My passion for food began 10-years-ago this summer with a trip to Italy with my then boyfriend and now husband. We had only been dating a few months but it was my last summer before I would finish college and we went for it.

It was a two-week tour across central and northern Italy.  We both became foodies on this trip, how can you not, right? It’s Italy! We came home interested in learning to cook the food we ate.

Developing healthy food habits

Since then our passion for food has only grown. We love to cook all kinds of food and have incorporated some great foodie habits that we are now passing onto our children.

1. We cook a lot. We plan weekly meals, belong to a CSA, stategize about buying in bulk , etc. For the most part we cook all of our meals. This doesn’t always mean that we have a big meal, it just means we are eating real food and so are our kids.

2. On the rare occasion that we eat out, we seek to eat at restaurants that use fresh and local ingredients and make food from scratch.

3. We know where our meat comes from. Yes we pay more for grass-fed, local meat but, we buy it in bulk from the coop for the most part and feel better knowing it is better for us and the animals have been well cared for.

4. We know quality ingredients matter. Good butter, vanilla beans, fresh eggs, great parmesean and fresh basil are so worth the extra expense and make food taste better.

5. We pay attention and eat what is in season. We are not perfect at this as we continue to eat bananas year-round but I try to buy produce in season.

I am passionate about food for my family. I hope raising my kids with these habits will help them be better foodies too.

What are your food habits?