Hello, this is Jack from To Fluency, and welcome to this English lesson where we're going to talk about cooking.
Cooking today, breakfast, quick meals, snacks, grocery lists, and things like go-to meals.
Now, this is great listening practice but, as always, you're also going to get new vocabulary and phrases that you can use in all areas of English, because we like to make these lessons conversational, meaning the types of words and phrases you use when you have conversations.
And before we get into breakfast, know that all of the words and phrases are going to be in the description for you.
And while you're in the description, check out the resources we have so that you can improve English on your own.
Let's start with what people call the most important meal of the day.
And that is breakfast.
Breakfast.
Personally, I tend to have breakfast around 9 or 10.
The number one thing I have at the moment is eggs on toast.
Simple, nutritious, tasty, and sometimes I'll throw in some bacon as well.
But before all that, I usually start the day with a cup of coffee, not tea.
I am from England, but I prefer coffee in the morning.
And then I'll have a couple of cups of tea after the coffee before having breakfast.
Now, when I was a kid, I used to wake up and the first thing I did was to pour myself a bowl of cereal.
Or you can also say to get yourself, get yourself a bowl of cereal.
And as you probably know, when we talk about habits in the past, we can use used to, used to.
So I used to eat a lot of cereal as a kid.
Another example is I used to live in Spain.
Speaking of Spain, When I used to ask my students in Spain, especially the younger children, what they ate for breakfast, they always said hot chocolate.
So this is what they had for breakfast.
It seemed like in Spain, and if you're from Spain, can you let me know that most people just have something very light for breakfast.
So when they say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, usually people think oh, I need to have lots of food for breakfast.
But in other countries, they just like something small, like a coffee and a small pastry.
People in England tend to have things like beans on toast cereal, just toast sometimes if they're Russian.
But on the weekend, it's quite common to have a full English breakfast.
And sometimes I make a mini English breakfast.
But this includes eggs bacon toast tomatoes tomatoes, if you're using the American accent beans, if I haven't said that already, and also black pudding.
Now, I'll leave exactly what black pudding is in the description for you to understand what that is.
And in the US I always say people like to have dessert for breakfast because people love to have things like pancakes with maple syrup, muffins and other types of very sugary pastries.
Another item is very popular and I've grown to love this.
I've grown to love this, which means over time I've gone from not liking it that much to actually liking this now.
And it's a bagel.
A bagel.
Especially a bagel with either cream cheese or a bagel with butter and jam.
Something simple.
And I don't know if this is popular in your country, but I think it originated in the US.
And it's this brunch brunch.
This is very popular on a sunday morning.
And it's not breakfast, it's not lunch, it's a combination of the two, and i quite enjoy going out for brunch.
Usually it's quite good, especially if i can watch some soccer at the same time.
The downside of making a big breakfast like a full english breakfast is washing up after.
I'm going to talk about washing up later, but first let's talk about snacks.
So snacks are the little things that you eat between meals.
Now in the US and in the UK it's very common to have three meals a day breakfast, lunch and dinner.
And the snacks are what you have in between those meals.
Although it does seem like a lot of people are always snacking.
And it's much more common, I think, in the US to have snacks wherever you are.
So if you're walking down the street, you can eat a snack.
If you're on the bus, you eat a snack.
If you're on the train, you eat a snack.
If you're at home, then you open up the pantry and grab a snack.
Snacking is big in the US and I'm not big on snacks, which means I don't tend to eat them that often.
But you might hear people say things like, I just need a little something before lunch.
Or I need a little snack to get me through until dinner, which means to help me not to feel so hungry until dinner.
Now, the one thing that I will eat if they're in the house are chips or in British English, crisps.
I love crisps.
I love them.
I always have done.
When I used to go swimming as a child for swimming lessons and be on the swim team, I would often go to the vendor machines and buy maybe 10 bags of crisps.
I was very hungry after swimming, but I used to eat crisps all the time.
And if we have them in the house now, I tend to eat them quite a lot.
So that is my weakness.
Crisps, or in the US you call them chips.
But I can also just go all day without eating and then feel fine for dinner.
In fact, I don't mind being hungry.
I'm hungry right now, but I'm not thinking, I need to get a snack.
I need to eat something.
I've got used to, to get used to something.
