Cho Does Cooking

I have always had a really tricky relationship with food. Just ask my Dad what it's like to take me out for a meal, or ask my Mum for some of the weird combinations of food I've asked for for lunch over my teen years. 

At one point my diet was basically just McDonalds, oven food (dippers, dinosaurs, chips), and crisps. Watered down with Diet Coke, Fanta or Dr Pepper, depending on what I favoured at the time. The main thing was that I was eating (my appetite has always been awful - I have been known to struggle to finish children's meals in restaurants) and so the focus was more on that than on the nutritious content of my food. 

Obviously when I came to University, I fully expected my eating habits to either remain the same or (if it was at all possible) to get worse. And while my addiction to crisps has remained as strong as ever, to my complete surprise everything else about what I was eating has actually improved, especially since me and Tom have started eating together. 

Don't get me wrong, I still eat KFC and Domino's, and the standard fall-back meal is of course dippers and potato waffles. I skip breakfast a lot and when Tom's not around my laziness usually means that I either forget lunch or just eat 3 pieces of bread to fill myself up. 

What is important though is that I'm both experimenting with what I eat and, with the help of Tom and Meryn, I'm cooking colourful, healthy, different meals. This week I've tried a chicken korma, vegetables samosas, rye bread and enchiladas. I'm limited by lactose intolerance and IBS - one means I can't eat dairy, the other means I've both got to make sure I don't overeat and avoid overeating/eating certain foods (although at the moment, I seem to be able to eat what I would like - I'm enjoying it while I can!). Trying new foods definitely feels like an achievement!

Another achievement is cooking meals that don't contain one bit of oven food. Some of the things I've cooked with week (either with Meryn, Tom, both or by myself!) are: 

1. Briam - I've cooked this three times now. The first time with Meryn was a bit of a disaster but we tweaked the recipe to try and learn from our experiences. It definitely worked, the second time I cooked it (by myself!) it tasted lush. It's the second picture above. It's very popular with The Cyclist as well! 
2. Stir fry - this is fast becoming a very popular lunch dish around here. At the moment we've just been making vegetable stir fry, rather than anything with meat in. Mainly because chicken is eye-wateringly expensive and this week it was saved for enchiladas. This is bad for The Cyclist protein-wise but we'll figure something out. It's such a great way to use up veg as well! 
3. Pasta with bacon lardons, mushrooms, onions and tomato sauce - Another favourite with The Cyclist. And my Mum, Meryn, me... [It's the top picture above!]
4. Cawl - this is my favourite thing to cook, eat, dream about.... I absolutely love how easy it is to make this soup, and how good it tastes with or without meat. If I could eat this every week, I would. It's just that good! 

I'm want to start sharing some recipes here. For me to remember, for my Mum to be able to replicate things I've made for her and in case anyone stumbles upon them and finds them useful. Plus it gives me even more of an excuse to become more adventurous!