My personal addiction

Ok, I have to admit to something.  I have an addiction.  I am addicted to food.  But not in the “eating it” sort of way.  Nope, I’m addicted to viewing food!  I am a food voyeur.  Please don’t take this to mean that I only LOOK at food and have an eating disorder.  That’s not the case at all.  I am healthy and I do eat! 

But, if you have a Facebook account, you definitely have seen photos that your friends have posted of the food they are eating, or about to eat.  It’s become sort of the “thing to do” when dining out.  Nobody can dig in until the appropriate number of photos have been taken and posted to Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and any other social networking site!  Lately I have been noticing videos of “recipes” showing up on Facebook.  They are usually set to music and show very quickly how to put the ingredients together and how the dishes turn out in the end.  They make it all look so easy!  And these all look … A …MAZING!!!

I find myself drooling over these posts! For the photos, I end up searching online for recipes.  And for the videos or the photos that have the recipes attached, I end up “sharing” these ... with myself … through direct messaging!!

I’ve created shopping lists to take to the supermarket for ones I want to try.  But I have to be honest, once I get home I am usually too tired or too hungry to spend the time to actually make the recipes.  So, I grab a quick and easy snack, put the ingredients in the fridge, and usually end up not attempting the recipe afterall.  I know, silly!

I have a bunch of recipe books.  Some that I bought throughout the years, some that were given to me as gifts and others that have been handed down to me from my Mom.  I also have one that I put together myself of recipes I found online, printed out and sorted according to whether they are appetizers, main dishes, sides or desserts. 

While waiting in the cashier line at a store, I am much more likely to reach out for the magazine that features recipes than the one that feature celebrities. I used to get one celebrity magazine delivered to my home, and I had to look up almost everyone in there to find out who they were!  But show me a brisket, flank steak or stew, and I will know just what cut of meat to buy!!

I watch various cooking shows.  NOT the one where that guy ends up yelling at the contestants, and they end up crying.  That’s not about cooking.  That’s about drama!  No thanks.  Not interested in that type of show.  No, the ones I watch are the ones where they take a regular recipe and try to make it healthier, or where they show you how to make things that you thought would be too difficult to take on, but they have a fun, easy way to do something similar.

Well, since I’ve been working from home lately, I’ve actually tried several of these recipes. 

Some have turned out pretty good!  The garlic parmesan potato stacks are AMAZING!!!  And so easy!  But because they are AMAZINGLY delicious I ended up eating the entire batch of them (meant for 4 servings) in one evening!  The quiche also turned out really good!  And it lasted for meals for a whole week for me. Which is good and bad, because I get bored with eating the same thing.  Next time, maybe I’ll try mini-quiches that I can freeze.

Others have turned out, well, not as good. The slow cooker stuffed peppers came out pretty good I guess, but they need more spices than the recipe called for.  But that’s a personal preference.  I’ve been putting lots of hot sauce on them as I eat them.  And next time I make them, I’ll add the necessary spicing to the recipe.

The mini apple tarts that look like roses seemed fantastic in the video, but they were NOT easy to make!!  The apple slices kept breaking, the pastry dough didn’t roll out easy, nor roll up easy once all the ingredients were laid out.  So they fell apart a bit.  But as for taste …. O..M..G!!!  Another one that was too tempting to each just one serving!!

It’s been fun experimenting and I have a whole bunch more to try out!  I am really enjoying being more than just a food voyeur!  But I know that once I go back to working full time, I’m going to go back to just having the time and patience to “view only”.  It will be somewhat sad to not be able to try out all these wonderful recipes I see online.  But at the same time, it’s going to be MUCH better for my waistline!!