I’ve been talking a lot this year about cookbooks – it all started when I finally got the Cravings cookbook by Chrissy Teigen… and ordered her second one while I was still reading the first one. I’ve been following cooking blogs for a while for recipes and Skinnytaste has always been on my radar, so I also ordered the One & Done cookbook. From there… it’s been a slippery slope! I’ll talk more about each cookbook and how I came to acquire them below but basically I’ve turned to them more so than Pinterest. It’s been fun to get into something new and meal plan from them instead! I came up with the idea that in general, I’ll pick one cookbook each week to pick 6-7 recipes from and use as the basis for our meals (I’ve done similar things in the past with Cravings and Skinnytaste). I’ll rotate through all of them to make sure everyone gets used and enjoyed! I posted some polls on Twitter and Instagram for which to start with and ended up picking Half Baked Harvest Super Simple from the results. I’ll probably share more about this experience later, but for now – I thought it would be fun to give you guys a rundown of the recent cookbooks I’ve acquired and my thoughts so far as if these are book reviews. First, what do I personally want in a cookbook? (1) I want recipes that are unique and interesting enough where there aren’t a […]

I talk a lot on my blog about recipes, Weight Watchers/calorie counting, and meal planning/prepping. It’s something that makes me really happy – I have an addiction to grocery shopping and planning my meals according to new recipes or cookbooks. I will tell you that in 2020 excessive grocery buying is both a privilege and unfortunately necessary at times. People have been stockpiling toilet paper since March. I’m not that bad, but I find myself buying a new can of something every time I use it even if I have four more in the pantry. Anyways, I wanted to put all that on the table and give you a glimpse into some of my tips, planning, and recipes lately. Meal Planning Cookbooks I love buying cookbooks and flipping through them multiple times, planning meals and jotting down ideas. When I first got the Cravings cookbooks, I made A TON of meals in a row from them. I tried to do something similar when I got the Skinnytaste One and Done book (and I just got Skinnytaste Fast and Slow). In my opinion, you can never have too many of them. There’s a ton of variety out there. If I’m in the mood for a Crockpot recipe during busy weeks, I can pull multiple books and check what recipes are easy for dump and go. It’s nice to not rely on Pinterest all the time too. Meal Planner Book and Fridge Pad I’ve been using the Skinnytaste Meal Planner notebook for […]

Like everyone during quarantine, we’ve been doing a lot of cooking and baking! It’s been so fun to find new meals, work with what we have, and bake tasty (well-deserved) treats. I was inspired by Communikait and her “what I’m eating lately via my iPhone” posts. They’re simple photos of meals she’s had and a little description about the recipe. I made a lot of Cravings recipes since my last What I’m Eating Lately, which were in a dedicated post, but we’ve made a lot of other things in between that will be included here. I’ll also be including more Cravings recipes since that roundup!  I bought some fresh lobster from my friend’s dad’s seafood shop/deli a month or two ago because Chris was craving lobster pasta. We have a favorite local spot that has a suuuuper creamy lobster pasta – it’s really good but just too much sometimes. I decided to do a really simple and light one with butter, lemon juice, crushed red pepper, etc. This was our Cinco de Mayo meal of chimichangas with all of the usual dips and sauces. I think I shared this back then but whatever. I also made jalapeno margaritas, which were so delicious. We’ve gotten in the habit of making tasty, huge breakfasts on the weekend since we don’t usually have plans right away. This was a huge, loaded breakfast sandwich that we made a month or so ago. It was so tasty. We made our first journey out to a really tasty ice cream […]

