I'm a 20-something married mother of two children. My son is 7 and my daughter is 2 1/2 (fun age combo, let me tell you!). My husband and I both work, like most folks do, and I'm always looking for ways to avoid picking something up because I'm too tired to cook when I get home. Thankfully, I only work 3 days a week, but they're 12 hour days so I don't want to do ANYTHING when I get home. Fortunately, I've developed a few great methods to keep us supplied with healthy food that's not terribly expensive, either. I'm hoping to share some of my recipes here and some of those methods, too! I'm professionally trained, even though I chose not to take the path of the professional chef. I know a lot about cooking and I love to experiment or 'Gabbyize' things, as my best friend would say. My family has come to know and love food from all over the world. We're not vegan or vegetarian, but I've found some great recipes and made some great recipes that are sans meat. I try to keep an open mind about things without compromising healthful eating too much. I was raised Southern and still live in the South, even though I moved from one extreme side to the other. Family traditions are your typical Southern fare of beans and rice, cornbread, ham, greens, grits, etc. I branched out, though, and I've made new family traditions. My husband and children's favourite is Pick-And-Eat nights. There is no cooking involved at ALL and I love that part when I'm tired. :p We eat a spectrum currently whilst I attempt to find where we're most comfortable. I know and love the health benefits of a raw food diet, but I also know that 100% is not good for you and I do know that meat is beneficial for your health (I don't like raw meat, sorry). I'm also still torn because I love the tennets of the Weston A. Price foundation and there are traditional things I like to bake for gifts during the holidays that wind up on our plates, too. A lot of my proudest moments in the kitchen have little to do with cooking at all, but still involves food preparation. I've made some raw chocolate brownies of which I was terribly proud. Raw soups are also things I've been pleased with. Most of my biggest tragedies have also involved raw foods. I have a love/hate relationship with the entire genre of food preparation.