food revolution.

For those of you who don't know, I absolutely love cooking at home. Nothing, and I seriously mean nothing, beats a home cooked meal. It is a staple of American culture....or at least it used to be. 20, 30, 40 years ago, more people cooked at home than they do today. I don't even have to look up statistics to know that. Our lives have become so hectic and busy that we feel the need to pick up fast food on the way home from work every day, or take the family out to dinner. We rarely have time to look through a cook book, or make a grocery list, or go to the grocery store and go shopping. And when we DO cook at home.....we make frozen pizza, or chicken nuggets...I am a huge lover of Lunchables...why? Because all of those things are easy. It's easy to push a button and heat up the oven, or to start a microwave. We work SO hard every day at our jobs that we end up putting our own health and the health of our children at risk.

I need to say right now that I am not and don't claim to be the healthiest eater. Yea, I go out for fast food every once in awhile. Yes I have some junk food in my house. Sure, we heat up a frozen pizza sometimes -- but the difference for us is that I rarely let that junk into my house...about 60% of the food we eat is organic. There is rarely a good time for us to make a frozen pizza. And I try to cook good, delicious, HEALTHY food for my family. 6 out of 7 days of the week I cook. We don't eat crap every single day of the week. Not only do I love cooking and creating meals for my family, but I think it is absolutely necessary to have someone cook at home for the children and teach them about food and cooking. I'm not trying to get on anyone's case, I'm not trying to say I'm better than anyone, because I too am guilty of the things that Americans, and people all over the world are doing which is causing obesity and health problems.

I needed to get that out of the way...

American's especially are in danger. We have already lost ourselves, and our bodies, to fatty, processed food that is ridiculously bad for us. Packed full of sugar and preservatives. Packed full of fats and oils that we don't need in our system. Think about what you, or your child eats in a day -- especially those school age children. There was a reason I rarely ate school lunches. I thought they were disgusting. And that was about 20 years ago that I started elementary school. They weren't good food. So what do you eat? How many cups of coffee do you have packed with sugar and syrups? (Yup, I sure do love me an iced latte!) How often do you stop through the drive through when you are in a rush? How many #3's or #7's have you eaten in the past month? What about your children? How many happy meals have they had? How many cartons of school milk have they had that are packed with sugar and additives? What about those sloppy joes or previously frozen tater tots? And what do you think you are doing with all of that sugar, fat, and preservatives? Well, if you are one of the people in the less popular category, you work out. You go for a jog or a bike ride and you stay in shape. But those foods are still doing bad things to your body. If you are in the more popular, and easy category, like I am, your exercise consists of picking up your almost 4 year old or walking up the stairs. But I digress -- I'm not talking about exercising. I'm talking about eating.

I have a challenge for everyone. Go to this website http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes -- I absolutely LOVE Jamie Oliver, and if you aren't sure who he is, he is a British chef, who is starting the Food Revolution. A talk he gave is the reason for writing this post (I'll post the video later) -- he is a huge advocate of eating healthy, home cooked and also, organic food. I love him. Anyway, go on over to his website. Pick out TWO new recipes to try out this week. Its only two. Cook two home cooked, healthy meals for your family this week. Not only will you be proud of yourself for cooking two meals from scratch -- I always feel accomplished when I make a meal that my family adores -- but you will be making a healthy meal for your family. Its replacing that big mac you were going to have for dinner. That's all I ask. Two, quick, easy, simple, HOME MADE meals. If you want recipe suggestions, not only do I have a million, but I know other people who have good recipes stock piled as well. Even you single guys -- you should be able to cook yourself a meal. Trust me, nothing is sexier than a man who knows how to cook a good meal.


Lastly -- this is what started it all. This blog anyway. Please, if you have 20 minutes, take the time to watch this video. Its amazing how much shit kids are literally putting into their bodies every single day. It makes me want to cry that a child, older than Reilly, doesn't know what a tomato, or an eggplant is. One of my daughters FAVORITE all time food -- you wanna guess? Sure, she loves her popsicles, and her candy, and her happy meals (mostly for the toy I'm certain) but she LOVES eating raw green and red peppers. Last I checked, that was a vegetable. She would also rather eat a salad than fries. She has great eating habits. So please check out this video


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