First Impressions are key but if you mess it up a yummy cake is a brilliant recovery! Everyone just loves food! Food fixes, cures and solves everything! It’s the way to a man’s heart and chocolate  definitely results in bonus points for the ladies. And kiddies … if it’s not broccoli they’ll pretty much eat anything brightly coloured! You can heal illness with food, use food as beauty products and cultural traditions, family gatherings and festive holidays all tend to revolve around food. It’s also a great topic for ice-breakers, and advertising, design, art? Yep, food is  everywhere not just on the table …

 

[Photo courtesy of EBM Photography: thanks Emma!]

So as the title of this post suggests, I love food! Real, good, natural, wholesome nutritious food! Except mushrooms, oysters and caviar! BIG YUK! Don’t ever serve me those haha! I love natural organic produce, fish and meats. Hold the chemicals, artificial flavourings and all that fake stuff please! Yuk! Who needs that?! OK maybe once in a while won’t kill you. I get excited about food though. I love looking at food on Pinterest and Instagram (food-porn heaven!) and I talk about food.

All.

The.

Time.

In all three languages 😉 Food. Essen. Еда.

I read about food. I love looking at the pictures in cookbooks. I love to read romance chick-flick books that involve the Mediterranean, food and love! If you want to strike up conversation with me: talk about food! Going to the supermarket and looking at food and pretty package designs — it’s like a fun day out for me! It’s dangerous, I could lose hours in the aisles! If I veer away from the shopping list or God forbid forget to write a list altogether, well it’s like going into uncharted waters and who knows when I’ll get back home!

And because I love food, yep big foodie here, this blog of mine includes a whole section dedicated to food! I eat paleo / primal, or at least try to 90% of the time because primal suits me better and makes my life and body much happier! The recipes on here though are a mix of paleo, primal and gluten free so Paleo-Purists watch out and don’t be mad at me. I’m just writing about food from my perspective here, not advocating a strict paleo diet! And sometimes I might share some interesting health information from time to time but I’m not going to talk about ALL the science behind paleo nutrition or convince you why it’s good. If you want to research about the health benefits then you’ll need to go to other blogs like Fitter Food, Whole9, RealFoodLiz or Robb Wolf. But for me, by eating paleo / primal, I got rid of my migraines, sorted out my hormone imbalances, lost weight that I struggled to lose, made my periods a lot less painful, have more energy, feel great, no longer have stomach upsets or reactions, my nails and hair are stronger, longer and my immune system is in top condition. I also no longer suffer from hay fever, and those strange rashes on my body that none of the doctors could diagnose seem to have disappeared. I still suffer from Skeeter’s syndrome (damn mosquitoes and biting insects!) and have an under active thyroid (Hashimotos Thyroiditis but it’s now in remission! Woop! Woop!) but on the whole paleo / primal suits me amazingly and I’m going to stay with this lifestyle regardless of the hype, media and what others say.  Food, I think, is absolutely the best medicine out there for the majority of ailments and cooking with love is food for the soul! In fact, love, cooking and food as three separate things are soul food! Paleo / gluten free works for me so that’s all that matters Hey, you just have to tailor your diet to suit you and find out what works and be happy. There’s no right or wrong nor is there one diet that fits all out there! We’re all different and react / function differently! It’s what makes it fun!

I have a big sweet tooth. I’ll ‘fess up. That’s the 10 % non-paleo part! Haha!

I love chocolate.

Jelly Beans.

M&Ms.

Skittles.

… OK I can stop there. 😛 Can’t let out all the skeletons at once! And although I’ll try to eat dark chocolate if I’m going to fall off the wagon, sometimes I’ll just eat anything sweet to cure the craving! My favourite treat at the moment is Pecan & Maca raw chocolate by LoveChock! But I’m super strict with myself and manage most of the time to keep it under control :-p there are however, a few sweet recipes on this blog for treats, fun get-togethers and special occasions.  Sorry, but without dessert — an occasion just isn’t special! ‘Special occasion’ means a grand finale of something absolutely yummy! It’s like sex without the climax. Without that sweet, sinfully delicious finish it’s just disappointing. *pouty face*

So I should probably warn you: even though I’m slightly obsessed with food to the point I will regularly collect images of food from the internet and change my desktop background to pretty pictures of food, I haven’t been to cake decorating classes nor have I partaken in any food/culinary courses except obligatory Food Technology lessons at school when I was 12 but making cheese on toast isn’t exactly “cooking.” I like to think I’m amazing in the kitchen but the truth is most of my gluten-free bakes are absolute disasters haha! Yep –- still trying to master the art of baking with complex gluten-free flours. Cooking is much better and I can generally rustle up some darn good tasty dishes. However, presentation and photography need work. I’m not a pro. I’m not Gordon Ramsay. I tend to be more Jamie Oliver in the sense, “slap a bit of this here, a dollop of that, chuck it in a bowl and Bob’s your uncle!” And even Jamie Oliver manages to make it look amazing on a plate / slate / board / directly on the table?! I also love Nigella Lawson’s preference for quick-&-easy-to-rustle-together recipes that are pure indulgence, rich, decadent and well, life’s too short to choose fat free!  Please forgive me.

I can’t be good at everything and it seems these days food bloggers have to be photographers, cooks, bakers, social media pros, write witty and engaging posts yada yada the whole works! … I’m sorry to disappoint but what you see is pretty much what you get. A British girl living in Germany, battling damn conversion tables from cups, to lbs to grams and trying to just make delicious, good looking food on a tight budget with a second hand nikon camera or sometimes a phone camera! I’m not likely to release a cookbook any time soon but the passion is there though! For me cooking and baking are hobbies. It’s time where I can relax and be creative. I love feeding people. I love making food to see people light up and just want to tuck in! Is that an Italian gene there? Maybe. But by sharing my recipes here I hope to inspire you, maybe get you to try something new or lure you into my food addiction circle 😉 and on a practical level, I also have a back up of recipes in case I ever accidentally wipe my hard-drive or all my recipe books somehow burn in a kitchen fire (probably a gluten-free bake gone wrong)!

I’m not a big lover of spicy food or citrus fruits but I do love many dishes from all over the world. As my blog develops, as I grow and learn and experience life, I’m sure people and countries will continue to influence me, my perspectives and cooking accordingly so expect to see lots of international dishes!  But to start off there are definitely English, American, German and Ukrainian recipes here! I also share lots of food photos, recipes and videos on my Facebook page and Pinterest boards so be sure to check those out and hit ‘like’ if you’re also a foodie! We can hang out there and drool over food together! 😉 #lovefood.