Fun in the Kitchen

I finally started cooking. This is a very new chapter in my life. In the past my meals were typicaly of the pizza kind. If I were feeling gourmet I'd throw in a side salad and call it "fancy". But I could no longer avoid the obvious reasons to hunker down and start making some food at home.

For those of you who have even had a 10 minute conversation with me over the past year, you know that the kitchen remodel was a big undertaking. Plus a handful of our wedding gifts were kitchen gadgets that are begging to see the light of day. So it only makes sense that all this new stuff gets used.

More recently though I've given up gluten, dairy, sugar and coffee (gasp!).  That means no more:

Latte's from Starbucks...

...oh how I'll miss those happy pick me ups.  

Pizza from Papa Murphy's, or really any pizza of any kind anywhere...

...it was so convenient and so delicious.

Hot Tomales... 

...pure delight.   

But cooking means you need to have recipes! This is something I was (and still largely am) in dire need of. So I've been hunting for ones that are relatively quick, easy, still might taste good, and that Brian could actually like too.

So far I've lucked out and found a couple good ones. Ones that aren't only good for you, but good tasting.

One of my new faves is the Chicken Raspberry Spinach salad. This even works well as a salad on the go. 

Also liked the Chicken Cucumber-Peach Salsa recipe. It tasted like sitting on a beach in Mexico, who doesn't like that!  

And tonight I'm trying the Cajun Shrimp Mango-Edamame Salad. I have big expectations since it sounds delicious!  

I'm secretly a little bit looking forward to this new phase in my life. I've always loved food, and now I know how to make some it.