Being a Foodie is not something I would ever have said about me.
I was brought up with a sweet drawer we raided after school, having ate chunky chicken (from a can) and rice and the first thing i learned to cook was pasta with tuna and cheese, put under the grill to make sure it was all melted (and properly cooked! ) 

My parents were and still aren’t big on cooking (though my dad loves good food) but we were always made to eat our vegetables and fruit.  Nutritional value was never something i thought about much until i started dance college.  Ok even then i knew what to do to lose weight when i needed to, but with the amount of exercise i was doing eating a chicken and mushroom pasty or chips and omelette from the cafe a few doors down was still a staple of mine.  At home i would live on salmon and vegetables (all cooked in the microwave).

I found out from my parents that when i used to do cooking at school they used to save it until i went to bed and then throw it in the bin-yes it was that bad!
My dad even made the comment in his Wedding speech that when he came out to Tenerife to stay with me he knew i was his daughter as the only thing in my fridge that wasn’t out of date was the bottle of wine!

When I met B I couldn’t believe how well he could cook.  He is one of those people that if he is at home alone he will still cook himself a steak or something really impressive whereas i would be happy with beans on toast.

His parents are amazing cooks, though apparently it wasn’t always that way for his mum who cooked a flower bulb instead of an onion and boiled a lettuce rather than a cabbage back in the day.  Now they are two of the best cooks i know and being invited there for dinner is a privilege. B’s sister is also great and being married to an Italian and travelling to Greece a lot has made her Mediterranean style even better.
She is hot on food being Organic and healthy and does a lot of research on Monsanto, what is healthy and is great with her exercise-i secretly hate her!! Lol!
I mean she will drink an absolutely disgusting smoothie because she knows its good for her-I’m not quite there I’m afraid.

B’s family have certainly put me on the right path for putting good food into my family and it means our food shopping bill is always huge.
It means less of other things but i know we are getting the best.

B still does the majority of the cooking though its becoming more and more equal as the years go by.  He can taste what is missing in a dish or knows exactly what herb or spice goes with what meat, fish or vegetable.  I’m definitely still learning, but if i concentrate i can pull off a good recipe.  My Dad and Step mum came for dinner years back, mainly because they thought B was going to be cooking. When they arrived and were told i’d cooked, the panic on my dads face was obvious, however luckily I managed to surprise him with a three course gorgeous meal, he couldn’t believe that i hadn’t had any help from B.  I’d purposefully not allowed him to help so if it had gone right (thank god it did) i could take all the credit.  My dad was impressed and i did a huge fist pump!

We have so many different cook books (its one of B’s best and easiest birthday/christmas present) and try to mix things up by experimenting with different foods-Greek, Thai, Indian, Caribbean and so many more, we have a book for them all.  The food we had in Thailand during our Honeymoon 5 years ago has us addicted to recreating.
We try and make everything from scratch, yes obviously this doesn’t happen every day with 2 businesses and a preschooler to deal with but we do our best.

Here are a few photos (not always great ones) of some of our recent concoctions.

 

• Steak, creamy garlic mushrooms and dauphinoise potatoes.
• Greek Salad.
• One pot microwavable chocolate pudding.
• Meatballs and Mediterranean veg with spaghetti.
• Pizza with mushrooms, tomato, mozzarella and parma ham.
• Classic Fry Up.
• Individual Lasagnes.
• Souvlaki.
• Lamb Shank and Kale with Chorizo.
• Salmon Tart.
• Vegetable Risotto.
• Homemade burgers, sweet potato fries and asparagus wrapped in salami.
• My favourite picky lunch.
• Homemade battered fish and chips.
• Lamb curry, Bombay Potatoes and homemade chapati’s.
• Chicken Hotpot.

Food has now come a big part of my life (yes my waistline can prove that), but thats more to do with the portion sizes than the health value most of the time.
Flavour is so important and we love to try new things, experimenting with new recipes and new concoctions of what we have around the house.
We are the king and queen of herbs, spices, oils and vinegars and friends can’t believe how many different types we have.

I could still live on toast and frequently can’t be bothered, but whenever B puts a meal in front of me I can taste the love and care he puts in and its wonderful.
Our kitchen has become one of our favourite rooms (and probably messiest) and having people for dinner, BBQ’s, entertaining is something we love but don’t do enough of.Definitely need to get some dates in the diary and get flicking through our books for some new recipes to try!

I’m linking up with MummyDaddyMe for this weeks Ordinary Moments.