I believe in eating a balanced diet. Yes, that includes treats on occasion (oh who am I kidding, I like something sweet almost every day), but it also includes a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. And (mostly) wholewheat grains, meats and legumes. Oh and cheese. I have a love affair with cheese. And with garlic. I'm a bit of a polygamist that way. Shhh don't tell TheHusband...
I was a vegetarian for about three years, and it still influences my cooking in that I like eating (and making) vegetarian dishes. On average, I'd say we eat about 2 meat-less meals a week, which I think is a pretty healthy approach as I don't think eating meat 7 days a week is all that beneficial. It's nice to give your digestive system a break once in a while!
I have an intense dislike for processed foods (does chocolate count as processed??), preferring to use whole foods as close to their natural state as possible. Processed cheese grosses me out to a level I can't describe. I don't buy organic as I find it to be prohibitively expensive.
In the past I've included nutritional breakdowns for my recipes, using Spark People's Recipe Calculator. However I've stopped posting these stats as I find that approach far too regimented. I'm not a calorie counter and never will be. I figure if I try to eat healthily (moderation is the key word here people!), the calories will look after themselves. That approach seems to work for me.
Regarding specific ingredients, I tend to use the following as standards in my recipes:
Milk - lowfat (I find the full cream version way too creamy)
Cheese - fullfat, except for cottage cheese which I buy lowfat
Eggs - large
Yoghurt - lowfat (this seems to be the easiest to obtain in my neck of the woods anyway)
Cream - fullfat
Any exception to the above I will state clearly in the specific recipe.
