Eating great food and cooking is a passion of mine. Growing up in the south we ate many wonderful meals filled with fried delicacies, vegetables cooked in pork fat and too much salt. Butter was liberally used to entice the flavor out of each formally healthy God grown thing on our plate. I will tell you that when my mother made the decision to stop using pork of any type it was a sad day in this girl’s life. I simply didn’t know how you could cook a vegetable without surrounding it with that delicate smoky flavor.

When I moved out and started my own kitchen I rebelled. I decided that I would honor those calorie filled southern traditions and went back to the dark side. That continued until my first child was born and suddenly the health light bulb went on and I had the same epiphany that my mother did.

I then started on a new quest to impart flavor and tenderness without damaging my family’s health. It became sort of a challenge for me to replace unhealthy things with another alternative. I hope to equip you with some the things I have learned along the way. See what you can do to redo some age old recipes and traditions for a healthier family. It is fine to still have cheat days and make something that is decadent. However, what I think you will find as you start the new health journey is that you lose a taste for some of those things. You suddenly realize the actual food, not covered up with sauce, fat and too much salt is really actually quite good.

By Karen Pope