I previously confessed that my favorite show is The Bachelor. Well today I am making another confession. I grew up an extremely picky eater. I ate pasta and sauce, mac and cheese, and chicken nuggets on rotation and not much else. I refused fruits and vegetables and I could never eat dinner at a friend’s house because their dinner was never something I would eat. My poor mom. With all of that said, only recently have I started making strides in the eating department. I have always struggled with migraines and I am allergic to anti-inflammatories (ie: Advil). One day, after being fed up with yet another headache, I looked up natural anti-inflammatories and read all about foods that have anti-inflammatory properties. This started my journey into cooking my own meals at home to reduce the inflammation in my body without medication. I am not perfect and I still have a long way to go, but cooking this way and just making my own meals in general, has helped me immensely.
During a recent class workshop, my classmate Julia suggested a list of ‘quick reads’. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to share some of my favorite food blogs. Everyone right now is cooking more at home and these bloggers are great resources of inspiration and expertise.
Danielle Walker is a food blogger and cookbook author whose niche is gluten-free and grain-free cooking. I was drawn to her because she started cooking this way when she developed an autoimmune disease and she made changes to her diet to improve her health. In addition to sharing recipes, she openly shares about her family life, holiday preparation, and self-care ideas. During the past few weeks of quarantine, she has done a Halloween week, Thanksgiving week, and Christmas week with her kids and is sharing all of her ideas on her blog and Instagram page. I love checking her page everyday; yesterday she even put up a Christmas tree (!!!).
Ali Martin features traditional, comfort food on her blog in an approachable and refreshing way. She will post recipes that are relevant to the current season and uses bright, colorful photos. Ali’s photos are so distinguishable that you can tell a recipe is hers from one glance. I have made so many of Ali’s recipes including chicken alfredo and BBQ chicken. I love that she streamlines recipes and uses clean(er) ingredients.
I love Laura Lea’s online presence! She is very in the moment on her Instagram stories as opposed to prerecorded, which is refreshing. She will walk you through experimental lunches or late night dessert cravings. A few weeks ago, Laura released a cookbook and I cannot wait for it to come in the mail! I made her Air Fryer Buffalo Cauliflower last week and it was delicious.
I am so appreciative of bloggers who are still producing content during the past couple of weeks. It helps me maintain some level of normalcy to my day. Reading, preparing, and cooking meals has been a fun and creative outlet and thankful for food bloggers for their informative and motivating posts! Happy Reading!
Emily's Bookshelf 
Food is such a fascinating topic to me. As a kid, I also wanted to eat the same types of foods over and over again. But as time goes on, tastes change. I used to hate broccoli and love mac n’ cheese, and now I love both together in a broccoli mac n cheese casserole. Anyway, I’ll have to check out these new food reads! Thanks for sharing.
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