I have got used to being hungry, or being somewhat hungry, and also being patient to wait for dinner time.
So a good phrase is, I don't mind being hungry, which means it doesn't bother me.
It doesn't upset me that I'm hungry.
I don't mind being hungry.
Children in the US, from my experience, love snacks.
They always want to have snacks with them.
In the car, when they're at the park, just before dinner.
And common snacks.
Here are things like pretzels, so bags of pretzels, bags of chips.
Beef jerky is also quite common here too.
Nuts and those different types of protein bars or energy bars.
I haven't found many energy bars that I like.
I used to like some of them, but not really anymore.
So you might hear someone say, let's grab a few snacks before we go.
Let's grab a few snacks before we go.
And grab is a very common verb in American English especially.
And it just means to get.
So let's get some snacks before we go.
And then here's more of a British term when you are craving a snack or you want a snack.
And it's this.
I fancy something to eat or I fancy something sweet.
To fancy something.
To fancy someone means that you are attracted to that person romantically.
So that's a little bit of a difference here.
But you might just say, for example, I fancy a quick drink before dinner.
I fancy a quick drink before dinner.
Now when people talk about snacks they like that aren't the healthiest.
They often say it's my guilty pleasure.
For example, crisps are my guilty pleasure.
Although they're not the unhealthiest snacks.
So it doesn't quite fit perfectly.
But I also love chocolate.
I love lots of chocolate.
So I'll say, Chocolate is my guilty pleasure.
It's the one thing that I feel guilty about eating in a way, but I find it very pleasurable.
And when you're trying to reduce the number of snacks you're having, you'll say I'm trying to cut back on chocolate.
I'm trying to cut back on chips, which means you're trying to reduce, to cut back on something.
I've just realized I haven't asked you a question yet.
I want to go back to breakfast real quick and just ask, what is your typical breakfast?
And is that common in your country?
Let's now move on to cooking now and meals, because this is a really good area of English to explore.
Now, let's say you get home and you haven't planned what you're going to have for dinner.
You haven't planned what you're going to cook and you just want to make something fast because everyone is hungry.
Here's a great phrase to know about that.
I'm just gonna throw something together.
I'm just going to throw something together.
So this means to prepare dinner without really thinking about the recipe and getting all the ingredients correct.
So you're going to work with what you have and put dinner together.
I'm gonna just throw something together.
Or you might hear someone say, let's just have pizza.
Let's just have pizza.
Or let's finish that leftover pasta. that we cooked last night.
Now, leftovers.
I love leftovers.
So to have leftovers means that extra food you have after cooking the day before.
So after cooking, you've cooked too much, or you cooked too much on purpose, because you want leftovers.
You put them in some type of container, put them in the fridge and you can have them the next day.
And like I say, I love leftovers.
When I see leftovers in the fridge, I always want them.
Also in the US, it is common and expected to ask for a box at a restaurant.
So let's say you have a big bowl of pasta and you can't finish the pasta.
You ask the server, can I get a box for this?
Can I get a box for this?
In the past they would take your plate and put it into a takeout box, but now they bring the box to you and you put the dinner, the leftovers, into the box for you to take home.
So if you visit the US, in most restaurants unless it's fancy you can ask for a box to take the food back with you to have for leftovers the next day.
These are my favorite type of leftovers.
When you've had a really good meal and you have some leftover, and the next day, sometimes for breakfast, I'll have the leftovers.
The other thing to do here is becoming more popular again, or very popular in the US, is to use an app to get food delivered.
When I was growing up in the UK, you could get takeout quite easy.
Now in the British English, we call it takeaway, to get takeaway.
But in American English, it's takeout.
But this was very easy to do in England, mainly with Indian restaurants and pizza restaurants, where you call the restaurant, you place an order over the phone, they deliver it to you and then you pay them when they arrive.
Nowadays, you can use apps on your phone and the delivery fee isn't too much.
Now, sometimes people will order a coffee to be delivered.
I've seen people do this.
So they'll just want a cup of coffee delivered from a very famous coffee store and they'll get it delivered to their house, which is very American in my eyes.
I don't do takeout that often, but it's always fun when you do it.
Now let's move on to something more elaborate when you are cooking bigger meals.
And these are more intentional.
