to cook or not to cook?

so up until this year i was an oxymoron of sorts. i have a degree in nutrition and i am a registered dietitian but i never cooked. i either didn't have the means to (housesat for a year) or didn't have to (lived with my aunt and uncle for 3 years and she is a gourmet cook so there you go).

the thing is i loved recipes, planning meals, i knew how to cook, i just didn't do it. so when i got married last summer i'll be honest i was a little nervous. luckily i have a husband who loves to cook so with the dozens of cookbooks i own (yes i collect them) we started on our journey.

at first we didn't realize this but after about two months we realized we hadn't made the same recipe twice. so we set a goal for ourself (i'm all about goals) not to cook the same main dish twice our first year of marriage. now this doesn't include breakfast or side dishes but we have been married 9 months and we're on track! we do eat leftovers and we do freeze extra and pull it out on a rainy day, we just don't cook the same recipe twice.

let me tell you it's been so much fun! we are eating healthy, trying to eat local. growing our own herbs, and having a lot of fun together. we've decided that besides our new puppy, cooking might be our only hobby, but we love it!

here are two recent meals we've really liked:

spicy chicken shawarma, pesto whole wheat pasta, and southwest slaw

(who knew what a jicama was?)

delicious!

mushroom-stuffed chicken, short-cut collard greens (minus the bacon), and

honey roasted sweet potatoes

beautiful collards from a local farm and market

a little black dog who prefers to eat collard stems rather than her bone :)

recently we are loving cooking light, ellie krieger (her cookbook is great), alice waters the art of simple food, and blogs of course! so if you cook something good, post it! i still need 3 more months of new recipes :)