I’m still talking about that broccoli salad folks.  I don’t feel like I can appropriately move on with life until I tell you about the broccoli salad and what variation I decided on.  There are many variations on a broccoli salad which opened my eyes to this salad.  Broccolli salad is kind of BIG deal.  I found one that would work for me.

I finally decided on the Best Broccoli Salad recipe from Mom on Time Out. I’m not sure why this appealed to me so much.  Maybe because these are ingredients I keep in the house and I wouldn’t be buying extra stuff.  This recipe didn’t call for a lot of cheese either.  Cheese is my kryptonite and I knew we were having heavy food for Christmas so I wanted something lighter.

I made some adjustments to the recipe.  I used some substitutions for stuff I had in the house.  Here are the changes I made:

• Half a cup of light mayonnaise and one cup of plain greek yogurt.
• Turkey bacon instead of regular bacon and I probably used too much.  I had bacon overload.
• Half a cup of stevia which was still too much.  The salad came off overly sweet to me but no one else seemed to matter.
• Instead of toasted almonds, I used sunflower seeds.

In the end, the broccoli salad turned out better than I ever expected and will add this to a rotation.  It’s a nice change from just steamed broccoli.  We eat a lot of steamed broccoli in this house.

Let’s talk about something else now.  I got some serious cookbooks for Christmas and I’m very excited because I want to change up my menus.  I’ve mentioned it over and over about how I eat the same stuff and I need to get into some new food.  Eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring and it doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself of good things to eat.

My main focus is finding new stuff to cook in the pressure cooker and air fryer.  I don’t really use my air fryer the way it should be used.  I want to make meal prep easier and better in the new year.

I’ve had some pushback on my love for cookbooks and I just wanted to explain.  Yes, there are free recipes all over the place.  I use free recipes all the time.  But it’s nice to get a recipe out of the cookbook that has been tested by professionals or sources I trust.  I just like opening up a well-made cookbook and seeing all the colorful pictures.  Call me naive, I just love a good cookbook.

Needless to say, the journey to new menu items is getting real.  This week I am menu planning for these books.  I’m excited to share my new adventures with you guys. I’ll be doing a review of each of these cookbooks as I use them more throughout the year.

When it comes to meal prep, I’ve always gone with ease of prep and convenience.  Meal prep is time-consuming and sometimes just getting done is good enough.  I do know I need to change things up and try some new things.  I’m really hoping these Christmas presents will move me in a new direction.

I know I’ve fallen off of blog streak a few times, but the holiday week has just been so busy.  I may have fallen off but I’m still here.  That just goes to show how important this blog is to me.  Thank you for reading my friends.

When you meal prep, do you go for convenience or the variety of your meal?