New Home

Welcome to my blog!  I developed this blog to move Meatless Monday with Mindy off of another of my blogs The Howell Blessings and to begin sharing more publicly the recipes I've been exploring.

I recently held a couple of cooking classes in my house and it seems that people are really interested in eating and cooking healthier but just aren't sure how to get started. My first class was this past November and my last class was just this month. And do you know what?  They want MORE!

 I love that I've touched someone's life inspiring them to a healthier way of eating. And I love that it is catching on and trickling down to the next generation.  

This is the son of one of the women who has attended both my cooking classes. He was helping to make one of the recipes from my class... breakfast quinoa. So cute!

Our family has always taken an interest in eating what we grow and growing what we eat and finding healthier versions of our favorite recipes. Exploring new grains, veggies and fruits and even wild edibles has been a hobby of sorts for as long as our children were old enough to take interest in growing food and learning to cook.

Our daughter became a vegetarian as a teenager and our son has aspirations of becoming an organic farmer one day. He's also our wild edible expert. This combination has led us all on an exploration of a healthier nutritional path.

Early in 2009 I was diagnosed with breast cancer with no known risk factors to give us the heads up other than I was Caucasian. (I'm good now, 3 years cancer free!) As I was trying to find out the "why" of how I got cancer, many things I read pointed to the same common denominators. Stress, plastic and the American Diet. So I started replacing all my plastics with glass, I quit a stressful job of 12 years and I started researching more on the American Diet. I have always known we had room for improvement in our household diet, but overall we felt we already ate pretty healthy.  I guess it was time for an upgrade.

I have read articles, books and cookbooks on healthy eating. I have seen all sorts of fad diets that take just one or two elements of something healthy and focus on that. I've watched movies and documentaries from dropping over 100 lbs to going vegan for the sake of the animals.  There is so much out there, how does one know what is right?

I don't have the answer for you.

What I do have is the drive to upgrade my diet to a healthier version. One of my beliefs is to take it back to the basics.  It all begins with dirt.

As I begin this new blog, I'll be exploring things like: What are our bodies designed to eat? What do other countries do that have low disease rates? Where does our food come from?  I'll also be sharing with you the foods we are eating, and yes Meatless Monday with Mindy will have it's place in it's new home.

I hope you'll leave comments letting me know if you tried a recipe I'll be sharing and how you liked it.  Share too what you're eating and researching. Let's travel this nutritional path together.