Healthier Eating & The Great World of Food Blogging

As we started off the new year, it was a goal of mine to eat healthier to lose some weight. Many of you are aware of my love for cooking and baking which can make this quite difficult! I decided that along with that goal, I was going to make a real effort to start cooking healthier meals for my entire family, especially now that Isaac is eating more and more everyday foods along with us. With the challenges our country now faces with rising numbers of obesity, especially among children, I want to make sure that what I feed my children is wholesome and healthy. I want my children to have a love for food but also a good, healthy relationship with the kinds of things they put in their bodies. Now don't get me wrong, I don't consider myself a crazy health nut by any means nor do I intend on being one of those moms who deprives their children of every kind of sweet treat or processed snack all of the time, but I want to encourage my family to make smarter decisions when it comes to food and to have healthy options at hand. So, with my recent culinary adventures, here are some of the changes I have made to my typical weeknight meals:

1. Using leaner cuts of meat
2. Using reduced-fat cheese and other low-fat or non-fat dairy products
3. Incorporating more variety of fruits and veggies
4. Using olive oil or a canola oil spray to save on unhealthy fats and extra calories
5. Experimenting with spices and other natural flavorings to make meals more interesting
6. Watching more carefully the food labels and making sure not to buy products containing high fructose corn syrup, additives or preservatives
7. Buying canned fruits that are stored in their own natural juices rather than heavy syrups
8. Buying canned vegetables that are labeled "no salt added" to better control the amount of sodium in our meals
9. Using and eating whole wheat pastas, breads, and grains that are high in fiber and don't contain any high fructose corn syrup
10. (a) Making sure we eat a wide variety of foods including, fruits, vegetables, grains, meats, poultry, fish, beans, etc. and drinking more water and less sugar-filled juices and (b) Using healthier cooking methods such as baking not frying, etc.

So far, the most challenging part of cooking healthier meals has been looking for less expensive, quality ingredients that don't contain the additives, preservatives and high fructose corn syrup that are shockingly common in so many foods these days. It is incredible to me to see these ingredients showing up in foods you would never think contained them. Therefore, it's important for me to look for foods that contain more naturally occurring sweeteners, ingredients and overall fewer ingredients on their listings.

Many of the recipes I've been using recently have come from healthy food blogs and websites I've found through friends' suggestions or my own online research. Here are some of my new favorites:

1. www.skinnytaste.com
2. www.eatingwell.com
3. www.cookinglight.com
4. www.healthygirlcooking.com

My apologies to The Pioneer Woman for not making my list, you rock, but I've gotta get healthier! I'll still keep you on my Bookmarks tab bar though for now :)

If any of you out there have good suggestions for healthy recipe sites, I'd love to hear from you! I'll have to post some of the recipes I've made so far as well as some pictures. Some have been great, a few not so much, but it's a learning process and I'm figuring out ways to adapt the recipes and remember what didn't work so I can make changes the next time I try the same recipe. It's been fun, and I'm always discovering ways to create shortcuts and cut down on prep/cooking time so I have more time to spend with my awesome husband and adorable little boy!

Until next week, love to all our family and friends!