Food Homework is Fun Homework

I spend most nights perusing through the 1.6 million cook books Chris and I own and Pinterest. My bedside table is usually loaded down with 6 novels I'm in the middle of, 2 or 3 cookbooks and 1 or 2 foodie magazines.  In this house, with a baker and a chef, our lives basically revolve around food.

Recently, like the past week, I have been eating 95% paleo/whole30, healthy, however you want to put it.  Meat, eggs, veggies, small amounts of fruit, that's basically it.  (If you don't count the cookie and ice cream I had last week.)  As far as drinks go, I stick to water and coffee (which is where I am struggling to not add my flavors and milk) I can't help it, I LOVE my caramel vanilla iced americano with 2%, I'm a barista, it's going to happen.  After only one week of eating this way, I feel great.  I'm not lethargic, I'm not overly moody, and I'm enjoying cooking again <3

My favorite new found breakfast is baked eggs with lots of goodies.  Call it a fritatta, a spanish tortilla, baked eggs, whatev! Hello, easy, delicious, and filling!

Spanish Tortilla 

(play around with the ingredients)

Serves 1, 3 days

1 Small Sweet Potato, peeled and thinly sliced in rounds

1/4 Bell Pepper of your choice, thinly sliced in long strips

(I always have green and red on hand)

1/4 Walla Walla Sweet Onion, thinly sliced

1 Jalapeno, seeded and thinly sliced or diced

4 oz meat, thinly sliced or diced

(I've used ham, chicken sausage, anything you like)

5-6 eggs, beaten (preferably farm fresh, trust me, there is a difference)

2 tsp EVOO

fresh basil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, italian seasoning

Heat EVOO in skillet over medium heat

Once heated, add sweet potato, saute 10 minutes, until browned and cooked through

Add in all other ingredients minus eggs

Saute 5-7 minutes, until veggies are par-cooked

Take off burner, put all yummy goodies into a heat-safe bowl to cool

Once partially cooled add beaten eggs.

Line a small baking dish with parchment paper, (I used a 6 cup Pyrex)

Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes.

Let cool fully, pop out of pan, divide into 3 equal parts, place in tupperware of some sort

Magic, you have breakfast for 3 days!! :) 

My lunches are always leftovers from the night before.  Recently, I have only been cooking for myself.  My hubby works way too much, my daughter left for college last month, and my son is WAY to busy being a senior in high school to be home for dinner every night. ;) I have found that it works best for me to take any recipe I want to try and cut it in half.  That way I have dinner for that night and lunch for the next day.  It keeps me from getting bored, and eating whatever looks better at work, and then having to throw away perfectly good food.  

Tonight I was feeling the weather and a little nostalgic of my time in Ireland. I decided to make a "traditional fall dish" that I ate once a week during my time across the pond. Who doesn't love pork chops and applesauce? . I seared my thin cut pork chops, took them out and set them aside. Thinly sliced up new potatoes, a gala apple, purple cabbage, the other 1/4 of my walla walla sweet onion, garlic and some cauliflower.  Saute'd it all together with a good amount of salt, red pepper flakes, thyme, and cinnamon.  Added the pork back in, lowered heat to med low, and let it all cook together and the pork to come up to 160 degrees! Oh man, it was delicious, and so easy, I just love one pan meals.



It's amazing to me how a little bit of research, or homework, can change how I am looking at meals.  I have been cooking for so long that I can take bits and pieces from certain recipes and adapt them into a totally different one.  If you aren't to that point, follow a recipe.  It is simple.  Remember to try new things; I am shocked that I like certain foods now that 1 or 2 years ago made me shudder when I saw them in a dish (Main one, mushrooms, love them...now....) Another new flavor to me that I absolutely love, is curry! I don't keep any red curry in our house due to Chris' food allergy, but Yellow Curry is amazing!! Trust me. ;)

I hope my renewed love of cooking can come through your screens and help you to make healthy, easy, yummy food for you and your family.  <3

A New Way of Thinking

I don't know about you, but once I reached my late 20's (I can't believe I'm in my last full calendar year of my 20's) I started to see a lot of people my age getting sick.  I'm not talking about the common cold or the flu, more along the lines on cancer and bad food allergies.  Right now, I have 2 possibly 3 friends with cancer that I know of; and more people than I could possibly count have discovered that they allergic to real foods.  It has gotten me thinking, what are we doing wrong?  As a society we pride ourselves on being the best.  Everyone wants to be an American; This is "The Greatest Country in the World."  Why are we getting sick?

I am starting to believe that a major issue is what we are consuming; food and drink mainly.  We have become brainwashed and tricked into thinking that food is food. If it is sold in a grocery store, it is ok to eat and shouldn't make us sick.  Well, that's a bunch a bull, if you don't mind me saying so.
I dare you to go look in your cupboard, pick up any can or box of "food" and read the label.  Those words you and I cannot pronounce are not food.  They are chemicals, they are additives to make our "food" appealing to us.  To make it taste good and trick us into thinking its delicious. To make them easy to mass-produce, to make an easy dollar, or million. I have these same "foods" in my cupboard right now.  I'm trying to get away from them, but with 2 teenagers and my husband in my house, that gets a little difficult.

I would love to know the rates of cancer and food allergies in other 1st world countries.  Is it such an epidemic in Germany? Or France? What about Ireland? I know that they are not allowed to put a good majority of the chemicals in their foods as we do.  They do not process meat in a warehouse the way we do.  A lot of things have made me really take a step back, not always reach for the easiest item to indulge in, and really start taking the time and effort to put only real food items into my body.


Let me step off my soap box. :) With this new way of looking at our foods, and knowing that what I put into my body is what will either make me run at full capacity or just barely scrape by, I have really started to make myself prep my meals again.  I am re-learning what foods I really do enjoy, new foods to try, new spices and herbs.  I absolutely love to cook and bake.  It is one of my biggest passions in life besides being the best wife and mom I can be.  But, with that being said, some days I want nothing to do with being a kitchen, or doing dishes, blech!!!


I am learning to take an hour or 2 every couple of days and prep out breakfasts, snacks, and lunches for a couple days, it saves me a ton of time and irritation.  I am definitely one of those people who when I am hungry, I am starving and need to eat 10 minutes ago.  If it isn't easy or already made, I'm not going to make it.

I am also learning, that I do not like to eat the same meal more than 2 (maybe 3) days in a row.  I'm bored of it by then.  So, my plan on here is to share at least once, maybe twice a week what I'm cooking and eating.  My hope is that I might inspire just a few people, hopefully more, to take the time and learn to enjoy the time spent to take care of our bodies.  We only get one, and I personally would like to live as long as possible.  For goodness sake, my mom is saying she's going to live to 112, so I at least have to make it to 93.  ;)