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Cooking can quickly become another chore in the ever-growing list of ‘things to do’. No matter how tired, lethargic, or unmotivated I am, I always try to put effort into cooking. A good meal can improve my mood, give me a sense of satisfaction, and just taste plain delicious! On the other side of this equation is how a bad meal can make me feel. If I ever succumb to the ‘lazies’ and eat some toast, chips or two-minute noodles for dinner, I never feel good. A bad meal leaves me without good nutritional value from my food, without the satisfaction of cooking a good meal and most importantly, it doesn’t taste good.

I always find that a quick meal doesn’t necessarily mean a bad meal. Similarly, a cheap meal doesn’t mean a bad meal either. However, that being said, I find it tiring to constantly come up with cheap, quick, delicious, and nutritious meals every single day. Whilst searching online will give me any recipe I want to make, sometimes I don’t know what I want to make. That’s when I turn to the free magazines on the side of the grocery store checkout at Coles and Woolworths.

Whilst half the pages are filled with shameless advertising, the other half have some great recipes with great ideas for presentation and variations of a dish. Not only do I find it good for inspiration but, it also changes monthly and gives me a nice repertoire of things to cook.  With all the different ingredients and recipes (which always feature seasonal recipes) I find it allows me to incorporate lots of fruit and veg! After a few months of collecting, I now have a nice collection of free recipe books lining my shelf.