Focusing on Food - Reviving the Blog

Spinach & Goat Cheese Turkey Burger with Baked Fries

Some of you may remember a post from long ago (in a galaxy far far away) that began this blog. It focused on my personal struggles with healthy choices, mainly my weight. Over the course of the last year, I have really come to love myself more than any other time in my life. I love my body and my life. I accept my "flaws" as part of my personal and unique beauty, but that does not mean I have stopped trying to be healthy. Rather instead of focusing on weight loss, I now aim to take care of myself, because I love myself so much. I know that I owe it to myself to take care of myself each and every day, and that all starts with the food I put into my body.

For those who may not know me, one of my biggest passions is food!

And come on like who doesn't love food?

 I love eating and making food, and I do so often. Now that I have recently moved from the great state of Indiana to the northern frontier of Minnesota, I have a lot of down time while I wait for the cold to pass.Therefore, lately I have been cooking a lot, and it has rekindled my passion to try new things and put healthy spins on them.

Let's be honest. If someone looked at me, I would not be the picture of health. I am a fat woman who has struggled with my weight my entire life. Yet, over the course of the past few years, I have slowly been changing my eating habits and my cooking habits. This is what I want to focus on here.

However, I have a secret.

Healthy food can be delicious, and it can also be done on a budget.

First Thanksgiving Turkey

My wonderful husband and I are recent college graduates. With graduation comes loan payments on top of all the other responsibility of adulthood otherwise known as bills. Consequently, we do not have a ton of money to buy exotic and expensive ingredients that are featured in many of the recipes I find online. Most of the people I know are in similar situations in terms of money. Good food does not need to equal expensive food.

In saying that, I love food porn as much as the next person. I have watched countless hours of Food Network and perused food blogs and recipes. I rarely can pass by a Buzzfeed food article without clicking on it. However, with the recent trends in health food (possibly food in general), many of the ingredients are impossible to find outside of metropolitan or larger

Sausage, Apple, Cranberry Dressing

suburban areas. In addition, these ingredients and others are often expensive. Who has things like pancetta or chia seeds just sitting around the house? If you live in a small town like I always have, there are limits to budgets and ingredients.

My aim on this blog is to make food that is healthy, budget-friendly, and possible for anyone to create. I love food, and I look forward to sharing all of my creations with you.

Welcome (officially) to Tales of a Midwestern Wife!