Debra McVay

I love to cook, especially with and for my family.  I love to cook healthy meals that make the whole family feel good.  I started experimenting in the kitchen when I was a teenager.

Once my grandmother saw how much I enjoyed cooking, she taught me how to cook some of her favorite recipes.  She believed in down-home-Southern cooking, but I was more of a healthy vegetarian cook.  I did try to learn what she taught me about baking, though, and I think I do a pretty good job of it.

I didn't get much time in the kitchen, though, so I just kept collecting cookbooks (which I'd started at the ripe old age of six) and recipes and dreaming of the day I would get to try out the ones that sounded really good.

Whenever I did get a chance to cook, I got a lot of praise and encouragement, and that made me so happy that I just wanted to do it more and more.

In college, I met a man who had studied at the Cordon Bleu, and we became good friends.  He taught me more than I'll ever use about wine and wine pairings, but he mostly taught me how to look at the ingredients in a recipe and imagine what it would taste like in the finished product.

After getting married, I started my quest of budget cooking because my husband and I have struggled financially from the very beginning.  My journey has taught me some strange and wonderful things about life, food, money, health, and satisfaction.  Now my passion is eating to live.