I don’t know if anyone else can relate to this, but I was in a cooking slump this past week. None of my meal planning ideas were interesting to me. I had no inspiration to try new things and all my normal recipes just felt stale. I needed to cook so that I could eat, but I wasn’t eager to make anything. Luckily I had a couple of servings of chili in the freezer to tide me over for a couple of meals. When I make big batches of recipes, I’ll often store a couple of servings in the freezer for moments just like this. With just a turn in the microwave or a couple of minutes on the stovetop, you have a home-cooked meal at the ready.

To try and get out of this rut, I thought approaching my grocery shopping differently might help. I normally go into the store with all the meals planned out and a list of items I need. But this time I decided I was going to only buy foods that I was excited about. Basically, I was going to meal plan on the fly with ingredients that I found intriguing. One of the recipes that came to my head was a blast from the past. Cooking with this nostalgia helped get me out of the slump I was in.

Those of you who went to RIT might remember what I’m talking about, but if not, let me explain it. So there’s this dining hall on RIT’s dorm-side, called Commons. My freshman year, pretty much every Sunday, a bunch of people from my floor would go there for brunch. Specifically, we would go for their breakfast burritos. Now, this was way before I started on what I would call my food journey. I was not vegetarian and still a very picky eater. My burrito consisted of a plain tortilla, sour cream, spinach, sausage, and potatoes. That was it. No egg, no other veggies, just those five ingredients. I got the same thing every week and I was happy as a clam.

For some reason, this meal popped into my head at the store, and I was very excited about it. I found some vegan breakfast sausage and the rest of the ingredients. I can’t say this is the most inventive meal I’ve ever had. But it was food I wanted to eat, and that’s what mattered. It also brought back some feelings of nostalgia. It was funny to think about where I thought I would be in five years back then, and where I actually am now. I’ll tell you, they are two completely different places. But I am happy with the path I ended up on, and I am excited for where it is going.

At the end of the day, food is fuel. It doesn’t matter if you spent an hour and a half making a gourmet meal, or you threw together some veggies into a wrap. Keeping yourself fed is the goal. Some days you are going to have the ambition to make the four-course meal and cocktails. Other days, just popping something in the microwave is going to feel like a chore. That’s okay. Find how you can help yourself. Maybe it’s cooking with nostalgia or maybe it’s always having the ingredients for simple meals. Everyone is different. Find what works for you.