Healthy Home Cooking with Taste!

Home cooking and healthy eating are possible. We need to start at the beginning and look at how our grandmothers cooked and look at what they used. Most of our grandmothers or great-grandmothers were children or young married women during the Great Depression and World War II.
They had to grow or raise all their foods and had limited choices, so they learned to make do with what they had. They had freshly killed beef, chicken, or pork. They ate fresh eggs, & had fresh milk to drink. Gardens were a neccessity because there were no Whole Foods Market or Trader Joe's to buy their organic fruits and vegetables.

If we returned to that lifestyle most of us would loose our minds. I am probably not milking a cow! I have great respect for those who do, but I tend to be a little nervous with my head that close to a cows hind hoofs!
I would raise chickens, but the chicken poop stinks to high heaven and I would be a pariah in my neighborhood.
Raising your own vegetables is a very fun and exciting thing, try that one.
When we start eating whole foods like...carrots, lettuce, chicken, beef, pork, eggs...then we are starting on a healthier way of life.
Pick the places you eat out very carefully. Panera Bread was just rated #1 in eateries with healthy choices, just happens to be on my top 3 list of places I will eat without feeling guilty & ill when I leave.

People in the grocery store hate me. If I am buying a new product I read the label..completely. When I hit words that sound like a Chemistry exam..I put it back on the shelf! Pre-packaged meals have to contain preservatives or they would not be safe to eat, but how safe are the things they preserve them with? That's a question that many are trying to answer, but for me I try to stay away from anything chemical in my food.

The old saying "You are what you eat" is very true!

• As a RN, I know that many illnesses are from what we ingest.
• As a diabetic, I know that carbohydates matter.
• As a cook, I refuse to use things that are loaded wih chemicals, sugar, salt and msg..they only add these to make their product taste better. Let's just get better products!

Southern food is very well suited to healthy lifestyles. Okay now after everyone cleans up the coffee they spilled while laughing through that one... There are few Southern recipes, or any recipe for that matter that can't be cleaned up to fit a healthy lifestyle.

Tex-Mex is one of the staples in our home, and it's probably one of the best to make heart & nutrition healthy. Now does that mean cheese dripping out of every tortilla in the house...no! It means grilled chicken & veggie fajita's with quacamole salad! It means healthy black beans and brown rice with Carne Asada, topped with fresh salsa...get the picture? Fish tacos are really popular right now & they are a nutrtionist dream.

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I am starting a review on Monday of Joy Bauer's "Slim & Scrumptious" Cookbook. It has such great recipes, so I am going to cook my way through this book with photos & reviews. Thank you to Joy & her staff for asking me to partner with them and review her books on New Southern Pantry's blog.

First up will be Creole Catfish with Cucumber Radish Slaw, Cinnamon Sugar Sweet Potato Fries, & to finish the meal..Dark Chocolate Almonds. Sounds so delicious, can't wait to get cooking!