Hi! Check out THIS lovely Friday breakfast.
Maple apple cinnamon oatmeal with greek yogurt and almond butter. YUM. Although I have to wake up a bit early to make a breakfast like this, I feel like it’s well worth the time and effort. There is no better way to start a day than with a delicious nutritious meal, prepared in the early quiet of our kitchen 
.
It got me thinking - if you are a home chef and/or healthy eater when and how did this interest develop for you?
For me, I think the foundation was set by my parents who are very healthy eaters themselves. Growing up, we ate home-cooked family meals most every night.
My little sister and I played together all of the time back then and I can remember all of our play food which we kept in a big blue bucket. We liked to play “restaurant” some afternoons and would invite my parents into our room so we could then ”cook” for them.
So not only were my parents an inspiration, toys were too.
Toys these days are so much cooler than what we had back then, right?? Just check out the fun play kitchens on this kids furniture store, AllChildrensFurniture.com. We certainly could have used one of those little beauties in our restaurant game!
How about you? What inspired your interest in healthy cooking and eating? Please do share .
Happy Friday!
- Beth
Same here…we always had a dinner put before us growing up. Almost always home cooked, and if not (pizza night!) then we at least ate it together. I was always shocked when I’d go over to a friend’s house and they didn’t eat together:(
The way I eat now was definitely not a product of my parent’s teaching, unfortunately. A “meat and potatoes”/farming culture does not a healthy eater make.
I started getting really into surfing the health and fitness sites because of my love of running. Then I ran across Tina’s Carrots n’ Cake blog… and then I became hooked on blogs. So my already evolving habits were rapidly sped up by my falling into food/lifestyle blogs! I love it!
And now I teach my parents healthy habits from time to time…
I think my parents also had a big role in it. Putting it in my head since I was young.
My mom always made everything from scratch- she cooked 7 days a week. It was not healthy in the food blogger sense, but we didn’t have any conventional junk food at home with the exception of fine chocolate- everything else was prepared.
I had no interest in cooking until I was about 21 and trying to lose weight for the 10th time. I learned to cook from Food Network and tried to tie it in with my nutritional goals.
the food network and it’s website has definitely been a help to me too. i get almost all of my recipes from there!
When I was growing up, eating out was a once a year occassion – we just always had home cooked meals. My mom was a good cook, but when I was in jr. high, my dad was out of work and she had to take a second job.
I think that’s what started my creative juices flowing in the kitchen! But when I stopped being an athlete and gained 90 pounds, I realized I had to eat healthier – not only for myself, but for my daughter!
It was funny, the other day when she turned 18 we usually watch the tape when she was born. But it started to skip and I didn’t want the tape to break, so we watched the tape when she turned 2.
I had her in the kitchen, sitting on the counter with a bowl between her legs and she was “skinning” garlic! She was slowly taking off the garlic skin, then would throw it in the bowl – I had forgotten all about that!
aw, that is such a sweet story!! thanks for sharing biz
YUMMY oatmeal! Should send the recipe to Chef Brian!
Home cooked every night!
My FABULOUS parents!!! They cooked so healthy and treated fast food as a rarity! I definitely owe my healthy eating patterns AND active lifestyle to them!!
i had to start eating healthy when i became an actor. of course, that backfired for me a few years with my eating disorders, but i’m actually grateful for the journey – i used to eat a lot of crap!!!
I actually had very unhealthy motives for getting into healthy cooking–I was obsessed with dieting as a teenager and wanted to find the most low calorie but still edible recipes possible. After college, though, I became interested in healthy food blogging to get my binging under control (the binging naturally came from the starving, see?). Now I keep up with healthy cooking because I’m refining a balance between staying fit and staying sane
Goodness, I would have loved one of those toys when I was a tot. We didn’t really have any cooking toys, so I used the real kitchen stuff. One time I made “soup” with water, dirt, salt and pepper in one of my mom’s pots. She didn’t like that
haha, that is an amazing story
. so something a little kid would do!!
oh my gah that oatmeal is totally food porn!!
Wow Wow! Delicious and nutritious breakie indeed!!
I have always valued a homecooked meal. My mom always loved to make family dinners and made almost everything from scratch. It really gave me a passion for creating my own nourishing meals. But she wasn’t the healthy type. It was homecooked, but probably less good for you than the meals I make now. I still loved her cooking though. I just may have weighed 268lbs growing up!
Oh man, that breakfast looks so healthy and so filling! Love the cinnamon. Have a great weekend!