Happy Birthday, full tummies!

full tummies is 5 years old this month!! Hard to believe, I must say.

So, what's new? How have "we" grown in the last 5 years? Did I think I'd still be blogging about family food 5 years down the road?

I must confess that this blog had very humble beginnings: I was stuck at home with 10-month-old twin boys and a 27-month-old girl. I craved mental stimulation, have always enjoyed writing, was frustrated by the seemingly impossible recipes on the other blogs I'd seen, and noticed that I called my mom a lot for HER recipes.

So I started full tummies: a free hobby for yours truly. I figured it would be a nice place to collect recipes from my family and my husband's and that maybe someone else out there with youngsters would find the recipes encouraging. With rare exception (and those are always noted), I have made every recipe on this site before posting. I've got "real life" happening just like the next person, so I haven't spent much time developing cool photos or step-by-step documentation for my recipes. I'm looking forward to pursuing that a touch, but I certainly don't aim to be a professional. This blog is still mostly for me, my family, and my friends. (But, if Google's stats are any gauge, then there are a lot of you folks out there reading this whom I've never met! I'm flattered!)

5 years later, the same principles hold true: use up what we have, whole family eats the same foods at mealtimes (no special order cooking), leftovers are welcome, and good stewardship of our resources is key (waste not, want not!). What's changed is that my husband and I have really embraced "our" own cooking preferences and styles. Rather then the meat and three types meals we grew up eating frequently, we enjoy more ethnic cuisine, one dish meals like stir-fries, lots of vegetables, and more casual fare in general (sandwiches for dinner and the like). One of my early recipes, cottage cheese pancakes, is still in hot demand amongst my growing children (boys are almost 6 and our daughter is 7). But we've added recipes I would never have dreamed of trying, things like garlic and greens pizza. And, a couple of summers ago, we joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).

I'm nearing the end of my grad school days (hallelujah!), so maybe I'll have a bit more time here and there to devote to full tummies. We've got some fun things lined up for this new season in our lives, and I'm getting quite familiar with packing lunches, making quick dinners when we're crunched for time, and even (gasp!) cooking without recipes. Hopefully I'll be able to share some of those lessons learned in this little cyberspace.  For now, thanks for reading along and let me know what recipes you enjoy!