I’ve been needing to write this post for quite some time now, but just haven’t had the time or energy to get my thoughts together. Because of a few changes I would like to make in the recipes I will now be posting for you to enjoy I decided now is as good of time as any to explain myself and answer a few questions I’m sure you have had.
In November 2012 I had a job position change. I went from working 9:00-6:00 with a lunch every day on a Tuesday-Saturday schedule to working 8:30-who knows when with a lunch occasionally on a Monday-Friday schedule. For several months because of volume, I was working some pretty crazy hours. Going in to work early, skipping lunch, and staying late on a lot of days. Most of the time I would come home from work just to go to bed and wake up and do it all over again. With working in a cubicle, I barely saw sunlight.
It seemed as if it would never slow down. Things were so hecktic I could hardly keep up with eating dinner let alone making a “tasty” recipe to post. I’m an extremely social person and all of that was mandatorily put on hold as time just didn’t allow it. In addition to running Tried and Tasty, I also juggled a personal blog as well as a fitness blog. When all the balls dropped, Tried and Tasty was one of those things I just couldn’t hang on to.
Cooking and posting recipes is one of my passions. It was extremely hard to “let everyone down”, but at the same time there was no way I was going to kill myself trying to manage keeping up something that I clearly didn’t have the time for. Remember how I barely saw sunlight? Not exactly ideal for food photography. Over the last year the recipes and posts have been pretty sporadic. The only thing basically keeping this baby afloat was my guest blog posts for the Rhodes blog. Without that there probably wouldn’t have been anything posted.
Last September I accepted a now position within my existing department that has freed up quite a bit of my time. I haven’t been working crazy hours, staying late, or skipping lunches. For the most part I’ve been good about just working my 40 hour schedule (with exceptions here and there). In the back of my mind I’ve always had a desire to bring back Tried and Tasty to what it used to be: regularly posted recipes.
Here’s where things will be different than what they were before. Over the last couple of years I have been on a course to lose weight. One of the places I struggled was cooking unhealthy things that were ‘tasty’ for the sake of being able to post them, not realizing there was a whole other world out there of healthy delicious options. Of course, for a while there I did post a lot of the recipes I made with my Cook This Not That cookbook, which are still great healthy options.
Now, more than ever, am on a quest to change my life. At the beginning of the year I watched a documentary that really boosted my motivation. If you have Netflix I highly recommend the documentary Hungry For Change (I also highly recommend Food, Inc.). It may change your life as it did mine. Although the information wasn’t entirely new to me, being married to a health nut I’d heard most all of it before, it was one of those ‘right things at the right time’. After watching I immediately wanted to watch it again. And I did. The very next day. One thing led to another and within weeks I ended up doing a 30 day juice fast (feel free to read all about it on my fitness blog)! 30 DAYS! During the fast we also paired it with a cleanse of our liver/gallblader/colon/kidneys. It was a pretty intense 30 days, but after all of that I have a new appreciation and love for healthy delicious food.
That leads me to the changes I will be making. After setting fitness goals and lots of research my husband and I have decided to cut out as many processed foods as possible. We really want to buy and use little to no processed foods at all, but eliminating processed foods entirely is pretty much impossible. So we are trying our absolute best. We also have eliminated refined sugars and grains. Long gone is white flour and white sugar in our home (except for what I keep on hand to use to make things for others…and the Rhodes guest posts). It has been a wonderful change and in doing so I have explored so many new recipes that I never would have wanted to or attempted myself.
So, Tried and Tasty will now be strictly healthy recipes from here on out. The *only* exception will be my guest posts on the Rhodes blog, where I will be making any and everything from their recipe database and more. Aside from that, you will only see yummy and delicious healthy options. I’m so excited! Of course the old recipes will stay – there are some pretty good ones on the site that I may have to re-vamp into a healthier version.
I appreciate all who have kept checking for new recipes, follow me on Facebook, and pin me on Pinterest. I’m so grateful that even through the lull in excitement around here there have still been loyal fans that continue to surprise me. Another new goal of mine is to be a better responder. Ive been terrible at responding to comments. I’m just going to throw that out there. Rarely do I check them, let alone respond to them. My goal is to be better at being ‘available’ when my help is needed. I wish I had the ability to devote all of my time to this passion of mine, however I don’t. I still have a full-time job, therefore this is still a hobby. I can’t be everything to everyone but I will sure try to pick up the slack a lot more than this last year has allowed me to.
Thank YOU for all of your support, understanding, and motivation. I’m excited for the NEW Tried and Tasty.
