Amateur Hour.

      The word “Amateur” (a person who does something like a hobby for pleasure and not as a job, or a person inexperienced or unskilled in a particular activity.) comes to mind as I am starting this blog. This season in my life is all about being just that, I am an amateur EMT student, amateur chef or foodie, and I guess in a funny way amateur Army wife. Just a wife trying to feed her soldier (who by the way has the palate of a four year old), while overcoming the battle with her inner fat girl.. This is where I will start to collect those (crazy easy) recipes and ideas that will hopefully help another wife/student/amateur in the process! So before the recipes, ideas, and pictures of food to make your mouth water, I guess I’ll start an introduction about me! You just came here for the food? Too bad:

Picture my Dad sent me last week; Portland Oregon

We are Oregonians and proud! We love our Oregon Ducks, we love the greenness, the fresh air, we love the rain, we love our coffee, we love our home state, and to tie into this blog; we love the fresh abundance of good food in the North West. I have realized they are soooo spoiled up there with the quality of food after we moved away to the desert where nothing grows. You will also probably hear from time to time how much we also miss all those things from home too!

Which brings me to the next topic.. We are stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, which sits in El Paso, Tx......which also sits almost on top of Juarez, Mexico.... which also borders New Mexico. We have been here for a little over two years now, it is a shock to our little Oregonian heads, but we try our hardest to make the best of it most of the time and have met some really awesome people we call our friends! We do not know how much longer we will be here but someday we would love to make our way back to green grass, and somewhere that has some resemblance of home, or hey, home would be nice too!

I am a registered EMT and I am still in school finishing up my paramedic program. So my life also consists of  homework, testing, and clinical rotations in the hospitals and riding with ambulances in the El Paso area. I pretty much take care of the bodily fluids, repetitive IV placements, and stand around looking for things nurses don't want to do in the hospitals. Can't wait to be done! For anybody that doesn't know I was actually planing on going to culinary school before deciding on the medical field. Although I still have a passion for food (obviously) I really do love what I do as a paramedic! And another not so fun fact: People that work in the EMS world have some of the worse dietary habits out there! Fast lifestyle = lots of fast food!

We do not have any kiddos yet! These are our furbabes, Harper, and Row. Not sure when those little DeMers babies will be popping out but we decided early on in our marriage they would be in the works rather later than sooner! Can't wait though!

Then of course this guy! My husband Michael and I got married at the unripened young age of 18 (me), and 20 (Michael)! I love this guy to death, but you will never meet somebody as picky with  food choices as he is! Ground beef, tomato sauce, potatoes, cheap sandwich meat, and a box of Kraft Macaroni are the staples of this guys diet. Lucky for me though, he does try most things I put on his plate. We are coming up on our third year anniversary and onto our fourth year and it is the most fun I've ever had, and  best choice I ever made! Love this dude! 

Speaking of Amateur. Crossfit is one of my more effective weapons in keeping that "inner fat girl" at bay. But really, Crossfit has really shaped the part of my life where I think about my health and fitness. I have only been doing it for a few months, but so far, so awesome! And if your wondering why I don't have a super awesome pic of me lifting a barbell, swinging a kettlebell, or doing a pull up, I'm sorry, I am not that cool at it yet! Crossfit also adopts a Paleo lifestyle and for the most part so have I! A lot of my recipes will be non-paleo (since that's what I normally cook for my husband) but I will be posting Paleo foods too, to keep it real up in here for my health conscious friends! And if you don't know what Paleo is, I'll explain at a later date!

Then the latest event that we experienced this year, homecoming! Michael was on a nine month deployment from 2012-2013 and was brought home last month! It was hard, it was not fun, but its all behind us and we are onto greater and happier things! I think a big part of the reason I am motivated to start a blog now is, after nine months of thinking up recipes and being so excited about cooking for  my husband again I have rediscovered my passion for food and cooking! Its been a lot of fun letting my creative juices flow again! 

And that's the way the cookie crumbles! Thank you for reading about my amateur life!  I promise there will be plenty of food porn  to put your fork into here soon enough. Now to the grocery store to get started!