Another “Duh” Moment, Brought To You By BlogHer Food.

I have written about how much fun we have around here, making the family meal plan. Meal planning is not difficult, but it takes time. Then, after you’ve been doing it for a while it takes even more time because even if you come up with creative names for what you’re making and you’re crazy about the recipes you’re using, the desire to come up with new dinner ideas takes over. If you’re a busy person especially, the idea of spending hours combing through cookbooks or searching the web for who-knows-what can be a little overwhelming.

I have a confession. It never occurred to me to regularly follow any food blogs. Officially, I mean, strictly for the purpose of potentially having hundreds–nay, thousands!–of meal ideas at my fingertips.

What am I, an idiot?

Apparently, yes.

My idiocy wasn’t revealed in its entirety (to myself) until this past weekend at BlogHer Food when I was surrounded by food bloggers whose entire purpose has something to do with a desire to share recipes accompanied by beautiful pictures, hoping that their readers will recreate them in their own kitchens.

I am also confused by my lateness to the game because I love food. It seems like I should have been following tons of food blogs for years by now. Better late than never, I guess.

I’m starting by creating email subscriptions to three sites:

A Southern Fairytale: I have interacted online with Rachel for a few years now and finally met her for the first time last weekend in Austin.

We were Hallmark bloggers together last year and I always loved reading her posts about her family, not to mention following along with her adventures (and pictures) on Facebook. Her Migas recipe is on repeat over here (in fact, I just have to start typing “Southern Fairytale” in my browser and it comes up!) and I’m looking forward to trying out lots more from her kitchen. (I mean, WHY didn’t I do this before??)

Foodie With Family: I just met Rebecca in Austin and I adore her. She has five boys (FIVE!), she has a great sense of humor, she’s a workout fanatic (in a good way) like me, and she’s got a beagle. Her most recent recipe on the blog is a Grilled Mexican Street Corn Salad–which looks delicious–and I’ll be looking to her to give me some fantastic new ideas for the meal plan.

The Noshery: I met my new friend Meseidy (exactly like “Mercedes” but different) in Austin, too. She is a RIOT: so much fun! Being Jewish, I think it’s only natural that I was attracted to the name of her blog, which actually doesn’t feature Jewish foods at all: she’s Puerto Rican and The Noshery actually features Latin foods. Don’t even try to figure it out–just go there. Her most recent recipe seems to have been created just for me: a Chocolate Coconut Cream Layered Cake. (I mean seriously? FOR ME.)

I’m looking forward to receiving my email updates from Rachel, Rebecca, and Meseidy: my family’s summer meal plan is about to get a shot of Red Bull. Perhaps I can make us all forget that I should have been subscribing to food blogs all along?