25 cooking goals and cooking challenge ideas, from 3 dinners a week to 52 new recipes

Cooking goals for beginners

Beginner goals are about cooking often enough that it stops feeling like an event. If what you eat matters more to you than how you cook it, start with nutrition goals.

• Cook dinner 3 nights a week for a month.
• Learn 5 dinners you can make without a recipe.
• Cook eggs 5 different ways.
• Cook one new recipe a week for 8 weeks.
• Make one whole meal alone, clean up included.

Kitchen skill goals

Skill goals are single techniques you repeat until your hands know them.

• Practise knife cuts for 10 minutes a week for 2 months.
• Bake a loaf of bread from scratch.
• Roast a whole chicken.
• Make 3 sauces from scratch.
• Make a dough from scratch: pasta, pizza or tortillas.

Cooking challenge ideas

A cooking challenge is a count with a deadline, and the count is usually recipes or nights.

• Cook 52 new recipes in a year, one a week.
• Cook dinner at home for 30 days.
• Cook one dish from 12 countries in 12 months.
• Cook every recipe in one chapter of a cookbook.
• Order no takeaway for 30 days.

Meal planning and budget goals

Planning goals happen before you cook, and they are where a food budget is decided. That is why cooking at home shows up in so many debt payoff goals.

• Plan the week's meals every Sunday for 8 weeks.
• Cook a batch of lunches every week for 4 weeks.
• Cook a full week of dinners inside a budget you set.
• Use up what is in the fridge before you shop, once a week for a month.
• Write a list of 20 meals you can always make.

Goals for cooking for other people

Sharing goals put someone at the table, which is a good reason to cook at all.

• Host a dinner for 6 people.
• Cook with your children once a week for 2 months.
• Teach one recipe to someone else.
• Bring a home made dish to 5 gatherings this year.
• Write down 10 family recipes before they are forgotten.

What is a good cooking goal?

A good cooking goal has a number in it. A review of 35 years of goal research found that specific, hard goals lead to higher performance than being told to do your best. "Learn to cook" has no finish line. "52 new recipes in a year" has one, and a pace: one a week.

Count nights or recipes, not results. A dinner that came out badly still counts as a night you cooked. That is the rule that keeps a challenge alive past the first failed dish.

Write it the way SMART goals are written: "Cook dinner at home 4 nights a week until 30 June, planned every Sunday." It has the number, the date and the habit that makes it possible.

How to track cooking goals

Tick off the night once the dishes are done. A review of 138 studies found that people who monitored their progress reached their goals more often, and that recording it beat keeping it in your head.

Nights cooked are a day count. New recipes are an amount that adds up toward a total. Cooking together fits well among family challenge ideas, where everyone can see the count.

Fifty two recipes is a year of Sundays. A picture that fills up one recipe at a time keeps the year in view from the kitchen.

Frequently asked questions

What are examples of cooking goals?

Cook dinner 3 nights a week for a month. Learn 5 dinners without a recipe. Cook 52 new recipes in a year. Plan the week's meals every Sunday. Host a dinner for 6 people.

What are some cooking challenge ideas?

Cook one new recipe a week for a year. Cook dinner at home for 30 days. Cook a dish from 12 countries in 12 months. Cook every recipe in one cookbook chapter. Order no takeaway for 30 days.

What is a good cooking goal for a beginner?

Three home cooked dinners a week for a month. That is 12 dinners, enough to repeat a few recipes until you no longer need to read them.