The Hill

By Judy Kurtz - 03/04/15 11:01 AM EST

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is celebrating an anniversary. But don’t expect any frosting-topped cake or sugary confections as she marks this milestone — the Florida Democrat is now a clean-cooking congresswoman.? ?

A year ago this month, the Democratic National Committee chairwoman revamped her diet and started a healthy cooking regime. ??

“I was that girl that ate peanut M&Ms and a full-strength Coke for breakfast,” Wasserman Schultz tells ITK as she preps a pumpkin kale and calico bean stew in the kitchen of the Capitol Hill digs she shares with Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.). “I probably kept McDonald’s in business,” she adds, “never really had to think about my weight, either.”??

But after a 2007 breast cancer diagnosis, seven surgeries and medication for chemotherapy that put on the pounds, Wasserman Schultz says she knew she needed to make a change. Inspired by a weight-loss diet created by chef Rocco DiSpirito, Wasserman Schultz — who could “barely boil water” — embarked on a mission to clean up her food choices. 

It didn’t come naturally: “I have to concentrate hard to make sure that I’m not blowing the kitchen up,” she laughs, but Wasserman Schultz developed a plan: “Getting rid of processed food from your diet, cooking with as few ingredients as possible, making sure they’re all natural, a lot of fruits and vegetables, and a lot of spices that make things taste more interesting.”??

The self-described “Instagram freak” then discovered there was a whole movement on social media dedicated to exactly what she was already doing.

“I was one of those people that used to think, ‘Why do people take pictures of their food?’ I never understood that. I used to actually make fun of my friends, ‘Why are you taking a picture of your food? Who cares?’ But I would see all these cool things that other people were creating and sharing and I just decided, you know what, let me try that.”

She created her account, @cleancookingcongresswoman, in April of last year.? ?Since then, the mom of three has amassed more than 1,100 followers.

“I have this relationship completely separate from everything else in my life, and it’s just very personal, and meaningful to me,” Wasserman Schultz says, as the smell of stew simmering in a slow cooker wafts through the air. “And now I see that there are people who are in the sort of our congressional family, in our political community, who are following me and who are asking me to post my recipes.”

Wasserman Schultz, 48, says she’s “definitely dropped pounds” by making healthier versions of foods she loves. “I wish you were here when I made a black bean chocolate torte cake,” she exclaims as she bounces around the kitchen barefoot. Perhaps noticing the pained look on ITK’s face she says, “No kidding. I know it sounds disgusting; in fact, I posted it on my Instagram account. You would not know — swear — that the base was black beans. It tastes exactly like chocolate cake.”

But not everything she whipped up was a winner. Take that sweet potato brownies recipe she tried: “Sweet potatoes do not belong in brownies.”

She still eats M&Ms occasionally, but less often than a year ago. “I have a lot more willpower now because I really enjoy how I feel, I like how I look, I am not miserable standing in my closet.”

Now, Wasserman Schultz is taking the clean-cooking lifestyle to the halls of Congress. She’s organizing a clean-cooking demonstration for fellow Democrats, saying she wants to “make sure that I get it right the first time” before including Republicans in a bipartisan cooking event.

But if both parties manage to break bread over clean cooking, Wasserman Schultz assures us that one recipe won’t be included: “I wouldn’t impose sweet potato brownies on anybody.”