And we're also going to talk about our favorite meals to cook.
A great phrase here is a go-to meal, a go-to meal.
Someone might ask you, what is your go-to meal?
What is the number one thing that you like to cook?
My go-to meal is either beef stew cooked in a pressure cooker with meat potatoes broth carrots, very rich, or beef pasta beef pasta, where I make beef in pasta.
Sometimes it's sausage pasta, but I really like beef in pasta.
A little bit like a spaghetti bolognese, but pasta instead of spaghetti.
And most of the time when I'm cooking meals, I like to cook with whole foods and from scratch, more or less.
Sometimes I like, for example, an Indian sauce in a jar that is all prepared and you put the sauce over the meat and then you cook it like that.
And it's quite quick and it tastes quite authentic, relatively.
But a lot of the time when I'm making simple meals, I'll cook from scratch.
I don't really like those ready meals in packets, either frozen or in different kinds of containers.
Instead, I like to cook in a pan with sauces, with natural whole ingredients.
But instant meals are very popular in the US.
The frozen section here is really big and you can get lots of different instant meals that you can cook from frozen.
Some of these are pretty good, like family lasagna, to get a frozen lasagna and put it in the oven.
If you're watching from Italy, you might disagree with me, but I quite like these.
They taste quite good.
And they're popular because they're convenient and fast.
They're convenient, meaning that it doesn't take a lot of time and energy in order to cook this.
Frozen pizza is also very popular here too, where you just take a frozen pizza, it in the oven and then it's ready again.
If you're watching from italy, you might disagree with me, but sometimes these taste quite good.
Now there's often a debate around rotating meals versus always trying to cook something new.
Now i'm somewhere in the middle.
I have my go-to meals.
I like to cook the same meals again and again at the same time around every three weeks, every month, let's say.
I like to try something new, something a little bit different, so that you can keep it fresh.
So to rotate meals means that you have maybe 10 to 15 meals that you like to cook and you rotate them.
Sometimes I like to have the same meal on the same day.
For example, steak Wednesday, pizza Friday.
Sometimes we do something different, but most of the time it's along those lines.
Now, I think I'm a pretty good cook.
I don't think I'm the best, but I do make some good meals.
It's when it comes to more of the fancy style meals with lots of herbs and spices and different sauces.
I don't like to experiment there, but generally speaking, I think I'm a pretty good cook.
When it comes to cooking, you need ingredients first.
And now this next section, we're going to talk about grocery shopping.
Now I did a video on shopping in general, which I'll link to in the comment section.
If you're listening to this on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, I'll leave a link to that podcast episode too.
But a very common phrase here is when you're thinking about shopping lists and thinking about what you need to get is do we have any?
Do we have any garlic?
Do we have any pasta left?
Do we have any herbs for this dish I'm going to make?
Do we have any?
Because you might not know, you might be on the phone calling someone who is at home and you're asking them to see if you have any of that left, in case you need to get it.
And one thing I really dislike is when you are getting ready to cook and you are missing that one ingredient, that one ingredient that is gonna make or break this meal.
And oftentimes what you can do is text your neighbors to say, do you have any garlic?
I just really need some garlic for this dish.
If you're close to the store, you can say, I'm just going to nip to the shop.
I'm just going to nip to the shop, which means I'm going to go to the shop quickly.
I'm going to go there, get the ingredient and then come back.
When it comes to cooking a new meal and finding a recipe.
I don't really like recipe websites because they have lots of pop-ups and ads on the website and it takes a while for you to get to the right place that you want to be in order to get the recipe.
Instead, I tend to use AI now for recipes.
And the reason I do is because it gives you the ability to get specific.
So you might say, I have some chicken thighs with the bone in.
I have these spices and I have rice.
Can you give me a simple recipe with these ingredients?
So, instead of trying to find everything through search or YouTube, You can ask for this specifically based on what you have.
And you can also ask for things like, can you make it as simple as possible?
And then it gives you the recipe and you say, I prefer not to cook in a pan.
Can I cook this in the oven instead?
And they say, yeah, sure, here you go.
Here is how to do that.
And then if you're preparing in advance, then you can make a list and go to the grocery store.
So you might say to somebody, Let's stock up before the weekend.
Let's stock up before the weekend.
