Happy New Year’s Eve!

I’ll be heading out today to the lake to ring in 2016, but I wanted to quickly share my favorite recipes of this year. I just got my stats from WordPress, and it looks like I posted 52 times this year and had 33,000 views!

I bet only about 28,000 of those were from my immediate family.

This year I traveled to 23 cities (at least?!), wrote 5 Kindle posts, bashed or boasted about the 8 weddings I attended, and wrote 1700 words on grocery shopping.

I scanned through all the posts from this year and decided on my 5 favorite recipes that I plan to make again/recommend you make in 2016!

I’ll make this a dramatic countdown and start with #5.

5. Forbidden Rice

This dish is just elegant. It’s a little fussy, which is why it isn’t higher on the list. But if you’re entertaining and you want to impress someone, this is a good one.

4. Chicken Burrito Bowl

This makes the list because I remember how much I loved it both freshly made and as cold leftovers (eaten in the car with a plastic fork). Also I’m pretty sure I got a kick out of myself being an idiot while writing that post. I’ve reached a point where sometimes when I make mistakes or something annoying or stressful happens I think to myself- “At least I can blog about this!” I guess that’s a version of positivity in my world.

3. Corn & Poblano Wrap

I think this is my favorite food photo that I took this year. I edited it with VSCO Cam, which I would like to start using more. It’s similar to Instagram, but you can just save the photos with the edits without needing to publish them.

This is probably a little high maintenance for a casual lunch, but so worth it. One of my favorite vegetarian recipes I’ve ever made, I would say.

2. Eggplant Burrata Bruschetta

The GS still talks about this one.

You could serve burrata to me on cardboard and I would probably eat it, but the eggplant and tomatoes here just take it over the top. Plus BREAD.

1. Shrimp Tacos

These earned the number one spot because I’ve made them at least 3 times since Mother’s Day.

They are super easy, you can prep them in advance, and they’re a crowd pleaser for sure. I always think of fish tacos as being a summer thing, but these would work any season. You could always saute the shrimp instead of grilling if there’s snow on the ground. And I would eat the broccoli slaw on its own.

Here’s to a 2016 full of good eats and good reads. Have a safe and happy New Year!