inspiration365: Staying Inspired

May 19, 20132 Comments

Providing inspiration is at the core of the Table365 mission.  We know that procuring, preparing, and providing healthy, delicious meals 3 times a day, 7 days a week, week after week, year after year, is a huge challenge.  It is also like other aspects of parenting – enormously rewarding when you know that your efforts will result in a fundamental, nutritional foundation for your children’s growing bodies, and the short-term and long-term health that will impact their entire lives.  Keeping your interest and energy up to maintain this important task can be accomplished in many different ways.

You can find inspiration in many forms:  gorgeous photos, food markets, friends, instructional videos, entertaining movies You can also talk with experts, and seek out new culinary experiences.  The world is filled with beautiful, delicious food.  With a little inspiration, it’s easy to remember that preparing and eating food can be a great pleasure.

6 Ways to Stay Inspired:

1. Listen – Podcasts of The Splendid Table by Lynn Rossetto Kasper.  This weekly hour-long show is packed with food inspiration, education, and entertainment. It is a two-time James Beard Foundation Award winner for Best National Radio Show on Food.   The Splendid Table also has a website and newsletter, but nothing is as delightful as hearing Lynn talk with guests and callers about all topics regarding food and food preparation. Listen to the podcasts on the weekend while doing your food-prep for the week.
2. Read – Magazines, blogs, websites, cookbooks, and apps.
3. Talk – Talk with other parents, friends, colleagues, teachers, market vendors, and specialty purveyors like a butcher or fish monger.
4. Watch – Neither of us spends much time watching cooking shows, but we do like to watch instructional videos on blogs and YouTube, Julia Child videos from the library, and  food movies (Eat Drink Man Woman, Big Night, Ratatouille, Chocolat, Julie and Julia, Like Water for Chocolate).
5. Try – Take a cooking class (local grocery store, cooking store, or restaurant), try a new recipe, a new cooking method, or a new ingredient.
6. Share – Have a meal buddy.  Although we never referred to each other as such, Kimberly and I were great meal buddies during the years that we lived one street away from each other.  We constantly shared recipes, tastes, double-batches of meals, and family meals together.  We still work to fill this void over the phone and with photos of what we are cooking, reading, and learning.

Stay in touch with Table365.  We’ll keep sharing fresh ideas to keep you educated, excited, and inspired.

Cheers!