Introduction

I've been putting this off for some time, thinking what a pain it would be to have to create a whole new blog. Ok, so it took me about 13 seconds. Ha!

So now here we are...the Grand Opening of my Food Blog! Hopefully I can keep this up and have a nice collection of some of my personal (and my family's) favorite recipes.

A little background on my search for good food in our family: I never cooked. I just didn't do it. I am a musician and as such, never had time for it. All through high school/college, my idea of a square meal was ramen noodles (grains), orange juice (fruits and veggies), chicken nuggets (meat) with cheese on top (dairy). Hey, it's all there, right?!? This was my basic staple for such a long time, it's a wonder I didn't die early.

When I got married, I decided it was time to learn to cook! (About time!) And there I was, Rexburg 1st Ward cookbook in hand, a cupboard full of cream of ... soups, and a crock pot. While the foods I made were definitely not something you'd find in a restaurant, it was fun to have things come together.

Time went on, and our tastes changed. The most important changes being our kids with dairy allergies. That was a hard thing to deal with, since I felt that unless the food was covered in cheese and basted in sour cream, it wasn't food!! That took a LOT of time and an amazing amount of effort to acheive. Doing without dairy in cooking is virtually improbable--but not impossible! I found a lot of freedom and a wonderful new challenge to wrap my mind around in looking for ways to cook without dairy.

Another important event that once again changed the way we eat was when my mother was diagnosed with diabetes. I read many books on diabetic diets. I learned that a great many of my ancestors had incredible issues with diabetes and that it runs in my family. Great. So, we began another slow and steady change of the diet. This involved a lot of label reading... :) Trying to avoid things that were hidden in foods such as high fructose corn syrups, corn syrups, dextrins, sugars, bleached and processed flours, etc.

It's been a fantastic challenge for me to make food that is both healthy, interesting, and diverse, and which, more importantly, my family will eat! If Claire had her way, we'd have no bake cookies and mashed potatoes for dinner every day.

I hope all who see this blog will enjoy some of the things that I've made and try them at home. Just remember to enjoy your time preparing, your time cooking, and your time eating with family, and it makes all of this worth it!