You Are What You Eat

We've established that I love to cook.  I'm harboring this fantasy of someday being able to do anything I need to in the kitchen with basic, natural ingredients.  I am proud of the fact that I can put dinner on the table without NEEDING a recipe to follow or a box to open.  As a family, we've been moving more and more away from processed foods and refined ingredients to whole, unmessed-with foods.  We buy organic when it's available and financially possible.  When it's not, I make whatever I can.  It's a fun challenge for me to make something I've seen in a store or a restaurant, and do it better.  Now, don't get me wrong; there are take-out menus stashed in a drawer in my kitchen.  Drive-thrus are not a foreign experience for our family, but they are (thankfully) a rare concession when time or poor planning gets the best of me.  I feel blessed that my kids recognize junk food when they see (taste, smell) it, and prefer "real" food any day of the week.  It's the exception, not the rule in their nutrition.

So...we aim to be healthier by eating healthier.  If we eat food refined and processed beyond all recognition, we can expect to feel un-nourished and unhealthy.  Better living through chemistry?  Not in my kitchen!