How often do you try new foods?

WantToBeSE

I rarely try new foods. I normally have a rotation of 30 meals which get used monthly.
I do it this way, to keep costs (and brain power ) to the minimum.
However, i have tried a few new meals these last few months and have been enjoying it.

I was wondering around the supermarket (something i never allow myself to do) and i cam across a few things i have never tried before. I would like to start trying new foods, but they have to be budget friendly.

So i thought that in 2014 i'd like to try 2 new food a month. I saw a block of Polenta and would have NO IDEA what to do with that. So that will be on Januarys shopping list!

Anyone else need to shake things up a bit in regards to their diet?

carlamarie_2

I had a period of about three months where I tried a new recipe every Thursday for myself and the hubby when the kids were in bed.
It was enjoyable and I have found I now make more exciting meals on a day to day basis as a result.
I.e. We've never been big rice eaters, but one night I did a chicken and chorizo jambalaya, which we really enjoyed and now have this at least once a month, if not more. Neither of us had tried chorizo before that night and we now eat it quite a lot in other things (I add it to spaghetti bolonese, top burgers with it, throw it in omelettes etc)
So it was certainly successful for me.

In the new year I am going to start it again, I'm quite looking forward to it!

On the subject of polenta, I was advised to slice and fry and to be honest we thought it was awful!

Meadows

WantToBeSE wrote: »

How often do you try new foods? I rarely try new foods. I normally have a rotation of 30 meals which get used monthly.
I do it this way, to keep costs (and brain power ) to the minimum.
However, i have tried a few new meals these last few months and have been enjoying it.

All the time!
I hardly ever do the same things and I am always on the lookout for something new or inspiration from cooking programmes - I seldom make the dish as per recipe but it gives me ideas for something else. Often I do 'ITCAN' meals, I open the freezer, fridge, cupboard and say IT CAN GO IN or I grab a handful of ingredients from the fridge to make a meal and that can then change at any part of the cooking process, some things never get to the pan/meal and others perhaps get added, sometimes just prior to serving I may decide to make a sauce?

lostinrates

Hoenestly?

I can't imagine eating the same thirty meals in rotation. I think we'd get bored, and go off eating all together. We eat fairly but not dogmatically seasonally and so somethings go off the menu for periods of the year entirely, and then when they come back in its exciting and we long for them. Some things however we eat ad nauseam, when in season. For example, my husband would eat chestnuts in some form every day while he can get hold of them. He has them simply roasted, I use them in pasta sauces, tray bakes, puddings, pies, and cakes, stuffings, I've even made (not very well) Marron glac! .....but nothing for him beats roasted chestnuts,

We at new foods when we have the opportunity, though have lots of old favourites.

I think the important thing is to know that if you don't like supper today then there is something you can eat, ( a sandwich) and tomorrow's supper will be ok. Its ok not to like stuff.

Incidentally you can get a taste for stuff you start of not liking. I wanted to like fennel, so much. Lots of chefs I admired raved about fennel and I just couldn't get the aniseed taste of it. I decided to try a little every time I could and try to appreciate it. It took a while, but now I actually crave fennel!

kacie

Over the last couple of years I've tried to eat different food, I try to think of it as a treat to myself to increase the variety of food I eat.

Sometimes I like the food sometimes I don't, but at least I've tried it.

Emm-in-a-pickle

I love experimenting, will try anything new ( if it`s not too pricey!) or `new` ways of cooking familiar foods, but rarely follow recipes exactly. We also mostly eat stuff in season - get cravings for runner beans befotre they are due, and same for sprouts.
I`m lucky that OH is a willing guinea pig though, there`s nothing worse than cooking for picky eaters.

System

I love trying new foods but unfortunately hubby and son don't so we end up eating the same sort of things day in day out.

Oh how I wish they were more adventurous! :mad:

WantToBeSE

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I am quite looking forward to trying new things I think the main thing that has been stopping me is the money. If i dont like something (or if the kids dont), then i have wasted a whole meal and have to make something else. That costs money.

Seakay

If you go to your nearest supermarkets when they make their major reductions then (sometimes) you can pick up something which is so reduced that you feel able to risk it. I cooked whole fresh fish for the first time because I got a couple massively reduced. Took it home and looked up what to do with it on the Internet.

115K

I stick to the same meals, my favourites are pasta and often sandwiches lol.

I think I sliced up polenta and roasted it in the oven with some vegetables and had it salsa or hot sauce and it was quite nice.

pigpen

rarely.. and I have about 6 or 7 meals I eat.. I am more than happy to eat the same food 3 or 4 days running.


I hate trying new things.. I have a massive fear of being sick and therefore avoid new things just in case.


I'm a loon.


I do stuff for the children and OH.. he'll eat anything and I don't want the children having the same crazy issues I have