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"  Hey there, Delish readers! I&amp;#039;m Stefania Pomponi Butler of CityMama and I love to cook for my family and friends. It is my passion, my hobby, my art. I can&amp;#039;t sew and have no time for scrapbooking\u2014cooking is by far my favorite creative outlet. I have an entire bookshelf (4 shelves worth) that is dedicated to my expansive cookbook collection. When I have alone time, the thing I want to do most is cook. Most of what I cook is healthful and fresh. I prefer to choose local, seasonal ingredients at the peak of freshness and cook them that day, if possible. I prefer not to eat things that have been frozen for months or cooked to death for 10 hours. I love shopping farmer&amp;#039;s market as well as my local Korean, Indian, Japanese, and Mexican markets. I meal-plan and keep a careful eye on our food budget.  But\u2014 Like you, I don&amp;#039;t want preparing and cooking meals to take a long time. I have to get our meals on the table in under 30 minutes because I am a busy, working mom and often, that&amp;#039;s all the time I have. In the time it takes to boil pasta or grill a piece of fish, I can have a knock-out dinner on the table. We&amp;#039;re a family that eats everything, but we don&amp;#039;t want to eat meat every day. We like a balance of vegetarian meals with meat, poultry, or fish every once in a while.  When I first saw Rachael Ray&amp;#039;s 30 Minute Meals, I chuckled to myself because I have been doing that since I was 14 and cooking dinner became my responsibilty. I love that her show appeals to busy parents, but I think for most of us, there is nothing new about getting dinner on the table quickly, we just want it to be delicious and healthy. I love sharing suggestions for quick, healthy, family-friendly meals with my friends and readers. Everything I cook during the week is quick, healthy, and family-friendly, and I am not cooking macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets every night. Really, I&amp;#039;m not. (By the way, there is nothing wrong with macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets. I&amp;#039;m just saying there is no need to fall back on those things when you can cook something fresh and tasty in 15 or 20 minutes. Stick with me and you&amp;#039;ll see.) You can do it! The more you cook the easier it will be. I have two children so most days I am preparing 2-3 meals a day. If that sounds insane and you think there is no way you could do that, I assure you, it&amp;#039;s not and you can! To be able to prepare things quickly and easily, it helps to have practice. Cook a meal from scratch everyday. Start with something simple and perfect it. Use this blog as a resource for recipes and techniques. I&amp;#039;ll help you every step of the way. We can do it together! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.delish.com/cooking/a30019/welcome-to-cooking-mama/>