I have a little pet-peeve. Well, it is more than a little. Go Figure! 

Whether you have children now, you raised your children and now they are grown and gone and you have grandchildren, you only have 4 legged children, or none at all, I feel that this is extremely important for us all to look and for the future of the health of all humans. 

Back in the day when we use to frequent restaurants with our kiddos, I noticed something. More times than not, I would see another family out to eat, too. The grownups would be eating a deliciously prepared meal with whole foods, a good protein, and veggies. The children would be scarfing down fried processed meats and carbohydrates.  

Being a mother, I get to speak to a lot of other mothers. And we always seem to get into conversations about what their children eat or don't eat. I've heard time and time again that they cook a nice healthy meal with good veggies and protein and their children won't eat it. So they end up short-order-cooking Mac n Cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, etc. for their kids giving in, again, to the processed meats and carbs while they themselves get to enjoy a healthy meal. 

Being a "foodie," I love getting into conversations about good food and cooking. And I have also realized, through these conversations, that a majority of my adult friends don't enjoy vegetables either. Perhaps they never learned how to properly cook kale, chard, zucchini, celeriac, fennel, or other amazing vegetables so that they taste good. Perhaps they over cook them and make them mushy and flavorless. Or maybe their parents only cooked vegetables from a can. 😬🤷🏼‍♀️ Who Knows. But we are meant to eat vegetables. Not food from packages....

Does it seem strange to you that one would feed themselves healthier food than they feed to their children's growing bodies? Why is this so common? Don't we want the best for our children? Shouldn't their health and safety come before ours? Why have we agreed to believe that children prefer sugary, carb rich, processed foods? Is it the content smiling faces with the "Happy Meal" or are our young children already addicted to these horrendous fankenfoods? Why is it that the people we entrust to know better and to look after the health of our children (school teachers, coaches, dietitians, etc) serve exclusively processed sugary packaged foods because they are afraid someone will poison them or put razor blades in a healthy home cooked meal? Out of an irrational fear like this, now we have mandated the poisoning and conditioning of our young children's bodies, believing chemicals are superior to rich foods from the earth. Not only are we poisoning our children's bodies, but we are poisoning their future earth with all the single use plastics used in packaging that crap. Does this seem upside down and backwards to you? 

Just think about all this for a moment. Let it sink in. Heck, read it all again from the beginning. 
Go Ahead....I'll wait here.......

Now, notice yourself and your feelings for a moment. Let go of any grief, guilt, anger, or judgement around this. It Just is. We are constantly being lied to. But now that we shed some light on the subject, let's begin to truly look at how and what we consume through our pie-hole AND as material garbage in our lives. Let's build healthy children by teaching them how to nourish their amazing growing bodies with food from the earth. Not the items that look like food, filled with chemicals that come packaged in plastic from a factory.

Rant Part 1- Over. 

Thank you! 

​Namasté 🙏🏻

Putting something in your mouth, chewing it up, and swallowing it down is an essential act that we all have to do to live. This act, however, is when the saying "You are what you eat" turns into a reality. The quality of what you put in your mouth and swallow down is what creates the quality of your cells and tissues in your body. 
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Hi, my name is Erin. And like you, I have to eat to sustain my life. I also enjoy eating and I'm assuming you do, too. And I bet that I enjoy eating the same foods that you enjoy eating. I also enjoy cooking. Well, let's say that I LOVE to cook. I am at home in the kitchen creating meals that I love the most in an extremely healthy, nutritious, and loving way for my body and my family.

However, you see, I wasn't always like this. I didn't learn how to cook until I was in my 20's. And certainly not healthy cooking. I grew up eating crap. Literally, I grew up eating horrible stuff that doesn't qualify as food. I like to call it "food like substances." You might hear it called "Frankenfood" here and there. This includes lots of candy bars (I was a Milky Way fan), McDonald's (the Big Mac was always my first choice), and lots and lots of soda (let's just say I drank more Mountain Dew than water). I ate the Standard American Diet (aka: SAD) through my most important growing years. 

As we skip all the juicy stories of my growing years and fast forward to my 30's, it all caught up to me. Severe constant pain in my body, gestational diabetes with my pregnancies, weight gain that won't come off, gut issues, headaches, fatigue, blah blah blah. That list could go on FOREVER. But most important to me was my blood sugar levels. I saw my grandmother die of complications with diabetes. My father is on insulin. My family is morbidly obese and suffer from a slew of medical issues (let's not talk about the amount of medications they are on YIKES). Personally, I don't want any of that. I want to live a long healthy life full of happiness and fun! It's time to wake up. 
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Seriously, my friend, it is time to wake up and truly notice what you put in your mouth and how much it effects your entire system. I'm talking ENTIRE system. Your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual systems. They are all connected. This website is about my journey with food. My journey with my family and myself. I see so many people out there that eat pretty ok but they still feed their children shit and complain that they don't eat vegetables. That's not fair! Or maybe that THEY don't even like vegetables. If I am going to eat healthy, I am going to ensure that my children's growing bodies eat health, too. I am going to teach them how to nourish and love this fabulous body they have. Soooooo, in doing so, I've created a little passion. I really love taking the crappy food-like stuff that I grew up eating and turning it into a crazy healthy and super delicious meal. 
So Welcome to my journey. Oh, and let's have fun and PLEASE make it taste good....like chocolate! ​

What we put into our bodies nourishes our soul, or not. What we eat is an extremely important part of our Yoga practice. As a mom of two boys, business owner, yoga teacher, and foodie, the adventures of nourishing my family from the kitchen are endless as are the adventures from my classes and personal practices on and off the yoga mat! Eating healthy, whole foods and spreading the word about how easy and fun it can be is my goal here. Sharing this amazing practice as a whole (physically and spiritually) is my life's mission. Food nourishes not only our bodies, but our minds and soul. Have you ever noticed how you feel physically, emotionally, and mentally after eating greasy fast food or food that has been prepared without love and respect for the plants and animals? Perhaps you have noticed how good it feels to eat a dinner with friends and loved ones that was prepared with love and humanely harvested. Either way, what we eat impacts us on levels that we can't see (energetically). 

My intention for this blog is to share with you not only my adventures in the kitchen as I experiment and play with healthy whole food recipes, but also to bring a more spiritual connection to the plate through the practice of Yoga both on and off the mat. I would also like to share with you the challenges that I face with my body and my diet with the intention that you know you are not alone. We all struggle along the path of food addiction. Even those of us who seem to be healthy and try so hard to eat as best we can still become drawn into the easiness of eating out at restaurants (and not feeling so good after those onion rings and tater tots) or indulge in the wonders of delicious sugary goodies from family, friends, parties, etc. I believe that the trick is to get it right 85% of the time! To feel good about what you consume and be healthy enough that you can go out to eat and have those fries or a piece of birthday cake and not feel guilty or sick after and maintain good health. 

I hope you enjoy my ramblings as I'm not a writer and tend to jump around here and there. 
Namasté