This year, I’ve decided to focus on my cooking game. I have a few go to dinner recipes and I think they can be considered decent at best, so when my Monster…I mean Mother-in-Law got me the Magnolia Table cookbook by the one and only Joanna Gaines, I was pretty excited.

Hold the Gluten
I was pleasantly surprised at how adaptable the cookbook was for my gluten free (gf) needs. I’ve simply substituted regular flour for gf flours like Pamela’s or King Arthur. And with a more gf friendly world, I’ve easily found rice pastas and gf substitutes for any needed ingredient.

The only thing better than butter is more butter…
The book has a few lighter options, but this is a cookbook written by a southerner, so butter, cream, and more butter are essential to most recipes-or maybe those are just the meals I’m attracted to.

You Don’t Need to be Martha Stuart
The best part of the cookbook is Joanna Gaines-aka the Beyonce of the homemaking world-uses quick and easy ingredients with the options to be more in depth. If you don’t want to bake a chicken, that’s what rotisseries are for! There was even a recipe with Velveeta. After reading some of these shortcuts, I felt like the little engine that could. So far, I’ve made at least two recipes a week and my cooking game is getting stronger.

So, here’s to 2019! A year full of cooking…and eventually running to burn off the most delicious year yet!