Cookbook Make Over

freedomtowrite (65)modFounderin Inner Blocks • 6 years ago

Since the beginning of our marriage, almost 17 years ago, I've been compiling recipes. Lots and lots of recipes.

It all started as wedding presents. I must have gotten at least 6 different cookbooks. Then as my passion for cooking grew, I received even more! It was amazing. I loved diving into them and learning how to make something brand new with all the foods we loved. My curiosity continued to grow over the years, as well as our love for food.

Then when we chose to go plant based around 2010, my cookbook collection started to become obsolete. The majority of them focused on meat based meals and dairy rich desserts, even though they were delicious, they just didn't apply anymore. And although I was starting to become pretty fluent in recipe conversions for baking, I desperately needed new ideas and some inspiration. The whole standard of American cuisine follows the guideline of meat plus veg side dishes. So, how many times could I use a can of black beans as the “main course” before we never wanted to see another bean in our lives? Haha

Fortunately for us, the internet was in full swing, and the Age of the Food Bloggers had begun!

Once I realized we weren't the only plant heavy eaters out there, and I began Googling recipes...the world opened up! Thus, my own cookbook was born.

Over the past decade, I have compiled well over 50 recipes and created a few of my own. I have found amazing, talented, dedicated cooks like Chocolate Covered Katie, The Minimalist Baker, Nora Cooks and so many more that have made this journey fun and exciting. I've learned so much from them.

At first, all of my recipes started in a little basket I kept in the kitchen. It worked really well with my variety of notepad paper, but as I started printing out full recipes or grabbing whatever I could get in the moment, anything from notebook paper to construction paper, the little basket was getting really flooded. So, to fix this I bought a three ring binder with the plan of properly typing up the recipes, hole punching, and then organizing...maybe even getting protective sleeves for each recipe! I know, right...sooo amazing! In the meantime though, I used manila folders to categorize each recipe into Dinner, Breakfast, Bread and Desserts, and then stuffed them into the binder.

Although it wasn't ideal, this method lasted way long then I intended. Then something truly exciting happened.

We are currently staying in a house that a friend of ours owns, they had moved from here about a year ago. He and his wife have been amazing and generous letting us bug out here while our country continues to respond to the corona virus. Well, as a way to give back, we did a mass clean out of the house. Amongst all of the left behind treasure, there were two totes full of school supplies from the wife's days in nursing school. And in those totes, I found a fun teal three ring binder and...wait for it...and full box of protective sleeves!

What?!

Dang, I was so excited. And so just like those morning talk shows that pluck a tired looking, middle aged woman from Nebraska, who is rocking an over sized t-shirt and leggings from the crowd, I hatched a plan to give my cookbook a much needed...long over due make over!

This had to be done in style though. So the Dreamer and I put on some Harry Potter, the Yeti made a fresh pot of coffee, and we sat down on the living room floor, sprawling the inners of my beloved recipes everywhere.

Initially, I had wanted to type all of them to make them easy to read, but the Artist said it wouldn't be the same without my handwriting. It freakin' melted my heart, so as long as the page wasn't covered too much in food splotches or my writing too faded, we slipped them into their own sleeve.

It took us one Goblet of Fire, with a lunch break, to get it all together. It's beautiful.