Cooking has always been something I struggle with (and usually surrender). When we decided to try to eat more seasonally and got a CSA, we upped the pressure. From-scratch meals take much more time and planning, and we can’t just fall back on the old stand-by recipes, because each week we get vegetables that we might not have ever used before.

Food blogs have been essential to figuring out what to do with these vegetables. Yes, I could search through How to Cook Everything Vegetarian or Betty Crocker, but there’s something about the pictures and the personality of blogs that make me want to use the recipes more. And since they’re constantly updated, they’re generally using the same fruit and vegetables that I have on hand, too.

Some of my favorites:

• Cheap. Healthy. Good. The absolute best source for vegetarian recipes, with nutrition facts and prices included.
• The Conscious Shopper. Unfortunately, Erin has stopped blogging here, but there are lots of great (and cheap!) recipes in her archives.
• Sustainable Pantry. Alexa and Matthew also don’t update their blog much anymore, but their archives are great.
• Cheap Like Me. Not entirely a food blog, but it often has veggie recipes.
• Kate Flaim (Girl Reporter). Kate hasn’t had much time for posting since her baby was born, but check out her archives for lots of recipes she made with the veggies from our CSA.
• A Year of Slow Cooking. Three years later, this blog is still going, with lots of easy crock-pot recipes.
• Healthy Slow Cooking. Lots of crock-pot recipes that Kathy’s developing for a cookbook.
• Change.org. Their Meatless Mondays feature always has easy vegetarian recipes.
• Eat. Drink. Better. Lots of seasonal recipes mixed in with bigger-picture info about food.
• Stone Soup. While I haven’t made any of these recipes yet, they look good, and each one is preceded by interesting food facts.

Wow. You’d think with all these resources I’d have no trouble cooking more often. I guess sometimes I fall prey to the Food Network illness—being entertained watching other people cook rather than doing it myself.

Any food blogs you like?

One year ago: Why I Switched to an IUD