Now, to stock up means to get everything that you need, food-wise, before the weekend.
So let's stock up before the weekend.
And to be honest, I'm not a big fan of grocery shopping.
I don't mind going, but I don't enjoy being in certain stores, especially when it's hard to get parking.
It's really busy inside.
And in the US doesn't tend to be long lines at the checkout and a lot of the time.
You can also do self-checkout now, but it can get really busy and I much prefer to use an app to have the groceries delivered.
I used to do this a lot more than I do now.
It's a preference, but it's more expensive, although I do tend to save about an hour or two hours, depending on which store I go to doing that.
But the thing I hate the most is when I come back home and I empty all the bags and then I say, oh no, I forgot the chocolate.
Or oh no, I forgot the garlic I needed for this.
But let's say, this time I have everything I need to cook.
Here's something that I think maybe you agree with I'm not sure.
When I'm cooking, I like to clean as I cook and I really enjoy cooking.
If there are certain things that are, I like it when I have a little bit of wine or a little bit of beer when I cook.
I have some music on or a podcast and I'm free.
I'm able to be in the kitchen, usually on my own, and be able to cook.
I also like cooking with other people as well, but I do like to be on my own when I'm cooking.
There's a certain vibe.
And like I said, I like to clean as I cook too.
I don't understand when people don't clean and throw out the trash as they're cooking.
Another thing is, in the kitchen, I don't like overhead lights.
So I like to have good lights on when I'm cooking.
I don't like overhead, strong, fluorescent lights.
Although I need enough light so I can see what I'm doing.
Now, when it's ready, in the US, it's common to sit around the table.
Same in the UK.
But I think...
Maybe in the US and UK it's more casual than other countries because often you can have it outside on the porch on your lap.
You can have it in front of the TV sometimes, depending on the meal.
You can have it on the sofa if you're feeling relaxed and you don't want to sit around a table.
But I do enjoy sitting around the table for dinner.
Now, is that common where you live?
Is it always around a table?
What time do you have dinner?
And does this depend on what you're eating and who you're with?
Now the next section is all about washing up what you have to do after you've had the meal, because you've cooked and you've eaten and it's the last job to do.
Now, there's a great phrase here to take turns, and it's often used in board games and card games to take turns like.
Whose turn is it?
But you can take turns when it comes to things like washing up within a family unit or if you're with some housemates.
So you might say, it's my turn to wash up tonight.
Whose turn is it to wash up tonight?
Oh, it's your turn to wash up tonight.
And a common complaint is the sink is full again.
The dishwasher hasn't been unloaded.
This pan needs soaking.
So you can soak a pan before you wash it.
But using a phrase that we used before, I don't mind washing up.
In fact I quite enjoy it after the meal to take my time with the washing up and just to get in the zone to load the dishwasher.
Unload the dishwasher.
It depends on if I have to rush to do something, but if I have time, then I don't mind washing up at all.
Let's finish on talking about food that you like and also food you dislike.
We talked about this before a little bit.
Things like, I fancy steak tonight, or I'm craving steak tonight.
I fancy going out to eat, or why don't we go out to eat tonight?
And a phrase I'm sure you've heard other people say before is, it's not my cup of tea.
It's not my cup of tea.
So you might say, if someone's talking about pasta or full English breakfast, it's not my cup of tea.
It's not as common as people think.
It's more common just to say like I'm not a big fan of full English breakfast or I'm not keen on full English breakfast.
And these two phrases, you're trying to soften what you're saying.
Instead of saying I hate breakfast, full English breakfast a lot of the time people will soften it and say I'm not a big fan of full English breakfast.
And then here's a question for you.
If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would you choose?
Now this is using a conditional sentence.
If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?
For me, I think I'm going to go with pizza. which surprises me that I said that.
But thinking about it for the long term, yeah, I think maybe pizza.
What to do now is to go to the description and get all of the phrases from this lesson, put them in your notebook, write them down, copy them, or use something like Anki to put them into space repetition software so you can learn them over the long term.
Be sure to share this lesson as well.
I love it when people share the lesson with their friends.
Click the like button if there is a like button, and also in the description, take a look at the different resources that I have for you for learning English.
So thank you for being here and I'll speak to you soon.
Bye for now.
