You Can't Eat Out Every Night How an old cookbook I wrote 15 years ago suddenly feels very relevant again.

I love eating out.

I love sitting at a bar with a glass of wine. I love finding the little restaurant you weren't expecting to discover. I love travelling somewhere new and working out where to eat when I'm on my own.

And, obviously, quite a lot of what you'll find here on Nicole Takes Flight is about exactly that.

But here's the thing.

You can't eat out every night.

Well, you can. But unless you've got a considerably healthier bank account than I do, I wouldn't recommend it.

Sometimes you're at home.

Sometimes you're tired.

Sometimes you've just come back from a trip and the thought of going to the supermarket is exhausting.

Sometimes you look at the price of dinner for one and think, I'll just make something.

And sometimes you're feeding a family and getting something reasonably nutritious onto the table without spending a fortune is the priority.

Food has become one of those everyday expenses that you really notice. According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, food and non-alcoholic beverage prices were 3.2 per cent higher in July 2026 than a year earlier, while meals out and takeaway were up 4.5 per cent.

So perhaps it isn't surprising that I've been thinking about an old cookbook of mine.

Fifteen years ago, I wrote a cookbook about cans.

It's called What Can I Cook?, ten Cans 10 Ways.

And I sold 2,000 copies.

At the time, I wasn't trying to create some grand philosophy about food. I simply wanted to show that a few inexpensive things from the pantry could be turned into proper meals.

The sort of food you make when you're trying to stretch the grocery budget.

The sort of food you make when there are hungry people in the house.

The sort of food you make when you open the cupboard and think, Right. What can I make with what's here?

Fifteen years later, that idea doesn't seem quite so old-fashioned.

In fact, it might be more useful than ever.

Not every meal needs to be gourmet

I think we sometimes make food much harder than it needs to be.

Instagram has given us beautiful tables, complicated recipes, expensive ingredients and meals that require half a supermarket.

I love all of that.

But I also love dinner that takes twenty minutes and doesn't require a trip to the shops.

There is a place for the beautiful restaurant dinner.

There is a place for a $15 bottle of wine and something good from the deli.

And there is absolutely a place for pasta, rice, eggs, tinned tomatoes and whatever else happens to be sitting in the cupboard.

Good food doesn't have to be expensive food.

And cheap doesn't have to mean miserable.

What I actually like about this old book

Looking back at WHAT CAN I COOK? 10 Cans ten Ways, what I like most is how uncomplicated the idea is.

Start with something inexpensive.

Add a few things you already have.

Turn it into something that feels like an actual meal.

No complicated shopping list.

No pretending you need a completely new pantry every time you cook.

And no shame in using a can.

There is something very satisfying about opening the cupboard, finding dinner in there and knowing you've just saved yourself a supermarket trip — and some money.

And yes, I've updated the book.

The recipes haven't suddenly been reinvented.

I've simply updated the dedication because, well, life changes.

Fifteen years is a long time.

I'm certainly not the same person who wrote the original book.

But the basic idea still holds up.

Actually, I think it holds up rather well.

So I've put WHAT CAN I COOK? 10 Cans ten Ways back on Nicole Takes Flight as a digital download.

And because I still have a very small number of the original books sitting here, I've decided to sell those too.

There are 30 physical copies left.

Once they're gone, they're gone.

Get your copy

Digital edition — $10

Download WHAT CAN I COOK? 10 Cans ten Ways and keep it on your phone, tablet or computer for those nights when you need an easy dinner without spending a fortune.

Original physical book — $15 + postage

I have just 30 copies left of the original printed book.

Fifteen years later, I'm rather enjoying the idea of sending them back out into the world.

GET WHAT CAN I COOK? 10 Cans ten Ways

Digital edition — $10
Original printed book — $15 + postage

Only 30 original copies remain.

VIEW THE COOKBOOK →

And if nothing else, perhaps the next time you're staring into the pantry wondering what on earth you're going to make for dinner, you'll remember:

You don't need to eat out every night.

Sometimes dinner is already in the cupboard.