It's go time.

At long last, here we are.

My first much-fabled blog post.

This has been percolating in my mind for almost a year, but the time just never seemed right. If there's once thing I've learnt in the last few months, it's that timing things sucks and there's always excuses and never wait until Monday to start things and forget about New Year's Resolutions and just do whatever thing that's been eating at you now.

Right now.

So here I am.

And it's not perfect, it needs revisions, but my blog is born and it is beautiful in its existence.

Deep breath.

Hello, world.

If you happened to read my description of my blog, then you know generally what's going to go down here, but I'd like to take the time to discuss in more detail what you will, and more importantly, what you won't see on here.

Number One of the Never-Happenings: You will never see my daughter's full face. You'll see her smile, the back of her head, her back, maybe an ear, but never her face. However, you'll see lots of pictures like this:

You'll also never see her name printed on here. I respect her right to privacy until she is of an age to make that choice as to whether or not to have her name published online. I also ask that if you know this child of mine, that you do not name her in the comments. That would be an appreciated gift to me. You'll see her referred to as "Beanie," "my bean," "my mini," "tiny demon spawn" (we all have bad days, no judgement), "my tiny world," and "my sweet love" or any number of monikers. It'll be clear that I'm talking about this little creature though, as I'm not certain I remember the last time I called a friend "my peachy."

Number Two of the Never-Happenings: You'll never (or rarely, rarely ever) see pictures of my friends or their children. For one, I don't have my phone (or camera, for that matter) with me a lot of the time when I'm with friends. I spend enough time with my stupid phone when I'm alone so I tend to completely ignore it/leave it at home when I'm with my friends, soaking in every lovely moment in their company. And two, I will never post photos of their children because of the aforementioned respect I have for children and their right to anonymity. I am incredibly blessed to have found myself a group of wonderful friends. I've been feeling down and out lately and two of them put together a care package for me to brighten my day. This is my current situation as I write this, adorned and surrounded by some of their gifts.I wouldn't even be writing this blog without the support of my friends.

Dearest friends: I love you all.

Number Three of the Never-Happenings: I will never be political. I will never discuss my stance on things. This isn't that sort of blog. I will share a lot of personal stories and hard truths about myself, but never anything with a political stance. Live and let live. How could a food blog be political? Food choices are extremely political. Vegan, vegetarian, locavore, gourmet, free-range, organic, nutritarian, etc. All of these choices have political undertones and consequently, people draw conclusions about you. I admit, I eat a more plant-based, vegetarian diet because I like to and the majority of the recipes on this blog will reflect that. However, having just experimented with an Anti-Candida diet for the last three months, I was eating meat daily. I eat oily fish. I always eat eggs.

But for all the plant-based recipes I post, I will never judge what you eat. Case in point: my husband is a hunter. A bona fide stalking-through-the-woods-looking-for-tracks bow hunter.

Square that circle if you think I give two cents about what another person puts into their body. I only share recipes for what I like, take it or leave it.

Now that I've dispensed with all the Never-Happenings on my blog, here's what you can expect to see:

Number One of the Always: This man.He's the hunter I just mentioned. He's also the love of my life who I met when I was fifteen. His name is John. He's been the biggest supporter of mine in all of my dreams (and there have been quite a few). He works as a rig manager on a drilling rig and is gone from us for two-thirds of the year. You want to talk about sacrifice? He's the poster child... or man. His selflessness and genuine love for our daughter and me is truly humbling. He works so hard to provide us with the best life he could give and I know I never go a moment without feeling grateful for what he does. If there are weeks when I don't post, it's because this man of mine is home and he deserves every second of my attention.Eight years married, thirteen years in love. He just makes it damn easy.

Number Two of the Always: My other man. If you follow me on Instagram (shameless plug: @a.new.view.nutrition), you are no doubt familiar with my golden main man, my furry babe, my handsome boy, my Charles.

Get used to his face, you'll see it often. Probably more than any other being on my blog. Times ten. He is my best friend. Funny story: I wanted a Pomeranian. John had wanted a dog for years but I was living apart from him during university (he was in Dawson Creek and I was in Edmonton-- shout out to Grant MacEwan!), so it could not happen until I moved home. As the months drifted by in my final year, we started talking seriously about getting a dog. I had grown up with two miniature poodles, Alex and Paulie, and to be frank, big dogs scared the shit out of me. (Sorry for the language, Moma) But John had grown up with three gentle giants out in the country and wanted at least a medium-ish sized dog. I still wanted a Pom. Named Paj, actually. I had it all planned in my mind. But I wasn't even in our house for two hours the day I officially moved back and I was on the road, heading an hour north to Charlie Lake to look at a litter of golden pups. It was the best choice John ever made for us. Charles' mother and her sister had given birth within a week of one another so there were FOURTEEN little wiggling golden pups in a small room (OMG you can never dream of such happiness), all vying for a spot on our laps. Charles, the plumpest most sleepy-eyed one of them all, fought his way past the rest and climbed onto my chest, kissed my chin and nose, and fell asleep. And I was his. And since then, it's been him and me, especially now that my daughter is in kindergarten and my husband continues his long rotations at work. Charles is my constant. People say "he's just a dog." Um, no. Just no. If I didn't have him (and we were unspeakably close to losing him, but that's a story for another day) I wouldn't know what to do with myself. I certainly would never have discovered such joy and soul-nourishing peace from hiking if he wasn't around to remind me to breathe among the trees.

