It's not necessarily bad, and I'm grateful for the human connection through the virtual events, but it makes even harder than normal to disconnect. So I've wanted to sit down to write a blog post even less than normal. 

So much for thinking that all this extra time would encourage me to write more. 

One thing I have been doing more of these days though is cooking. In normal times, we typically eat dinner at home on Sundays and most days during the work week. The weekends we leave up in air and typically end up eating with friends outside our house. 

But covid-19 means those weekend events are gone and I'm cooking a ton more. My typical rotation of our favorite recipes got pretty old sometime during week three or four, so I've been branching out and trying some new things. Some have been pretty awesome, so I figured I'd share in case you needed some cooking inspiration these days too.

The best new recipe I've made

Hands down this quick and easy chicken curry recipe is the best thing I've made all quarantine.



The first time I made this curry, I followed the recipe pretty much as written. The only changes I made were to drop the brown sugar and swap some curry powder for the recommended curry paste. I don’t love food that is super spicy, but I didn’t want the curry to be bland either.

I ended up using 2 tablespoons of the curry powder and 2 teaspoons of the curry paste. This one is now on pretty frequent rotation in our house.

New crockpot recipes

I love my crockpot so I've been embracing it a lot in these times to make cooking less painful.

I tried cooking a whole chicken in my crockpot for something different. This actually ended up being much easier than I expected, but left us with way too many leftovers, so I don't think this will become a very frequent recipe.



I also made a vegetarian lasagna in the crockpot that used zucchini as a substitute for the noodles.  This one took more prep time to slice up all the zucchini, but it was so cheesy and good. I think I'll be making this more often as zucchini are definitely starting to be more in season now.

Old favorites

I've also been pulling out some of my old cookbooks and digging out some of the old recipes my mom used to make when I was growing up. One of those is a cajun salmon recipe that I will have now made three weeks in a row.



Basically all you need to do is brush a piece of salmon with olive oil, sprinkle it with cajun season and bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 375. Warm up some rice and veggies for sides and you have a delicious and super fast meal.

Pre-covid favorites that are still in rotation

And of course, I'm still going back to a handful of our regular favorites, assuming I can find the ingredients at the grocery store.

• Sweet potato and quinoa chili was on frequent rotation through April. 
• This enchilada casserole leaves the perfect amount of leftovers. 
• Sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts make this chicken dish savory. 

Have you been cooking anything good while in quarantine? I'm always interested in new, easy recipes!