2025 Food Trends

It's time for all the yearly wrap-ups, and this one being about our food trends. This past year, I cooked mostly from Meal Prep in an Instant. I tended to half the protein in the recipes, as it was more than we needed, but other than that, I seriously recommend the book. We're not finished with it yet, as I cook based on what we have on hand and what we need, rather than the full meal plan each book. Still, this is a resource I would recommend!

I feel into some ruts with other cooking. Dumpling soups had their moment. My husband ate many varieties of lentil soup for his lunches. Muffins somewhat died off. Pumpkin had more than its moment in the sun (and is still easing its way out). I ate overnight oats almost every day. I got somewhat fixated on Pop-tarts, trying five of the boxed kind and making two from scratch. 

After several all day sourdough projects, I decided using discard is my way to do sourdough. With that, I made A LOT of bagels, as well as some other recipes.

I completed 12 Sally's Baking Challenges.

I did a few Fit Foodie Find Cooking Club Challenges and a few from Budget Bytes. (Neither seemed to be regular.)

I am still kind of over cooking. I guess I really like and dislike it at the same time. It is time consuming and tedious, but it also produces great results. There is something so satisfying about saying, "I made this." And so, because it is both duty and delight, it shall continue, unless the Lord somehow deems otherwise.

2024 Food Trends

Here we go! All the wrap-up posts. I really like reading weekly eats round-ups (hence why I started my "What I Used" series).  Birchwood Pie Project does an annual round-up, and though I cannot report on the specific "best" recipes of 2024, I can tell you about trends in my cooking this year.

I cooked mostly from Good Housekeeping Family Italian Cookbook. Although there are plenty more recipes to cook, I think I am about tapped out on pasta. I have plans to start into a different cookbook for the new year.

I made lots of oatmeal mug cakes. (Many of these were for a special project. We shall see whether or not it sees the light of day.)

I once again cooked a lot of muffins (at least 30 different types).

I made quite a few grilled cheese (35), but we pretty much extinguished our use of tortillas. (Well, my husband had me buy a few packages, but then he stopped even that.)

A new trend is sourdough. My husband is making all of the actual bread, but I am using the discard (8 recipes and counting). 

I completed 12 Sally's Baking Challenges.

I completed 13 Handle the Heat Baking Challenges.

I completed all of the Fit Foodie Find Cooking Club Challenges (6). I also made all but two of the recipes in the protein dessert series (13 recipes).

Cooking gets tiring some times, a lot of times, but it is also an area of exploration and play for me. Thank you, Lord for this gift!

2023 Food Trends

Time for all the yearly round up posts! We will start with this one: things we ate. In the past, we engaged in food trends for an entire year (or years, in the case of tacos!) This year, was more of a seasonal year. 

We did burritos most Tuesdays (but not a new recipe every week-30 new recipes):

Christmas-style beef burritos (Home Chef)

After our Wisconsin cheese fest, lots of grilled cheese and quesadillas (34 new recipes):

Grilled ham and cheese with honey mustard sauce (Tastes Better from Scratch)

Plenty of muffins (More than a recipe a week-69 new recipes), 

Apple banana oat muffins (Sally’s Baking Addiction)

And then lots more mug cakes (More than one a day-424 and counting). 

Orange mug cake (Veltessa)

It's been a good food year. Praise the Lord for His provision!

30 Days of Oatmeal: Cinnamon Blueberry

The Oatmeal Artist introduced me to the loveliness of peanut butter and blueberries with her Nutty 'Nana Berry Oatmeal. For this recipe, however, I didn't have or want the banana. I wanted something that tasted a little more like a muffin. Enter the cinnamon.

I'm not normally a huge fan of blueberries, but creamy sweet and spicy porridge with pops of berry and swirls of rich peanut butter? Count me in! This might be a new entrant to the regular breakfast oatmeal rotation.

Ingredients:

1/2 c quick cooking oats
1 c water
1 t cinnamon
1/2 c fresh blueberries
1 T (or more!) natural peanut butter for topping

Directions:

1. Bring the oats and water to a boil and reduce heat to medium.
2. When oats reach the desired consistency, stir in the cinnamon and add the blueberries.
3. Once the blueberries are warm, transfer the oatmeal to a bowl and top with peanut butter.