So up until a few years ago, my sister Heidi would await my annual Thanksgiving morning phone call….Help! How do you do this! What is that?
Well I’ve come a long way in my culinary journey since then, but I still rely on my big Sis for advice on cooking and baking. Heidi Jo, as I like to call her, is a natural in the kitchen. She knows how much to add without measuring and seems to just know what is what in the kitchen. And her pantry! Let’s get me started on her Pantry! Whenever I go over to her house, I always step inside her pantry and marvel! Everything is so organized. Everything is in its place and there is lots of inventory! When I know she is coming for a visit I make sure I tidy up my own pantry and make it look presentable, paltry but presentable!
That being said, I’ve asked Heidi Jo to help me with recipe makeovers. She will present a recipe and then tweak it to make it healthier.
Welcome to What The Fitness Heidi!
Thank you Heather (or as I call her “Heb”…more on that shortly) and I am excited to be a part of WTF! Before Heb started her blog, and I had a passing thought a couple years ago that I should have a blog, but could never really figure out exactly what my story would be. So, I am starting here and will see where it takes me.
First, a little bit about me. I was born, raised and still live in Colorado. Growing up in Sterling, where mom and dad still live, I remember the holiday dinners…especially when my grandmother Caroline would cook. She was an amazing cook and I have several of her recipes that I still make today. As for why I call my sister Heb, well we are a little less than two years apart. When Heather arrived, I had a hard time saying her name and it would come out as Hebber. I shortened it to Heb and it has stuck ever since!
I have been married to my wonderful husband John for 20 years, and I had him hooked the first time I made dinner for him. My son Haydon and daughter Audrey also seem to like my cooking too. I love to be in the kitchen and I am always looking for a new recipe to try on my family. Most of the time they are winners, but we have had some that are not so good too. I am thankful that they at least will let me try new things, but they do get to vote on whether we have it again (or not). How do they vote? A simple thumbs-up (or thumbs-down) determines whether the recipe is voted out of the kitchen.
Now, I am not the most healthiest by any means, I have my weaknesses…but that is what I truly like about WTF. We are all human, and we don’t always make the best choices. When I am stressed out, I go for the chips and onion dip. But I try to not beat myself up about it, and I try to make a better choice the next day. The year I turned 40, my mid-life crisis was realizing that I couldn’t keep saying that “it’s just baby weight”. My daughter was three and not a baby anymore, and I was 50 pounds overweight. I lost the weight and have worked hard to keep it off. I go up and down a little here and there, but I know what I need to do to correct myself. Ultimately, my lifelong goal is to never weigh that much ever again…and so far I am succeeding!
When Heb asked me to contribute a recipe, it took me a little while to determine what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to start off with something that would take a major overhaul. But I wanted to make something that, with a couple changes, could be made healthier. What I chose was the fried rice that the whole family loves. The hardest part for me was the measurements…I have made it for so many years that I just throw it together now. So I had to slow down and measure everything when I made it like I normally do. I then made a little healthier version with just a few changes (one less egg, quinoa instead of rice, and low sodium soy sauce).
Lastly, before I was sure that this was the recipe I wanted to do, I did a side by side taste test with the family. What was the outcome? They actually like the fried quinoa better than the fried rice that I have made for years! So I guess that we will be having that from now on instead of the old stand-by. I hope that you enjoy it as much as they did. Enjoy!