Let me tell you a little bit about myself and my kitchen. You want some coffee? :) Ok. Well, I'm a stay-at-home wife and mom; I love homemaking and expressing creativity in as many ways as I can, from cooking to crafts to decorating to the way I play with my kids. They are 2-and-a-half and 9 months old, by the way, and they are very fun and very busy. One of my favorite things to do after they go to bed is sit with a warm cup of something and listen to the silence! :) That's probably because I'm an introvert. My husband, on the other hand, likes to crank up lively music while he helps me clean the kitchen after they're in bed. Opposites do attract. We are getting closer to our 5th anniversary in a few months and honestly, every year just keeps getting better! Our kitchen is just one little proof of that. Want to guess what my greatest achievements in the kitchen were during our first year of marriage? Banana bread, quesadillas and pasta (noodles with the store-bought jar of sauce). We probably ate those things three times a week at least! But somewhere along the way, I started trying new things I soon realized that I loved cooking! I've never been a spontaneous throw-things-together-in-a-pot-and-voilá kind of cook, but I feel like I'm pretty good at knowing when a recipe will turn out great and I'm good at following directions...I can do that! Sometimes I get adventurous and even tweak the ingredients a little to my liking. Wow, right? For someone who started out with quesadillas, I'd say that's pretty good.
Well, like almost every other newlywed couple, we had a tight budget. Very tight at times. So that motivated my cooking in a completely new way. What if instead of wishing we could go to Olive Garden and get the molten lava cake dessert, I could make it at home? What if I could make most of our restaurant favorites for much less money and possibly healthier and tastier? So I tried it, and it worked! I kept expanding my "repertoire" of recipes and I was loving that it was cheap, it was homemade and delicious, and I was constantly impressing my husband. :)
But now, let me tell you a little about him...a wonderful, incredible, handsome and wise man, but with one little flaw....food is not the way to his heart. Oh, he loves food...even quesadillas and the occasional once-every-three-years mac and cheese. But the true way to his heart is... healthy food. :) I'm only kidding, of course, there is so much more to his heart than that. Yet, my husband works in the medical field and I learned early in our marriage that information about healthy eating habits would come through him pretty often and I'd have to decide what to do about it. So I decided to care about it. After all, he hasn't yet been able to get me to enjoy running or much of any exercise, so if I can cook something that's both healthy and delicious, I think that's the least I can do.
Knowing this about my husband, when I first heard some friends last year talking about their Paleo diet, I decided to keep my husband as far away from that topic as I could! No sugar or dairy or grains? Are you out of your mind? My three favorite foods are most definitely breads, desserts and cheese! We successfully escaped most conversations about that. I didn't understand or want to understand it because after all, we ate very healthy food and I made everything from scratch. What more could you ask for?
Well, during our recent move across the country, while the kids and I were visiting my folks, my husband's close friend Mike helped him load all our stuff and drive it to our new home. We don't get to see him very often and wouldn't you know that, of course, he's into Paleo! So they spent a week together, Mike telling my husband all about it. When he told me over the phone, I couldn't decide if I should stuff myself with all the brownies and sweets I could while I was at my parents' house or try to slowly wean myself off them. Both Mike and my husband aren't the type to go crazy over trends, quite the opposite in fact. Mike, by the way, is a great personal trainer and you can read his blog here. I knew that if they really believed this was worth it, I should probably pay attention.
So within the past month, I've begun this kitchen transition and let me add, mental transition, from everything I knew was healthy before to a new kind of healthy. I feel, in a way, like I'm back at that newlywed stage in my kitchen, re-learning everything I thought I knew. We are not completely endorsing the Paleo Diet...we've only just begun this learning journey about food because there is much more than just Paleo books that is pointing in the same direction as far as health benefits and results. In this blog, my hope is to share the things I'm learning along this journey because one of the greatest discoveries I've made is that there are tons of people doing this! Not just because of some books or trends, but for many health reasons. In fact, my mother-in-law just found out a few weeks ago that she is gluten-intolerant...and gluten-free foods are one of the big parts about Paleo-type diets! Also, there are literally tons of resources and recipes online that amazing people are sharing. Pinterest has become my best friend for finding many bloggers, recipes and tips on eating this way. So why do I want to create yet another blog about this? Because I'm just starting and I've had many questions along the way that I'm sure other people do too, like: So what does a weekly menu look like? Will I ever have dessert again? What do I feed the kids? Are there any recipes out there without weird, expensive ingredients? And most importantly, how will I survive without brownies and ice-cream??? :)
I have already made many great discoveries and I'm very excited to share them with anyone who is interested. Take healthy brownies, for instance. What?? I can have another piece and not feel guilty? :) Like I said, I'm not a recipe creator. I'm a very good recipe follower, though, and I will be sharing links to simple, easy and delicious recipes as well as menu ideas, tips and encouragement as I learn to re-think, re-learn and re-create the food that I love.
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