4 Fun Ideas for At-Home Cooking

1. Pick a Book and Cook Your Way Through It 

We love this idea! Sent to us from Allison M. in Cleveland—she and her family are cooking their way through the Engine 2 Cookbook with a different recipe each day.

“Working from home and keeping the kids occupied is stressful. To keep us from going crazy, we picked your cookbook as a fun family activity. Each day, the kids pick a new recipe to make and, thankfully, most can be modified to use frozen or canned ingredients. We’re bookmarking our favorites and letting the kids help prep!”

2. Pull Up a Chair in Jane’s Kitchen 

What a great opportunity to discover or rewatch all the great YouTube cooking videos made by my sister Jane Esselstyn and my mom Ann Esselstyn. Each is filmed in Cleveland where my sister and parents live next door to one another, and as you’ll see, nothing is scripted and mayhem is always brewing when these two start cooking. This note was sent to us by Corrine T. from Tennessee: 

“After a few days of being glued to the news, we decided we needed a diversion from all the virus updates. Now we are watching all the hilarious Jane and Ann videos! If anything we will come out of quarantine with a whole new understanding of plant-based cooking, and we’ll be entertained at the same time. Win-win!”

3. Become a Student of this Plant-Strong Chef!

Chef Chad Sarno sat down with Rip for an in-depth conversation during Season One of the Plant-Strong Podcast and dished up dozens of tricks and tips for raising your plant-strong kitchen I.Q. We got this great message from John M. from North Carolina:

"I went back to listen again to both podcast episodes with Chef Sarno—only this time, I took notes. Now that we are cooking everything at home, I love Chef Sarno's methods for enhancing flavor and plan to use them to level-up in the kitchen."

4. Use the Meal Planner to Find Recipes by Ingredient

Members of the Plant-Strong Meal Planner are using the ingredient search tool within the meal planner to find delicious recipes based on what is in their pantry. Carol S. from Iowa sent us this fun note:

"I was feeling stuck on what to make then went to the meal planner and entered kidney beans (which I bought by the case last week!) and found a bunch of great options. We picked Grandpa's Eat Loaf with Mushroom Gravy. And when I needed to substitute an ingredient—the chat feature was so easy. I love the meal planner coaches! Julia helped me adapt with what I had on hand which is helpful since running to the store really isn’t an option right now."