Saturday, November 27, 2010

Hi!


Hi! I’m starting this blog to share my culinary and nutritional endeavors. I’m a high school senior and I’m hoping to study biochemistry in the context of nutrition next year. I’ve always loved to cook but in the past year I got really into nutrition, weight loss and health. It all started with half a bag of coconut flour left over from my little brother’s gluten intolerant period. I was searching for coconut flour recipes and I found Marks Daily Apple. I had discovered the primal diet and lifestyle. Later on I started reading about traditional diets and the more I learned about these different diets the more inspired I was to cook. The primal diet is a big influence on my cooking, but I make my own alterations because of my own personal tastes and nutritional needs. I do my best to limit sugars and grains in my cooking because I feel so much better without them, and I know it doesn’t hurt my family to have delicious grain and sugar free meals either. The Weston A. Price Foundation is another inspirational source for me. (I have huge jars of sauerkraut sitting in my fridge because of them, and when I do eat oats I soak them with raw milk yogurt first). I love finding out about new foods and methods of preparation.
I had always wanted to be a chef because I thought that there was nothing more pleasurable in life than watching dark chocolate swirl into cheesecake batter. I did a mentorship at a restaurant working with a chef and multiple cooks. I gained a solid base in culinary arts, and learned a lot about meal planning and organization in a kitchen. I used to sell brownies at school and made quite a bit of money before I was found out :)  I’ve also taught cooking classes to younger kids. I’ve sold my own gluten free bread products too. Last summer my mom was working a bunch so I took over all the family grocery shopping and meal preparation. I have to say I loved knowing the contents of our refrigerator better than my parents. I’m not as interested in being a chef anymore, because I think health is important when it comes to foods and cooking in a restaurant setting isn’t what I want to do.
When I put my cooking and nutritional findings together last summer and decided to go primal it was an amazing experiment. I cut out all the refined sugar, grains and starches from my diet. I felt so much better, my skin cleared up, I had tons of energy, and I never got sick.  Slowly I moved more into traditional diets as well, buying raw goats milk to make into yogurt, and eating a few grains in the form of homemade granola bars and oats in the morning. I love oatmeal (I’m pretty sure it’s my favorite food on this planet!) Grocery shopping is one of my favorite things to do and when farmers markets are in season I have a schedule and go at least once a week to stock up on fresh produce. Now that its winter I keep pots of lettuce and various herbs inside to supplement our meals.
Planning meals, preparing snacks, grocery shopping, researching new foods and eating good food are activities I live for. Food is my obsession, and I figure if I’m going to be eating I might as well be eating delicious and healthful food. Currently I’m really into cooking with high quality fats (like coconut oil), vegetables, and other nutritionally dense foods. I’m also watching my carbs so I’m grain free for now but that’s likely to change in a bit because I can’t abstain from oatmeal forever ;) I hope for this blog to be a place me to share my findings, foods and recipes with you.

5 comments:

  1. Good Luck with your new blog :]

    greetings from Macedonia

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  2. Could you post some homemade granola bar recipes? that would be so awesome!

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  3. Thanks and I plan on posting a recipe for them soon!

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  4. Yep. That pretty much describes Anika :) You should talk to my grandma. Your cooking and eating styles sound very similar. She eats or used to eat some oatmeal concoction every morning, and her stevia blueberry and apple pies are my favorite. Although you don't like stevia or even whole wheat crust huh? I love you sweetie!

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  5. Your food is so amazing! Thank you for posting all those recipes

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