The Sunday Scaries were Real
(Please note this is not an affiliated post, I just really love this cookbook. and food. all of it.)
Back in college, I thought I knew what the Sunday Scaries were.
I will never forget how much I dreaded the alarm for my Monday morning 10am lecture (..did I really think getting out of bed at 9am was that bad??), hoping for a cancelled class or “weather delay” to extend my relaxing weekend for just a few more hours. Again—I thought I knew the Sunday Scaries.
Not familiar with the scaries? It’s best described as a feeling of impending doom, which surfaces from just thinking about responsibilities that hadn’t even crossed your mind for the past 48 hours. I’m sure everyone has experienced it at least once! After graduating from college and entering the real world, I took a Monday morning right-hook to the face when I started my 8-5 desk job. No homework or tests to study for throughout the weekend meant I could truly forget about my work-related duties and relax. No computer and no emails meant that my mind was totally at ease. I will admit, it was a well-earned reward for those four long years of undergrad! Nevertheless, Sunday night always came along and there was nothing I could do about it except fear Monday.
But did I really have to fear Monday?
What I’m going to say next is will come pretty far from left field, but stick with me. Late last year, a cookbook changed my outlook on the Sunday Scaries. Yeah, I said cookbook.
Let me preface—this was not an “open random cookbook at mom’s house and my life was miraculously changed” type of thing, even though that would be pretty stellar. One afternoon, I happened upon OSU grad Taylor Riggs’ Instagram page. (When is a good time for me to admit I’m an explore page creep? Now? Okay there you go, I said it.) The more I clicked through her Insta posts, the more I found colorful, healthy, and delicious meal prepping posts. Her snapshots of quick-to-prepare salads and hearty veggie bowls were foods I truly enjoyed, but never attempted to make in my own kitchen.
Like anyone feeling their way around the kitchen for the first few years, I have had my fair share of Pinterest recipes triumphs as well as complete failures. Although pretty and fun, those elaborate internet recipes would turn into an all-day affair. Who has time for that?! Several hours would have passed by the time I read the directions, wandered through the grocery store for the unusual ingredients I didn’t already have on hand, the actual food prep, and clean-up of my disaster-zone kitchen after. No. Thanks. Why would I want to add that insanity to what should be a peaceful afternoon before the workweek picks back up?
That’s when one of the captions on Taylor’s posts caught my eye. Real Food, Real Simple. Hmm. Was this girl telling the truth? My idea of “simple” may not be the same as this IG-famous chick with a Registered Dietician degree who had probably been whipping around a hand mixer since she was four. Hesitations aside, a few clicks later and I was on the Simply Taylor blog homepage, which was currently advertising the recent release of her first cookbook.
Maybe I could do this. Recipes that were all five steps or less and didn’t include any strange or hard-to-pronounce ingredients. Stuff I would already have in my kitchen! Like Taylor, I am not a vegetarian but I do enjoy eating and cooking plant-based meals, and this cookbook was perfect for that meal plan. With a variety of paleo-friendly and gluten-free recipes, I was eager to experiment more with gluten-free baking (apologies to my boyfriend with celiac disease for the overload of flat, corn-mush cookies prior to my discovery of this cookbook). I pictured myself quickly throwing together paleo pumpkin pancakes on Saturday mornings and meal-prepping savory chicken lettuce wraps for my lunches during the week. Aside from the simple recipes, the photography in this book looked gorgeous (I mean, what else would you expect from Allie at The Wonder Jam?)
From there, I bought the book on Amazon (also sold elsewhere, such as Target or Barnes and Noble) and it was all history! The same afternoon the book came in the mail, I read it from cover to cover like a novel and was immediately inspired, refreshed, and ready to roll. My Sundays didn’t have to be dreary anymore—I could prepare for the week ahead while relaxing with some “simple” recipes. Not to mention, Taylor herself is the sweetest girl. Anytime I attempt one of her recipes and tag her in my Insta-story, she always replies! Whether she’s cheering me on for attempting her Rutabega hashbrowns or helping me out with a tweak to the Almond Butter Swirl Brownie, this girl is the bomb. Check out her website that lists quite a few of her recipes here.
As I fell deeply in love with meal prepping, cooking, and tweaking recipes into making them healthier, I became more familiar with the Columbus food community. I love discovering new restaurants and exciting dishes (my Top 10 faves here) as well as following and creating new recipes, and from there I got the idea to start my Instagram account, @crave_columbus, and this blog. I hope you all enjoy and that I might inspire you, even in the smallest way!
