Welcome!!

Welcome to my blog!! I've done a couple before, but that was more of an online diary for me rather than a show and tell sort of process. So, I've decided to start an open to the public blog! For those who don't know me, my name is Aubree Barbosa. I live in the Kansas City area and got married in October to a wonderful man named Nick and we have an (almost) 6 year old black chihuahua named Oscar. When we got married and got all this fabulous new cooking stuff, I couldn't wait to get started making dinner at home! I quickly learned I had about 3 rotating recipes I knew how to make - tacos, spaghetti, and chicken with some sort of side out of a box or a can - and I wasn't always making the healthiest of meals. So I started going through the cookbooks we had at home and found a few that were mostly healthy foods. This quickly grew into quite an obsession for me! I also signed up on a couple of different websites that send me emails daily with healthy recipes. Anytime I can find a recipe or ingredient that will make something that tastes yummy, but is also not terrible for me, I'm in Heaven!! I've had weight struggles most of my life, but now it's not just about weight, but about taking care of my body.

Now, I don't claim to be some health guru, this is more of just a hobby. I have a hard time 'dieting' but if I can find a way to eat healthy but feel like I'm cheating, I'm all over it!
A few overall changes I've made to my diet in general are switching ground turkey for ground beef (in tacos, spaghetti, anything with seasoning, you can't tell a difference) it's more lean and usually less expensive, and I try and use low-fat or no fat ingredients whenever possible - ie - reduced fat cheese on sandwiches, fat free American cheese singles for grilled cheese, low or no fat sour cream in recipes where the other ingredients will make up for any taste difference, fat free tortillas for tacos, etc. I know that the low or no fat foods usually don't taste the same, but I try to use them as much as possible, without sacrificing the flavor of the food.

I've shared my new little hobby with some friends and everyone has started asking me for recipes. So I decide that by starting this blog, I'll be able to provide anyone and everyone with the recipes I've been using, as well as my own, honest, true to life commentary. I will only put up recipes I have actually made at home so I can provide some insight on how long it REALLY takes, how well it REALLY tastes and any changes I may have made to the recipe. My goal for each recipe is to provide the ingredients, directions and nutrional info, along with where the recipe came from, while also providing real life opinions on it. Sure, it can look DELICIOUS in a cook book, but taste TERRIBLE in real life. Or their 'prep time' might be 5 minutes, but that may be AFTER have all the ingredients ready to go. I'll be putting up recipes for everything from appetizers to deserts to breakfast to full entrees. Anything and everything I can find. I also would love any other suggestions and comments for those who try them at home as well!! I will try to post at least once a week with new recipes!!

Thanks for stopping by!!