how I learned to love cooking

Growing up I never cooked. Time and time again my mom would try to get me in the kitchen to make dinner for the family and while I did when I had to, I never volunteered or really enjoyed doing it (sorry mom!).

When I moved out and got married however I suddenly became the person making dinner most of the time due to our schedules. While I have definitely learned to enjoy cooking the one thing I hate the most is deciding what to make. When it comes to food I am not super creative, I like having a recipe to follow and ingredients in the cupboard and I am not a person to come up with things on my own.

Fortunately that is where cookbooks come in handy. I love that other people are able to come up with recipes that I can input into my own life and I can trust that it is going to be good. While I do have a few of my own recipe books, including some of the traditional Mennonite ones that have been passed down for generations I love getting cookbooks out from the library. They let me try out cuisines and recipes without spending money on the book, and if I find enough in a particular book that I love I may end up purchasing it.

As I described in my post talking about How I Prep for Crazy Weeks I love to meal plan. I don’t want to get home at the end of a long day and then figure out what to make for dinner so I do that all on Sunday. I love to sit down with a few of my favourite cookbooks, and some new ones from the library and figure out what we are going to eat for the week.

Lately I have found myself reaching towards vegetarian and vegan cookbooks as my husband and I have starting eating a more “flexitarian” diet and I want to find more foods that don’t rely on meat. (If you want to read more about our decisions and our version of flexitarianism you can check out his blog post here).

Here are a few of the cookbooks that I have been loving lately (and some of the recipes I love making in them):

• Oh She Glows Everyday by Angela Liddon
  • Thai Crunch Salad
  • Chickpea Coconut Curry
• The Savvy Cook by Izy Hossack
  • Carrot Raisin Breakfast Bread
  • Eggplant, red lentil curry
• Yum and Yummer by Greta Podeski
  • Fish Tacos
  • Chicken Pot Pie Soup
• Vegan Comfort Classics by Lauren Toyota
  • Fudgy Brownies
  • Sweet Potato Gnocci (hoping to make this soon)

Do you like to cook? What do you like cooking and where do you get your recipe inspiration from?