Nice to meet you!

Hi there:)

My name is Mauranda Comley, wife, mother of three, educator, and lover of being in the kitchen. Over the past decade, I’ve discovered this love for food, cooking, eating, obsessing, shopping for, and pretty much everything else that goes along with it! Seven years ago, our food has taken a turn for the better.  Although our meals have always emphasized delicious flavor, we neglected the most important part of the meal, the impact our food had on our bodies.
After numerous health concerns for both my husband and I, we decided to get educated about our bodies and the food in which we live on. Although difficult at first, we adapted to our new lifestyle of the allergen free living which included elimination of gluten, dairy, corn, and soy in a nutshell (speaking of nuts, that was another thing we didn’t eat!) After this elimination diet, we have found a happy medium that filters out most of the aforementioned foods, but still allows us to enjoy food outside of our typical diet in moderation. We spent so much time learning about the relationship between body and food. Being in the education field, I learned a great deal about nutrition. Being curious, we became a science experiment of sorts learning how food affected us.

In addition to completely changing the way we grocery shopped, I had to get creative in the kitchen. The results were what led this blog to come about.

Not only were our bodies healing, but we sat together at the dinner table “oooohhh-ing” and “mmmhhhmm-ing” at what we were eating.
Today we continue to enjoy the food we have been feeding our bodies but even more so the result of eating good, wholesome food. The best version of yourself is available when you start feeding to live.

I have spent the last nine years as a family and consumer sciences teacher with a passion for good, wholesome, and delicious food. I’ve enjoyed teaching middle school, high school and graduate students the value of living a wholesome life.  Everything we eat has the power to hurt or heal us, fuel or hinder energy, restore or destroy and we have the power every day to choose what to do. Eating can often be the downfall to our health when we are ill equipped to make good, wholesome choices. This is where education comes in, with all its knowledge and power, can direct us to make the best decisions for our life. A claim this powerful holds a lot of weight, but shouldn’t we choose to acknowledge this rather than push it off or live in oblivion?

And then there was My Wholesome Table

I chose the name ‘My Wholesome Table’ as a nod to the food that should be used to nourish our bodies. As a follower of Christ and believe with my whole heart that He wants us to care for our bodies by putting the good stuff and keeping the bad stuff out! While I serve my friends and family wholesome meals, I know it is with the power of Christ that gives me the joy behind why I do what I do. This blog came into fruition because of numerous requests for recipes as I realized my creativity bursting at the seams in my kitchen. I also wanted to keep a personal record of the recipes that I threw together on a whim so that I could actually recreate them again. Through God’s faithfulness in revealing his plan for my life, I believe My Wholesome Table can also provide food and nutrition educational services to better educate individuals on wholesome eating. Whether you have been advised by a health care provider to omit a common allergen such as dairy, gluten, soy, refined sugar, My Wholesome Table can help. Perhaps you just notice you feel better when you eat certain foods or reversely, notice you feel sluggish and foggy with other foods, My Wholesome Table can help. Maybe your family has been prone to buying processed foods and grabbing food on the go, knowing you aren’t making wholesome choices, My Wholesome Table can help.

I hope you will be blessed by these recipes as I have and that you will share them with the people you love most in the world. I hope you reach out if you think the consultation services will help you, your family, or your business.

Curious as to how we eat?
All fruits, vegetables, and most meats/fish rotate on our grocery lists. Fruits and vegetables we will often buy organic but we don’t exclusive shop this way. I’ve just found what works for us and try to keep in mind the dirty dozen (list of foods to buy organic).

Meats we limit include cured products; ham, bacon, and other pork products. When purchasing these products, we avoid sodium nitrate, MSG, and typically buy organic.
Fresh herbs, olive oils, coconut products (milk, unsweetened flakes, oil, yogurt), and spices, typically these are bought organic.  Tea, rice products, and most nuts we enjoy on a regular basis.

In moderation:
Sweeteners can be hard to stay away from, but here’s our guidelines from best to worst:
coconut sugar
honey
maple syrup
brown sugar
I personally don’t cook with refined white sugar. As you’ll see from most of my recipes, I do LOVE to bake and will try to be smart about which sweeteners I use.
The following foods we have limited for various reasons but do enjoy occasionally: corn products, white potatoes, peanuts, coco(including dairy and soy free chocolate)

What to stay away from:
The heavy hitters include gluten, dairy and soy. Anything that has been refined or created in a lab, is a no-no. GMO foods (look for Non-GMO verified foods). I try to make as much as I possibly can from scratch because I know what is actually in my food. Because reading labels is second nature at the grocery store and I cannot possibly recall every single thing I avoid…I’m going to try my best to come up with a list!
high fructose corn syrup
maltodextrin
monosodium glutamate (MSG)
artificial flavorings or coloring
BHT and BHA
trans fats
any food dyes that look like Yellow #5, Red #7 etc.
sodium nitrate

It’s difficult to sum up our way of living in just a few short paragraphs. We’ve become avid label readers and try to fill our grocery cart with foods from the produce and meat section of our supermarket. Organic foods are what we strive for but as for me and my house, we do the best we can and are choosy with what we feel is worth the splurge, and what isn’t.  These recipes are the biggest guideline as to what we enjoy on a day-to-day basis.
You will also find meal plans to give ideas for snacks, meals, and drinks.
Hope you find this lifestyle as rewarding as we have.