In today’s environment, with South Florida restaurants and bars being temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the world seems suddenly obsessed with baking bread and becoming a master chef at home.
South Florida is home to a few recipe blogger pros who have been creating easy-to-make recipes on their blogs for years. Whether it’s creative takes on banana bread, ways to keep a family satisfied, or healthier recipes to fend off quarantine 15, these South Florida food bloggers have it covered.
When You’ve Lost Track of Time and Only Want Comfort Food: Fatgirl Hedonist
Cari Garcia aka Fatgirl Hedonist runs one of Miami’s original food Instagram pages, but many might not know she has a food blog full of drool-worthy recipes that she started in 2010. Even though she’s not hanging out at home baking everyday during quarantine — she’s an essential worker at her day job, working on the front lines — she turns to her kitchen as an outlet for creativity.
Her hometown Hialeah pride is evident in her when it comes to her many Cuban-inspired dishes, with many having twists like her carne con papa meets beef bourguignon where she marries a childhood favorite with one of Julia Child’s most well-known dishes. Despite its cheeky name, Cari’s blog is incredibly keto-friendly and features several dishes that follow keto cooking guidelines like her low carb Keto artichoke spinach dip or Keto chicken parmesan. But the real fun is found in her dessert recipes — she’s made four cakes just during quarantine. Her tiramisu with a Cuban twist is made with a hefty portion of cafectio that will make coffee drinkers everywhere swoon.
When the Quarantine 15 is Starting to Show But You Can’t Stop Cooking: Prickly Fresh
An event planner turned food stylist and recipe creator, Jordan Elbaum’s Prickly Fresh is a simple and aesthetically pleasing source for recipes to help even the most novice homecooks make magic in the kitchen. Elbaum is a South Florida native who did a small stint in New Jersey before moving back to Miami just in time to be quarantined at home. From a healthy shepherd’s pie to a 15-minute creamy lemon pasta, each of the dishes found on Prickly Fresh are simple, elevated, and healthy-ish. She’s even got the occasional newsletter visitors can sign up for that comes with convenient shopping lists to help make it easier to recreate her dishes. Need a cheese board idea on a budget? Done. Prickly Fresh has every spectrum of meals covered from breakfast to appetizers to dessert.
When You Want to Be In Touch with Your Cuban Roots But Want Something with More Sazon: A Sassy Spoon
A first generation Cuban-American, Jamie Silva started off in the world of digital marketing where she worked with several culinary clients before she turned to food blogging and recipe creating full-time. Motivated by watching her mom cook as a child, Silva’s self-taught cooking skills highlight her Cuban heritage with a bit of sass. On A Sassy Spoon, recipes range from classic Cuban arroz con pollo to picadillo stuffed sweet potatoes, but those aren’t her most popular — that would be the easy Thai coconut soup. Quarantine bakers who haven’t succumbed to baking banana bread may change their mind after seeing Jamie’s carrot cake banana bread or Nutella Stuffed Banana Muffins.
When You’ve Got to Keep it Fun and Feed a Family: The Girl Who Ate Everything
Christy Denney, The Girl Who Ate Everything, is an Arizona native turned Miami girl (her husband, John Denney, played 14 seasons with the Miami Dolphins) and mom of five. She was a freelance writer and recipe developer General Mills prior to becoming a stay at home mom and food blogger. As a major lover of desserts there’s no shortage here from chocolate eclair cake to s’mores cookies to scotcheroos all fit for a demanding crowd or one very big sweet tooth. As the quarantined days drag on and dishes become more and more of a burden, her collection of one pan meals are a savior for the sake of feeding a group, but also keep the kitchen mess to a minimum. From a breakfast bacon, egg, and cheese skillet to dinner’s one pan chicken enchiladas, no one is going hungry after a peek at this food blog.
When You Want to Think Out of the Box and Stick to Fresh Ingredients: The Kitchen Prep
An elementary school teacher turned food blogger, Dianna, is the face behind The Kitchen Prep, a South Florida-based food blog that explores everything in moderation. Those on that quarantine bread baking kick will get a rise out of her bread category where there’s not only double chocolate banana bread but also easy caramel apple cinnamon rolls and brown butter zucchini cornbread. Looking for a different kind of sweet snack? There’s an entire section dedicated to easy-to-make candy including coconut macadamia pralines and chocolate caramel crunch whoopie pies. Of course, savory dishes are plentiful too with fun ideas like chicken philly spaghetti squash boats or Sriracha-honey glazed meatballs.