Saturday evening, people across the world gathered to celebrate the ringing in of a new year, allowing 2017 into their lives in warm embrace. With a new year, of course, comes a long list of resolutions that you may or may not have already given up on–eating healthier, going to the gym, spending less, saving more–the list goes on.
But there’s one resolution that is Bjorn Koch approved that I highly recommend that you and everyone else takes under their wing for 2017.
Diversify your cuisine this year.
Cooking at Home
If you, like most households around the country, cook most of your meals at home, this resolution can be easily fulfilled. If you have kids it might become a bit more difficult, but also presents a wonderful opportunity to open their eyes (and mouths) to tastes of other cultures.
In lieu of cooking pasta with sauce from a jar twice a week in the name of a quick and relatively cheap meal, opt to attempt to make an international dish a few times a week. Not every dish has to be expensive–eating oysters, lobster and truffles every night would be bad for both your digestive tract and your wallet. But exploring the cuisine of new cultures and cooking up some classic international dishes is an effective means of both broadening your cultural horizons and learning to cook up some fantastically delicious meals from across the world!
Dining Out
Admittedly, cooking meals at home 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year is difficult. Sometimes you have to let someone else take over and order out.
Dining out is often viewed as an expensive, unhealthy endeavor, due largely to the preconceived notion that eating out is automatically a trip to McDonalds, Burger King or Chick-Fil-A. But it doesn’t have to be, nor should it be.
This year, try expanding your dining horizons by visiting a different location every week (or every other, if that’s how often you eat out). Use something like Google Maps or Trip Advisor to find a restaurant that you’ve never been to, or that serves food from a culture you’ve never tried before. More often than not even picky eaters will be able to find something on the menu that they find they enjoy–and the more adventurous among us can point to a dish and try something new.
