I’ve always loved good food. Back in elementary school, I’m sure we’ve all experienced that familiar moment at lunch when everyone checks out what each other’s parents have packed them, and that embarrassing minute when you pull out something different, prompting the kid next to you to ask “Ew, what’s that?”
Yea, I’ve been that embarrassed kid from time to time, but most of the time I proudly pulled out my food and when asked what the “weird” thing in my lunchbox was, I would think to myself, “Who doesn’t eat mortadella?? You’re the weird one.” I was proud of my “weird” cultural food that I thought of as completely normal.
I was extremely lucky to be raised to understand and eat good food. As part of an Italian family with my dad being a cooking guru, I was taught at an early age to follow some basic rules in the kitchen, both in eating and cooking:
- Use and always have on hand fresh, quality ingredients
- Buy local
- Eat what’s in season
I will be expanding on these rules in future blog posts.
I admit, being raised with this mindset about food, spoiled me a bit and got me into a bind in college when everyone’s on a budget and buying cheap, poor quality food. Nope, not me- I even asked my parents if we could buy a plastic cutting board for my freshman dorm room so I would be able to slice and eat my sticks of Italian salami. Being the foodies they are, of course they obliged. That memory’s a good one and always makes me laugh.
Although my eating habits in college made it difficult for me to stick to a budget, I realized later, that my habits weren’t a problem, I just needed to rethink how to fit my food desires into my budget. Now at 27, I can tell you that eating good, healthy food doesn’t have to be extremely expensive. It can be, and when I have some extra money I go for the really good stuff, but it’s also not too hard to shop on a budget. You just have to learn what to look for and make some price comparisons. I mean, can anyone really argue that a bag of $3.50 Doritos is really a better buy than a 2lb bag of organic carrots for $1.99? I would hope not. I would much rather spend the same amount of money on fresh vegetables and fruit, and maybe more if necessary.
With that said, I’m putting the budget topic aside, because what this blog is really about is me sharing with you how to eat and cook healthy, delicious food. And yes, those words go together. Healthy doesn’t mean some crazy diet or restricting yourself of good food. Healthy to me is eating fresh, natural, and knowing the ingredients that are in your food. It means removing yourself from the American eating indulgences of processed food with mass produced, low quality ingredients, white, doughy bread, and sugar packed deli meats and canned goods. I am ashamed that this is what has become of food, and it’s a major downer to walk through a modern grocery store and realize 75% of the stuff in there isn’t good for you. But I have decided to put a positive spin on it, and have completely jumped into a world of healthy, delicious, high quality food. The rest of America can eat how they want but I won’t take part.
My great grandparents used “organic” ingredients before the term was popular due to growing their own veg, cooking everything from scratch, and using only fresh ingredients. They didn’t have the processed food choices we have today. Anyone who has ancestors and roots in Europe as well as many other places around the globe, and are familiar with those roots, know the lifestyle and ways of eating I’m talking about. So my goal? To stay true to my Italian roots and eat like my great grandparents Agostino and Angela did.
I’ll be posting my experiences in the kitchen and cooking tips weekly (hopefully more if my schedule permits!), as well as food experiences and my photography during my travels. I hope you will follow me and let me share with you all the amazing things I’ve learned about food and cooking.
Cooking and eating well is easy (and fun)………you just have to start!