I believe in home-cooked meals.  I love everything about a home-cooked meal.  I love going to the grocery store and I go often.  I have a ton of cookbooks; so many that I have divided them into active and inactive ones.  My favorite part of a home-cooked meal is the actual prepping and cooking.  I find preparing an evening meal a calming, spiritual activity.  All seems right with me and the world when I am pulling together a meal for my family or a fancier meal for company.

I did not learn to cook from my Mother. I taught myself to cook as a young woman in my own kitchen.  I did not marry and have kids until I was 40, so I spent many of my single weekends experimenting with different kinds of food and recipes.  I had a fast-paced career, so the quiet weekends of cooking helped keep my sanity.

Now in my mid-50s, I have a family and I believe in cooking healthy meals, enjoying the time we spend in the kitchen and the conversations we share over meals.  I like to joke that I am running a restaurant; often when the four of us sit down, everyone has different things on their plates.

My husband has had a recent health scare with malignant skin cancer, so he follows a vegan diet with some fish.  At a very young age, my son declared himself a carnivore and he loves to try new and different types of food.  My daughter has a classic child’s narrow palate; she wants simple, non-spiced meals with lots of noodles and cheese.  I eat somewhere in between my husband and son’s diets, although I am often counting Weight Watchers’ points with the goal of losing weight.

At first when my husband dramatically changed his diet, to ensure the skin cancer did not spread, I was not wild about cooking to please so many different culinary needs.  Then I realized how serious the cancer threat was – I needed to support him and find a way to embrace, even delight in making a variety of dishes each day.

I spend fast-paced days working as an executive coach.  I often feel overwhelmed by the amount of email and information on which I need to keep up-to-date between my work and home life. Yet at the end of most days, when I step into my kitchen, put on my apron and start prepping a meal; a calm feeling comes over me. I feel like I can slow life down to a reasonable pace for a few hours, while I cook and enjoy a good meal with my family.

I believe a healthy, home-cooked meal provides a feeling of calm and nurturing for everyone at the table.