Purpose of the Blog

I'm a working mom who lives with two elementary-aged girls involved in extra-curricular activities, a husband and a mom, all of whom are pretty good eaters. Dinnertime is important and we do the "everyone sits down to dinner together" deal, and I want them to have healthy dinners. To make this work, I must have a lot of advance planning---so here I'll share my planning with you.

Some caveats-we don't eat a lot of fish, and I steer clear of recipes that call for exotic things such as lamb or duck or bison. I tweak recipes to make them low sugar/low fat/low calories (in that order). I love my crock pot and use it as much as possible. I don't have to hide healthy stuff for anyone, and my girls are fans of fresh and frozen veggies (which I work into each meal, usually)

My cooking theories: I have about 30 pounds to lose, so my dinners will try to reflect a healthy choice in eating. About seven years ago, we made the switch to a lower-sugar way of life, so many of the recipes I use, I substitute in whole-grain or sugar-free components. Also, I believe you should have something green with each meal, so I mix that in there, too.

I realize that I have it a little bit easier than others, because my kids and husband will eat pretty much anything I dream up, and I have a mom around who can help with cooking, too. Also, we order a bunch of our food on a six month basis, so at any given time I have a freezer at least half full of frozen chicken breasts or ground meat, so grocery shopping is not a huge chore every week. That said, I travel a lot (A LOT) so I try to have a plan, the recipe, and the ingredients in place at the beginning of each week so that we don't have to run out and pick up dinner (which, thankfully, we don't have to do during the week---the weekends are another story, though!).

The purpose of this blog is to keep track of the meals I am loving and hating, and to give y'all ideas of what I am cooking and what I do that works or doesn't work. And, because I'd love to publish a cookbook (which will likely never happen), so at least I can have an online cookbook of sorts.

One last thing--since seeing Julie and Julia, I have become more adventuresome with my cooking--estimating more and following the recipe less--so I will try to give good descriptions (but make no promises).