I'll say right up front. I'm not a food blogger. I envy their ability to create delicious recipes and take perfectly shot images of their final creations. That said, I do like to play around in my kitchen whether it's creating meals I find delicious or trying out recipes I come across. Many years ago my friends were obsessed with sushi. Every time we wanted to go out to eat, sushi was always the dish of choice. Okay, so maybe that slightly had to do with the fish bowl sized cocktail 6 people could share. I couldn't stand fish so I always found myself eating cucumber salad instead.

Truth be told, I have been living off steamed rice bowls for the last month or so. Partly because I don't have to worry about cooking rice perfectly and I can add just about any veggies I want. I've been sticking with greens for the most part because my body desperately needed them with warmer weather increasing daily. But, I think it's time to change things up. Especially because spring is here and finally some of my favorite foods to cook with and eat are now in season. I'm talking mango, corn, spinach, strawberries, pineapple, asparagus and plenty more. There's nothing better than a nice pineapple or mango popsicle on a warm day, am I right? I went in search of recipes that were light, look delicious, and featured some of the seasonal ingredients. 

Okay, real talk. Looking at all of the social media posts of meals couples made on their Valentine's Day dates was barf-inducing. So finally after logging out when I just couldn't take anymore, I went browsing my bookmarks, Pinterest, and Tumblr to create a list of #GOALS for the year. Being single can suck when it comes to cooking because when it comes to purchasing ingredients you have to be really strategic. Most ingredients, if not all, aren't packaged for one so creating a menu of meals has to use whatever I've purchased so it doesn't go to waste. Good news is I learned how to cut the recipe for pancakes for a single serving. 

I won't lie. I think I've probably baked every chocolate chip cookie recipe claiming to be the "best." As a teenager I think I made the classic Nestle Tollhouse recipe so often I had it memorized for many years. Sadly as an adult you begin to realize the chocolate chip/dough ratio is so poor no matter how many chocolate chips you add in. More recently my go-to was the NY Times recipe which uses cake flour and bread flour rather than all-purpose flour. But it has a wait time which is often really hard to abide by when it comes to baking. Eating the dough is rather tempting when it's just sitting there for an extended period of time. Then I moved on to a sea salt chocolate chip recipe I adapted from somewhere else, and made it so much people grew tired of it.

I can't believe that there is less than a week until Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year despite the mountain of stress I put on myself. Yes, I cook an entire Thanksgiving meal (turkey, mashed potatoes, and even pies) all by myself. Everyone else just gets to enjoy their morning watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, eating well thought out light snacks, and, well, watching me like I'm some kind of Food Network cooking show. Then there's my dog who spends the entire afternoon tripping me in the kitchen when she gets tired of watching the post-parade airing of the dog show (okay fine, she's just sleeping).

One of my favorite deserts is a classic chocolate chip cookie. If it's warm even better. I think I've made every recipe for chocolate chip cookies. I have the Toll House recipe memorized. I've tried what the New York Times claims is the best recipe of all time. I've learned nearly every tip and trick to making the best cookies ever. I've even made up my own recipes. I guess I'm a little...obsessed; so naturally when the cookies from the Vanilla Bean Baking Book kept popping up on my Instagram feed I knew I had to give them a try.

Fourth of July is just a few days away. A time where everything to make a great American burger is on sale, so why not make the best at home burger possible? A few weeks back I received Shake Shack: Recipes & Stories as a gift (or bribe to make cheese sauce..either way). Pretty much everyone knows how much I love the Shack or just burgers in general so I was really excited to try to make one of my favorite burgers at home. Truth be told, I wasn't that great at making burgers at home...until now.