This Good...: Clean Eating

I have been 2 weeks now on a new way of life that I am just calling Eating Clean. I wanted to share before now, but I have a bad tendency to be really gung ho, and then slack off, so I wanted some time under my belt...and now I feel comfortable sharing.

For the past who knows how long now I have been having a stronger and stronger urge to "nest" or just to be at home with my kids, cooking, spending quality time, just being there...not at work, not eating out all the time, just trying to calm the tenor of my life a bit. Well, I have begun to put those needs into reality slowly...can't get everything RIGHT NOW like I want can I? (or can I...nope).

As for the food, well, you know I have the glaring and rather serious cholesterol issue that medication is helping, but only at the strongest dose...and I still need to lose about 30 pounds...yes, still. And, I must tell you, my journey has been helped a great deal by several blogs that I read, namely Big Mama who does her absolute best to live off the land and to eat locally grown food and healthy food as much as possible, no processed junk for her and her large and boisterous brood. I started reading Big Mama because of the adoption link, but am now a dedicated reader because of her morals in life. And then there is her daughter, Sarah, who has been posting the best recipes and is also focused on eating locally grown food and not the processed junk. And then, you know how the stinkin' internet is, before you know it you have linked from this blog to that and then to that website and there is 100 Cookbooks, and a whole host of others. So, over 2 weeks ago now, I decided to go as cold turkey as possible and to cut out the fake and processed food that was so invading our diet.

So, what does this mean? Well, for one, I am cooking a LOT more and making some very delicious veggie recipes. I will start posting them soon and will get them on here as frequently as possible. I have purchased several cookbooks by Tosca Reno and they are great, even though her blog is mostly about her body building activities which do not really interest me. I also don't like the way it is called a "diet" because this truly has to be a way of life. It just feels right to eat like this. D and the Cherubs are being great sports and are fully on board (I even made chocolate chip cookies with chickpeas in them and they were fantastic)! Now, I will admit that I have spent more money on groceries the last few weeks, I have spent far LESS than normal on dining out. I have also signed up and received 2 weeks so far of local homegrown food delivery from Farm Fresh Delivery and that has been such fun to come home on Friday and see what goodies they have brought, seriously I need a Martha/Betty check as I am so domestic these days it is crazy...especially if you know me!

Okay, enough of all that for now. I am plugging away in school, actually have a B in one of my classes and am not at all pleased about it. I have been trying not to either pay too much attention to or ignore the incredibly frightening financial situation of our country...as of a week or so ago, my 401K was down 17% for the year....bet after this week it is even more. I watched the VP debate with much anticipation and am such a nerd because I was so excited about it. I know my friend Chris is too...although we are not on the same team... I am glad that Palin did not get up there and stammer and have no answers as she was seen on t.v. as doing, but it was very obvious that she was coached in certain areas and those were the areas she was going to talk about, question be damned. She was a little too "golly, shucks, Joe" for my taste, I see that she is trying to be the "average" American but this average American wants a bit more of an intellectual stance out of my VP I guess. I am still glad they picked someone outside of the Beltway and let her into the secret sect, but they still will not be getting my vote.

Cherubs are great, lovely in fact, and I have been going through some of our pics from this summer and thought I should post one here...