Food Philosophy

I strongly believe that people should be fully aware of what they are putting into their bodies. I’m not a health nut and you can tell from looking at me that I don’t count calories. I just believe that raw fresh food is better for you then processed food high in sodium and drenched in high fructose corn syrup. I think people should have some idea of where their food comes from and how it was prepared.I run our house kitchen like a restaurant. We try new things and try to keep our meals based on seasonal produce, although these days everything is available all year round, it’s always better in season and usually cheaper. We get most of our food from Walmart, because when feeding a family of eight, every bit of savings helps. For more specialty items and seasonings I will make special trips to places like Homeland, Atkins, and the downtown Asian Market.

When it comes to produce, I use exclusively fresh or frozen. I find the canned food to be just as costly and not as tasty. For meats I only buy frozen fish and other meats fresh. This usually means two trips to the grocery store per week. I have found that unless you have a lot of refrigeration space, that with this size family two trips a week is inevitable anyway.

For food preperation and cooking, it has to be done fast. If I can’t get the meal fully prepared and on the table in under 90 minutes then it will cause a lot of problems getting everything else done for the night, so I aim for 60-45 minute meals. Ideally meals that require about 15 minutes of prep and then less monitored cooking times. When I want a night of less stress I look for a good crock-pot meal that will be ready when we get home in the evening.

We also have to be aware of food allergies, so if a meal can not be made allergy safe, then two sets of meals must be prepared. So we try our best to avoid allergy ingredients to avoid the extra dishes and work of preparing two meals.