Good food = a good diet.
Yet so few people seem to make the effort to cook these days. Ever wondered why that is? I'll happily hold my hand up and admit that there was a time when I didn't cook either. At all.
Truth be told, my grandmother wasn't the best cook in the world. Don't get me wrong, she did cook and it was edible. She just wasn't a home-cooking guru and she probably didn't enjoy it. This meant that my mother didn't have the best teacher, so her chances of being an cooking extrordinaire were severly limited from the outset. My mother could cook what she liked and it was good basic fare but she was never adventurous enough to branch into exotic vegetarian cooking. So I grew up eating a limited range of easy veggie options and left home with next to no cooking skills.
FYI, anyone that quotes the old adage "if you can read, you can cook" if lying. Recipes assume a base-level of knowledge that many younger generations don't have anymore. The first week I had to fend for myself I had to google how to bake a potato. It's sad.
Credit really has to go to my fiance for getting me cooking. As a qualified chef, he could translate recipes into plain English for me and show me how its done. Even better, I had an expert to help me along and make sure I didn't screw it up. It's crazy to think that a few years down the line I'm trying out recipes by myself and actually enjoying cooking.
Moral of the story, is no matter how bad you think you are you can learn to cook. The food you make will taste better when made with fresh ingredients, have more nutritional value than store-bought varieties and give you endless pleasure. Even better, it will be free of those pesky unpronouncable additives rife in processed supermarket food. (Btw - nations with highly processed foods also suffer from the highest levels of obesity. Coincidence?)
If you need any more inspiration, here are a few of the home-made delights from over the weekend:
<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/?action=view&current=2011-08-06133716.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/2011-08-06133716.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" width=500></a>
Ricotta & tomato tarlets<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/?action=view&current=2011-08-06135055.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/2011-08-06135055.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" width=500></a>
Salad freshly picked from my parents' garden<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/?action=view&current=2011-08-06135531.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/2011-08-06135531.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" width=500></a>
Home-made chocolate & apple birthday cake, because I can have my cake and eat it too!<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/?action=view&current=2011-08-07165026.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/2011-08-07165026.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" width=500></a>
My own oat & honey granola bars!
FYI, the chickpea burgers I made during the week went down a treat! Will definitely be making those again. I'm planning to add some of the recipes for my creations in my cookbook, so keep checking it and hopefully you'll see new additions as time goes on.
Also expect a new post during the week on my new blog: