I only have a handful of cookbooks.  For the most part, they’ve been collecting dust out in the kitchen, especially since I tend to get most of my recipes off the internet now.

But I decided since I’m going to be cooking a lot (as long as I don’t injure myself anyway), I might as well get some use out of them. 

The very first cookbook I got was one put out by Vegetarian Times, which is a magazine for vegetarians.  I used it a few times, but it’s been collecting dust since 2005 or 2006, mostly because I had no idea what I was doing when I got it.  I didn’t really cook before I got it, other then throwing a few veggie burgers in the microwave.  And I didn’t really do much cooking after I got it either, but it did spark an interest in cooking. 

So fast foward a few years, and I stumbled across Rachael Ray.  I found a copy of her veggie meals cookbook, and decided it was time to make another attempt at cooking.  It started my obsession with Rachael Ray.  I love her!  Okay, so most of her recipes aren’t vegetarian, she has enough vegetarian recipes that I feel okay buying her cookbooks.  Plus, she has a bunch of recipes that I can make vegetarian by swapping out ingredients.  

And the last cookbook I have is a trader joe’s one.  I don’t know if it qualifies as a cookbook, because quite a bit of the book consists of “buy some product that takes 5 or 10 minutes to make, and serve it with some other product that takes 5 or 10 minutes to make.”  There were some good recipes in it, but the fact that a good 2 or 3 sections read as a meal plan, instead of an actual cookbook turned me off from it.     

The Rachael Ray ones are probably my favorites, and the ones that get the most use, although I am willing to give the Vegetarian Times one another shot, especially now that I have a tad more cooking experience.  I’m definitely going to have to do some menu planning now, but that’s okay, because it’ll help me figure out what I need and all.  I’m debating whether or not to post reviews of the cookbooks, but it’ll be a while before I get through enough of the recipes to actually do a review.  If I do decide to review them, they’ll be posted here.