And yet another blog...

So I thought I'd try my hand at blogging again.  I have started blogs before, and usually more and more time goes by between post to the point where the blog gets deleted.  :)

I decided that since most of my posts on Facebook end up being about food or cooking for my family, I would just join the throngs of others with food blogs.  So here I am.

Of course, when you start a blog, you have to have that awkward first blog post.  I figured I would just share with everyone some of my favorite cooking "tools"...things that have helped me be a better provider of food for my family.  So here it goes:

1) Allrecipes.com.  This is my go-to website for recipes.  Of course, I check out all sorts of blogs, but Allrecipes.com is usually my first place to look.  I usually sort my search result by "rating" and go with a recipe that's been rated 5 stars or as close to that as I can get.  It helps to read the reviews too, because people often give helpful hints and tweeks for the recipe.

2) Plan to Eat  This is my meal planning site.  Meal planning makes a world of difference for busy moms, allowing you to put real food on the table when life is crazy.  I found this site over 2 years ago, and it has significantly improved the way I cook.  Plan to Eat lets you store your favorite recipes (and you can easily import recipes from other websites), drag and drop them into a calendar, and then create a shopping list.  It has tons of other features as well, but it would be enough even if it did only those three things.  You can try it free for 30 days with no commitment at all (no credit card, nothing to cancel at the end of your trial period).

3) Bountiful Baskets  This is my latest discovery.  It is a produce co-op that is available in several states, and it is a fantastic way to get high quality produce at a great price.  Conventionally grown baskets are $15 and organic baskets are $25.  You never know what your baskets will contain, but they usually contain 5-6 fruits and 5-6 vegetables. There are also a variety of special add-on packs that are available each week at really reasonable prices. Ordering is every week in some locations and every other week for others (unfortunately, I can only get baskets every other week at my locations).  There is no long term commitment involved as with some co-ops. You can contribute for individual weeks as you wish.  I love that my family is getting to experience some new foods that they've never tried before, and I love cooking with new foods as well.  I'm sure most of you have seen my pictures, but I'll post a picture of everything we got this last weekend.  Such pretty fruits and veggies (plus a pack of 7 dozen tortillas and a 25 lb bag of wheat berries, in case you were wondering what the things on each end were)!