About

Hello, and welcome to Hi-Line Healthy!

My name is Haley and I'm a farm wife, mother, dobie mama, nurse, and self-taught home cook extraordinaire. I live with my family in the Hi-Line region of Montana where my husband farms on the family farm, while I work as a nurse at our local community critical access hospital.

Where exactly is the Hi-Line? For those of you who aren't familiar with the Montana Hi-Line, it's defined as the region of Montana that runs adjacent to US-Hwy 2 and the BNSF railway that spans the entire state of Montana and runs parallel to the Canadian border. The people from this area are kind-hearted, laid back and proud to be a "Hi-Liner." Everyone drives pick-up trucks, talks about the weather and will bend over backwards to help a neighbor in need. I'm new to the Hi-Line, only living here since after graduating college in 2013, but my husband was born and raised  in this area. We are thrilled to be back in his hometown and raising our son in such a wonderful community.

Back in May of 2010, I started a blog named, The Girly Girl Cooks. My first blog was created as a place for me on the Internet to document my attempts of learning how to cook while attending college. I wrote about my experiments with food, recipes, and different cuisines all while finding myself and winning the heart (and stomach) of my long time college boyfriend.

Now that I'm a farm wife and mother to a beautiful, healthy baby boy, my priorities in the kitchen have become more focused on creating healthy and fresh meals. I want the food I make to be delicious and nutritious for my family, rather than anything and everything that tastes good despite how healthy or unhealthy it may be.

But don't get me wrong, I love to enjoy a sinful treat everyone once in a while. Therefore I have a recipe section devoted to those sweet indulgences that just can't be given up. It's all about moderation and living by the 80/20 rule: 80% healthy and 20% slightly naughty!

I have found living in a rural community with few resources brings many challenges in the kitchen. The ingredients in the grocery stores in this area are very basic with very few “fancy” ingredients. For example, cumin and smoked paprika are rare finds in the spice department. So if I can find the ingredients used in my recipes, then anyone can find it! Making recipes that are accessible to everyone is what I'm all about.

Through Hi-Line Healthy, I look forward to sharing my recipes and new life experiences with you! Sit back and enjoy!

~Haley