This would come as a big "DUH..obviously!!!" to anyone who knows me...but for the longest time I really had no clue how to cook.

Life is hectic and with having Josh on my own...I could make basic things. Meat. Potato's. Frozen veggies. I went through a pork chop phase where I just LOVED pork chops. I think Josh was under 1..so he was just eating baby food still or basic meat and potato's ( I cannot remember what I even fed the poor kid!). I remember cooking myself a pork chop at 10 PM...once Josh was soundly asleep. I just needed a pork chop desperately at that time of night. My eating habits were a tad off.

I have always loved the idea of cooking  though...I love the searching for different recipes, I love food. I just cannot seem to find the time to make all these new meals I am finding happen. I guess for the longest time I just never found, or made, the time to make good food happen.

When I first started my fitness journey I was determined that I was not wanting to change my eating habits. I was going to continue my weekly (sometimes 2 or 3 times a week) lunch run to McDonalds. I was going to continue eating cake and chocolate and was basically going to continue drinking pop and iced tea if I damn well felt like it. The food we were eating at home was really no better. Way too much processed food lived in our kitchen. Eating was all about convenience and little about health.

Anyone who lasted in fitness longer than the "new years resolution" phase knows that in time your diet changes, whether you think you will want it to or not. As I saw my body changing and the weight dropping, I was thinking about what I was putting into my mouth. I stopped craving the McDonalds and now actually feel ill if I make a "short on time" stop at McD's for a quick bite. I think I now eat at Mcdonald's (willingly) three times a year at most.  I drink pop 1-2 times a year and I am seriously needing to stop drinking it at all. I get this "addicted" feeling when I even have one, so I take to ordering water or chocolate milk whenever I go out.

Chocolate is my forever love. Let's just say I am still working on that.

One HUGE change for me in the last year is in my desire to eat clean and cook from scratch. I started wanting to eat clean in January 2013. I even wrote about it in a note on FB...yet I failed that year. This year I am doing much better. I make a mean butter chicken....I love my own taco seasoning and not relying a packet for that. I am so pleased that my kids are in love with my Mac 'n Cheese from scratch. My goal is to get rid of every boxed food item in my house and know how to recreate it all on my own.

Tonight we are having burgers. The frozen premade meat patty was so hard for me to give up because honestly, Sobey's makes this amazing Angus Burger. So yummy. But I needed to make my own. So we make it with essentially the same ingredients we do our meat loaf and it actually tastes like a tiny meat loaf. Which is freaking good. Even the kids had loved it (they are our most honest taste-testers).

I am also starting to get a teeny bit more adventurous in the kitchen. I normally obsess about following the recipes to the letter, especially the first time. Tonight I am making my own seasoned bread crumbs from gluten free bread as I need them for the burgers. I realize this is not a big deal, this is not impressive at all but for me its a big deal (sad!!) because I am a researcher. I like to search out recipes and find the best way to do something and then follow it step by step. I do not leave room for error. Tonight I am going all free-style with these bread crumbs and just adding what I think might taste okay. I'm totally going rogue; this might be the start of something crazy. Or just bread crumbs. Might just be bread crumbs.