My project

I love to cook!

I was the kid who made mud pies in the sandbox, play dough tacos, easy bake cakes, campfire pies...you name it! In school I had a very tough time staying in the building but a culinary course I was placed in kept me in high school. Now I am a teacher and a mother and I love to cook for my children and my students. Lets face it though, life has gotten busy. Piano practice, karate class, report cards and the like makes cooking adventures seem like an impossible chore. As much as I enjoy spending 5 hours making the perfect pot roast and homemade buns this is not realistic during the week. Here is where my love for Jamie Oliver comes in. (No offence to my gorgeous scruffy hubby!) My love for Jamie stems from our similar passions. I love to cook, I love to teach my inner city students how to cook and take care of themselves, I love to make REAL food that was not processed or packaged. I have been a fan of Jamie's for a couple of years now and have several of his cook books. I started with food revolution and it was really a revolution in my kitchen!

On a lovely day off this past week I picked up a copy of Jamie Oliver's Meals in Minutes. His mission is to show people that making real food for your family in 30 minutes is possible on a reasonable budget. He has put together 50 complete meals and the pictures look amazing! I had an epiphany. I thought what if I put the book and myself to the test? Could I make one meal a week for 50 weeks and see if they were as delicious as they looked, budget friendly, kid approved, all in 30 minutes? This is my mission. Much like Julie did it for Julia I am going to start my project blogging about my culinary adventures.

My family and friends have agreed to eat my meals, give their honest opinion and kick my butt if I start getting lazy. I am scared of the liver and onion day (my most HATED foods as a child) and the grilled sardines have this Canadian prairie girl a little concerned. I will cross those bridges when I get there.

For now I feel excited and inspired to begin. Tomorrow is Family Day in Alberta. A fitting day to start my adventure, after all I am doing this for my family. I want my children to know that food is more than just nutrition but creates memories! If I make one meal a week (and take a week off at Thanksgiving and Christmas to make my other Jamie favourites) I will be done by family day next year hopefully full of good food, good stories and good memories of doing a project that I can cross of my bucket list!

Thanks for reading! The adventure starts tomorrow!