Beginnings

My husband loves my food; his favorite meal is meatloaf with mashed potatoes, green beans, and fresh bread. While I enjoy cooking and love to make my family happy and filled with yummy meals, I think my cooking is simply average. I know more than a beginner cook and less than a professional. I only know a couple of recipes by heart. I rely on cook books and print outs from sites like allrecipes.com to help me get through a meal.

I adore planning things – even when I don’t follow through! Meal planning each week and then leafing through store ads and coupon matching bring me more joy than the average person. I think we have fewer convenience items than most families, but we do have them. Cold cereal and pop-tarts are probably a favorite, though generally we only get them when there is a sale ($2 or less a box for cereal and $1 a box for pop-tarts).

My husband has slightly elevated cholesterol and blood pressure so we make adjustments for him. He is not overweight (unlike my curvaceous self), but there is a long history of heart disease in his family. His dad suffered 3 heart attacks in later years and dealt daily with high blood pressure and cholesterol. My husband’s blood pressure is not so worrisome; because of an injury 11 years ago he takes a lot of medications and that is one of the side effects. He takes a pill for the cholesterol though and we have made dietary changes as well. When I post recipes or meal ideas, especially baked goods, I will use substitutions to make the dish as healthy as possible.

There is also a 5 year old in the house, but we are extremely blessed as she adores fruits and veggies and beans! We do have rules for meal time and I will discuss those in another post.

I hope that you’ll find our meals and food munchies are “normal” and that you’ll enjoy reading as I make my way into the world of blogging.