The Joy of Cooking Blogs

Let me tell you a little something about being a wife: your husband expects you to make dinner on a daily basis. Christopher will tell you that in the first weeks of our marriage, he did all the cooking. And I will tell you that he is a liar. Sure, he made the occasional grilled chicken dinner, but for the most part I struggled through a few weeks of meals, including soupy alfredo sauce and chimichangas with a mysterious cinnamon flavor. I wouldn't say I was a bad cook, just an inexperienced one.

My skills have since greatly improved, and I think part of that is because I know how to pick better recipes. For most meals, I turn to the internet for said recipes. Currently, I read three food blogs: Gina's Skinny Recipes, Good Life Eats, and Joy the Baker. They all feature a variety of recipes and wonderful photography. Without them, I honestly don't know where my cooking skills would be.

Gina's Skinny Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili -- cheesy, hearty and soooo easy to make.

Gina's Skinny Recipes is the blog I turn to the most for every day, healthy dinner recipes. It's marketed as a Weight Watchers dieting blog, so serving size, calories, point values, and other nutrition facts are listed with each recipe, which is really handy even if you're not dieting. Some of her ingredients are a little tricky to find locally... broccoli rabe, for example, or imported cheese that was $20 a wedge at Kroger. Regardless, everything I have tried has turned out delicious, and with minimum headache. The the no-sodium Baked Seasoned Fries are incredible... I make them several times a month. I also recommend the Spinach Lasagna rolls, Coconut Chicken Salad, and the Shrimp Zucchini Pasta.

Santa Fe Chicken Salad Wraps from Good Life Eats

I recently found Good Life Eats via my Google Reader suggestions. From what I've seen, this website is chock-full of family friendly recipes. I'm really looking forward to making the Santa Fe Chicken Salad Wraps as soon the avocado sitting on my counter ripens up. Author Katie Goodman is also working on a new series entitled Eat Well, Spend Less which focuses on simple, budget friendly meals. She also has a ton of kitchen tips, like this duotone frosting how-to. Neat. Visual Bonus: her recipes are arranged by thumbnails in categories... hello summer recipes.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes from Joy the Baker. Yes please.

Oh, Joy the Baker. Have you heard of her? Do you know how awesome she is? In all honesty I haven't actually made anything from Joy's blog yet, but I've been drooling over her baked concoctions for a while now (I can thank Abby for this obsession.) Unlike the aforementioned blogs, Joy doesn't exactly promote healthy eating. She has recipes for things like Barbecue Buttermilk Onion Rings and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Toasted Marshmallow Cupcakes. Yeah. She encourages you to eat an entire buttery loaf of Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread. And I'm okay with that. To top it off, her writing style is hilarious and she has cute kitty.

That said, I'm looking to add to my cooking blog collection.... do you have any food blogs you read frequently or have you tried any tasty recipes lately? Care to share?