Amy's Menu Makeover

So my mom is a really good cook and I grew up with delicious home-cooked meals and got to learn a lot about cooking and baking. I feel like I can whip up a few good dishes. And I do love baking treats. I keep ingredients for my favorite desserts on hand at all times (I have more cans of sweetened condensed milk than anything else in my pantry :).)

But I have never considered myself someone who would consider cooking as a hobby or something I really enjoy. I don't read cookbooks for fun and I typically prefer recipes with fewer simpler ingredients. I have just always closed my mind to the possibility of learning how to up my game in the kitchen. I just felt like it was too hard and I didn't want to take the time to learn to get better.

But something has come over me recently where I all of a sudden really want to learn how to cook.... like REALLY. Like the cookbooks that used to intimidate me, the ones that have sat in my cupboard for years where every time I'd pull them out, I'd glance at a recipe and then close the book and put it back in the cupboard, now I say, "bring it on!" I've always been a supporter of eating healthy but I used to think it was hard to find recipes for meals that are healthy AND delicious, but it's actually not hard. And I think it's really important to not only eat healthy but to enjoy what you eat. So in these new recipes there might be a few spices or ingredients that I've never heard of but instead of shying away from those recipes I have this new desire to learn about all those spices or different ingredients and I'm embracing this challenge of learning how to cook healthy and delicious things.

My favorite cookbooks so far are the Cooking Light series. And my mom has enlightened me on The Food Nanny which helps you plan out your weekly menus and has lots of recipes. I really like the idea of picking "themes" for days of the week so you don't have Mexican or Chinese or pasta 3 days in a row. I'm trying to find a system that can help me plan meals so I can buy ingredients for multiple upcoming meals so if I were to buy fresh produce that needs to be used up, I can plan my meals accordingly to use up that fresh produce. If anyone has any advice or recommendations on favorite cookbooks or anything, let me know!
-Amy