Less Processed Foods = My husband is becoming a chef

I've written pieces of our story here before of the past year, but here's a new aspect I never expected. Since the incident last year my husband has given up soda for water (16 months without a single soda!! Yahoo!! incredible for a man who used to drink it by the 2-liters per day...sometimes 4 or even 6 liters per day.) He's also learned that we can make much healthier versions of his favorite dishes, including his favored spaghetti that he so eloquently asked me last year to find a way that he wouldn't have to give it up. Well, I'm happy to report, my husband is becoming a self-studied CHEF! He's been enjoying my homemade soups this past year. The other day I asked him to make a batch of soup. I didn't give him any directions, just provided a pile of fresh vegetables for him to select from along with using other items from our freezer and pantry. Think of the very best homemade vegetable beef soup you've ever eaten - you'll have the idea. However, it's homemade vegetable chicken soup, with all sorts of fresh garden vegetables with a single chopped up apple (skin and all but the stem and core), yellow squash, red beans and LOTS of fresh garden greens. We're also growing our own berries now - elderberries, lingonberries, winterberry, bearberry, mulberry, blueberries (the yews are gone!! yeah!!), cranberries, raspberries, blackberries, jostaberries, boysenberries, strawberries. . you get the idea. We have a normal sized suburban yard - yet now so much of our landscaping is edible and is producing food that we know is free of chemicals and poisons.

I ran out of horizontal space, so had to look skyward... We now have cucumbers growing up into the flowering dogwood tree. We have sugar snap peas growing up the apple tree and the mulberry tree. But importantly, we have fresh produce to make these wonderfully delicious soups and homemade dishes without breaking the budget! We both are finding new hobbies of growing our own fresh herbs, drying the herbs, gathering seeds from our garden plants. Another added benefit, we're both getting healthier exercise, fresh air and ample amounts of health promoting sunlight. The best benefit of all - we're both healthier now than we have been in many years - and my husband is becoming a creative Chef.