“There is no sincerer love than the love of food.”

George Bernard Shaw

My relationship with food has always been a difficult one. My weight has been an issue since my early teens and I’m often guilty of loving eating more than loving food itself. When I left home for uni my star dish was a supernoodle toastie, which to be fair was a pretty epic meal, but once I was having to cook every meal for myself I soon found I grew bored with eating the same things over and over.

Chicken and rice, bacon and pasta, supernoodles and bread… there’s only so often you can eat that without growing tired. I started trying out more diverse meals, initially recreating dishes I missed from home, as well as using jarred sauces, then in time looking at the ingredients on those jars and trying to make my own versions from scratch.

Over the years this developed into a great love of cooking in all its forms.

I struggled with vegetables too. I always had a bit of an aversion to many of them and in the early days of cooking I tended to add a few token veg more out of a sense of duty than any real desire to eat them. I’m happy to say things have come on a lot from then and while I still wouldn’t say I love vegetables, I mostly enjoy them and eat a wide variety regularly.

In regards to cooking style I don’t follow any one cuisine or region but draw in a wide variety of foods and techniques that take my interest. I’ve always been highly sceptical of dieting and when it comes to trying to control my weight I’ve always gravitated towards lifestyle changes rather than outright diets, though many of them ended up being unsustainable regardless. In a story that surprises no-one, I would lose a lot of weight over the months only to put it back on again far too easily and quickly. As I’m the main cook in the household, this also would affect my wife, who while not as prone to weight gain as me, would definitely feel the ill effects of us not eating healthy wholesome foods.

Last year in early lockdown we took a bit of a downward spiral. Too much junk food and sitting around for a couple of months, so we resolved to make a change in the summer. The Mediterranean and Nordic diets have something that’s been on my radar for a while, but had always struggled to commit to it.

For those who maybe haven’t come across them, it’s a way of eating healthy sustainable food in alignment with the seasons and what’s available around you. There is a heavy emphasis on a variety of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, protein and healthy fats while minimising sugars and processed foods. Fish and lean meats are preferred over red meat, and vegetables and legumes should provide the bulk of the meal.

This isn’t quite as restricted as it may sound and encourages appreciation of food and drink over mindless consumption. We have to acknowledge that modern society is not well geared to this and eating entirely locally is very difficult. Indeed sometimes the environmental impact of imported goods is much lower than what would be involved in producing them locally. Nevertheless, we’re lucky to be somewhere with a lot of fantastic local produce and we source as much as we can locally. This is especially true for meat and fish where we are eating less of it so can afford to get quality local produce. Any change we can make towards more sustainable and less processed foods is good for us and the environment and a step in the right direction.

We kicked things off with a few weeks of an 800 calories a day fast. This may sound a little extreme, but it was just the reset we needed to shake us out of our poor habits and lethargic slump. It also taught us to appreciate good food and the satisfaction that can be gained from a simple Greek salad on a summer’s day, the bright flavour of fresh fish done simply with lemon, herbs and vegetables, or the depth of flavour in a small slice of cheese. While this certainly isn’t for everyone, and I don’t think I could do it through a winter, it drew a nice line for us between our old habits and creating a “new normal” way of eating going forward.

These days we tend to eat plenty of veg with most meals, our carb intake is a lot lower than before and favours more whole grains. We tend to keep meat as a weekend treat and have fish a couple of times a week, while vegetables and legumes make up the bulk of our food. This is quite a shift from the meat and carb heavy ways of eating from the past, but feels like normality for us now.

None of this feels particularly challenging or restrictive and unlike other eating styles in the past we don’t often come to dread mealtime. That’s not to say it’s all perfect all the time. There are times where we’re stressed out and tired and all we want to do is order a take away or eat crisps and chocolate and that’s okay. Sometimes we can delay that gratification, tell ourselves if we hold off until Friday then we can order in some pizza and ice cream at the weekend. Sometimes when we get to Friday we prefer a homemade pizza, and other times we just want to order the pizza and ALL the sides. We’re only human and civilisation has developed many ways to make food that is not good for us appealing, not to mention the billions spent by junk food producers and the abundance of such foods that target us constantly.

The next day, usually after poor sleep from all the salt and processed fats, we have a good solid breakfast and try to get right back to eating properly. In time these cravings will reduce and the goodness you feel from eating well can help rewire those decades of junk food addiction, so it’s important not to stress too much about the odd bit of junk here and there when the rest of the time you’re consuming wholesome foods.

I dislike the dichotomy of good and bad foods, clean and dirty eating and the judgements and guilt such thinking inspires. Food exists in a spectrum of wholesomeness and we’re all just trying to muddle through life trying to do the best we can. Beating yourself up over that chocolate biscuit you just couldn’t resist with that cup of tea or that big burger that you’d been craving for weeks won’t do you any good, just think about how you can set yourself up for success next time temptation strikes and reflect on why it is you’re craving those things.

That’s what this blog is about. Discussing meals and ways of cooking that help us feel healthier and better without being restrictive or depressing, so we can enjoy making and eating wholesome foods and not getting too hung up on picture perfect ideas of “clean eating”.

By and large I’m not a big “recipe” guy so this will be a little different in that a lot of the time I’ll be talking about techniques and styles of cooking that can be adapted to what you have to hand rather than an exact list of ingredients. I feel that’s far more effective, having the tools to create a good meal from good food whatever that may be, rather than just following an exact recipe. I will try and include some example recipes those, for those who like to follow along with one to get a feel for something before experimenting.

Where I do use a full recipe I’ll try and post it near the top so you don’t have to scroll through endless paragraphs of waffle to get to it, and I’ll try and keep things as straightforward as possible. I’d also recommend you have a read of these posts giving a bit of an overview on the use of cooking oil and bread.

Read on and join me as I try to develop and grow a sincere love of food.

Thanks for reading,

Matthew

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