I think I'll start a blog....

I've never blogged before, so, bear with me as I learn the ropes. I had several conversations with friends and family today that ended with the phrase “you should blog about it”. I thought to myself, who cares? Who will read it? Well….maybe no one. I guess we will see.

I suppose I’ll write a little about everything; Recipes, thoughts, pets, kids, husbands, houses, cars, and life in general. But today, I’m going to start with food.

How awesome is food! I love food! I love to eat it, cook it, learn about it, read about it…and apparently, blog about it. I’ve recently made a huge change in my family’s diet. We went….dun dun dun….organic.

There were several reasons for this. One was that I had to write a paper for my environmental science class, and I chose to write it on the food industry. There is stuff going on from factory to plate that would make your toes curl, but I’ll ease you into that. Another reason was the more I got into cooking and putting food together myself, the less I understood all those giant scientific terms on the side of the boxes of prepackaged food at the market.

The changes came slowly. First, we gave up trans-fat. Easy enough, no partially hydrogenated anything. Then, high-fructose corn syrup went bye-bye. (Do you know how many things have high-fructose corn syrup?) We threw milk with hormones out the window. We gave up fast food. Then, we saw Fast Food Nation, and Food, Inc. I read The Righteous Porkchop, and lots of interesting (and disgusting) journal articles on the food industry.

Sometimes I feel like I’m in a science fiction movie and the whole world has microchips in their brains so they don’t notice how bad it really is, and then my microchip broke. I’ve discovered there are whole groups of people out there now with broken microchips. I also know a lot of people that choose not to know. “Ignorance is Bliss” I suppose. Once my eyes were opened to it, I couldn’t go back. I won’t eat meat that isn’t grass fed, and antibiotic and hormone free. (Which, for the record makes it very difficult to eat anywhere but at home) My eggs are free range, and vegetarian. Now they shouldn’t have to label the eggs as being from vegetarian chickens right? Aren’t chickens vegetarians? Well…..they should be…unfortunately, a lot of times they aren’t…and that’s a whole new realm of gross.

I feel better knowing when I pack my daughters lunch, and make dinner, that I am giving her the best start and highest quality food I can. Will she go through life never eating a Dorito….certainly not. She’ll go to birthday parties, and snatch one from a kid at school. But what I can do is help her make the best decisions she can at home, and keep her informed. Plus, the food decisions we make, lessen our impact on the environment as a whole….SCORE. Two for one!


I will tell you, that after having gone natural/organic I feel better. I’m less lethargic. The 2 o’clock slump is not a regular visitor, I sleep better, and my skin is better. We’ve changed more than food now; we opt for natural cleaners, store bought and home-made. We try to get more products made in America. All of our body products are natural.

I’m sure I’ll slip some icky fact filled blogs in occasionally, but for now I’ll just keep blogging along. Maybe someday someone will read it. For now, I will just write about what interests me most. Food, family and environment, which amazingly all go hand in hand, and as the wonderful Julia Child said. “Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.” And so I shall.