Your everyday meals can sometimes start to get pretty boring. Looking for new recipes is one way to get out of a rut, but sometimes you don’t want to go to the effort of learning new techniques or hunting down the right ingredients. You just want a way to jazz up your meals without having to actually do too much. Fortunately, you can easily do this with a few little tricks. It doesn’t have to take long to add a little something to your meal or do things a bit differently. Just a couple of little changes could make any everyday meal a bit more exciting.

Layer on More Flavor

Adding some extra flavor is always going to be an effective way to improve any meal. You can always add something extra while you’re cooking or preparing your food, or you can use condiments and flavorings after you’ve plated up your food. You could add some extra spice, toss in some herbs, double up on the garlic or do anything else that will layer some more flavor into your food. Season with salt and pepper before you eat or try out some other seasonings or sauces that might make your meal more flavorful.

Make It More Interactive

Just giving everyone a plate of food can start to get pretty boring. Instead of doing that, you could consider making your meals more interactive. Think of ways that everyone can help themselves or build their own meal. This can often work best with things like tacos that allow everyone to choose what they want to include. But any meal can become more interactive by placing your dishes in the middle of the table and encouraging everyone to take what they like. Plus, it means everyone gets what they want, with hopefully nothing left on plates.

Add Some Tasty Sides

Taking the time to make a side or two for your meals can help to make it a lot more interesting. It also means you can make less of your main dish or help it to go further. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time or effort to make an extra side dish, either. You can learn how to make pinto beans in an Instant Pot and leave them to cook while you do other things. A lot of side dishes barely take any time to make, and they’re a great way to add more vegetables to your meal too.

Plate It Up Smartly

Even just changing the way you present your food can make it more interesting. Plating up your food so it looks beautiful can make it look more appetizing and you might find yourself more eager to start eating. If you’ve ever followed a recipe but thought it didn’t come out looking like the photo, a couple of plating techniques could really improve the look of your food. You don’t have to spend a lot of time getting it perfect for it to look nice.

If you’re starting to get a bit bored of what you usually cook, find some ways to give your meals a boost and make them more interesting.