Who is Lisa?

Dear Reader,

You all may wonder who is Lisa and why does she have a blog on healthy cooking? I know there are many cooking blogs out there so why is this one special? Well let me first tell you alittle bit about myself.
My name is Lisa and I have always had a passion for cooking. At a very young age I have loved everything that comes with cooking. Going to the grocery store and looking at all the fresh produce, meat, and fish. For me choosing which fruit or vegetable I was going to cook with put me in a very happy state. Unlike many children I actually would love going to culinary cooking stores. Looking at all the pans, utensils, and gadgets made me wonder what types of meals could I make.
You may wonder if I ever went to culinary school since I have this passion for cooking. I do not regret any past decisions but I went to college to get a BA because I thought that was the thing to do. So you are probably thinking where did I go? Well I went to Villanova and studied psychology and counseling. When I was there I thought I was going to be a psychologist but something inside me keep pushing me towards food. I remember my senior year I had an internship at a hospital and even though I was working with patients, topics of conversation always went to food and nutrition. This made me happy.
When I graduated from college I think I was more confused then ever. I needed a job because I just spent 4 years of my life working hard towards a degree. I took a job working on marketing books. However, the position wasn't in line with a career that I wanted to I decided to continue with school and receive an advanced degree.
So about 1.5 years later I decided to leave that job and enroll in a Masters Program in Nutrition. While I was a full time student I worked in a hospital consulting patients about healthy nutrition. I always found myself the kitchen of the hospital tasting the food and giving my opinion on it. There were many aspects about the MS program that I liked. I really love nutrition and learning about health food, vitamins, minerals, and how to make healthy diet plans for people. But I knew I wanted to be more hands on and actually cook those healthy meals for people.

While I was in my MS program I took many food lab courses experimenting with all types of grains, sugars, proteins, and cooking techniques. This is the point of the program where I knew being in a kitchen or food lab was the right choice for me. This gave me the inspiration to create my own prototype baked good that was great for the digestive tract. This project was my Masters thesis and it took my 2.5 years to complete. My prototype was a muffin that contained a soluble fiber that was actually preferred by many consumers. I did run my own consumer test with my muffin versus a marketed muffin. The results of this consumer test proved to me that I had a talent in product development and working in a food lab.
Also, during this time I took cooking classes where I received a diploma at a small culinary studio. I had also taken a few classes at a culinary school in Florence, Italy. When I'm in the kitchen cooking and creating food I feel alive, happy, and I'm in such a state of joy!!! I really like to challenge myself and see where creativity brings me when I come up with meals. I would like to share with people my culinary experiences with food. If I am creating my own recipe or cooking straight from a recipe already written this helps to enhance my skills as a chef. I would like to share my cooking experiences with my readers.