Stop Saving Recipes. Start Collecting Ideas.

If you're anything like me, you've probably saved more recipes than you'll ever make.

Pinterest boards. Instagram posts. Screenshots on your phone. Cookbooks with sticky notes poking out of the pages.

I love finding new recipes, and I'm definitely not going to tell you to stop saving them. Inspiration is a wonderful thing.

But somewhere along the way, I started asking myself a different question:

Am I collecting recipes... or am I collecting ideas?

There's a difference.

A recipe teaches you how to make one specific meal. An idea, on the other hand, can show up over and over again in your kitchen.

Maybe it's a new way to roast vegetables. Maybe it's a seasoning blend you've never thought to try. Maybe it's a pan sauce that would be just as good on chicken as it would be on pork. Or maybe it's simply a reminder to finish a dish with fresh herbs or a squeeze of lemon.

Those are the things that stick with you.

The more ideas you collect, the less you rely on recipes to tell you exactly what to do. You start remembering little techniques and flavor combinations instead of whole ingredient lists. Before long, you're looking in the refrigerator and thinking, "I know something that would work here."

That's confidence.

It's also a lot more fun.

I still save recipes all the time, but I don't save them because I think I'll make every single one. I save them because almost every recipe has something to teach me. Sometimes it's a technique. Sometimes it's a flavor combination. Sometimes it's just one little idea that makes me think, "I want to remember that."

Those ideas become part of the way you cook.

The next time you come across a recipe, don't just ask yourself, "Do I want to make this?"

Instead, ask yourself:

"What can this recipe teach me?"

Because recipes come and go.

But the ideas you collect become experience, and experience becomes confidence.

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Chel's Challenge

Because confidence is built one good choice at a time.

The next recipe you save, don't save it because you want to make that meal.

Save it because it teaches you one new idea.

Maybe it's a sauce.

Maybe it's a seasoning blend.

Maybe it's a cooking technique.

Maybe it's a flavor combination you've never tried before.

The next time you're in your kitchen, see if you can use that one idea in a completely different meal.

You might surprise yourself.

Eat. Cheers. Repeat.