either.

Have salad for dinner and instead of cooking, reorganize and clean all your cabinets.

a) you'll have newly clean and organized space
b) you'll discover all manner of ingredients you forgot you had and be inspired to make stuff with them.

I find that most my cooking slumps happen in the summer because it's too hot and disgusting to cook so it's a good time to explore non-cook recipes.

I had one of those runs of bad luck not too long ago. It was flop after flop. I agree it's a sign to take a break. Your fall-backs of pasta w/tomato sauce, no knead bread, and choc chip cookies sound awesomely basic. I'd also recommend some fend-for-yourself nights. My mom used to do this--she'd put out lettuce, vegetables, cold beans from a can, dressing in a bowl, maybe some hard boiled eggs or deli meat, and sliced Italian bread and announce Big Salad Night. You just took what you wanted and made your own. Same thing for tostadas or burritos or suchlike. If you live in a home with all adults, just tell them to take care of themselves for a couple days. The mojo returns.

Just go back to your tried and true, easy meals that require no cookbook or recipe to get you through. Easy, meals are also nice and comforting and allow you to take a break yet still satisfy the urge: eggs, panini sandwiches, salads, etc. Enjoy the break-we all need them from time to time.

My poor boyfriend has had a string of recipe fails. It's compounded by the fact that he's only recently taken up meal planning and cooking, he's not much on improvising, and he gets really discouraged when a dish doesn't turn out.

Last night he tried a new recipe, chicken with roasted chickpeas and tomatoes. He used pretty big chicken breasts, and followed the recipe to the letter, taking chicken out of the oven at exactly 20 minutes. We cut into chicken that was extremely juicy...and still pink in the middle. I had to gently explain that pink, not-hot chicken is probably not safe to eat.

He was still pouting about it this morning.

Cook with a friend to steal some of their mojo. Or if they don't have any mojo, try to share some of yours - it's only dormant, not missing.

Teaching, learning and sharing are the mojoest things about cooking beyond the fact that then you get to eat after.

I love bklynchic's suggestion. If you're in a rut, reinvent your space just a little. You'll rediscover ingredients and hopefully get inspired to cook with some of them... "What did I buy this cardamom for, anyway?"

I also find a brief run through tastespotting or foodgawker gets me inspired to make something, though it usually just makes me want to take up baking. One thing that my wife and I just did was set up a pizza date for a week in advance (since we never eat junk food anymore :( (... With that on the calendar, I know that eating out "tonight" is not an option, and that we might want to shoot for healthy-ish choices for the next few days.

Hope that helps a bit!

If I'm seriously in a rut (because, frankly, I end up being responsible for planning, grocery shopping, and cooking all meals that don't end up on the grill), I threaten a kitchen strike. This usually involves telling the three teenagers that each of them is responsible for making dinner one night. I supervise the planning to make sure that it's a fairly well-balanced meal, but they make the shopping list and go to the store, then cook. After three nights of not having to cook, I usually snap out of my rut.

I do what you're doing: go back to old standbys. Especially when you're writing content for a blog, it's tempting to think you shouldn't "waste" cooking time on recipes that might not be post-worthy, but sometimes both you and your readers need to delve into the realm of things you can make in 10 minutes with pantry staples, it turns out!

Why yes, I'm having one right now. I haven't cooked anything but a bowl of pasta in the past week and a half. I'm still dreaming of what to make, but the thought of actually putting in the work with shopping, cooking, and cleaning up is really not motivating me. I have no idea how I'm going to get back into it, save for chaining myself to the stove.

When it gets really bad I like to give myself a few days off from cooking.

I had a fun incident on Sunday where I dumped an absolutely perfect pie crust all over the counter after I pulled it out of the oven. We've had a lot of big salads and food from the grill since then, but it's still nice. I pick up ingredients and make a salad and let the boyfriend grill. It's nearly effortless and leaves little room to mess up.

I used to run a small business making bike messenger bags and sometimes I'd get so frustrated with custom orders that the moment I was finished I'd go into the kitchen and start baking! My roommates thought I was nuts- but I found it therapeutic to know that what I was making would turn out some way or another!

I keep finding amazing recipes but am too exhausted to try them..or find myself missing one or two ingredients and am too lazy to go to the store when it 's 100 degrees outside. I've been relying pretty heavily on salads this week. Don't get me wrong, I make my own salad dressings and jazz them up pretty nicely but standing over the stove is the last thing I feel like doing!