Number Three of the Always: Hiking pictures. Or discussions of trails. Or just posts pouring over the absolute beauty of Kelowna and the Okanagan. Can you believe that my husband and I had only spent five whole hours in Kelowna before deciding to move here?! That's it, that's all. And it will be four years next week. How time has flown by. Insert shameless hiking picture.

How lucky are we? Actually, how lucky is our daughter that this is where she gets to grow up? She hikes with me often, less now that she's in kindergarten, but she is a trooper. She managed to do six kilometres in one day on her tiny legs up and down some pretty steep slopes while we were hiking on the island this spring. Her love of nature is my greatest pride. But when she isn't with me, it's Charles and I, cruising the back woods. Sometimes we follow marked trails, but if we're in the undeveloped area behind our house, we wander and meander and follow wherever the deer have been kind enough to stomp a path. Those are the best days.

Number Four of the Always: Isn't there supposed to be food on this blog? There will always, always, always be so much food. There might be some days when you question what I do in a day besides cook. If we're being honest though, some days that's all myself and the mini do-- she's quite the sous chef-- so if it's a good fun day in the kitchen, then that's what we do all day, Disney songs pumping. Unless she wants Korn or 10 Years. She has diverse musical tastes.The recipes I like to cook/create stem from cravings or my mood or an inspiration of seeing an unhealthy version of a dish and wanting to recreate it into something more wholesome.

And before you shout at me thinking I'm far in the sky on my high horse, I do love my sweets. And I actually love butter more than a lot of things (again, I shouldn't eat it because my body does NOT love it, but it's just. so. good). But more than loving how decadent or rich something tastes, I love feeling my body in balance and energized, not bogged down and ill. I am in school for Holistic Nutrition, remember? My recipes will be healthy. For the most part. It's not healthy to live in complete restriction of everything. If your soul would feel better with a cookie (and goodness knows mine just NEEDS one every so often), then eat the damn cookie. Fixating on foods and harsh restrictions because of what's "good" and "bad" is a terrible way to live. Believe me, as a recovered bulimic, drop that way of thinking now. A healthy mindset towards food begins with listening to your body and understanding how it reacts with what you eat. No food is innately bad or good, in moderation. I will delve more into healthy eating tips and mindful eating in plenty of posts, I am sure.

Oh, and psst, I'll tell you a secret: Healthy doesn't mean flavourless and bland. Faaar from it. Here's some examples of the foods you'll find on my blog.

Number Five of the Always: I take all my own pictures. Without exception. IF there happens to be a picture that I borrow from someone, full credit will be clearly laid out. To that end, I'd love to address any concern of my negligence as a parent before someone in this mommy-wars era of parenting nags about it: I never have my phone or camera at the table. If there's a picture of my daughter eating, it's within the first few bites, then my camera is banished to its case until she is in bed for the night.

Our dining room table is an electronics-free zone. Full stop.

Family dinners are a great joy in our home and I hope you are lucky enough to have the same constant chatter and laughter at your table as we do at ours.

Number One of the Sometimes: Me. You might occasionally see me. But it's rare. Looking through my pictures to put on this post solidifies what I already know: too often I'm behind the camera and never in the pictures enough. Even if I'm using self-timer, as I do for a lot of my hiking pictures, it's of my back because I find it easier than trying to coordinate my dog and my rogue facial features at the same as my camera counts down.

This is me (my selfie game is so weak, I just accept it for what it is):

But honestly, below is more likely how you'll see me if I pop up anywhere. Or what you'll see if you're unfortunate enough to run into me at school drop off because guaranteed I'm the hot-mess in sweats and dry shampoo on my way to the gym.

Didn't believe me when I said that Charles was my best friend? I have a hat of his likeness. Want to question my dog-mama craziness now?

So this is my blog. It has been a long time coming (and long-windedly explained) but I'm elated that it's finally here. You may notice changes and tweaks as I figure this thing out over the next while, but as I said at the beginning, putting it off wasn't an option anymore.

Welcome to the inner workers of my brain and the food that nourishes it.

I share food out of love and every time you make something of mine, even though it's not listed on the ingredients, I hope you feel my warm hug that always comes with any meal of mine.

Stay tuned for my first actual recipe post coming in a few days! ❤