How I Went From Frozen Pizza Girl to Finally Learning to Cook With Confidence
My 9 stages in becoming kitchen confident.
Don’t get me wrong, a 25 minute frozen pizza with a little (a lot of) ranch, is a solid dinner. Every place I’ve lived always felt more like home with a couple of frozen pizzas in the freezer. So I’ll shock you when I tell you- I don’t remember the last time I bought one. Crazy right? And I’m stoked about it.
Here’s how I went from frozen pizza girl to Trader Joes’ #1 fan to actually learning how to shop at a grocery store and ultimately cook a delicious dinner without completing freaking out.
My 9 Stages:
- Eat the frozen pizza WHILE you learn to cook something else.
- Let Trader Joes teach you the basics of stoves, stirring, timing your dishes and not burning things.
- Dare to cook raw meat (if you eat meat). Or raw fish! (it can be frozen).
- Date someone who can cook!! Become the sous-chef. Chop the veggies.
- Learn how to grocery shop. The recipe is your only checklist.
- Set the vibe for your kitchen. Make the playlist, pour the wine, roll up your sleeves.
- Try a crockpot recipe and bask in your glory.
- Forgive yourself when you fail. Because you probably will.
- Learn the art of improvising and experimenting- then call yourself a chef.
1. Eat the frozen pizza WHILE you learn to cook something else.
I learned this one from my dad. In part because we both have the unfortunate case of getting hangry and moody when we haven’t eaten food. Nothing will be worse than trashing a bad dinner and not having a backup already in the oven. So if you’re just beginning, eat the easy dinner while you try and cook a different dinner! Worst case, it’ll actually be good and you’ll have leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch.
2. Let Trader Joes teach you the basics of stoves, stirring, timing your dishes and not burning things.
I became the queen of TJ’s turkey patties, mixed rice, and those oh so yummy garlic naan bread. It was a phase for sure, but a must in my stages in learning how to cook. It was all frozen but it taught me the timing of cooking multiple different things at once! The naan took literally 2 minutes to heat up in the oven. The rice was about 5 min in the microwave and the patties were 16 minutes on the stove. So go buy an exciting mix of things from Trader Joes and give it a shot.
3. Dare to cook raw meat. (if you eat meat) Or raw fish! (it can totally be frozen).
Handling raw chicken always gave me the heebie-jeebies too much to ever actually learn to cook it (until now!). I would shy away from cooking meat because there are too many questions really. Do you rinse it, do you not?! Do you season it before? How do you marinate!? Is it supposed to be pink, but just not that pink? Google is forever my sous-chef when it comes to cooking meat. Research, read the recipe slowly, and dare yourself to do the hard thing.
4. Date someone who can cook! Become the sous chef. Chop the veggies.
Honestly, I’ve always been kinda lazy when it comes to wanting to make food for myself. But dating someone who loves to cook really propelled my learning faster than ever. “They cook and you clean” works great until it doesn’t. So you gotta start chopping the veggies, start crying over onions, and ask questions. Or go over to your friends place and do the same!
5. Learn how to grocery shop. The recipe is your only checklist.
I hated grocery shopping. It was overwhelming with too many decisions. I mean seriously- red onions, white onions, yellow onions, green onions?! Jeez! Keep your shop simple: put on your headphones, get in the zone, read down your recipe list, get what you need and get the heck out of there. You’ll do it enough times and it’ll become second nature, I promise.
6. Set the vibe for your kitchen. Make the playlist, pour the wine, roll up your sleeves.
I’m tellin’ ya- this is huge, especially if cooking makes you a little anxious. You gotta be dancing, and living large with that wine in your hand as you try not to stress out over cooking and making it perfect. Have fun, cause if the food doesn’t turn out as you hoped- at least you had a blast trying and you’ll want to try again tomorrow!
7. Try a crockpot recipe and bask in your glory.
The little wins go a long way. And crockpots are perfect for it. You chop it all up, throw it in, wait 4–8 hours. BOOM. De-lish. Seriously, this will boost your confidence. If you don’t have a crockpot, try making a soup- same kind of concept: chop, throw, wait, eat!
8. Forgive yourself when you fail. Because you probably will.
Growing up, my dad was the master of burning garlic toast every- single- time. He figured out how to scrape off the burnt stuff and it still tasted good. My point is, don’t be so hard on yourself. If you drop the chicken, or burn the toast, or use too much salt on all the veggies… eh, scrape it off, wipe it off, or maybe you trash it and go eat the frozen pizza. Try again tomorrow, you’ll get it eventually.
9. Learn the art of improvising and experimenting- then call yourself a chef.
The first time I started experimenting with seasoning that wasn’t on the recipe, I felt like a true chef. And the day I eyeballed the chickenstock, splashed in some wine without measuring- AND it still tasted good? I was on cloud nine! Boy, and the day I looked in the fridge and came up with my own dinner recipe?! I graduated from frozen pizza to my own kinda chef status.
