My Background and History Archives | Page 4 of 7

A Fond Farewell to Cookies

February 12, 2010

Beginning next week you won’t be seeing many recipes for sweet stuff around here. Not to worry, it will be back come Easter time; likely with a vengeance. You’ll probably have more springtime sweet stuff than you’ll know what to do with. Just preparing you.

Next week begins Lent and that means for me, and many other people I know who honor this time of year, sacrifices will be made.

Some no longer believe in the giving up practice of the Lenten season, they choose to do something instead. I happen to be a big fan of both.

To me, giving up something as simple as dessert or chocolate, as non-religious as that might seem, helps me focus and reflect. Sacrifice makes us stronger regardless of what that sacrifice may be. Not having something I really want makes me step back and evaluate all that I have and how fortunate I am.

And I won’t lie. This time of year also helps me get or keep my healthy food intake on the right track. I like sugar, maybe a little too much. Cutting it out for a while never hurt anyone. Well, unless you count the recipients of your crabby attitude that may result when you want sugar, but can’t have it. Note to self: keeping my crabby attitude in check should probably be another Lenten promise.

Between now and next week, there is still Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year, Carnaval and Mardi Gras. While not hear quite yet, I’m sending my short term fond farewell to cookies a little bit early.

I haven’t made peanut butter cookies in a while so I decided to try a batch with some mascavo sugar and white whole wheat flour. This recipe resulted in dense, not-too-sweet, buttery cookies that melt in your mouth with each bite. I’m adding them to my must-make-again list.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup natural peanut butter
¾ cup mascavo sugar
1 egg
1 ¼ cup white whole wheat flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¾ tsp baking soda
6 oz chocolate chips (1/2 a bag)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cream together the butter, peanut butter and sugar. Add the egg and mix until combined. In a bowl mix the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Gradually mix into the wet ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips. Scoop cookies out by the tablespoon and form into a ball and flatten slightly. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy. Makes about 18 cookies.

Finding the Right Word

December 31, 2009

No one seems to like the word resolution anymore. It’s as if it’s some term that is certain to set you up for failure. I’ve seen that in 2010 we should set goals instead, but that doesn’t really strike a chord with me either. I’ve been thinking about it a lot though, and this year I think I will call them commitments. These things I choose to better myself in the next year will be promises to me and actions that I commit myself to.

I think last year was the first year that I took my resolutions/commitments seriously and I’m pretty proud of what I accomplished. (I honestly can’t believe I’ve been running regularly for a year now!) I don’t like it that this New Year’s practice has gotten such a bad reputation over the years, so I decided to change that for me personally. I agree we should set goals and make commitments throughout the year, but what better time to evaluate ourselves and recommit than a brand new year. I think reflecting on our faults and shortcomings and making a promise to better ourselves is an important part of wellness.

So here you go. These are my 2010 Commitments. I’ll be checking back with them in the spring to stay on track and I think there are a few that have the potential to result in some great reading and recipes!

Run my first half marathon on March 28th.
I’m giving it a try. I’ve grown to enjoy running although I can’t say it is my favorite activity just yet. This could be my one and only half, but I have to give it a try to challenge myself and my abilities.

Make at least one recipe from a fellow food blogger each month.
Like most of you, I have recipe after recipe bookmarked from all the great food blogs out there. I’m going to commit to trying one or more each month. My goal with this is to leave them relatively unaltered so that I can try some great food, give you a new recipe you may have missed in your reading and spread the word about some of my fave blogs.

Make at least one recipe from a cookbook each month.
Similar to food blogs I have cookbooks and magazine cut-outs galore. It is time to start trying some of these recipes more often!

Read one informative book & one novel each month.
This one may be tough, but I want to structure my time to get in more off-screen reading. I love mysteries because they help me unwind and take a break from work. Similarly I want to keep up with reading nonfiction, informational books such as those focused on nutrition, cooking, environmental concerns and world religions.

Visit as many local food festivals as possible this year.
No I don’t have a number associated with this, but I’m thinking anything better than zero will be a good start. There are so many local food fests around Kentucky. From spoon bread to strawberries to bourbon there always seems to be something going on. This is the year I’m going to make it a priority to attend. Now that I’ve learned about cultures halfway around the world I’m realizing how important it is to learn more about that which is right in my backyard.

