Welcome to Whole Made Living and thanks for checking us out!
About Us
On Whole Made Living you'll see recipes from various walks of life. We do not promote any fad diets. We just try to cook and create recipes from the heart and with real ingredients. When my husband and I became a family, it seemed our surroundings have always come together as a whole, even through tough times. We started cooking more together, enjoying our time in the kitchen together and creating fantastic meals together.
When our family started growing, with our 1st child; we knew immediately we wanted to feed him the best food we possibly could. We knew that unless we made most of his meals, he would eat a lot of processed foods and we didn't want that for him. Then we had the surprise of twins on the way and we had 2 more precious mouths to feed. We wanted to keep our boys as healthy as we could from the start, just with the food we put into their bodies.
Real Life, Real Family, Real Food
Life is busy, life is hard, BOY do we get it?! 3 boys for us to be exact. Our family grew from 2 to 5 very quickly. In a flash, our simple foodie dreams of cooking, traveling, enjoying fancy meals out became a thing of the past and a rarity. We didn't think it should end though, so that's kind of how Whole Made Living came about. I thought while I was a stay at home mom, why not keep creating good food and share it online? All the recipes would be there always for family and friends to enjoy and then maybe others will enjoy them as well?
We do our best to use whole ingredients that are as natural and organic as possible. Our recipes vary from meat lover to vegetarian, vegan or gluten free with no emphasis on any particular following. We try to keep our recipes straightforward and as simple as possible.
Because we enjoy cooking and experimenting with food so much, we enjoy trying out different kitchen gizmos and gadgets so we'll recommend those that work best for us. We also share everything from grilling tips, to gardening and canning and other tips that might help in busy family households.
Whole Real Food
Whole Made Living is about getting back to basics with food. Processed food is what is making society unhealthy and obese. We try to cook from scratch and eat real whole food about 90% of the time, but we do allow ourselves to indulge and enjoy unhealthier options once in a while as we're feeding a busy family of 5. That being said, you will see comfort foods mixed in with some rich ethnic food. We try to be smart about eating, reading labels, and care about what goes into our bodies. We try to use organic ingredients whenever possible, but it's not always feasible.
Something needs to change with food labeling and the choices we're given. We all have a right to know exactly what is in the food we purchase in stores, but we get what we get and don't question it. It's an everyday struggle to find truly natural ingredients to use in our cooking, but we're here to try to help inspire others to take a similar path to a healthier life.
Why We're Doing Whole Made Living
We started this site in the fall of 2014. This site is our attempt to share with friends, family and anyone else (i.e. You....reading this...) who's curious to see how even a chaotic family of 5 can can cook whole real food and leave processed food by the wayside. They say you are what you eat. We feel it when we eat more processed foods on days we're too tired to cook. It's not an easy feat, but little changes can make a difference, one meal at a time.
This site is a big part of my life now and I treat it like my business. I take all the cooking photos myself and my husband helps with me with the technical aspects of this site. I'm a self-taught home cook, no formal training. I just have a love for food. To me, a home cooked meal can be one of the greatest gifts you can give to your family. Sitting down to a meal together with loved ones at a table can help create some of the best memories.
Who We Are
We are a husband and wife team on this site. Josh is a contributing writer on the site with his wisdom and knack for aspects that I, the wife don't have. He's the tech guy and designer on the site. He also likes to cook, grill, garden and brew beer when time allows. I like to cook, bake, walk/run, come up with recipes, experiment with food, find time saving options and great deals. My love of food probably started after traveling a bit when I was younger, as did my husband's. He worked and lived in Europe before we met and that sparked his interest in better food, not just frozen one man meals.
Our love of good food helped bring us together as a couple. We enjoy the social aspect of it, critiquing it when we go out and the trial and error part of cooking at home. We're big fans of some professional cooks and love to imitate or try techniques they use.
Our family consists of 5, with our 3 boys. We also have a schnoodle named, Wolfy and a few chickens. There is never a quiet moment in our home and we do struggle to find time to make everything we want happen, including this site, but through it all we still do our best to keep everything real and our life as whole as possible.
Support the Whole Made Living Family
This site is an attempt to help supplement income for our family so you'll see ads on the side and affiliate links. This site does take quite a bit of time to keep up as a constant work in progress, so we truly appreciate you looking. If you click on an affiliate link, just know that you won't be charged any extra if you buy something.
Take a peek and browse around Whole Made Living, please share your thoughts on here with your friends and family if you like what you read.
