The Overwhelming World of Internet Recipes

You guys. I have 825  recipes favorited  on foodgawker at the moment. Eight hundred and twenty-five! Do you know how many of those recipes I have actually made? 25. (Yes I counted, yes I have better things I could probably be doing, but I really needed to know)

That means there are 800 more recipes to try, and that doesn't even count the recipes I've pinned on Pinterest, or the hundreds of other recipes I have bookmarked, or the hundreds of recipes that are being added every week to foodgawker. The world of internet recipes is definitely daunting. There is certainly more content out there than I could ever hope to try my hand at.

I'm feeling inspired to work through some of these recipes that have intrigued me though. I've been thinking a lot lately about my future and what I want to be when I grow up. Jonathan keeps asking me what it is that I would be doing if someone gave me a million dollars, and my immediate answer is always - cook. I love food and I'm most happy when I've spent the entire day in the kitchen trying all kids of different recipes. The flip side is that I'm also really disappointed when a recipe is a total failure - I'm working on that part!

I'm not planning on making any drastic career switches here - engineering is a good place to be plus I have my masters degree I'm still working on - but I do plan on spending a lot more time in the kitchen this summer working through some of these recipes!

That said - here are a few of my more recent kitchen creations inspired by various recipes found on the internet!

{Kale, Apple, & Chickpea Salad}

{Quinoa, Corn, and Black Bean Salad}

{Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Bites}

These are "healthy"!  Made with garbanzo beans, and pretty darn good.

When we left our house in Corvallis, we had a giant dill plant growing. I mean seriously giant, I didn't even know that dill could get that big! I think it was at least as tall as me! We snipped a few bunches off to take with us, so I really needed to find some recipes to use it in. I have also recently become somewhat obsessed with substituting nonfat Greek yogurt for various things like sour cream, mayo, etc. So that's what I did with the following two recipes, used Greek yogurt for sour cream and even half-and-half (yogurt cut with almond milk)!

 {Roasted Potato Salad with Dill}

{Cheddar Dill Scones}

{Cornflake BBQ Tofu}

No recipe for this one - just BBQ baked tofu breaded in cornflake crumbs and baked some more!

{Dark Chocolate Almond Cookies}

I subbed a flax egg, and they are still delicious!

Starting Fresh

So much has been going on here lately! Jonathan accepted a new job, far enough from where we were living that we had to move, we just got back from an amazing European vacation (that's us in Ephesus, Turkey!), and just completed our move! Good thing we're still in Oregon - I don't think I have the creative energy at the moment to rename the blog!

We've left the town of Corvallis, which over the last four years I've actually grown quite fond of. It was a big transition moving to a small college town from Seattle and truth be told I absolutely hated it when I first moved there (and even when I moved there the second time after a short stint in Portland). That all changed when Jonathan and I found the best rental property ever though - a 105 year old restored farm house surrounded by fields, a vineyard, and a horse barn. We had our country house and were still only a 5 minute drive from work and the grocery store (these things are important).

We spent two years there - we built two beautiful garden beds, Jonathan built a chicken coop and acquired two hens, but mostly we learned how to live together as our own little family there. We've left behind a lot of familiarity - a great group of friends, restaurants and bars where we were regulars, the ability to carpool to work and run out for lunch together, among many other things. But we're excited for our new adventure too.

We're just getting settled in our new place in Gresham - about 15-20 minutes outside of Portland. Now if you're familiar with the area at all, you might think I'm nuts for being excited about being in Gresham. It's not exactly known for being the nicest place to live I don't think (noted by the increase in my car insurance premium). But you know what? It's not so bad - I think we're in a pretty good spot, and we're in a nice unit too so that helps. Last Friday was our first "official" night here and we walked across the street to get some pizza for dinner (walking, yay!). Saturday we walked downtown to the farmer's market, which is only a little over a mile away (again - walking, yay!), got lunch at a little cafe, stopped at BB&B to get some spice jars, and joined a gym.

I'm beyond excited that all of these things are within walking distance - even if we are kind of in the suburbs, at least there are a few things around to do! We're also only two blocks away from the MAX which means getting into Portland without driving is entirely reasonable. So you see? It's not really that bad out here! And maybe, with time, I will learn to love it like I did Corvallis!