It’s not a secret that we’ve been super into cooking and baking lately, so I decided to go ahead and finally purchase the Cravings cookbook by Chrissy Teigan. After legit hugging it all weekend, reading the recipes and her funny stories, listing the recipes I could make from what I have on hand, and meal planning over the upcoming weeks, I decided we should do a full day of Cravings recipes to kick off this new obsession. I also immediately bought her second cookbook, FWIW. Some recipes come from book one and some are book two! It’s interesting timing as well because I had drafted this post a couple of weeks ago, not realizing that Chrissy Teigan would end up with a shitstorm of nonsense. I’m happy to make this post now so hopefully you can see the tasty recipes she’s developed all by herself and with her mother. Everything we made has been utterly delicious and just a slight step up from what I might usually make, meaning it challenges me enough to feel like I’m learning something new and trying something super tasty… while not being too overwhelming. These two cookbooks are exactly what I’m looking for in a cookbook, basically. A Sunday of Cravings Breakfast I started Sunday with her Dutch Baby Pancake, which is truly one of the easiest breakfasts I’ve made. Way easier than normal pancakes! You need a cast iron skillet or oven-safe pan and some basic pancake ingredients. You blend it together, pour it […]

Like everyone during quarantine, we’ve been doing a lot of cooking and baking! It’s been so fun to find new meals, work with what we have, and bake tasty (well-deserved) treats. I was inspired by Communikait and her “what I’m eating lately via my iPhone” posts. They’re simple photos of meals she’s had and a little description about the recipe. We made deep dish pizza in a springform pan after watching a video on all the ways to make pizza – it was so fun! I used the classic WW two-ingredient dough (I had to do a 1.5 cup version, using that much flour and yogurt) to get the right amount to fill the pan. I baked the dough in the pan for about 20 minutes around 425 to get it crispy first. I then added my (already warm from the crockpot) homemade marinara sauce (fit about 1.5 cups of sauce too), mixed in chopped pepperoni, and topped with cheese. I put it back in on a higher temperature until the cheese was warm. So good! Yes, I went and made the whipped coffee to try! Without a hand mixer I definitely would never have bothered whisking forever and ever. I used vanilla almond milk on the bottom and the same ratio as everyone else for the top (2 tbsp instant coffee, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp hot water). The pictured coffee had less sugar to try to be healthy but that was a big mistake lol. I made french toast one morning because we had […]

I’ve followed Skinnytaste for a long time now because her recipes are so dang good and healthy! She was a go-to when I was doing WW because she includes the points (and calories, which helps me now) for her meals. I’ve always kept an eye on her weekly FREE meal plans and debated trying one out. There often was a meal or two that didn’t look great to me, or I didn’t want to buy all the groceries, or whatever other excuse I could come up with. I finally decided, after my grocery challenge was over, that I would follow a week of her meal plan for Chris and I to eat. I figured my house was fairly empty of food and waiting for a real grocery trip, so why not? I looked at the most recent meal plan at the time (she had it slated for 2/24-3/1 but I started it on 3/2 instead, since I was finishing my grocery challenge at the end of the month). Most of the recipes looked good to us, with only two really “out of our comfort zone” but not bad! I’ve never made a creamy soup before or cooked with tofu, but we were open to trying them out. This was the perfect meal plan to begin with. Here’s how I approached it and how it went! Prepwork I printed out the recipes, calendar, and grocery shopping list for the week and started looking it over. She has it set up so […]

Because I’ve cooked a LOT of great things in the last 1-2 months, I thought I’d do a little round-up here instead of having a million things in the food section of Lauren Lately. My favorite thing to do while cooking is make things as easy as humanly possible, so most of these recipes will be super simple, as the header suggests 😉 Homemade Crunchwrap Supremes | I found a WW-friendly version of this recipe and it was so good! I tried to buy tostadas online because no store carried them locally, and then they got crushed in transit. I made homemade ones with small tortillas and they were just as good! Buffalo Chicken Chili | God this was amazing; I already want to make it again. I’ve been seeking out Crockpot and Instant Pot recipes like crazy and this one was a major win. I ended up using HALF the amount of cream cheese it called for to make it a little lighter and it was still super creamy and delicious. Chai lattes at home | I was in the mood to get something nice and cozy for the weekends, instead of only having hot chocolate, so I grabbed this one from Target. It’s sugar free so the only WW points are for mixing it with milk, and I use skim milk anyways. SO GOOD! Blue Steak Wraps | This is a simple recipe that I was itching to make to use up the million containers of blue cheese I somehow acquired. It […]