Finding Joy in the Kitchen: 17 Cookbooks

It wasn’t until recently that I began enjoying making home cooked meals. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always had a small list of go-to meals that are easy to prepare and are fairly healthy- mainly salmon or chicken breast with roasted veggies- but I didn’t truly enjoy cooking the way I’ve started to find myself doing.

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In the past few months I’ve begun taking a greater interest in making food at home and embracing the idea of making more homemade dinners and meal-prepping healthy lunches and found that I’m enjoying building my culinary skills. In less than 2 months I’m going to be married and part of me loves the old-school ideology that the wife takes care of the family in regards to making home cooked meals in the kitchen. I’ve found that the ‘she cooks, he cleans’ mentality provides balance in the division of duties as a couple, although I do try to clean up as I go since we don’t have a lot of counter space in our apartment kitchen.

As my fiancé and I discussed where we wanted to register for gifts and what we wanted to put on them, I began thinking about the ways that home cooked food brings people together and the fact that I wanted to broaden my repertoire of recipes. Cooking at home is not only good for the soul, but the fact that you control what goes into your food is so important when you’re trying to eat healthy nutritious food.

With much excitement, we registered at Crate & Barrel, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Amazon for an assortment of kitchen appliances, baking ware, serving ware, beautiful glasses for the bar, kitchen gadgets, and lots of cookbooks. Aside from the gorgeous turquoise Kitchen Aid mixer my mom got me, I was most excited about getting cookbooks, and I’ve already begun browsing through the books to find new favorite recipes.

If you’re interested in seeing which cookbooks I got, feel free to check out the list below. I’ve also included a few cookbooks that I purchased for myself in the weeks leading up to the bridal shower that I simply couldn’t wait to read in addition to books I’d already bought or been given.

Over time you’ll start seeing more recipes pop up here on my blog to inspire you to find your own joy in the kitchen. I won’t be sharing the full recipes from the books but I will share my recipe wins, fails, and additional tips or adaptations that I made and how they turned out. Next week I’ll be sharing my tips on making the perfect rack of lamb, adapted from The Shredded Chef cookbook by Michael Matthews and following that I’ll be sharing about the mushroom soup recipe from Chrissy Teigen’s first cookbook Cravings.

Notable Cookbooks on my Shelf:

Cookbooks I registered for and got as gifts:

The Skinnytaste Cookbook: Light on Calories, Big on Flavor by Gina Homolka
Eat Beautiful: Food and Recipes to Nourish Your Skin From the Inside Out by Wendy Rowe
Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat by Chrissy Teigen
Damn Delicious: 100 Super Easy, Super Fast Recipes by Chungah Rhee
The Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook: Easy Recipes for Fast & Healthy Meals by Laurel Randolph
The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook: 650 Recipes for Everything You’ll Ever Want to Make
Giada’s Feel Good Food: My Healthy Recipes and Secrets by Giada De Laurentiis
Cooking Light Complete Cookbook

Cookbooks I bought leading up to my shower:

One Pan, Two Plates: More than 70 Complete Weeknight Meals for Two
The Shredded Chef: 125 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy by Michael Matthews
Magnolia Table: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering by Joanna Gaines
Real Life Dinners: Fun, Fresh, Fast Dinners by Rachel Hollis
Instant Pot Miracle: From Gourmet to Everyday, 175 Must-Have Recipes
Smart Meal Prep for Beginners: Recipes and Weekly Meal Plans for Healthy, Ready-to-go Meals