Popular Food Blogs

Alternate title:  In the Mood for Food!

I feel like I’ve gotten into a rut with my meal planning and wanted to look somewhere new for inspiration.   Of course I already have my own compilation of favorite recipes, but I’m tired of making my same old same old.

So.. I put out a request, both on Facebook and a local parenting listserve and asked people to share their favorite websites for dinner inspiration.   Below is the list of sites recommended either to me or by me.

I’ve marked my favorites with an asterisk (*).

Hopefully this list will be useful for someone else — if you have other favorites, please share them in the comments!

In no particular order…

Recipe Collections

These sites are big, often with articles and features, along with a large repository of recipes, often compiled from many sources, including end-user contributions.

• AllRecipes.com *
  More than 40,000 free recipes created and rated by home cooks—plus, menus with dinner ideas, holiday meals, and party food ideas.
• Epicurious
  100,000 recipes from Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Self, cookbooks, chefs, and home cooks. Learn from holiday food guides, get healthy, quick and easy, and kid-friendly menus, and watch cooking videos.
• Tasty Kitchen *
  Favorite recipes from real kitchens everywhere.   An offshoot of the Pioneer Woman.
• Cooking Light
  Quick and healthy recipes, nutrition tips, entertaining menus, and fitness guides to help you make smart choices for a healthy lifestyle
• Food Network *
  Find the recipes you’ve seen made on TV by your favorite chefs
• Cooks Illustrated
  Focuses on the techniques of home cooking for those interested in sensible, flavorful American food.  Note: requires paid membership
• Food & Wine
  Guide to wine and cocktails, including guides, wine pairings, great new cocktails and spirits, plus great food to go with them
• Eating Well
  Devoted to healthy recipes, healthy eating, healthy cooking
• Food52
  Started by Amanda Hesser of NYTimes and Merrill Stubbs, it’s a gathering place for home cooks that features weekly recipe contests and a great database of recipes.
• Leites Culinaria
  Hot food, dry wit.

Food Blogs

Food blogs are generally smaller in focus, run by one or a few individuals.   Some highlight recipes with step-by-step instructions, others feature some other aspect of the art of food.

• Epicurious’ Epi Log
  The latest in food news, culinary arts and cooking
• Picky Palate
  Dressing up simple, family-friendly recipes for even your pickiest eaters!
• Dinner:  A Love Story
  Recipes, strategies, discussions, and inspiration all with one singular mission: to help parents get family dinner on the table. Created by Jenny Rosenstrach, author of Time for Dinner (Chronicle) and former features director at Cookie Magazine.
• Tasty Kitchen Blog *
  Highlights various recipes and walks through them step-by-step.  An offshoot of the Pioneer Woman.
• Serious Eats
  A food blog focused on sharing food enthusiasm through online conversation, multiple blogs, and video.
• Smitten Kitchen
  A home cooking weblog from a tiny kitchen in New York City. The place to find all of your new favorite things to cook.
• 101 Cookbooks
  Heidi Swanson writes about the recipes that intersect her life, travels and interests. Focused on natural, whole foods and ingredients – vegetarian recipes that are good for you, with the occasional sweet treat.
• A Year of Slow Cooking
  In 2008, Stephanie O’Dea, author of “Make It Fast, Cook It Slow”, committed to using her slow cooker every day ; she is still sharing recipes.
• Joy the Baker
  Delicious recipes from a blogger named… Joy
• Cannelle et Vanille
  Food, life, photography.  Lots of decadent sweets
• Tartelette
  on the sweet side of life …  a pastry chef turned  blogger.  She also has a list of food blogs she reads
• Sweet Peas & Pumpkins *
  A foodie mom who’s blog chronicles her life, tips and recipes as she tries to feed her young boys  healthy, interesting, and natural foods.
• The Pioneer Woman Cooks *
  Rich recipes with beautiful photos fit for a ranchers and anyone else not calorie conscious.
• King Arthur Flour – Baking Banter *
  Breads, desserts, and more.  Step-by-step instructions and photos from the master bakers are King Arthur Flour
• Orangette
  Beautifully written and photographed food blog
• Hide the Cheese
  Recipes for the family that loves to cook and eat.
• Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Kitchen
  A DC blogger who focuses on seasonal and locally sourced foods.  She shares her experiences cooking, baking, and canning to preserving the freshest foods of the season, teaching cooking classes, and visiting local farmers and producers.
• Once Upon a Chef
  A professionally trained chef shares her recipes, step-by-step photos, cooking tips and inspiration for every kind of occasion.
• Weelicious
  Fast, easy, and fresh baby food, toddler food, and recipes for the whole family.
• Food News Journal
  Delivering the best in food current events: the most intriguing articles, the liveliest essays, and the best from the bloggers.
• Kalyn’s Kitchen
  A home cooking blog featuring healthy low-glycemic recipes with step-by-step photos, as well as cooking tips, vegetable gardening, and products Kalyn loves.
• Keep It Simple Foods
• A DC attorney passionate about all things food related.  Look for content ranging from recipes to food related books and articles, food news, restaurant reviews, and product reviews.
• GOOP
  Gwenyth Paltrow’s blog, of sorts.
• Week of Menus
  Good cooking for people with too much on their plate.
• The Wednesday Chef
  Written by Luisa Weiss, a writer and home cook in Berlin, Germany.
• Simply Recipes
  Elise Bauer’s family cooking and food blog with hundreds of healthy, whole-food recipes for the home cook.
• Steamy Kitchen
  Jaden Hair, a professional food developer, shares fast, fresh, and simple recipes easy enough for tonight’s dinner.
• Do It Delicious *
  Jessica Seinfeld’s site that features good, simple food for complicated lives — good for neophytes.  She also has a good blog roll.
• 100 Days of Real Food *
  A mom shares her journey cutting out processed foods for her family and offers tips, recipes, and inspiration for others to do the same.
• Bakerella
  Adorable sweet, tho time intensive treats.
• Bake at 350
  Cookie decorating and more.
• Savory Sweet Life
  Easy everyday life from an everyday home cook.
• Simple Bites
  Real food for the family table.
• Baking Bites
  Recipes for baked goods, plus baking product reviews and more

Menu Planning

These sites are helpful in creating weekly meal plans

• Menu Plan Monday @ OrgJunkie
  Laura’s weekly link-up carnival to various bloggers meal plans
• All Recipes Menus
  Requires a paid membership
• Epicurious Fast Weeknight Dinners
  Weekly mealplan
• Six O’Clock Scramble
  A paid subscription email service that creates mealplans for you

Linked up to Works For Me Wednesday.