Ok so history on my family and eating habits...Meat meat meat...raised in Italian family where meat was part of every meal. My wife Ashley and I have been married about 8 years now and we've always had meat be a part of our diet, Ashley is an exceptional baker, so baked goods have also been one of our weaknesses. Rewind to a year ago, and Ashley snuck in some vegan dinners 3 or 4 nights in a row- without really telling me- and I didn't notice. Friday night rolls around and its taco night, I am in the kitchen buttering some tortillas in a skillet; and Ashley arrives home from picking the kids up at soccer practice and is like, "Oh I am not eating that stuff anymore." I flipped out...literally flipped out, once I clarified what "that stuff" was (which turned out to be anything dairy or meat related. Oh, you know, ALL THE CRAP I LOVED AND COOKED WITH EVERY MEAL, EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE UNTIL.... now!)...I told her that was a blow equated to the blow that would be felt in telling me something like, "we are changing religions to <insert whatever religion that would horrify you the most, I will refrain as not to offend anyone, even though I hate that PC minded BS we are all concerned with now a days. I mean is it really PC if you are purposefully saying something that just sounds nicer and isn't what you would normally say? Come on people, let's just be real.>." The Italian in me lost it, thoughts ran through my brain like, "how the heck am I going to cook without butter," a tear welled up as I thought, "no more BBQ'd pork tenderloin," "no brussel sprouts braised with bacon!"I loved to cook pork a million different ways and was having a hard time reconciling life without pork at that particular moment. But I got over it (after 24 hours or so), told Ashley to keep cooking that way and that I would eat it; but I wasn't sure I would get totally on board with a full lifestyle/diet change. A year later, and I am meat free (fish only from time to time) and I feel great, probably the healthiest I've been. My cholesterol dropped like 90 points from my previous physical, I lost like 30 lbs from my heaviest weight and I still enjoy food as much as I did when I was a carnivorous freak.
I've always enjoyed cooking and kind of had a passion for food. Ash always says I cook comfort food, I would have to agree, though I have tried to branch out to the lighter and less comforty, type foods (I know that's not really a word..grammar Nazis). I love to try new things and eat at new restaurants that I've never been to or heard of before. My cooking style has always been kind of improvisational, I like to look in the fridge or cabinets and throw something together; or I will get an idea in my head and try to imagine what sounds good to me to eat, and then go to the store for the ingredients. I only recently started to try my hand at following recipes and actually measuring ingredients. Some of the stuff I've thrown together has turned out to be edible so I finally decided to put it in print, and maybe friends and family will try some of this stuff out and enjoy.
Hoping I can get my wife Ashley to put some of her recipes on her as well, she's a great cook, not afraid to try something new, which I think is huge and risky, especially when you are cooking it for people besides yourself or spouse. And she is an AMAZING baker, that's where at least half of those 30lbs I lost came from, pies, cookies, crumbles, muffins, tortes, you name it she can bake it.
anyway not exactly sure what this will develop into or if this will be the last post I ever post but we'll see..
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