One of our favorite things about wrapping up the holiday season and looking ahead to a new year is taking stock of our new cookbooks! When you have a cooking blog, you’re bound to get a new cookbook or two every holiday season, and we. love. new. cookbooks.

Image: Smitten Kitchen

Jennie got the new Smitten Kitchen cookbook for Christmas, and I’ve heard she’s already cracked into it with delicious results. I’m anxiously awaiting my chance to check it out when I return to LA. We have always trusted the recipes from Smitten Kitchen’s blog, and we couldn’t be more excited to dig into her book!

Image: Wikipedia

My mom gave me a copy of this 1971 vegetarian cookbook that she’s had for years, Diet for a Small Planet. This book contains so many of the vegetarian dishes I grew up eating at my mom’s house, and I’m excited to get home and make things like Egg and Potato Bake – a comfort food casserole that I loved as a child, and a breakfast dish called Wine, Bread, Cheese, and Thou which is kind of like savory french toast. Scrumptious stuff!

Image: theKitchn

This last cookbook doesn’t strictly belong to us, but we’re hoping we get the chance to borrow it now and then! Jennie gave Ina Garten’s new cookbook, Foolproof, to her mother for Christmas and it’s been delightful so far. We’re not surprised. This isn’t the first time we’ve mentioned how much we trust the Barefoot Contessa’s recipes, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. The tagline “recipes you can trust” is surely well-deserved!

Are there any cookbooks you’re excited to try this year?

Welcome to 2013, chickadees! I hope you had a healthy, safe, and fun New Year’s Eve! Now that we’ve made it to the new year, it’s time to make ourselves a little better and a little healthier each day, right?

Ever year it seems we have such good intentions with resolutions: lose 20 pounds, go to the gym every day, finally organize that pesky closet in the hall, the list goes on and on. I might not have the answers for that hall closet, but I do know that when I eat healthy I tend to lose weight, feel better, and have more energy.

In order to make your healthy-eating plans work, though, you need to know it’s not always easy, convenient, or even fun. So how do you stick to it without becoming one of those people who eats carrots and celery only, never going out to have a plate of nachos and a margarita? Here are some tips on how to keep on the healthy-train:

1. Grab a buddy. Or two. Or five. If you have a person committed to your goals, you’ll have someone to brainstorm meals with, someone to complain to when you’re sick of eating kale, and someone to answer to when you just HAD to stop for french fries. It works best to have this be someone you live with, or eat with on a regular basis, but you can also use a program like Spark People to help count calories, write your food journal, or ask a question.

2. Meal plan.  Most people tend to eat lunch out, right? This can be easy and delicious, but also lead to a dent in your budget and added pounds. Planning your dinners, and lunches, can help you to ensure everything you eat is healthy, and fresh. Make a little extra each night to bring to work the next day, or plan one night a week that you prepare your meals. Meal planning will also help when you grocery shop so you don’t make impulse purchases, or overspend because you don’t know what you’ll need.

3. Cheat a little, sometimes. Not only is no one perfect, but also what is life without cookies, chocolate, or a delicious pasta dish? Healthy eating is a lifestyle change, and eating healthier is better than eating healthy for a week and then going back to your old ways. Start simple: swap out two meals a week with healthier alternatives, then three, until you get to every night of the week. Delegate a cheat worthy event – birthdays, date nights, parties, or holidays, rather than a cheat day (which can lead to you eating badly for the sake of eating badly.)

4. When in doubt, follow this mantra: Do the best you can, with what you have. If you don’t have a big budget, or have a small kitchen, or have a partner who simply will not eat that, no way no how, do your best. Healthy eating means a lot of things – more veggies, less calories, less refined carbs, less sugar, more nuts and fish, etc. Cutting out a few things, or even committing to 4 veggies and fruits a day instead of 2, is a change your body will thank you for later.

Do you guys have other tips and tricks for keeping your food-related resolutions?

Happy New Year, friends! We hope you rang in the New Year with the best of friends and family, and are settling into 2013 with resolutions and a new outlook on life!

For 2013, we want to focus on recipes for you and your life. People often ask us for a recipe here or there for a chicken breast, killer chocolate cake, easy vegetarian dinners, or a Sunday dinner to impress a boyfriend, boss, or the in-laws. We have a lot of go-to recipes that we use, but we’re always improving and trying new ones. We especially like to look for quicker meals that mean less time in the kitchen but are still up to our delicious standards, and fast and easy meals bring the added bonus of more time with family and friends!

So this year, we’re committed to giving you 30 brand-new recipes that you can put together in 30 minutes or less (or, let’s be honest, a few more.) Certain dishes are intrinsically quick – sandwiches, pasta, salads, etc. – but we want to bring you other kinds of fast and easy dinners – chicken, delicious veggies, and curries, oh my!

Don’t be afraid to tell us your own ideas for things you wish were faster (eggplant parm, for one, is something that can seem DAUNTING) or for tricks to make your weeknight cooking faster (cutting your veggies the day before, or cutting a whole bag of carrots you’ll use over two meals, for example.) We’d like to learn tricks from you, too – we’re always looking to save time and make delicious food more accessible in your real life!

The new year is upon us, which means we’re looking ahead full of excitement and looking back with nostalgia. The Garlic, My Soul team has had an exciting year! We’ve shrunk and then grown again; we’ve tackled new projects, new collaborations, new recipes; and we’ve made new friends. Here are some highlights!

In January, I was just getting used to a new kitchen in Virginia, and we kicked off the Ingredient, My Soul challenge with a bicoastal approach to leek quiche.

February: We finally gave ourselves an excuse to put cumin in everything! Also, Jeff and Jennie had a wonderful time with friends, Mary and George on a pasta-making double date night.

In March, my obsession with cassoulet began.

In April, Jennie cooked Colombian food with our good friend Ana. They made buñuelos, arepas, Lulo juice and Colombian hot chocolate.

May: Jennie travelled to Virginia and stopped for a quick visit with me before heading to my old college town to visit some other friends. She sampled a few of my old favorite restaurants and enjoyed her friend Kelly’s comfort food!

Jennie got a jump start on Independence day celebrations and created these Independence day inside out cupcakes with our friend Kelly at StudioDIY!

We also made our first ombre cake for Mary’s birthday!

In July, we helped style food for a comic book inspired photo shoot with our friends at Fanboy Comics and Mary Costa Photography.

August had shark week. The most important week of the year for Jennie.

By September, I had moved back to Los Angeles and Jennie was entering pie contests.

We entered another contest in October to build a better pizza!

And in November, We were thankful for 30 days. We also spent our first Thanksgiving apart in 5 years. I held down the fort in LA while Jennie spent time with her family. But we both ate Brussels sprouts with pomegranate seeds, of course.

Before we knew it, December was here. We ate like hobbits and became obsessed with Italian spice cookies. We just couldn’t get enough of them this holiday season!

Tomorrow we start a new year which will no doubt be full of untold adventures and challenges. Here’s hoping that 2013 is just as full of joy and learning as the last year has been!

What was your most memorable GMS post of 2012?

Hey everyone! We are still traveling here at GMS, but we wanted to wish you a happy weekend! I’m currently headed to New Jersey, through lots and lots of snow! I hope you are having a wintry weekend where you are!