You might remember that I mentioned cooking from “paper” (magazine clippings, cookbooks) more in my 2017 food resolutions. Well, I got off to a great start during the month of January.
For the past month, I have outlawed using online recipes for any new recipes my husband or I have made. I must admit that I cheated once using an online reicpe for a farro salad, but, other than that, we’ve stuck to our paper recipes.
This has given us a great excuse to actually use our growing library of cookbooks.
Are you like me and have shelves of beautiful cookbooks that you often forget to use?
If so, there are many ways that you can utilize these wonderful resource books for cooking and exploring new recipes!
- Pick a month and only cook from paper like we did
- Pick a week or month and only cook from 1 certain cookbook
- Make your weekly meal plan from only magazine clippings (I love Real Simple & Bon Appetit for these)
This month of cookbook cooking gave us such a good chance to use what we already had, instead of relying on the instant gratification of online recipes. Obviously, I still love the convenience of online recipes, and I’ve got several that I’ve been waiting until February to try, but it’s nice to switch things up and have a fun challenge.
Some of our favorite cookbooks this month were:
- Dude Diet – I got this one for my husband for Christmas, and it’s a treasure trove of tasty, easy recipes! From turkey burgers to quinoa granola, it’s quite well-rounded.
- Plenty – This one is especially useful if you’re looking to “get back on track” with eating healthy and adding more vegetables to your diet in the new year. Ottolenghi always wows me with his simple use of veggies, spices, greens and yogurt to make something so unique and satisfying.
- Simply Scones – I used this little book my mom gave me years ago to make some killer buttermilk chocolate chip scones this past month. Every scone recipe in here is perfection and takes me back to pleasant memories studying abroad in England.
I was surprised by how many recipes were accessible to me within my twenty-or-so recipe collection. It’s also quite fun to use paper recipes and break your cookbooks in. I spilled some lasagna soup on one of my new cookbooks, but realized that it was just a nice sign of use, even a memory.
How do you remember to cook from your cookbooks?