full stomach, happy heart

There's a saying in Spanish: "barriga llena, corazon contento" that literally translates to full stomach, happy heart. The idea behind it is pretty self-explanatory - you are usually more content when you aren't hungry. I agree with this saying 100%. The easiest way to see me grumpy is to make sure I don't get fed - or enough sleep, but I guess that doesn't matter right now. I am not responsible for my actions when I'm hungry, but I'm also not the best cook in the world. That is incredibly hard for me to admit since I come from a family of amazing cooks. My grandmother, mom, aunts, and cousins all cook delicious, fairly healthy, completely original food. I'm the black sheep of cooking, but I CAN bake!

I've decided that in order to redeem myself in my family's eyes and keep on with the whole getting-my-life-in-order process, I have to become a good cook. I figure the best way to do this is to buy a good cookbook and make all the recipes. Sounds easy, huh?

Anxious to start, I made my made my way to BookPeople this morning to find the perfect cookbook.

First of all, there are a million cookbooks! Everyone from the food network people to Gwyneth Paltrow and Jerry Seinfeld's wife has a cookbook, including Eva Longoria. (Why does Eva Longoria have a cookbook?)  I spent quite a long time browsing and making a mental list of what I need in a cookbook. I decided that I need a book that has 1) healthy food with some low carb options to help me get ready for summer, 2)  easy to find ingredients, 3) easy to follow steps, and 4) pictures to let me know how the end product is supposed to look.

I finally decided on "Jamie's Food Revolution" by Jamie Oliver.

It satisfies my list, and I love his "pass it on" idea to revolutionize the way people eat. This is my way of passing it on. To Jamie, I pledge to learn at least one recipe from each chapter and teach it to two or more of my friends and family. To you, I promise that I will attempt every recipe in the book and share pictures and interesting tidbits from the experience. Wish me luck!