5 Online Recipes that I Tried and LOVED!

Now that it’s summer, I have more free time on my hands. For me, this means that I have the time to prepare healthier meals for myself and refrain from eating out or ordering food delivery. This week, I’m sharing 5 different recipes that I found online and tried myself. Let me know if you have favorite cooking blogs (or if you run one yourself!) in the comments below.  

The photos below are from my own attempts at replicating each dish. These recipes are from cooking blogs, user-contributed recipe sites, and Youtube cooking videos.

1. Ginger Salmon from Budget Bytes

I’m in the process of trying to get my omega-3 intake through foods instead of supplements, and salmon is always a good source of omega-3. I usually bake salmon instead of searing it on the stove, and I like having a glaze to keep the salmon from being too dry. I like searching for recipes on BudgetBytes in particular because the blog has a function for changing the serving size in the recipe to reflect accurate amounts of ingredients and estimated prices.

 

2. One Pan Shrimp Pasta from Gabie Kook

I have previously mentioned this dish in a post earlier this year, but Gabie Kook’s YouTube videos, especially her one-pan dishes series, are very easy to follow! Plus, it also helps that she is a professional chef with professional training in France earlier in her career. I love eating pasta and the garlic-y taste, so this dish was a “must cook” for me. Aside from watching her in order to replicate her recipes, her soothing voice makes watching any of her videos enjoyable. **Note nearly all of her videos are in Korean with English subtitles. Gabie Kook is a Korean YouTuber currently living in London.

 

3. Glowing Spiced Lentil Soup from Oh She Glows

Lentils have been one of those ingredients that I have always wanted to learn how to prepare. A friend of mine shared this cooking blog with me a while back so it led to me sifting through different recipes. For this specific recipe, I like that most of the ingredients can be found at home and are very easy to find in stores. After making lentils for the first time, I think I’ll try to incorporate more lentils into my diet.

 

4. White Chicken Chili from ExtraPetite

Aside from just being my favorite fashion blogger, Extrapetite (or Jean Wang) also posts recipes on a sporadic basis. Most of the recipes she shares are very simple and easy to follow. In the photo above, you can see that I deviated from her recipe on the website; I added spinach and used 1 can of black beans along with 1 can of white beans. Since making it for the first time in January, I have been making this dish pretty regularly since I can batch cook for weekly meal prep.

 

5. Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls peanut sauce from Chowhound

I’ve also been experimenting with different foods for meals. While my version of the Vietnamese fresh spring rolls is definitely not 100% authentic, I basically just pulled vegetables and meat (carrots, mint, shrimp, bacon, limes, garlic, vermicelli) that I had on hand to create some semi-healthy spring rolls. I’m in the process of trying to limit my carb intake since I like carbs too much (and overeat them). Making and eating spring rolls slow down my eating and I’m more aware of the carbs I put in my body (1 serving of vermicelli in this case). I used Chowhound’s recipe to just create the dipping sauce. I’m not a big fan of peanut butter, so I substituted it with almond butter. It tastes just as great 🙂

 

That’s it for my 5 recipes for this week’s post! What are some of your favorite dishes for the summer?