Ever start getting a little bored with your homecooked meals? It usually happens to us each winter, where all the meals start tasting the same and we’re really craving something different (and dreaming of all the fresh garden things we’re missing.) Yes, you can learn to cook new recipes, and you can expand your horizons with new foods you don’t normally eat, and those are both great things to do. But there’s also a really easy way to change things up- and that’s simply changing the seasonings you use.

This winter Jeff ordered small jars of a variety of seasonings from one of our favorite companies, Mountain Rose Herbs. The small jars are a really affordable way to try a bunch of different things and see what you like best (and then order those in larger amounts.) They have seasoning blends and also single spices. I mentioned before that we really enjoyed their Curry Powder Blend when we discovered it. Well, we used it so often we were ready for a change. We discovered they had a Thai Curry Blend -yum!- and wished we had discovered it sooner. We also went crazy over their Cajun Seasoning, it’s so good.

B has always enjoyed adding all the herbs and spices to our soups and meals, so he has fun smelling all the different blends and choosing which ones we have in our meals. I’ve been surprised that he has been a fan of some of the spicier ones, but Jeff and I sometimes add more to our individual meals so we can keep the main dish not too spicy for him.

Jeff loves the Coriander Seed Powder, the Mesquite Seasoning, the Mexican Seasoning, and the West Indies Rub. Bracken’s current favorites are the Garam Masala Blend, Italian Seasoning, and the West Indies Rub. (He says the Taco Seasoning makes him feel like he’s going to sneeze, which made me laugh.) I was going to write down some of my favorites, but they change with the day, it seems every time I go to pick one I’m in the mood for something different. There are a bunch more seasoning blends on their site that we’d like to order and try.

We still use a lot of herbs that we harvest in our garden to season our meals, but it’s been really fun to add some variety to that. I thought I would mention this in case any of you found it inspiring to change up your meals too!