Like everyone, our wanderlust has been put on pause for almost a year. As we faced months at home my husband and I made a commitment to not gain COVID lockdown weight. We embarked on the Mayo Clinic Diet, which the book teaches is not a diet, but a lifestyle. We’ve had success on our journey with a combined drop of 60+ pounds — and counting!

But this lifestyle change means a lot of veggies, turkey breast, fish (a new thing for me!), and a lot, and I mean A LOT, of boneless, skinless, chicken breasts.

One night this week I just couldn’t face one more plate of chicken and veggies. My husband asked what I wanted instead. Rather than turn to cookbooks I turned to photos.

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I started sharing pictures of a crepe in Normandy, a sandwich at Giverny, a croque monsieur in Chartres, a pretzel sandwich in Lucerne, a Swiss fondue (come on – a pot of melted cheese and bread — heaven!), a New York City deli’s potato pancakes, Tommy Bahama’s mojito, Disney’s peanut butter sundae, Magnolia Silos’ coconut cupcake, and a Hofbrauhaus Ratler.

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I started to realize maybe I wasn’t bored of chicken (still very likely though) but I have a severe case of wanderlust. In addition to a boring lifestyle/diet I just want to get out.

Since travel is not a reality for us for a while, especially European travel, we’ll need to travel through our cooking. As I was looking for relatively healthy recipes for some of my favorites, which all seem to be cheese, carb, or chocolate heavy, I found some virtual cooking classes. We are now signed up for a two-day croissant making class as well as a French chicken dinner class (yes, chicken, but it’s French so it has to be yummy) later in March.

Our passports may be gathering dust with our suitcases, but our kitchen and meals may be getting a little more adventurous over the next month! Maybe after our croissant class we’ll have a breakfast like this on our own porch!