Excerpt from "Bringing Cooking Back"

Tomorrow I will meet with a panel of four to see if we can incorporate my recipe ideas into their new program. It's an exciting opportunity. As I've been preparing for our meeting I've been fumbling through my cookbooks. I thought it would be nice to share with you the introductions from each.

Taken from "Bringing Cooking Back" by Chrisetta Mosley published November 2012

Introduction  

I love food. Good wholesome food. Not so-called food from a box or in a box. But, food, my late grandmother would recognize. Food that grows from the earth, free of preservatives, and will eventually rot. 

I prepare 99 percent of my meals at home. Honestly, I don’t know any other way. Cooking is natural for me. My mother cooked at home. My grandmother did too. I have fond memories of watching my mother in the kitchen lovingly preparing dinner for us. The aroma of freshly baked cornbread, butter beans, and fried chicken for Sunday dinner.

My love for food became a problem though when I ballooned up to 388 pounds. One too many pieces of cornbread, consumption of highly caloric processed food, with no exercise contributed to my progressive weight gain. I’m proud to say, however, I took control. Through conscious food choices, food preparation, and exercise to date, I’ve lost 170 pounds and counting.

A healthy lifestyle for me begins at home in my kitchen. Cooking at home is not only how I was raised, but it allows me to be in control of what I eat. I abused food for a long time by making poor food choices and overeating. Today, I no longer abuse food, I enjoy it to the fullest by eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, and adding zest to my dishes with seasonings.

I prepare, cook, and eat at home because the thought of a complete stranger preparing my food seems impersonal to me. Cooking is a labor of love. Creative, love. I chop, dice, mince, puree, grate, and stir with affection. I’m feeding my body, after all; that calls for the finest ingredients and loving preparation.

I’ve never bought into the fat-free, sugar-free, craze. Frankly, I don’t want to compromise the taste of my food by using substitutes. I use real cream, real butter, and yes, even sugar. My recipes call for these ingredients, I encourage you to use these ingredients too. Maybe some critics will say my meals don’t fall into the “healthy” category, but I’m confident preparing my food at home is much better than the alternative. Besides, I’ve lost 170 pounds -- my way.

I welcome you to make adjustments to my recipes to suit your taste and dietary needs. Perhaps you want to make my to Die For Southwestern Chicken Soup less spicy. Go ahead, omit the cayenne pepper. That’s the beauty of cooking at home. You’re in control. Once you become comfortable in the kitchen you’ll learn to experiment freely.

I’ve strayed away from my mother and grandmother’s recipes a bit, but the art of cooking was taught to me by them and will always stay with me. Today, I follow modern day cooks and add a few of my own twist to come up with good wholesome recipes.

I’m thankful for the women in my life for passing on their love for home cooked meals to me. Undoubtedly, I’m sharing the same love for food with my daughter as well.

What will your children remember from your kitchen? What recipes will you pass down?

My hope is that my recipes will inspire you to cook and enjoy meals at home. Perhaps you’ll allow your kids to join you in the kitchen, dine at the table, and unplug your electronics.

From my kitchen to yours -- healthy, happy eating!

Chrisetta

March Mellow

After a fabulous, but busy February, I'm going to mellow it out in March. I've been out and about in the community spreading my love for good wholesome food, sharing my story, signing cookbooks, and having a grand time mingling with folks. I am so fortunate to be able to do all the things I love: Write, speak, and cook. As much as I love what I do. I also realize the importance of taking care of numero uno.

With that said, my calendar for the month of March is empty. No Healthy Cooking 101 classes or speaking events. Time to refocus on my weight loss and fitness goals: Rein it in. Presumably I should be able to do it all, but I'm still working on figuring out how to balance. No worries, I'll still be blogging, updating Facebook, and working on future events. I already have a couple of events on my April calendar, but I'm gonna leave March Madness to the college folks for moi it's March Mellow.

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New to the blog this month on Friday's -- I'll add either a recipe of the week or food item of the week.  Look for it at the top left corner of the blog home page. 


Starting next week, I'll start writing the "Stewards of the Earth" series. First up, sustainability. 

Mark your calendars -- Saturday, April 21st 1 - 4 p.m. a viewing of FRESH The Movie at Cascade Park Library.

Fabulous February

2012 has started off with a bang. My greatest honor to date, Bringing Cooking Back my convenient little cookbook was assigned a dewey decimal number and is now available at the Fort Vancouver Regional Library and is also for sale on the shelves of New Seasons Market - Fisher's Landing.

The trend continues into February: 

• I'm looking forward to spreading my love for good wholesome food with the community by hosting healthy cooking classes at Chuck's Produce & Street Market.
• A cookbook signing and tasting at New Seasons Market.
• I'll share my ideas and suggestions on healthy snacking options at Firstenburg Community Center.
• A new addition...I'll be teaching a Weight Loss and Healthy Lifestyle 101 class at Cascade Athletic Club in Fisher's Landing.
• My largest venue to date -- I'll speak at Cascade Park Library. This will be more than my weight loss story. I'll spend time discussing our current food industry and there will be informational handouts and a healthy snack will be provided. I love the public library system!

See the home page for details on all these events. 

I'm super-excited about what awaits me this February. I feel so lucky to have all these wonderful opportunities. I can truly say, "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."

Oh, goodness!

The other day I visited New Seasons Market to restock my produce. I usually go produce shopping every two to three days. If we had fresh corner markets I would go daily. Fresh corner markets...Wouldn't that be nice? Anyhow, some things I will only eat organic. Apples being one of them. Non-organic apples are sprayed with pesticides and waxed - no thanks. Buying organic, however, means paying considerably more. Organic Jazz apples were $2.49 a lb. Four apples cost $5.28. I used to gripe and complain, but now-a-days I just swipe my debit card with a smile. I want to fuel my body with good wholesome food and it's not cheap. That's typically the case with anything.  I could buy the non-organic apples at a lower price. Or if we look at it folks spend five bucks on a cheap processed McDonald's meal.  Instead, I chose to spend my dollar on four natural sweetened apples. 

As I professed a while ago, I have fallen in love with Kale. However, it is quite spendy too. I bought two bunches of Lacinato Kale to the tune of $4.98. It usually serves as a side for two meals. So that's not too bad when you break it down that way. Or if you look at the bigger picture -- I'm paying for my health and well-being upfront. Filling my body with inexpensive, crappy, processed so-called food would only cost me in the long run. I chose to eat good wholesome food and am willing to pay the price.   

*Disclaimer: I realize that eating organic and healthy comes with a significant price tag and when on a budget it can be nearly impossible to afford. I've been very fortunate to afford good quality food. I'm also fortunate enough to have the knowledge about what's good and what's not so good for me. One of my "Food and Your Health" books posed a very valid question: Is the healthy food movement elitist? Darn right it's elitist. It boils down to socioeconomic status (huge subject maybe in another blog post, maybe). Socioeconomic status is only part of the problem though. I believe for some eating healthy just is not a priority. For me, eating whole fresh food is top of my priority list because the alternative not only is going to cost more in the long run, but eating healthy never tasted so good. I hope that you too can make it a priority and find it in your budget to eat fresh whole food.