Make at least 75% of our food purchases local and sustainable.
I’m not exactly sure how I will measure this, but I will figure it out. I would say now we are somewhere in the 50% range and I want that to change. I chose 80% because there will always be some things such as grains which we eat that are not likely to come from nearby. In addition, I enjoy eating and cooking ethnic foods and those ingredients aren’t always available locally. To define the foods I’m talking about here, locally grown produce, grass-finished beef, naturally raised chicken and pork and local honey are examples.

Frequent my local international markets.
My plan is to shop here once a month for grains and spices. My goal is for this to also help me diversify my cooking and start making more of the wonderful foods we’ve had the opportunity to try during our travels.

Okay, so what do you think? I’m actually pretty excited about it and ready to get 2010 underway!

I’d love to hear what some of your food and wellness related commitments/resolutions/goals are this year!

Also, if you are looking for some support while adopting some healthier habits this coming year, check out the Ten in 2010 event going on at Recipe Girl. I’ve joined in with the goal to stick to my half marathon training and lose 10 lbs.

I also wanted to be a part of it because I’m seeing a lot of commitments to eat less fat and carbs. I think we all know how I feel about that. I certainly believe in everyone’s right to their definition of health and healthy eating, but I’m hoping I can use myself as an example to debunk some of those old school healthy eating myths. I’ll be eating lots of full fat, whole grains and naturally grown foods. I’d love to see you join in if you haven’t yet!

Avoid, Guilt-free, Substitute, Light and Other Words I Don’t Like

December 11, 2009

Raise your hand if you’ve come across an article or an email with some form of these words in the title. (I have both hands raised). I promise if I receive one more email that has a “guilt-free” recipe in the title I’m going to scream. Well, okay, a delete and then a purge from my email memory forever will suffice.

Last year I did a post on All that Healthy Eating Advice and I’m sticking to those thoughts and feelings this year as well. I really dislike the idea that we have to use tactics and trickery to control eating and that a feeling of guilt can enter our minds when we eat a real food we truly enjoy.

Food is part of culture. Culture can often be defined by food.

Family celebrations and holidays throughout history have focused on food. I believe with all my heart that there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. I also feel it is dishonoring our culture and traditions to find sneaky ways to avoid enjoying real food and beating ourselves up like it is a failure of character if we do.

I’ve been there. Tried all the tactics myself and am guilty as charged.

Yes, there are some problems with our food culture in the U.S. Not listening to our minds and our stomachs and stuffing until we are sick is not healthy. Stuffing with foods made of heavily processed ingredients isn’t healthy either. Not to mention, avoiding any movement until New Years isn’t the best decision.

There are some very unhealthy habits that surround our holidays, that is true. I’ve mentioned some of them above. But truly savoring and enjoying my mom’s pumpkin pie, the cookies I bake or a rich, delicious appetizer at a party can be one of the healthiest things we do this holiday season, especially if we are in the camp of sacrifice, deprivation, and guilt this time of year.
I know, I’ve been there.

You can read all those tips/thoughts/ideas I listed in last year’s post. I only have a couple more to add this year. These are a few more of the ways I am looking at things this holiday season.

Invest and enjoy. If you are going to indulge, make it worth it. Buy real cheddar and not processed cheese food, make your own cream soup and buy a quality chocolate. Break those fake food habits and start eating real food. Yes, it will take some readjustment of your budget and time (we’ll address this in a later post), but when you stop buying the processed stuff you’ll have money to spend on the quality stuff and your body will thank you for it.

Keep moving. You are going to eat and enjoy some delicious foods this season that likely have more calories than what you eat on a normal daily basis. Again, this is okay. Physiology makes it so an increase in calories causes weight gain. Exercise will combat these extra calories and carry you happily through a holiday season. You’ll reduce your stress, the endorphins will be pumping and you’ll feel much more like St. Nick than Scrooge.

Not all the time, every day. Keep your parties in mind throughout your week and lighten up on the days you don’t have one. It’s perfectly okay to indulge in the foods at your friend’s dinner party this weekend, but when you have a chance to cut back this week, do so. Save your intake of cookies and desserts for the cookie exchange and take a break from them a few days before. Don’t take it to the point of feeling deprived, but some checks and balances throughout the season will keep you from gaining a lot of unwanted weight. Along with the exercise, doing this helps. Since the beginning of November, I’m rid of 9 lbs of the weight I gained over the past couple years (all that ex-pat eating experimentation) and I’ve enjoyed A LOT of great food.

And what if you do gain a few pounds?

Accept and appreciate yourself. So you gain 5 lbs during the holidays? So what? The bigger question is – 1. Did you enjoy the foods you ate and avoid mindless munching? 2. Did you enjoy the time spent with the people you love? Give yourself a break and commit to losing it as soon as the holidays are over. Life is so short, don’t spend it feeling deprived and consumed with guilt.

The healthiest thing we can do this holiday season is know ourselves well enough and be in tune enough with our bodies and emotions to choose the foods we want, eat them and savor every bite, appreciating where they came from and the people who made them.

Photo from the Bellagio Las Vegas Dec 2008

For a Different Reason

November 18, 2009

I found myself standing in the supermarket checkout lane surrounded by candy of every kind. It felt strange at first considering these were varieties I haven’t regularly seen for the past two years. It is amazing how taking note of this tiny experience in my day sent my mind on a journey, evaluating how I’ve changed.

What surprised me about this situation above was that I didn’t want any of the candy. Not even a tiny craving emerged. Why? Well, because I automatically evaluated what it was made of – industrialized, processed ingredients.

Two years ago as when I began my journey to eat fewer processed foods I didn’t have those candies often, but it was for much different reasons. At that time they didn’t represent processed ingredients, they represented calories and fat which my brain automatically equated to weight gain.

This way of looking at these items, of course, didn’t make me want them any less. I just knew I couldn’t have them. I wasn’t giving them up willfully. They were considered off limits. That kind of thinking left me feeling deprived.

Last week in that checkout lane, I didn’t feel deprived at all. I simply didn’t want those processed, industrialized foods in my body.

Let’s be clear, though. I’m not saying I don’t ever, or won’t ever, eat candy (or some of the other foods I plan to mention later). I’m just experiencing a completely different healthy eating perspective which is leading to happier eating and fewer feelings of desiring something I can’t have.

I have new reasons not to want it and it has nothing to do with weight gain or outward appearances. It is almost overwhelming how freeing this perspective feels to me. I no longer feel like I’m denying myself.

And this isn’t just about candy. I feel the same way about almost every aisle in the center of the grocery store. My basket doesn’t turn down the cracker and cookie aisle and the only reason it finds its way to the cereal aisle is to get oatmeal. Is there even a soda aisle anymore? I tend to blow right by it.

The important part is that I’m not purposely doing this. It is happening naturally because of my goals to eat fewer industrialized foods and to know the source of what goes into our mouths. I don’t feel like I’m avoiding a temptation like I used to.

Even though I’m still eating for health, it is a much different force that is driving me. It is true health, not just avoidance of gaining weight, aspiring to lose it, or even reducing risk of a chronic disease. It also goes beyond health. Environment, animal welfare and economics all come into play in my choices these days.

I feel like we ate well in Brazil in terms of health, yet everything was completely new and meals always led to some sort of discovery. I was concerned how it would be when we returned to the US and I fell back into familiar patterns of shopping and cooking. My biggest fear was returning to bad habits that I’ve discovered and identified through all my personal research the past two years.

Part of me is in disbelief of just how easy shopping for food and making choices have been since we returned. When you eat simple, natural foods shopping is a lot less stressful experience. There is no internal struggle of I want this, but I shouldn’t have it. I don’t buy it because it doesn’t align with my beliefs and values, plain and simple. The choices I’m making are for a different reason and that seems to make all the difference.

Have you made any recent healthy changes which ended up being a lot easier than you were expecting?

Photos of rice grains and rice terraces (view from our bungalow) in Ubud-Bali, Indonesia.

This post has been submitted for Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.

New Blog!

October 2, 2009

Just a short note for the travel fans out there. With this ex-pat journey coming to an end I am transitioning the blog where I recorded those experiences.

This week I launched The 3 Star Traveler!

The blog will be a place for me to share my passion for travel and offer some thoughts about our repatriation process. During our SE Asia trip I’ll be trying to post food related info here, but you can check out The 3 Star Traveler for more photos of our adventures.

I hope you’ll stop by!!

A Quest for Food

October 2, 2009

Since I started my journey with Fake Food Free not only have I been challenged to put my thoughts and explorations from a food perspective into words and recipes, but I’ve enjoyed reading the blogs of others who do the same thing. Over time you realize just how diverse the simple topic of food can be.

It is in exploring this world of food blogging that I realize we all have one simple theme in common – a quest for food. Our quests for food can revolve around culture, living in a new place, travel, reliving memories, improving health, or fueling for activity, and that’s just naming a few. All of these things can be very different, but with each food is involved and I find I’m drawn to all of them for different reasons.

If you’ve been following me over the past few months you know that I have some big things going on at the moment. For a little over two years my husband and I have been living in southern Brazil. As hard as it is to believe this journey is coming to an end. As of Saturday, we will officially be moving back to the US.

Rest assured my adventures won’t stop here. As excited as we are to return home, we are taking a break before completely settling in. Next week, after a short stop in the States we are headed off on a month-long trip to Southeast Asia.

Considering this theme I’ve had on my mind lately I have invited four of my favorite bloggers to provide guest posts for you during my travels. Each week you are going to have some excellent reading material with tips, advice and some new recipes all focused on different topics, but all related to a quest for food.

You’ll be getting excellent posts from:

Mindy – Mindy’s Mouthful
Andrea – Off Her Cork
Cathy –A Life Less Sweet
Amy – Delicious by Nature

Let me take the opportunity to thank each of them right now. You are going to love their posts! Each brings so much knowledge and personality to their writing and I enjoy reading their blogs. I am honored and grateful to have these ladies guest post here at Fake Food Free.

While I hope to do a post when free time conveniently coincides with Internet access, it is likely you won’t be seeing much of me. Obviously, with no kitchen to cook in recipes will be lacking as well. I do have intentions of sharing my food experiences along the way though so I hope you will continue your regular visits throughout the month.

When I’m back in November you can bet that there will be wide variety of real, delicious foods I’ll be recreating!

Taking on the 30 Foods List: Single Serve Sweet Rice

July 30, 2009

If you will remember I have this ongoing list of foods I intended to make to celebrate my 30th year, the 30 Foods List. So far I’ve completed about seven, although I haven’t posted about them all, and guess what? Tomorrow is the last day of July! It seems maybe I was a bit ambitious considering that some of the foods I chose may require ingredients that I can’t get here in Brazil. I am still hopeful, but I am giving myself a little leeway and re-setting my goal to make all the foods by the end of 09.

One of the foods on the list is sweet rice, a very popular dessert here in a Brazil and in many other cultures as well. I made canjica a while back, a sweet rice-like dessert made with hominy, but I didn’t think this truly counted. Considering the sweet rice is a bit basic, I decided I need to make it original somehow.

The other day my lunch was screaming for something sweet to seal the deal and I had about a ½ cup of leftover rice in the fridge. I decided to turn that, along with a Palmer mango, into a single serving of sweet rice for dessert.

Really easy, wonderfully tasty and it meets a 30 Food List goal. That’s all the motivation I need so here you go.

Single Serve Sweet Rice with Mango

½ cup cooked long grain rice
2 T sweetened condensed milk
2T coconut milk
3T whole milk
¼ cup chopped mango

In a small sauce pan combine the rice and all three milks. Cook on medium high heat until the mixture becomes bubbly and thick, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the mango and heat through. Enjoy!

Here are a few other things I’ve already made on my 30 Foods List:

Beijinhos (also see the guest post at 5 Star Foodie)
Brigadeiro
Croissants
Irish Fruit Scones

My Weekend Read – One Step Closer to Fake Food Free

July 27, 2009

At about 8:00 pm on Saturday night I finally began to read the book In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Less than 24 hours later I was finished. I guess that isn’t saying a whole lot since the book is only a couple hundred pages long, but I literally felt as though I couldn’t put it down. It was the ultimate thriller of all things food and health.

I read Omnivore’s Dilemma a few months ago and it was thoroughly enlightening. It confirmed many of the food related thoughts and views I had been struggling with as a person who spent her academic career studying nutrition, while also teaching me so much that I never even realized existed. It further fueled my desire to reduce processed foods and find ways to learn the origin of foods I do choose to eat.

I followed that up with Food Politics by Marion Nestle. A book that shook my nutritionist roots to their core and left me to question all that I had learned about nutrition thus far in my life and in my career. I mean all of this in the most positive way possible, but after that book I did need to take a break from nutrition reading to gather my thoughts.

I started In Defense of Food much in need of a motivational boost. Food, Inc. is out in the US along with other documentaries I’m seeing mentioned left and right on nourishing food blogs. I’m feeling a bit left out. While being abroad allows me to experience a new culture, I am also distanced from the changes going on in my own. I’ve felt unfocused lately with my own cooking and eating and what exact direction I’m headed.

Well I couldn’t have picked a better time to read the book. Consider my fire reignited and glowing brightly.

What Is It About This Info?

As I finished this book, I found myself wondering why it strikes such a cord with me. I’ve had that little voice that fake foods aren’t good for us for a long time, but nothing has really sparked my interest or driven me to change like Michael Pollan’s books. I’ve read plenty throughout the years about the dangers of refined foods, about how refined sugar has addictive properties and all that. However, all those books left me more knowledgeable, but not motivated to change.

What I’ve decided is that it has a lot to do with Pollan’s style. Through his writing he exudes a balance of logic and honesty. He isn’t a health fanatic selling the latest miracle cure or telling you that vegetarianism, meat-eating or non-dairy is the only way to live. He has science to back up his thinking, but he isn’t a scientist. He’s one of us, so-to-speak, trying to figure it all out too.

After reading his books with the information he pulls from himself and other knowledgeable people, not only do you feel as though you are more intelligent on the subject, but that you truly want to make long term change. Not only do you feel empowered, but also confident that your changes could actually make a difference.

A New Tradition

The book speaks a lot about traditional eating and how the past couple generations are more focused on industrial eating. This is why I think it is so hard for people of my generation to change. And by change, I don’t mean try, I mean change, as in throw out the processed foods – even the processed sugars and flours in moderation and on occasion.

A traditional way of eating comes from what we know, what we grew up with. Unfortunately if you are in my boat, you never knew a time when processed foods weren’t used. To change means we have to revert back to a time we’ve never known.

For me, this brings on visions of those meals and desserts that are my absolute favorites and which also use prepared, packaged ingredients. Things, at first thought, I would sorely miss and the elimination of which may even erase some fond memories. They’re okay in moderation, it doesn’t hurt to have it once a week/month/year, progress in food development isn’t all bad. Right? Well, these are the things I’m starting to question.

Don’t worry, I’m not becoming that foodie nutritionist, the one who doesn’t believe in an indulgence or splurge. I’m just sharing these thoughts and considering the fact that I may be redefining what an indulgence or splurge is for me.

Voting with Forks and Dollars

One of the most thought-provoking parts of this book is a short discussion about how we as consumers vote with our forks. I’ve never been one to jump on the bandwagon when it comes to boycotting things and/or companies. When someone says this company did this or that bad thing so we aren’t buying their products anymore, I’m not one to vocally join in.

Why? Well because it is the surest way I know to make myself out to be a hypocrite. Honestly, I don’t know enough about all of my spending patterns to confirm that I don’t support something that I’m not in complete agreement with somewhere along the line.

I know that I should, but companies own lots of other companies and it is difficult to be sure where exactly money goes. No, I haven’t researched every item I’ve ever purchased as a consumer. I’m getting better about it, but not there yet. So I may make my own quiet choices to not purchase from a specific company because of what I’ve heard from others, but I likely won’t be singing about it.

This part in the book really made me think though. I do need to consider my choices when it comes to food. As innocent as it seems, when I grab a bag of pre-made cookies because I didn’t have time to make something for that party, when I select a pancake syrup instead of maple syrup because the latter seems too expensive, or when I have that favorite nostalgic treat one last time, essentially I am supporting something I don’t wish to. Namely, the use of HFCS in foods or just fake foods in general. I’m beginning to feel more strongly that this is not okay. Not for me.

Voting with my fork and dollars is a power I have. It might be the only power I have in changing our society for the better. I feel like I need to be more responsible with this power.

There is another topic I want to discuss regarding the book, but I think it warrants a post on its own. I’ve already thrown a lot of thoughts out there with this one. Consider it Part 1.

I want to know what you think about the issues I’ve presented. Have you read the book?

This post has been submitted to Fight Back Fridays at Food Renegade

Will Learn for Food

June 15, 2009

As most of you know I just finished reading Food Politics by Marion Nestle not too long ago. While it took me a while to get through the book, I enjoyed it thoroughly and I learned a lot. One specific section that has stuck in my mind was that which addressed food brands and companies in schools.

