We’ve had a couple snow storms move through in the last day two days. So I’ve been out shoveling while my hubbie has been moving it with his tractor. And I have to tell you, I’m bushed, and as I’m thinking about dinner tonight, I’ve concluded “Nope, too tired to mess with any recipe. Not doin’ it.”

Instead, I’m opting for what many cooks call “freestyle.” Freestyle cooking is an easy, fast, flexible and realistic way to prepare food. In a day and age of recipe overload, flexibility and reality can easily get lost. Recipe makers (blessed be their effort), imply that meal-making involves hard work and special skills. In other words, the implied idea is that unless you follow a recipe to the T, you will not be able to make a decent meal.

Poppycock! While it’s a valuable skill to be able to follow a recipe, that isn’t the end-all and be-all when it comes to turning out a great meal. Freestyle cooking (aka the No-Recipe meal planning method) is also a valuable skill to develop. This approach saves time, money, eliminates waste, and is a way to develop sharp cooking skills. It’s actually been around for a long time, and there are lots of books on the subject.

If you are new to freestyle cooking, start with taking notes on what is it that you like in your favorite recipes. Which ingredient or flavor combinations are your favorites? What are the cooking times and water ratios of some of your favorite foods? What spices do you like? Your answers to these questions become a general guideline for meal-making.

The emphasis in freestyle cooking is on the word ‘free’. To be free means not under the control or in the power of another; able to act or be done as one wishes. Most freestyle cooks do use recipes, but in an independent way, more loose way.

A perfect example of this would be soups, stews and sauces. Take split pea soup, for instance. The flavor combo of peas, ham, and onions can’t be beat. The proportions are up to your taste preference. I add loads of diced celery and carrots, and add extra flavor with a few bay leaves and lots of salt and pepper. My liquid is almost always chicken broth or stock. No recipe needed. Same approach when making pasta sauce. Tomatoes (fresh or canned), garlic, basil, oregano, lots of finely chopped onion, and parsley (fresh or dried). No recipe needed.

So freestylin’ is really all about creatively, but intelligently tossing things together. And a great meal to practice for practicing this technique is rice and beans. To a few cups of cooked rice, add a can or two of drained black beans (or pinto or whatever bean you have on hand).

Then toss in a bunch of extras, (maybe a red onion sliced super thin, some sliced black olives, a handful of chopped cilantro, a little diced yellow bell pepper, and a dash of cumin) and combine it all with some toasted tortillas and you have a hearty and delicious meal.

After everything is mixed well, add a splash of orange juice, maybe half a cup, and cook it all on medium heat until the juice has cooked down, almost to syrup. There’s your first freestyle meal! So in review: Freestyle cooking involves a no-recipe recipe—a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen and lets the creative cook in you to rise and shine!