I remember when Pinterest first came out. It felt like the coolest thing ever. I had been living my grown-up life for a few years and was really getting into the idea of cooking. Pinterest came in like the digital cookbook I didn’t know that I needed with all these recipe options, helping me find a bunch of recipes and meal ideas to fit with exactly where I was in life.
Over the years, I’ve collected quite a few recipes on my Pinterest board. You could probably figure out what was going on in my life, just by the recipes that I pinned.
The 30-minute or less dinners were appealing when I was just figuring out how to cook. Over the years as life changed, it transitioned to a list of high-protein options easy for macro counting when I had a goal of losing 20 pounds.
Then there was when I was pregnant and after having a baby, and my board suddenly became the place for homemade baby food recipes (and the best high-calorie recipes for breastfeeding moms… let me just say the frosting-stuffed carrot cake cookies, no regrets). Once that stage passed, my pinning transitioned to ideas for toddlers and picky eaters.
But, despite having this amazing collection of Pinterest recipes, I can probably count on two hands the number of recipes that I’ve used over the years.
It’s not because they aren’t delicious, I’m sure they are. It’s because having enough recipes truly aren’t what makes cooking feel hard.
The Truth Behind What Makes Cooking Hard
Growing up in the 90s, we all tuned into TGIF on Friday nights and Saturday morning cartoons. I remember watching 90210 with my sister, and running out of the room and making her yell once the commercials were off.
Over the years, this has been replaced with streaming services. I can’t even tell you how many streaming services I subscribe to today (I’m pretty sure nobody really can), but suddenly I have access to hundreds of shows and movies.
Despite that, it still feels like there’s nothing to watch. If I try to find a new show, I try to Google some recommendations – and scroll through the apps to see if it looks interesting enough. It starts to feel like too much when all I want to do is wind down for the night. So inevitably, I go back to some old standbys – Friends, Modern Family, and most recently, Desperate Housewives.
Streaming services for our favorite TV shows are similar to recipe blogs, Pinterest boards, and Google searches for recipes. There are so many options out there that it feels overwhelming. Instead of trying the new recipe that sounds oh-so-good, it feels more comforting to go back to a recipe that we know and love.
Like choosing our favorite TV shows over and over again, there’s a reason for this. For one, our brains can only handle so many decisions in a day – and when we’re making 35,000 in one day on average (with hundreds dedicated to food), it can feel like too much to decide one more thing.
There’s also the comfort and trustworthiness factor. If you cook something that you know and love, you likely can trust the results. You know what you’re going to get (unless you just have an off night and let something burn… we’ve all been there).
Maybe your family only complains a little bit, but begrudgingly eats it. That’s something you can expect, and therefore, it doesn’t feel as hard as trying something completely new. Even if it has the promise of being better.
And, the trustworthiness – that’s a big deal today. I’ve stopped trusting Pinterest for a lot of things, mostly because there’s a ton of AI-generated content. When it comes to recipes, AI doesn’t understand flavor profiles or what ingredients go together. It makes it hard to trust something from a machine that doesn’t eat.
I used to like Google for recipes, but now I find that I must mine through so much content to find something that I like. So many of my favorite bloggers have either stopped sharing new recipes, or they share ones that don’t fit with my current stage of life. Finding new favorites also doesn’t fit – so I’m faced with how to get new recipes without relying on another recipe blog.
Not Another Recipe Blog: Finding Your Family Favorites
When it comes to finding your family favorites, it might be looking at what you already know and trust. What are the meals that you find that you lean into over and over again? Maybe you say it’s just because you’re feeling lazy or don’t want to make another decision, but there’s a reason why you have them in your rotation.
My sister and I are both in such different life stages, and it’s reflected in the recipes that we love and use in our own lives. I’m all about the quick, easy, and please-don’t-let-my-kid complain. She’s exploring new favors and food combinations, and has a little bit more time to cook something (with less complaints waiting for her).
Knowing that sometimes the challenge lies in the making the decision about what’s for dinner, rather than cooking itself, that’s why we added recipe packs to Weekly Table. The recipe packs are organized by category – like picky eaters, high protein, and family favorites – and you have the option to add one or all to your own digital recipe library.
From there, Weekly Table does the deciding. Your meal plan, built for you. You have the option make changes or switch a night to leftovers. But the action of deciding what’s for dinner – and looking at recipe after recipe – is done.
Sometimes, that’s exactly what we need to make dinner just a little bit easier. Maybe when dinner takes less deciding, you can finally try that new show you’ve skipped past 13 times this month (or, if not, tune into Desperate Housewives – an oldie but a goodie!).
Ready to stop looking at recipe after recipe? Let Weekly Table take it on for you – start your free trial today.
