New Blog Focus

For those of you (the very few of you) who are subscribers and were probably surprised to see new posts after well over a year, I've decided to start posting mostly about recipes and healthy living on this website when I have the chance.  I'm not always the healthiest person - I do eat snack food, desserts, and drink beer and wine.  But overall, I think I do pretty well and can honestly say that I rarely get sick (of course, now I'll probably promptly get sick), probably because I eat a lot of veggies and fruit and usually work out 5 times/week.  Also, I don't have kids yet...it seems like once there are kids around, there is no avoiding sickness. 

I love cooking and trying new recipes and I'm passionate about the state of health in this country, which totally sucks.  One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say the "can't cook".  Really, that just means you haven't tried.  ANYONE can cook simple recipes.  As I always say, it's not rocket science.  If you can read/understand measurements, you can cook.  No excuses.  You don't have to cook every night - most people don't have time for that.  I usually cook 3-4 times a week and we eat leftovers, simple things sandwiches or salads, or dine out the rest of the time (we try to only eat out once a week).  If you have a day off, you can prepare a meal or two for the upcoming week or to freeze for another day.  I like to cook extra amounts of food to freeze use for future meals like cooked, shredded chicken, browned ground beef, rice, quinoa, pancakes, etc. 

Fresh Ingredients:
I try to cook with whole foods as much as possible, but I'm definitely not beyond convenience items at times.  One of the best things that I've ever done was join CSA's each year.  For 3 summers, I participated in Wayward Seed Farm's fruit CSA.  This January, I joined Greener Grocer's Weekly Fresh Market Bag program, for which I pick up a bag of produce with grains, cheese, and other locally produced items at Greener Grocer at the North Market.  They also offer pickup at the Clintonville-Beechwold Community Resources Center.  I get the medium bag and it costs $20/week (payment plans available) and it usually contains 5-7 different types of local or organic foods.  They send out a newsletter each week letting you know what you'll receive in your next bag, along with recipes for the included items (which is good, because several of the items I've received are new to me).  This weekly market bag gets me excited about cooking and gives me plenty of fresh ingredients to work with. 

Other groceries:
I try to grocery shop at Trader Joe's a lot - they have what I need and are less expensive than you may think, plus they tend to carry food without high fructose corn syrup or partially-hydrogenated fats.  I often buy meat from House of Meat (gotta love that name) in Anderson's Market on 161 because they have great sales and they wrap the meat in freezer paper (I like to buy extra and freeze it for later and I don't have to worry about freezer burn if it's wrapped in freezer paper).  I buy bulk items at Whole Foods like rice, lentils, quinoa, oatmeal, dry beans, certain spices, etc., and store them in containers in my pantry.  It's cheaper and I can buy the amounts that I want.  I usually run into a Kroger or Giant Eagle once or twice a month when they have good weekly specials on produce, meat, or other grocery items that I like to buy.  Once or twice a year, I'll go into an Aldi's and stock up on canned veggies, beans, and certain baking supplies.

If you are still reading this awfully long, not very well focused post, please feel free to comment with links to your favorite recipes or ways that you stay healthy!