Not too many months after I decided to start a blog and get the things in my head out onto a plate (and into a virtual recipe box!) I started a diet.  Years of good food, having babies and a love of cooking of all sorts… caught up big time and it was time to re-engineer my brain and palate and especially my waistline.

It’s been a good diet… I chose it because it was made for people who like to cook real food.  It has definitely forced me to move beyond my old tastes and standby recipes and branch out to new flavors and lots and lots and lots of fresh veggies.

Though I’ve worked with many of the prescribed recipes in the diet over the last months, following them closely.  Which has cut down on the number of entries here for sure.  I’ve had the opportunity to try to create a few of my own recipes that have fit a healthier diet profile. I hope to do more of this as the summer progresses and add them to this blog.

What I’ve learned…

1. Vegetables do not need to be treated as color on the plate, taking a backseat to an “entree” … they can stand alone and become a frontline dish.  (Thank you Giada De Laurentiis for the healthy inspiration in your cookbooks!)

2. I’ve found that cooking waistline friendly meals for friends and family has surprisingly been met with lots of positive feedback.  The praise has been equal for some of the ‘new’ healthy dishes as they were for my favorite buttery eggy herbed popovers.

3. I feel better cooking in a way that is healthy for every body… and it’s taken me out of a “Protein, Starch, Veg” rut and into looking at more interesting and healthy choices using even more varied ingredients and exploring interesting, new, healthier, substitutions.

And of course… it’s also nice to have to buy smaller clothes!