The Birth of my Food Blog

Welcome to my food blog. You might be thinking "Oh great, another one!" I'm not setting out to be revolutionary or superior with this endeavor, but cooking and food are some of my great passions, so here I hope to share with you some successes (as well as failures) in the kitchen, tips and ideas, recipes I like, cooking show commentary, reviews of restaurants I tried, and other food related posts that you will hopefully find interesting.

So how did I get to this point? As a post-college twenty-something, I recently have been searching for new hobbies to fill in the time when I'm not working or trying to find a new job. Since my graduation, I found myself bored, without a job in my chosen profession due to my seemingly impossible job search, and somewhat down about my situation in this poor economy. One thing that always was a great distraction was cooking for myself and those I love, whether it was helping out at home (my parent's house in the suburbs, where I moved a couple months after graduating), making snacks for friends, or experimenting with cooking for myself and my boyfriend.

Some things about me - I spend a lot of my time in the city, where I walk everywhere, so most of the places I go are on the North side of Chicago. This is where I most often eat, shop, and cook and have been since I moved here to go to DePaul University 5 years ago. In my opinion, it's one of the best places to be! Some of the places I may mention are only in the area, but others are located all over.

I am also all about health, but not obsessively. Since I, like many women, spend most of my life on a diet, I try to cook using healthy ingredients and substitutions as often as possible. I'm a former vegetarian and have taken nutrition classes in the past, so I know a thing or two - but most of the time I try to cheat the system by cooking healthfully so that you wouldn't know it. Even though I used to be a veg and avoid meat some of the time for health reasons, I am a reformed meat lover! So you will see all sorts of stuff on here. One thing I believe helped me evolve as a foodie was opening myself up to all different kinds of foods. With that said, I love indulging in good food and sometimes what might be classified as "garbage" but not very often. I have a soft spot for junk food and I'm done trying to deny that.

One standard I do hold myself to is buying sustainable and organic food when possible because it's not only good for you, but good for everyone (more posts about this to follow). This can sometimes be expensive, but it's often worth it. Though I am on a tight budget because I work as a nanny and am trying to get a "real" job, so sometimes I make exceptions to this. I cook on a budget, so as often as possible I will buy the cheaper options so I hope to pass along some of these saving tips also.

So thanks for stopping by and checking out my dish. Feel free to leave feedback - I like hearing other people's takes and I acknowledge that I still have a lot to learn.

Enjoy!