First things first, this blog is NOT about Golden Grahams (and my sincere apologies to any fans of the band Genesis who inadvertently stumbled across this post due to its title – rock on, Phil Collins, rock on), the deliciously sweet and cinnamon-y breakfast cereal rival to Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  (As an aside, my brother and I were not allowed to have either of those cereals in the house when we were kids – they were on the “too sugary” list – and we were relegated to the relatively tame, albeit still delicious, Honey Nut Cheerios.  It was always the highlight of a sleepover at someone else’s house if that someone else DID have either of those in the pantry.  Or Cap’n Crunch.  I think that one fact of my childhood alone explains a lot about why I now have a blog connected, however loosely, to fitness and nutrition.  And funny that I called it “breakfast” cereal, seeing as I used to (and still do) consider cereal to be a perfectly acceptable snack or meal at ANY time of the night or day.)  No, this blog (and this food blogger) is(are) indeed attempting to join the glamorous (or is that auspicious?  Or both?) ranks of *FOOD BLOGGER*.

Like many pursuits in my life, this has been percolating behind the scenes for a little bit.  I do some (a LOT) of reading, I observe, I absorb (often subconsciously) and when I make a decision to do something, I grab the bull by the horns and go full bore (I apologize to any of my Korean readership or other ESL visitors – I just used several English language idioms that were probably complete gobbledy-gook to you – see, living in another country CAN make you more culturally sensitive if you let it).  I was scrolling through my favourite sites and realized that I was following no less than SEVEN food bloggers (and all lovely people; their blogs should soon appear in my “Blogs I Follow” widget to the right), all at least loosely connected to wholesome and/or healthy and/or high-protein cooking and baking.  So, I could give some credit to those fine folk.

Or there is my longtime friend Sara (we met in the 7th grade): she was a pioneer in the blogging world with her own domain name when we still had cell phones the size of toasters.  She has continued to blog on and off since high school, and she has continued to pester encourage me to start my own blog ever since.

Then there are all of the expatriates around me who use blogging as a way to stay connected to friends and family (and perhaps elicit jealousy in a “look how awesome my life is right now” kind of way) and keep them updated on their international excursions, exotic vacations at 5-star resorts in far-flung locales and multicultural wining and dining. (Ahem – I promise there are both upsides and downsides to the expatriate life).  Being surrounded by a community of bloggers created a silent, insidious but positive form of peer pressure (or support) for me.

But the real credit, my galvinizing moment, is courtesy of a complete stranger: Marsha Castillo.  I have never met Marsha (hence the term “stranger”).  I happened to be reading the Facebook page of one of my favourite food bloggers (Monique Volz of Ambitious Kitchen) and saw a recipe for some stuffed peppers.  I posted a picture of my own Tuna & Spinach Dijon Stuffed Peppers.  Marsha innocently asked, “How do you make these?” and with those five words, a blog was born.  I instantly realized that I did NOT want to type out the recipe for her in a Facebook reply.  I found myself thinking, “Gee, wouldn’t it be nice if I could just share a link to my professionally designed and wildly popular food blog for that exact recipe?”  Well, I’ve got one element out of four: food blog.  Check.

And the rest, as they say, is history!  Or in this case, the future.