My Food Education- part 3 New Year – New Me? 

Food education is never ending… But how to get the right information? Every day we are told something different by media. What is healthy eating? What is the Right diet?

This time of the year it is all about New Year – New Me, diets, exercise, quitting bad habits etc… But why now? Why not always?

I really love eating healthy… But what does healthy mean? Low fat? High fat? Gluten Free? Vegan? Dairy free? No sugar? Diet drinks?

Not long time ago we were told that diet drinks are good for us… That 0% fat is the way to go… Low fat… No gluten…

What to believe? What diet to choose? What to eat?

Relationship with food can be a hard one. We can quit eating… but we can also simply eat well. Some people think that eating healthy is boring, tasteless, and unsatisfying. I really don’t think so. It’s all about the choices we make and the work we put in. Little changes – step by step!

Please – just start to cook! Enjoy it! Play with it! Open yourself to new flavours, new dishes, and try something new.

I love buying new products and spices… All the “weird” stuff. I like to “Google it”, read about and just try it out. It might work, it might not… When you cook from scratch, you know what you put into the dish so you know what you’re eating!

Be careful when you choose what you are buying. Cheap doesn’t always mean good. Expensive doesn’t always mean healthy. Superfoods are not so super. Whole foods are not expensive. During the ballymaloe Food Festival 2016, Elisabeth Luard said that we should eat what is growing around us. Local produce is the best for us because it is a climate we live in; our surroundings  and the freshness of the produce. There is no magic ingredient or foods which will make us healthy. There is no superfood that will make us beautiful and slim. There are long term choices in our lifestyle that we should make to feel better.

@Momo we make choices everyday. In our business we spend our money on local, good produce. Good quality produce is worth the price. Knowing where food comes from is a must. Quality is the key to flavour – real flavour; sourdough bread from Seagull Bakery, vegetables from Tom Cleary, Ballybeg Greens, meat from O’Flynn’s, fish from Dunmore East….

I made small changes at home last year. The kids weren’t too happy for a very short time but they got used to it quickly. Now they love sourdough bread, real ham (cooked by me and not the ham bought in the supermarket), home baked sweets. They drink water instead of cordials. We cook and bake together as often as possible.

We have a great relationship with food. We appreciate it and we care for it.

I started working in the kitchen @Momo a couple of months ago… Just helping with the daily salads and basic preperation. I’m not a chef. I love food. I love flavour. I don’t have any professional training so you might think that I’m crazy but I think that I can do it!

Healthy can be delicious! Healthy can be full of flavour!

HEALTHY IS NOT ONLY FOR JANUARY.

But don’t forget to indulge yourself. Enjoy food. I believe in balance. I need a little of “badness” in me. If I feel like “garlic chips and cheese” at 3am – I would do it and enjoy it… and probably regret it later but I don’t do it often. Just enjoy and appreciate food.

My grandmother loved brandy and chocolate and she had both the day she passed away. She would use only real butter (full fat dairy), lots of veg and would go for a 10k walk everyday. She was a very healthy 98 year old lady.

My job is to teach my children how to appreciate food, cook it, and enjoy it.

Lots love,

Kamila