Welcome to JB’s Healthy Food Style!
Hello! I want to extend a warm welcome to my blog!
If you are wondering, pictured on the cover is my sister (on the right) and me (on the left)!
I start this blog as I sit sunning in the backyard - having recently graduated from Ole Miss. I realize I have spent much of my life reading health blogs, trying new recipes, giving friends advice on food and nutrition and experiencing the positive change in the way I feel from changing small aspects of what, why and when I eat.
I also realize that my best memories are usually built around some kind of food-related experience, be it: a table, a bench, a fire, a body of water, a mountain, a farm or in front of the TV. I love nutrition, but I also love a good meal, which by the way, must include some kind of healthy sweet! Can I get an amen for a crisp cold apple? :)
I have always loved being in the kitchen around family, creating meals and sharing stories around the table. As a kid, my dad made the most fantastic pancakes, bacon and eggs on Saturday mornings. My sister worked in a decadent cupcake bakery during the summers. My mother continually made new and healthy spins on everyday recipes.
Cooking has not only been fun-filled time spent with family, but it has allowed my mom (a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, who overcame several autoimmune diseases through years of researching a healthful lifestyle and diet) the opportunity to have health lessons with me and my sister each meal. During these times, she taught us the science behind cooking, the value of fresh foods and how substituting items can make a dish healthier or can allow you to create a dish without even using a recipe (Did you know you can substitute an egg in a recipe with ground flaxseed? I know….crazy, right)! She has always been determined, to not only help herself, but many others through nutrition.
Just as we helped my mother cook, we also helped her grocery shop and grow a garden. I began to learn how and when to buy or grow fresh in season produce. We got accustomed to creating a literal “garden salad” filled with fresh produce from our backyard….even the dandelion greens in the yard are edible, as long as you do not spray them with any chemicals ;)
Appreciating the value of fresh, local and in-season foods inspires me to look for times I can incorporate new cultural dishes I have discovered, while traveling, working, or on missions of mercy in different cities and countries. As I cook with these unique ingredients, it reminds me of all the special memories I have had around dinner tables with family or new friends in Italy, Hungary, Mexico, California, Virginia, Tennessee and the Mississippi Delta.
As I get older, I have begun to value, not just use, the knowledge I have gained through personal trial and error and those countless hours cooking by my mother’s side. These events have had a major and personal impact on my outlook of food! I learned that the food I put in my body will ultimately affect how my body responds to everyday life and that food can be nature’s medicine cabinet. And I want to share this knowledge with you!
I hope you enjoy the small tidbits I bring to you each time I post! And hopefully, my posts will inspire you to make cooking stylish through beautiful, nutritiously-dense meals that will make you crave - another serving of delicious food, friendships with those around you and a little extra time around your dinner table, wherever that may be!
XOXO
JB!
P.S. Go check out what’s been cooking in my kitchen @jbshealthyfoodstyle on Instagram!!