UNITED STATES – In 2025, there is room for improvement. That room is the kitchen. Second only to people’s places of work, it hosts a good chunk of their waking hours – making it a natural focal point of annual resolution-making.

Maybe in 2024, you aspired to more baking, more meatless cooking or simply more cooking. If you need ideas for the new year, below are two goals, shared among members of The New York Times Cooking and Food staff, along with recipes to keep you on track for success.

Waste less food

Before you make yet another trip to the grocery store, shop the fridge and pantry for end-of-week soups, fritters and sauces to ensure nothing goes to waste, and to keep you from buying more ingredients at risk of a garbage-can fate.

Use up easy-to-waste refrigerator door staples like tomato paste in minimal-ingredient recipes that rely heavily on dried goods and take well to substitutions, but do not fret so much about the shelf life of nearly expiration-proof items like miso. Store fresh produce properly to extend its life as long as possible, and make use of carrot tops, kale ribs, citrus peels and herb stems elsewhere in your cooking.

Samin Nosrat’s Whatever You Want Soup provides a foolproof template for using leftover bits and bobs of meat and vegetables accumulated during the week, particularly in cool weather, when all you want is a big bowl of something warm.

Eat breakfast

Amid the ceaseless demands of modern living, breakfast suffers. Two ways to make it easier? Rely on ultrafast dishes and prepare ahead at virtually no expense to your schedule.

Sarah DiGregorio’s slow-cooker steel cut oats will burble away as you sleep, ready before you have even switched on the coffee pot. In the morning, finish them off with any combination of brown sugar, nuts, honey, fruit, jam or marmalade for a sweet bowl, or tahini, fried shallots, chile crisp, cheese or pickled onions for a savoury one.

Recipe: Whatever You Want Soup by Samin Nosrat

This basic recipe can serve as a canvas for any kind of chunky soup. Mix and match ingredients to suit your cravings, using an aromatic base of onions and garlic, seasoning, flavourful stock or water, and whatever main ingredients you choose. Covered in the refrigerator, it will last for up to five days, but it also freezes exceptionally well for up to two months. Just return it to a boil before using.

Ingredients

• 4 Tbs butter, olive oil or neutral-tasting oil
• 2 medium onions, diced