I love food. I love healthy food. But sometimes I need food inspiration. I would like to turn to my four big sources of food inspiration:
- food websites
- cookbooks
- food in literature
- food movies
This week we will touch on food websites.
First and foremost, there is Pinterest. This is a free online general pinboard where you can create your own page full of albums and “pin” items from anywhere in the internet or from Pinterest itself. It is your all purpose infinite online scrapbook collection. More often than not, it is my first stop when searching for a specific recipe. Sometimes I just need inspiration and will just scroll through my own extensively curated food albums. It takes about 5 minutes for me to go from unmotivated to excited when I check Pinterest.
Other general resources are food.com, foodnetwork.com, and epicurious.com. Of these, epicurious is my favorite. That is because it is a knowledge rich site. Sure, it has gorgeous graphic design and photography. Additionally, it is well organized and is geared to someone who truly wants to learn to cook well. There are numerous tips, tricks and educational resources. There is also a free membership, and this enables readers to collect their favorite recipes on the site. Epicurious is a site I have used for years, but apparently it won a Webby award in 2015 for best site in the food and drink category.
AmericasTestKitchen.com and CooksIllustrated.com get the highest marks for being instructional, but they lack the high style and visual appeal of epicurious.com. If you want to understand technique, or the science behind cooking, go here.
Saveur.com deserves mention as an old and fascinating resource. The magazine has been one of my favorites for many years. Saveur is distinguished by its philosophy of setting food into it’s cultural and geographic context. Reading Saveur is a good bit of culinary armchair travel. To introduce you, check out their page on the best culinary blogs of 2015:
http://www.saveur.com/saveur-blog-awards-2015-voting-closed
I should say that there are many beautiful websites and blogs out there which I will not showcase. That is because I am going to try to highlight sites which feature healthier cuisine. Many of these are vegetarian or vegan. I will include them, since current evidence based guidelines recommend we consume more plant based foods. However, I will also feature Paleo sites, which I believe are even better.
The Paleo movement is amusingly misnamed since it has little to do with what Paleolithic people (cavemen) ate. The Paleo diet is devoid of grains and legumes (beans, soy and the like) , as well as modern processed foods and sometimes even dairy. There are many versions of the Paleo diet. At its worst, it is trendy nonsense. At its best, it is allergen free, and rich in healthy animal proteins, healthy fats, and nutrients and fiber from fruits and vegetables.
A new favorite for me is Paleo Magazine. A good place to start is their list of the top 10 Paleo Blogs on the Web:
https://paleomagonline.com/top-10-paleo-blogs-on-the-web-2014/
My favorite on the list is Nom Nom Paleo.
I would also like to mention an important site on Paleo food which goes into a fair amount of medical science. This is
It’s young author Russ Crandall had a life threatening bout with autoimmune disease. The Paleo diet helped in his recovery. He is medically literate and goes to some length in his books to explain the connection, which is that in some people, the Paleo diet can help reduce intestinal hyperpermeability and inflammation.
I am going to conclude with a couple other specific favorites. First is the “eat" section of Greatist.
Their site is beautiful and evidence based. Finally, there is
For sheer beauty, you should go here.
I hope, from now on, the question “ What should we have for dinner ?" is a pleasure rather than a pain.