There’s one thing that always brings us together — food! And, if there’s one thing we’ve all got in common in when it comes to food, we can never decide what to eat for dinner each day. To help us mix things up and add something new to our menus, we’ve been asking our bonusprint teammates how they’ve been getting creative in the kitchen. Check out some of their fun and delicious ideas, which we hope will leave you bursting with inspiration for what you can cook up next.
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Cooking from scratch
Whether you’re making your own pasta, a delicious cake, or baking your own sourdough loaf, nothing tastes as delicious as something you and your family have made from scratch. Research the recipes and swerve the prepared sauces and boxes of pasta in the supermarket, it’s time to get back to basics. These incredible gnocchi were made at home by Stella, one of our Senior Graphic Designers.
Eat, cook, serve, and chat.
Food is always a social occasion, so a great idea is to bring all the ingredients out of the kitchen and prepare the meal right at the dinner table. You could try Japanese shabu-shabu, a hearty Swiss raclette or fondue, or if you’ve got some outside space, fire up the good old barbecue. When everyone’s involved in the preparation, the meal tastes even better.
A world of cuisine
When you’ve got plenty of time to experiment in the kitchen why not pick two days a week to try something brand new? There are so many international cooking styles to explore, so pick a country and research the local cuisines to create your very own feasts from around the globe. This is also a great chance to brush up on your food photography skills, so take some artistic pictures of your creations, which you can easily turn into prints our online editor. If you’re feeling daring, you could always look to try something really unique like Uzbek Plov, a traditional rice dish from Uzbekistan like the one pictured, made by Rasul who’s our Javascript Developer.
Plan your meals
Having a weekly plan of what you’re going to cook for each meal can help you look after a budget, save time, and it’s a great way of watching what you eat. As Daniel, who works in QE Plant-IT, says, “when you shop for three days instead of daily, it’s easier to eat healthily. No longer do we fall into the trap of ‘just buy something fast’. The ingredients are already there, so there’s no excuse not to cook!” Why not draw up a chart together with the family and plan what you’re going to cook? It’ll make those trips to the supermarket simpler too — no more aimlessly wandering around the aisles trying to come up with inspiration.
Fun for all the family
Getting the kids involved with cookery is a brilliant way to entertain and educate them while they’re at home. Once everyone’s hands are washed, get them all to pitch in with mixing, measuring, baking, and stirring. Don’t forget that regular tasting is recommended by all the top chefs! Check out these delicious looking cookies made by the very talented children of our HR Assistant, Sophie.
Food photography
Before you dig in to your delicious dish, don’t forget to snap it — taking pictures is a fun way to keep a record of how your cookery skills are developing. There is, of course, a knack to taking great food photos. Three things that we suggest you always try to take into account are lighting, angles, and detail — which another of our Graphic Designers, Isabel, has captured perfectly in her photo of her blueberry and honey banana bread. If you’d like some extra tips on food photography, then check out our guide here.
Get baking your own bread
You’ll find bread of some sort in pretty much every meal, no matter what time of day or cuisine you’re eating. There are so many different types of bread to master so it’s a great new skill to try. Trust us, when you’ve started to bake your own bread you’ll never look at a supermarket brand again. Baking bread is also one of the most popular cookery pastimes of the bonusprint staff — check out these amazing bakes by Brand Content Manager Alan and by Camille, who’s one of our Senior Graphic Designers.
Fresh and healthy
Creating healthy meals doesn’t have to be complicated and you don’t need specialist ingredients — that doesn’t mean it has to be a plain old salad either. Have a go at creating some Japanese sashimi or Peruvian ceviche, or maybe try something like this Hawaiian poké bowl that was made by one of our Software Developers, Jorge. Made from fresh fish, sticky rice, and different pickled vegetables, it’s a delicious, healthy, and satisfying bowl of goodness.
Create your own cookbook
Every family has their own special dishes, secret ingredients, or recipes that have been passed down by generations. Whether they’re saved in Grandma’s head, scribbled in the margins of cookery books, or sent around the family on WhatsApp or email, maybe now is the time to collect all the family’s favourite dishes in one amazing recipe book. Why not add your recipes alongside photos of the person who created them, or place them side-by-side with pictures of the special occasion you cook those dishes for? To get started on your next cookbook, check out our range of recipe books right here and get creating.
Food always brings us together, whether it’s over a dinner table in person or in a group chat to share our recipes. We hope that these photos and ideas from our teammates will inspire you to try something new in the kitchen, get creative with the kids, or simply to talk about your family favourites over a video call. We’d love to hear what you’re cooking and to see all the bonusprint cookbooks you’ve been creating as well, so get sharing them with us on our Facebook and Instagram pages too. Bon appétit!