Full confession: I usually save my cooking skills for weekends and entertaining these days, and during the week, subscribe to Gobble Meal Kit services (because the ingredients and flavors are fresh and delicious with a global bent, and because it takes the guesswork out of answering “What should we have for dinner tonight?” (This is not an ad for them; I’m just a fan, though I never thought I’d want or need a meal kit service.)

I think ANYTHING you can do to make any process more enjoyable — from laundry to cooking to grocery shopping — is a win. And perhaps it’s because I’m still a kid at heart, but I love rewarding myself when I beat simple tasks (e.g., when I go grocery shopping, I might sometimes stop off and get a latte at my favorite local coffee shop too, which I rarely indulge in out of the house, only ever making coffee at home…or perhaps I’ll listen to an audio book while I mow the lawn to engage my brain and make the time pass more quickly.)

But yeah, speaking from experience, when you spend a ton of time plating food or carving tomato roses or whatnot and then it’s just devoured in seconds… it can be hard. That’s probably gotta be a task you love doing for the sake of accomplishment…