What's on My Kitchen [Book]Shelf?

My cookbook shelf, that is.

I've been bringing home bagfuls of cookbooks, unloading them onto the kitchen table, and leafing through them like crazy, and realized I neglected my own. Since my last cookbook shelf look-in back when the blog first started (in 2011!), my lifestyle, diet, and tastes have changed considerably.

Since then I've weeded (library term!) my cookbooks because I need space for my beloved new ones. I kept a handful of them, and boxed up the rest for our next yard sale, making plenty of space for the countless number of newbies on my list of need-to-buy SOON. Among those headed out the door were the Cookies, Bars, and Brownies and the Fast Fixes with Mixes because, let's face it, I don't use box mixes. I make desserts from scratch. I try with every being in my body to avoid the chemically processed stuff like cream of "whatever" soup and soup mixes. Instead I make these items from scratch and store in my pantry, so when a recipe suggests these toxic ingredients, I readily pull out my homemade versions. As for the sweets cookbook, I have enough pinned desserts that I won't even know it's gone.

Within my old favorites, I've noticed I haven't thumbed through my old favorite, The 1,000 Best Recipes, nor The Chocolate and Coffee Bible. This makes me sad and I hope to remedy this very soon. There are some wonderful recipes in those cookbooks, sinful desserts and rich dishes just waiting to be made. Over the past few years, I learned how to replace ingredients with healthier-better-for-you ingredients. This will help when I do dig out my old favorites.

My latest additions include Pioneer Woman's first and second cookbooks. This woman is just fabulous, and I loved tuning into her show on The Food Network, but now I just satisfy myself with her blog pieces. She's hilarious. And her recipes are just as delicious. I find they're easily adaptable to what meat is on sale that week, the current veggie season, and versatile depending on diet needs.

A few years ago I add The Daniel Fast to my cooking collection, and since then, sadly, I have only tried a handful of its recipes. I am quite determined to submit to a full 21-day Daniel fast at some point, but I want to try more of the recipes first so I will know what I like and have meal ideas at arms length when the time comes.

Back when I had cable I was obsessed with The Chew. What food lover isn't? While it's not my favorite cookbook, there are still quite a few decent and fast dishes in there. Great for weeknights. Oh, and the other Chew books, Food. Life. Fun. and Celebrates the Holidays, are on my list, too. Obviously.

Honestly, my Christmas list year is full of cookbook needs wants.

Just look at all of those tabbed pages. Full of recipes I am excited to try. ASAP. I need to do a "cooking through a [cookbook] month/blog series." Sort of Julie & Julia style. My intentions are there; they're just distracted by Pinterest. Maybe a goal for next year....

Any new cookbooks you added to your collection recently?

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi