A Fresh Start

I started a blog a few years ago to try to give me some type of creative outlet with cooking, photography and a compelling need to be sarcastic in print. Cooking and photography have sort of gone by the wayside with two little ones requiring so much focus but luckily, sarcasm sticks with you for life. Hooray for that! I thought I'd give it a try again since the girls have grown up some; don't get me wrong, there is no more time in my day, but I need to get organized so I thought maybe this would help.

At the beginning of the year, a friend of mine asked me to be a meeting buddy for Weight Watchers and it's been a great year to shed weight of all varieties. I'm down 20 pounds and have reevaluated the way we have been eating. With the new WW Points Plus plan, fruit and vegetables are "free", meaning zero points plus values. I thought that would lend itself to us eating more fresh fruit and veggies and it has, but I just felt like we had to rely so much on processed "fake" food to get us through the rest of the day. Fat free string cheese, puffed cheddar cheese rice cakes, artificial sweetener added to the top of berries, it just didn't seem right. So, for the past few weeks, we have been trying to "eat clean" and cut out processed food and drink, and really work on having natural, nature-made foods. So far, thing are going well and I hope to post pictures of what we are eating to maybe help give some new ideas on the age-old question "What's for dinner?"

Our philosophy on eating is this: To be aware of where and how our food was made and be able to identify all ingredients in any pre-made food. Fresh, natural and from the Earth should be the rule. We are focusing on organic and local food first, and trying to eat seasonably. Our goal is to strive to eat this way 80% of the time. Of course 100% would be great, and anything is better than the way we were eating. We are trying to visit our local farmer's markets and supporting their farms but with two little ones and a hubby who travels, we do hit the local grocery quite often. We do have a new Whole Foods that opened not too far from us so I'm hoping that will be a good resource for us.

This is a learning process for us and we are doing our best, just like everyone else. My hope is for improved health and energy for my family and an awareness and respect for the food that is put on our table, from seed to purchase to plate. I hope out children will learn the same values.

I hope you can join us on our journey and am happy to hear any comments, tips or recipes you may have to share.

And what is a post without a picture? Here is one of my new favorite things...hard boiled eggs cooked in the oven!

Oven Baked Hard Boiled Eggs:
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place eggs in a muffin tin to keep them from moving around. Bake in oven for 25-30 mins. Place eggs in ice water for 10 minutes to stop cooking. Peel, store and give to your kiddos fr breakfast in the morning!