Aside from my growing issues with the influence food companies have on our children and their health, this topic brought up some things from my time in elementary school – food related incentives.

Candy was a big deal in third grade. We were asked to learn things like our spelling words or memorize bits of info in exchange for taffy or a candy bar. Even as a kid that age, who struggled with weight ( as in a little on the chubby side), I often told the teacher I didn’t want to participate. Then, I blamed it on not wanting the candy, which they thought was weird, but I think it may have been more that I didn’t want to do the homework!

Despite these little candy rewards here and there, looking back I don’t feel that this was quite as powerful as the influence of food brands. According to the book these are growing beyond belief. Isolated schools are making changes, but it still remains a powerful force when it comes to lunches and rewards.

I was a big reader in grade school, I still am. But at that time in my life all my reading paid off in the form of individual pizzas from a popular pizza chain. I loved that program. I would read and read all summer in order to get my pizza.

Then, it all seemed so innocent. My parents didn’t view it as a big deal either. I mean, hey, I was reading and increasing my knowledge and all foods in moderation, right? I try not to overreact to these types of things now days, but it is difficult when you look back as a health conscious adult and realize how much that company was trying to brand me and how my school was letting them do it for money.

There were other food-based programs when I was in school, but for some reason this one really sticks out in my mind. Maybe it was my favorite, I don’t know. It is just another one of those realizations I have that I am fortunate to have become a healthy adult who knows the value of nourishing food. I, of course, had my mom trying to get me to eat healthy and my dad providing fresh foods from the garden, but some kids aren’t so blessed.

If you don’t have kids, what programs do you remember from school and how do you feel about them now?

If you do have kids, I’m really interested in knowing how you handle these food brands and incentives when it comes to your own children.

PS. Much to the likely disappointment of that pizza chain, their branding didn’t seem to work. It is by far my least favorite pizza today. Not sure why that is. Maybe some others had more influence on me.

Photo of one of my favorite pizzas in Lexington, KY from Mellow Mushroom. So many veggies it weighs a ton!

Why Eating Real Food Is Important to Me

June 3, 2009

I went for a family visit today. My mom and I stopped by to see my Great Aunt and two of my Great Uncles. They still live in and near the house of my Great Grandparents and although they are in their 80s we drove up to find them working in the yard and nearby garden.

As we talked about the family and looked through some old pictures I was reminded that much of my roots reside there – the recipes I ate through my childhood and have since learned how to make in my adulthood as well as using the land for food and keeping it plentiful during the winter months through canning. My mom tells me stories about collecting the chicken eggs and watching cows being milked as a child.

While I didn’t have exposure to such extreme farm life during my own childhood, I was exposed to extensive gardening through my Dad and home cooking through my Mom. This visit brought memories of days passed which always bring me to the present and how I currently feel about food.

Getting to the point of supporting the growth, cooking and consumption of real food was a long journey for me, but here I am. Days like today get me thinking about why I’ve evolved into this person, this place. I realize again and again that it really isn’t about health for me. My interest in health made me take the path in my life that I have traveled, but my real reason for supporting natural, sustainable foods is memories.

These memories I have are not all that common anymore and growing rarer by the day, especially for upcoming generations. I know that everyone can’t live on a farm, but everyone from toddlers to adults can take a break from this multi-media reality we live in and experience a portion of this old fashioned life. We just have to make a bit more of an effort. It can be growing your own garden, supporting a local agribusiness through a u-pick adventure or simply walking through a farmer’s market and talking with local producers.

When I think about my family who lived long before I showed up I realize that this wasn’t a choice for them. It was a necessity. In addition, when they were my age those now popular fast food and soda companies were just coming into view. However, as opposed to being known for their greedy efforts to take over the world that now seem so prominent, they were still viewed as entrepreneurial endeavors, part of the American dream.

Oh how things have changed, for the worse of course, but lately I also think they are changing for the better. Why? Just take a look through all the fabulous food blogs out there using natural, nourishing ingredients eliminating our need for processed ingredients.

I’m fortunate to have these memories because they are what keep me wanting to learn more about real food, to make the extra effort to prepare it and to share that with others. I know we can’t go back in time completely, but we can pull those positive things from the past to our present way of living.

Why is eating real food important to you?