My name is Becki and I am the mother of two little girls who are growing up faster than I care to think about. My husband and I live in Apex, North Carolina and we love the life that we have here in the south. I am originally from a very small town in Upstate New York and I grew up with a large extended family. My memories of childhood are full of great food and lots of country fresh air. My mother was and is a fabulous cook and put a well rounded meal on the table night after night. If we had cookies, they were homemade. If we had dinner it was made from scratch and always included a meat a starch and a vegetable. My mother’s food was full of love and butter so its amazing that I grew up a petite little girl. I attribute that to the fact that we were always extremely active and athletic growing up. I love the life that I had as a child and I want my girls to have the same types of memories growing up that I did. Nothing would make me happier than for my girls to have wonderful memories of the dishes my husband and I cooked for them when they were kids.
My mother-in-law is also a wonderful cook and my husband grew up in house where everything was made from scratch. I have learned a lot from her about cooking and baking and have enjoyed her style of cooking as much as my own mother’s over the years. She cooks much lighter than my mother and has very classic style of cooking (kind of like Ina Garten) – which I really like. I have learned to make the best and only “Maryland style” crab cakes, roasted veggies and homemade egg nog. She also makes great yeast rolls and one of my favorites – country ham.
So, I would say that my own cooking style has become a mix of my mother’s and my mother in law’s styles. I love rich dishes, but I have also learned to scale back and cook classic, flavorful dishes. I love recipes that have just a few ingredients. My husband and I also experiment and cook ethnic dishes such as Thai, Indian – even sushi might make an appearance here. I try to use whole grains as often as possible as well as lots of fruits and vegetables. I try to incorporate superfoods into my diet as often as possible. At the same time, I have no problem whipping up short ribs or chicken parm. Once a week I allow myself to bake if I have gone to the gym four days and eaten sensibly. Balance is key to living a whole life!
As you can see I love food and I love to cook. I also understand and embrace the importance of being healthy. This blog is my space where I can document my attempt to enjoy the foods that I love but still live a healthy lifestyle that includes wholesome foods and lots of exercise (My husband and I ran our 1st half marathon in March and we intend to do more.) I want my children to grow up understanding what it means to be healthy, but I also want them to enjoy some of the treats that I remember having as a child. Basically, I want to teach them balance and what it means to be whole. Oh yes….and part of this blog will be teaching myself what this means:-)
While food and living a healthy life will be the emphasis of this blog, there are a couple of other areas that I will talk about on here. I have a love of bargain hunting and garage sale-ing. When garage sale season is in full swing I will talk about some of the finds that I uncover as well as some of my own tips for finding bargains. To me, living whole means getting us much out of life while consuming and spending as little as possible. I might also talk about recruiting topics (I am a technical recruiter for one of the largest IT companies in the world and I also have my MBA with a focus in HR Management. I have over 15 years of experience in HR and Recruiting.) To be honest, I am usually not in the mood to talk at length about work stuff when I am not working, but I also believe that living a whole life means having a career and a job that truly makes you happy.
Welcome to my Becki’s Whole “Wonderful” Life.
