Married to the love of my life. We have almost a picture perfect life. Love the outdoors and being healthy. Hiking, yoga and healthy cooking are some of our favorite things. My husband and I enjoy living a very healthy lifestyle. So I LOVE to cook LOTS of veggies and whole grains. We try to throw in the organic food whenever it's affordable. I LOVE to try to slim down comfort foods. Everything I cook I try to turn into something that makes me feel good about myself when I eat it. I also like trying to recreate recipes from restaurants and friends.... and then I slim them down (haha). The cooking traditions in my family are a bit strange: At new years we have a party and a dinner the next day. The dinner is pretty normal... black eyed peas, collard greens, ham, cornbread. The new years party is just crazy. A lot of random things show up... but usually we always have a lasagna and punch bowl cake. At Christmas our crazy traditions include taco salad, "opposum dip", shrimp cocktail, jalapeno jelly over cream chease, cheese balls, and potato candy At Easter we are pretty normal... Ham, potato salad... you know... my mom's strawberry pie is usually a given. At halloween I go nuts and make "Fall baskets"... I like to make breads and such using Fall fruits and vegetables. Last year I made apple bread, sweet potato biscuits, mulled cidere mix, my healthy fall trail mix, sausage balls and halloween decorated peanut butter cup cookies. At Thanksgiving my daddy always smokes a turkey and we make our family's secret cornbread dressing recipe. Slimmed down chicken pot pie, slimmed down shepherd's pie, slimmed down goulash, Mastered my grandmother's homemade chicken and dumplings, ripped off restaurant favorites: stuffed mushrooms, sweet Thai chili sauce, smoked salmon dip. Definately turning the rest of my family into healthy folks.... my dad HATES anything not fried or not beef and I definately got him eating ground turkey and he's getting some veggies in here and there. Fruit filled muffins made with bisqick and ground flax seeds = a brick.