Come with me.

Last evening as dusk approached, I found myself crying ugly tears into my cooking, trying to regain composure just for the sake of my own reflection in the mirror. I was thinking, “tears can’t hurt the food, right?” and laughed at myself for such a simple inquiry. I knew that the only way to clear my mind and dry my crying was to achieve a beautiful, colorful plate for my family.

I’m inviting you into my life. I was mourning the loss of my father on the 9^th anniversary of his death. I poured myself a healthy glass of wine, switched on Bela Fleck, pulled everything of color from my fridge and pantry and set out to create a masterpiece. My final product was a lentil cake, a calm soul and the creation of my new blog, named “For the Love of Lentils”.

The purpose of my alone time in the kitchen is to accomplish mental balance. By trade, I’m a mental health therapist but am taking time off of work to spend with my baby, who is now 4 months old, and my toddler, at 2 and a half. I try to create beautiful recipes through trial and error (lots of trials, lots of errors, and lots of sometimes surprising successes) to help my family achieve good health and to thrive on all levels of growth by using simple ingredients. I can’t promise they are always local, but I do promise to try my best.

I hope you’ll accept this invitation to become part of my family. I hope you can learn to share in my life by trying some of my recipes and forgiving me if they’re awful. You will get a glimpse of my children, Cloveleigh Mildred and Banner O’Grady, and share with me as I begin round #2 of making baby food for my infant as he gets a slight bit older. You will get to meet my husband through my blog, who I (non)bashfully admit is some serious eye candy, currently walking around in his towel, contemplating my “smoothie that will change the world” (recipe below)-however, I will ease more tactfully into his photographic introduction in a way that he will forgive me later-this man is a handsome person inside and out, a talented architect and designer and a loyal and unwavering guinea pig to the trials and tribulations of what I like to call my own “food therapy”.

Please find below what I consider a blast of unexpected inspiration as I awoke, titled the “smoothie that will change the world”-or at least improve your morning. Please come on my journey to achieve balance of the mind, body and soul through the creation of healthy, palatable foods.

Smoothie that will change the world

Ingredients:

Handful of sliced almonds

One cup of cooked oatmeal

One large, very ripe peach

Handful of Ice

½ cup of greek yogurt

Splash of Vanilla Extract

Cinnamon

Honey

BLEND and ENJOY