I don’t know about you, but I tend to use cookbooks as a source of inspiration. They’re great for flipping through and maybe choosing a recipe – they never quite end up getting used as much as I hope.

To this end, I challenged myself to actually use some of my collection. Here’s what I did:

1. Choose a cookbook
2. Go through and note all the recipes that you’d like to try. Including the page number is helpful so you can find it again.
3. Designate a week (or whatever time frame makes sense for you) and put the recipes into a meal plan.

Bonus points for setting up a kanban board where you track which recipes you wanted to try, which ones need another iteration, which ones are keepers, and which ones should never be tried again. 😀

I initially used sticky notes to mark recipes but that didn’t prove helpful. However, it was nice to already have a sticky note on hand to write down changes/conversions/substitutions as well as future iterations.

I made it through four cookbooks in my collection and found a number of recipes that are going into regular rotation. Quick & Easy Paleo Comfort Food (pictured at the top) had the most winners, with the cauliflower soup and red curry chicken being particular standouts.

I’m thinking of tackling some Jamie Oliver cookbooks next, with a particular emphasis on finding interesting ways to serve veggies. Any suggestions?