Hello All. My name is Bridget. I am a proud mother of two beautiful girls, Zoe and Hallie. I love being a mom and wife. I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, cooking (of course), listening to audio books, watching movies, and traveling (when I get the chance). I love baking. Anything that has to do with flour, sugar, eggs, etc. Recently, I began reading labels and researching many of the ingredients in pre-packaged food. I am now on a mission to provide healthy, yummy meals and snacks for my family. It gives me piece of mind to know exactly what is in the food that we eat. Every Thursday, my Mother and I take turns fixing dinner for the family. She is very picky so it is not often that I make something different that she enjoys, but it is a nice tradition. On Sundays, my family also gets together for breakfast and then a late lunch. We all take turns bringing side dishes. Everyone seems to love my desserts, thanks to AllRecipes, of course. I started cooking healthier. It was a hard task for me. I began changing out some ingredients here and there, like wheat flour instead of all-purpose, brown sugar and honey instead of white sugar, dried fruit instead of chocolate chips...Now it is strictly a way of life. Once, I made chocolate chip cookies bars with bad shortening. I was very young, maybe 15, and was attempting one of my very first sole baking conquests. I had no idea what shortening was supposed to smell like. At first I thought it smelled different, but proceeded with the recipe. The bars tasted like rancid shortening. My family got a good laugh from it and I learned that shortening can go bad.