Welcome to the Real: The Kitchen and Beyond. My name is Heather and I’d like to share a little about my journey.
Contact
Heather – realthekitchenandbeyond@gmail.com
Philly girl turned New Englander (Manchester, NH)
Homeschooling mom to 3 – E (14), K (12), R (10)
Cook, baker
Recipe maker
Writer, editor, taster
Traveler, adventurer
Food
Once upon a time I felt stuck in a rut of boring meals thrown together in too little time. I was busy, stressed out, and my family was eating food that wasn’t exactly quality. Truthfully, I was a little embarrassed about what I was feeding them, but I felt like I had no option until I started making baby steps to change our diet. Over the last 8 years, we moved from couponing and boxed foods to using mostly fresh ingredients.
How did I do it? I went back to my roots. I grew up in a large family, the oldest of 7 kids. We gardened, preserved, and made almost everything from scratch to stretch every dollar to the max. While there wasn’t ever anything extra, we always had food on the table and in our lunchboxes. I learned how to cook and bake at an early age and learned the art of mixing flavors and spices to take boring meals and make them fresh and new.
Now? Life’s even busier, and my family eats mostly meals from scratch that are easy to make and full of quality ingredients and fresh produce – all below the USDA’s food cost plan for a thrifty family of 4 (yes, there are 5 of us!) I don’t believe you have to have loads of money to eat well, and I don’t believe you have to be poor to save a buck on groceries. My philosophy is that you should live on what you can afford and enjoy every bite you can wring out of it.
But wait! I’m not just a whole-foods-and-nothing-else kind of girl. I believe in eating mostly whole foods but also enjoying everything in life, including cheese puffs and Starbucks, so you’re entering a guilt-free zone here.
Please check guilt at the door.
I’d like to help you change your narrative from that same boring old rut to learning to savor life in the kitchen and around the dinner table with family and friends.
Travel
When we broke the news to my parents that we were moving to New Hampshire, my dad said, “You never could stay still.” I always wanted to know what was on the other side of the window, the other side of those trees, the other side of the country, across the ocean….
Worlds awaited, and I was ready to fly before my parents were quite ready to give me wings, but wings they gave me. I’ve had the travel bug ever since I was a kid travelling to new worlds within a book’s pages, then as a teenager when I traveled from Pennsylvania to New Mexico with a team of teenagers to volunteer on a Navajo Reservation for the summer at age 14. After that, I went on to do summer volunteer work in Nicaragua (17), El Salvador (18), and South Africa (19) before settling down with marriage, college, work, and kids. And yes, I juggled all 4 of them at one time.
Our travel roster remained dreadfully empty until the fall of 2014 when we planned an epic road trip from Pennsylvania to Arizona and back in 2 weeks. We had the time of our lives, and I was reminded how much of the world there was left to see. From that trip, my family caught my travel bug, and we made it our goal to see all 50 states before our oldest turns 18 – no small feat with only 4 years left! Our newest adventure is now in the books! Check out our hashtag #RTKBTravels for our journey on social media and stay tuned for the wrap-up post of the New England to Northwest Pacific Agricultural and National Parks Road Trip! Come along for the ride and have an adventure with us. It’s never too early (or late) to start traveling with your family.
Let’s savor life together.
I believe in every person there is a craving for more. To see more. To learn more. To taste more. But sometimes it gets shoved down with the practicalities of life. Sometimes learning new things feels daunting. Time consuming. Threatening to everything you’ve known.
It is. Life is big and scary, but there is a story you need to live that is just waiting to unfold. Pull up a chair and let’s savor life together.
Love,
Contact me: realthekitchenandbeyond@gmail.com
Please sign me up to your blog.
Hi Linda, Thank you for contacting me. Are you asking to be added to my email list? I have 2 lists – 1 is an email that goes out every time I post. The other is an every other week newsletter.
Hi Heather. We met at CBS in Manchester. You joined our table of three for the exercise of getting to share your best summer memory. My friend Del took down your website and sent it to me. Awesome website…food..adventure. Welcome to NH. I will be enjoying your emails from your food and fun adventure. Love your passion for both…we both share those commonalities. Take care…God Bless
Hi Darlene! Thank you. It was great meeting you also. I look forward to getting to know you more and maybe one day we can throw a grand dinner party together.