Eating and drinking are my two favorite hobbies. Although my taste might not be the same as yours, use this list as inspiration to go towards the things you love the most. 

Make pizza at home. There is so much you can do with this. For the dough you could get a dough ball from the grocery store bakery, or a pre-made crust like Boboli. If you are feeling really adventurous, you could do make dough from scratch. After you figure out the base, add the sauces, cheeses and toppings that you want. These are some of my favorites –

• Sauces: marinara, alfredo, cream cheese, ranch, and pesto
• Cheeses: mozzarella, gouda, cheddar, parmesan, and gorgonzola 
• Toppings: pepperoni, bacon, sausage, steak, chicken, mushrooms, peppers, red onions, banana peppers, jalapeños, and tomatoes

Learn to make your favorite cocktail. You can master a French 75, Manhattan, a mojito, or the best Bloody Mary. Check out google or youtube to find the recipe or tutorials on what to do.

Learn to make the perfect margarita. My favorite recipe is the bartaco margarita recipe. You mix 2 oz. of libelula tequila, 2 oz. of lime juice, 1 oz. of combier, and 1 oz. of simple syrup.  

Cook a fun brunch recipe. Some ideas include eggs benedict, chicken and waffles, breakfast sandwiches, frittata, or interesting toast. Eggs benny is my favorite dish to get when I go out for brunch! Poached eggs and hollandaise are def tricky to make at home but so satisfying when they turn out well.

Order delivery food from a local restaurant. Support small businesses that are trying to stay afloat in these crazy times. You can pickup from a lot of places or there are delivery options like EatStreet and GrubHub to get the food straight to your doorstep.

Celebrate Taco Tuesday. Corn tortillas or flour tortillas. Any proteins and toppings you want! Don’t forget the hot sauce. You can go with the classic ground beef, hard shells, lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. Or you could make some street taco style carnitas tacos with onions and cilantro. Throw some eggs and potatoes in for breakfast tacos. Try to imitate bartaco’s famous pork belly taco. Last suggestion is shrimp tacos with mango salsa.

Find a recipe on Pinterest to attempt. Go outside of your comfort zone to cook something you have never eaten before. It will be a fun experience even if it doesn’t turn out well. 

Drink wine from a country you want to visit. Imagine walking under the Tuscan sun while drinking a nice super Tuscan or smelling the lavender in the air while drinking a rosé from Provence or looking out into mountains of Argentina while drinking some Malbec. In April, we were supposed to go on a trip to Spain, France and Italy. Since our trip was cancelled we drank wine from those countries from the comfort of our apartment.

Download the Tasty app and make some of the recipes. These dishes are pretty beginner friendly and have instructional videos. One that I tried that was really good was for queso lava cakes. It was very cheese heavy even for me but super fun to make. Brian made the chicken and waffle nachos for us which was really fun!

Follow interesting food and drink related accounts on social media. Get some inspiration for foods you would like to cook. Look up dishes you like on Instagram and Pinterest and save the recipes you want to try. I love scrolling Pinterest searching for healthy or easy recipes using the machines I have at home. Which brings me to the next tip.

Use some of the cooking tools you have in your house. If you have an air fryer, sous vide, InstantPot, grill, or Kitchenaid, bust it out and make something fun. Pick the type of food you want to cook and find a recipe online. I am not very good at cooking at all but there are so many recipes on the internet that are easy to execute and taste impressively amazing. Some good starter foods are meatloaf, lasagna, chili, chicken wings, ribs, and nachos. Brian found the idea for the queso pictured below on a TikTok account.

Try a food you have never tried before. It can be a new food item or new type of cuisine. Get a vegetable you have never had at the grocery store and figure out how to cook it or find a dish that highlights that specific veggie. If you are feeling really adventurous, you could look up a random country and make their signature dish. 

Drink lots of water to stay hydrated. The rule of thumb I have heard is half your body weight in ounces. If not that, at least shoot for 8 glasses/64 ounces. If drinking water is hard for you, try infusing some fruit into it to make the flavor more interesting.

Learn how to properly use a wine tool. My restaurant industry friends will laugh at this one. It is a good skill to have, especially if you are in a situation where most of the other people struggle with the opener part but love the wine part of things. You will look impressive.

Pick your top 5 favorite foods. Eat them. This is a good list to have handy as an icebreaker when you meet new people. People love to bond over shared tastes. Mine are nachos, tacos, pizza, steak and oysters. I had this on my bumble profile when Brian and I matched and the rest is history. I didn’t know he worked at bartaco but he knew his taco game would impress me. Whenever I make a custom Vibrant Badass list for anyone I always have “eat your favorite food” as one of the challenges because it makes people happy!

There you go! What other food + drink related items would you add to you list? More categories coming the next six days!