The Road I Traveled

Like so many journeys, the steps that led me to create Green Gal of the Midwest began with a single quest: I needed to find my health. After years of struggling with severe, sometimes life-threatening, allergies that only worsened throughout a frantic search of doctor hopping and drug taking, I finally let go of the remedies of conventional medicine and sought help outside the sphere of health insurance-covered options. I began seeing an “unconventional” doctor, taking the supplements he prescribed and changing my diet little by little to make myself well.

It wasn’t a quick fix; it’s not an amazing story, nor is it an unusual one. But it has been an enchanted journey that took me way beyond my own wellbeing. One discovery led to another and another and another. I found that my own health was intricately connected to the health of the Earth on which I live, to the people I call friends and family, to all the people I know and will never know, to the farmers who grow my food and with whom I have an incredible bond of respect and gratitude. I found that the easiest way (and the hardest way) to achieve anything for myself that truly matters is to allow my life to unfold in accordance with a Universe that is far too amazing for me to fathom, to live in faith, to be simple, to practice kindness, to waste nothing and love infinitely. And also to keep trying after each perceived failure at perfection.

I’ve spent many hours reading, researching, listening to other wise souls, practicing the arts of cooking and conservation, making mistakes, feeling joyful and confused—often simultaneously, and just thinking about things in general. This year I actually took a leap of faith—I quit my job to do what I love. It wasn’t heroics or lunacy (though it’s been called both). It was simple survival. It was the next step forward in a plan that I am certain has always been there. . . amazingly my parents did not name me Dorothy.

I hope that Green Gal of the Midwest will be a place to find inspiration for great cooking, helpful kitchen hints, connections to resources that change lives for the better, local and healthy food wherever you’re from and however you choose to be well, and more. My eyes are always bigger than my stomach.

Most of all, I hope to connect, to share ideas and learn from others. So please share how you shop local, eat healthy (and at times sinfully) and are brave in the kitchen!

Toni