I've got this weather induced rut. It's too hot to turn on a burner and I'm too sweaty to think about anything besides popsicles. Usually I'll bang together some avocados and figure from there something will happen. There's always pb&j, and pasta dishes and by dishes I mean some pasta with butter.

Take a break! Easier said than done sometimes. But getting yourself out of the kitchen can clear the mind and open it back up to receive new inspiration. Everybody needs to recharge their batteries.

We (my husband and I) usually just pretend we're restaurant critics and go to a new places to eat for a few days. When I need a break--I neeeeed a break! I just can't look at the kitchen when I'm in that rut. I hate going in just for a drink of water. This happens to me more in the summer. I think it is just the stifling heat and humidity of the Washington D.C. area that zaps my energy and messes with my head to the point where I start screwing up in the kitchen left and right. I can't focus as well as usual, and the more I mess up, the more frustrated and irritable I become. If we can't get away from the kitchen, though, sometimes it helps me to invite friends over to try a new something or do a twist on an old recipe. Or just do a pot luck with a few neighbors/nearby friends--there's less pressure on you when your guests aren't traveling far, I think. I know when it is pot luck, I can just marinate a flank steak for my husband to grill, whip up some white sangria, and the rest will be taken care of by other people so I can rest my weary cooking bones.

Sandwiches (fried egg, grilled cheese, pb&j, whatever), and ice cream for dinner! Sometimes I find that if I don't want to cook, I really don't want dinner. Or maybe I just want a bowl of oatmeal or toast or something ridiculous. I tell my husband what my mother told all eight of her kids when she was too busy to cook: "Eat what you want. There's stuff in the fridge and peanut butter in the pantry." Worked fine for us!

When my husband's in a cooking rut, we try to finagle an invite from our friends for dinner! I bake a cake to get my husband out of any cooking responsibility. He gets to watch someone else cook and gets new ideas from them.

I love the idea to rifle through your cupboards. I do that when I'm in a baking rut: I just know there's an amazing ingredient that needs to be used up. (Right now it's dates.)

I am a baker, and I definitely went through this recently, as my weekly Saturday night pizza sucked as did my 4th of July dessert (tasted good, too messy to serve).

I just stopped baking. I bought my bagels and went out for pizza and ate fun easy things I could make in my sleep, like pancakes. I'm better now--I made awesome bagels last weekend--but it took a while before I wanted to bake again. I still haven't made pizza, though and it's something I really love to make.

Hope your mojo returns soon!

"Usually I'll bang together some avocados and figure from there something will happen." Squeakycat is brilliant.

I don't know how it is with culinary, but with baking, mood seems to directly effect the food. When I'm stressed out about time or whatever, nothing goes right. At all. Even if I'm super prepared and organized. Nothing turns out.

Going our for dinner isn't a sign of failure... neither is handing your husband a steak and an ear of corn and telling him to grill away... I did both this week :)

TASTESPOTTING.COM I hit the random button and see what inspires me!

I hand over the cooking duties, pour a glass of wine, and get the heck out of the kitchen :-)

Wow, how timely! I've been in a cooking rut, oh, for exactly the same amount of time we've had straight sunny days and above 80 temperatures. Interestingly, today is overcast and rainy I can't stop thinking of things to cook!

I guess my inspiration is rain? :)

I usually just give in to the rut. This summer the heat has zapped our appetites and creativity. Lately we've been having monster-sized salads & just changing up the protein a bit - coconut salmon, ground bison, grilled tofu, sauteed tempeh, grilled chicken. The in-season veggies taste vibrant & fresh and I figure that at some point new inspiration will strike!

I too hand over the cooking to my man. (He's lucky if a box of spaghetti and a can of Newman's comes out right!) Usually by the time he's done cooking, I'm so anxious about the mess he's made in my kitchen, that I'm ready to get back in there.

Disclaimer: I'm a total nut about the condition and organization of my kitchen and tools! It's "my" room in the house. :)

I've been in a cooking rut since I started cooking for 2. I had great plans for tasty healthy food. Everyone is happier when I just make canned soup, though, so I'm adjusting to only occasionally making crazy "gourmet" things.