Have your recipe box entries become boring? Try a new

Have your recipe box entries become boring? Try a new collection in email recipes!

When you're the main cook in the family, it's easy to get in a rut: fried chicken on Tuesday, meatloaf on Wednesday, pizza on Friday night, etcetera. Almost all of us eventually reach the point where the family starts the How did I know we'd be having meatloaf tonight?, or the kids start begging to eat at a friends house every week on a certain day? This is a sure sign that your menus need an overhaul. The same-old, same-old is obviously not cutting it any more.

There are a couple of ways to painlessly refresh your meal offerings with fresh new tastes. Did you know that there are literally thousands of cooking sites online which provide tens of thousands of recipes to get your menus out of that rut and into exciting new territory? What's even better, most allow you to email recipes you can use today, at no cost to you.

Using email recipes you receive right in your inbox from cooking sites is perhaps one of the easiest ways to revamp your menus. This doesn't mean you have to necessarily increase your food budget. Chicken and ground beef are some of the cheaper options in the weekly shopping cart, but there are certainly a huge number of variations on cooking these meats. Take advantage of the cooking site resources and find another way to cook that ever-present chicken.

For example, a whole roasting chicken is a more economical buy, which can be transformed into an entirely new dish. Stuff the chicken with croutons, mushrooms, celery, water chestnuts or whatever suits your tastes. Add some chicken broth and season with a poultry seasoning mix. Melt some butter and inject it into the thickest parts of the meat. Alternatively, inject a marinade in the same manner for a flavorful bird. This is not fried chicken. In addition, the stuffing provides a side dish.

Find a few cooking sites with recipes that you find appealing. Type 'chicken entrees', 'roasted stuffed chicken', 'chicken casserole' or whatever type of dish strikes your fancy. Any of these searches will come up with dozens of recipes for you to peruse. When you find ones that are intriguing, send yourself an email recipe! Simple as that. This strategy also makes cooking more fun for you, without increasing your food budget.

Do the same with your tried and tired meatloaf recipe. You'll surely discover hundreds of variations, using different techniques, ingredients and seasonings. A layered meatloaf casserole is just one example. Try a spicy taco seasoning for the meat, a second layer of one can of sweet corn (drained) and topped off with mashed potatoes sprinkled with grated cheddar cheese.

The majority of cooking sites which offer email recipes get their recipes from cooks all over the world. Other cooks try them and rate them, so when you see a recipe with a five-star rating, it's probably a good bet.

As for pizza, you can actually save money at the checkout by making something new and exotic. I daresay there are tens of thousands of different pizza recipes online.

Just keep building up your email recipes folder, saving the ones which garner applause from family members. If you've got a friend who enjoys cooking, turn them on to the email recipes concept and start an exchange program for twice the possibilities.

You can see there's really no need for meals to ever become boring!