Growing up, I had a great mom, but when it came to food and cooking, well… she was good at drive-thru ordering. So needless to say, I pretty much grew up on fast food.

When it came to herbs, I grew up fascinated with them. I was constantly reading about them every chance I got and have been using herbs for their health benefits the majority of my life.

Then, in my early 20s, I had a husband and a son and had figured out enough to follow and create some recipes and keep us fed, but when it came to what foods were healthy, I was completely clueless. It really was a case of “You don’t know what you don’t know.”

I knew enough to not fill my house with junk food and to fill my house with healthy snacks such as fruit, but still was mostly clueless because I still thought apple juice and fruit roll-ups were healthy snacks and drinks.

I was also addicted to that famous brown soda and was drinking several a day. (Unfortunately, a habit that I had picked up from my fast food upbringing.) I grew up hating vegetables because the only time I ate them, they were just canned vegetables that had been heated up with maybe a little butter added. And I always heard my mom say, “If it’s good for you, it tastes bad,” or, “Anything that tastes good is bad for you.”    

Sadly or happily, (depending on how you wanna look at it), by the end of my 20s, I got a real wake-up call. Constant exhaustion had me going to see my doctor. After many, many tests, I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, sky-high cholesterol, sky-high triglycerides, and the one that scared me the most, pre-diabetes. At that point, I was sent home with a pile of prescriptions and was told that I needed to change my diet.

Then my journey began. I knew I had to give up the soda and candy bars, but what the heck was healthy to eat, boiled chicken and iceberg lettuce? They tasted bad and were flavorless, so they must be healthy, right? I couldn’t help but think, I usually eat a bran-type cereal (full of sugar) for breakfast, and a turkey sandwich with iceberg lettuce and mayo on white bread for lunch, and only eat fast food once or twice a week. Isn’t that pretty healthy?

Then the searching, learning and experimenting began, and I was amazed. Really? Broccoli is yummy when it’s roasted with a little garlic, red pepper flakes, and olive oil and good for you? Who knew?!

Then I discovered the idea of “Let thy food be thy medicine,” and that was an aha moment for me… Herbs as medicine. They’re food!. Duh! I’ve been obsessed ever since.

Since then, I’ve spent many years making changes and even falling down a few internet rabbit holes of, “Eat low carb. No, eat low fat. Eggs are good. Eggs are bad,” and on and on. I found that all this information just led to me being so confused and stressed out about food in general that I eventually started to develop the food philosophies of, “Everything in moderation, including moderation,” and “Just eat real food.”

Eventually I narrowed all these philosophies down to a version of my all-time favorite food quote, which is from Mark Bittman, who said, “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants,” my second aha moment, and today those are the words I live by when it comes to food. I would just change it slightly to say, “Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants.” 

Now I’m 50. Of course, I don’t eat perfectly all the time, but when I think back to that 20-something year-old, the difference is incredible, and I’m still researching, learning and experimenting with new foods and trying to improve my diet all the time.

I’m still hypothyroid and most likely always will be, but it’s under control. My cholesterol and triglycerides, while not perfect because I don’t eat perfectly, and I will probably always struggle with them because it’s a typical symptom of hypothyroidism, are far, far better than they used to be. But most important to me, I am no longer pre-diabetic and have not been for many years.

I am definitely not a health, herb or food guru. I built this site because I wanted to share my story and the benefits of real food, herbs, fruits and veggies with anyone who was interested. Here you will not find information on the latest fad diet or a link to the latest study that says eggs are good or bad for you. I’m not interested in telling you to be a vegan, vegetarian, carnivore or pescatarian. In other words, I have no interest in being a rabbit hole you fall down into, and I’m not here to tell you how or what to eat.

I would just like to share the health and vitamin benefits of different food and herbs, and maybe give you some tips and ideas on storing, preserving, cooking and growing them.

I’m just hoping to inspire you to include more real food into your diet, or to simply just be a reference for when you want to know things like, “How do you dry herbs? What is chamomile good for? How do you grow basil? What are the health benefits of watermelon?” 

I hope you enjoy the site and find yourself returning again and again.