What's all this about then...?

Clean Little Eats is for anyone who is interested in filling their plates/bowls/hands/mouths/bodies with delicious things which also happen to be good for them.

 

Dissecting the advice on what is “healthy” can be an ever-changing minefield.  My simple theory is this: if an ingredient pretty much looks how it was on the tree, in the sky or in the field, use it.  If not, don’t.  I’ll also be sharing some ideas from around t’interweb on living better from some pretty awesome people who make me smile.

Don’t worry if you’ve never been into healthy eating, don’t do 'proper' exercise or are wondering what the heck some of the ingredients are.  This is all pretty new for me too so we can figure it out together.  I bet we’ll have a few happy surprises along the way.  There's nothing that I don't eat and no food groups that I cut out.  I don't count calories or grams of fat.  On the rare occasion that I eat out, I almost always have a big, sweaty burger.

I’ll share ponderings and recipes as the mood takes me.  I love the chemistry of baking but there'll be lots of other experiments too.  My recipes are quick and simple, and they’ve all been tested on my harshest critics – The Smalls and The Husband.

 

 About Me

I guess you would say I have an addictive personality – whatever I’m into, I’m into it big style!  At the moment I love knitting, cookbooks, copper piping, Dymo labels, blush-and-grey and chin-ups (that doesn't mean I can do one but that's the aim).   But I’ve always loved food and I’ve always loved eating. 

As a teenager, I was pretty overweight.  I would sneak-eat things from the kitchen naughty drawer and probably overeat at dinner times.  When I was a student, I started to get into nutrition and health.  I went to the gym, bought myself a juicer and even sprouted the occasional seed on the flat’s window sill.  And then I’d go to the pub about five nights a week!

I’m in my early thirties now and have two noisy, dribbly toddler boys.  They are hard work.  Let me say that again: they are hard work.  I stopped work after my first son was born, although that was not The Grand Plan (neither was it to find no pleasure in the job I had trained seven years for).  I used to be a capable person.  I was pretty successful at everything I did (boyfriends notwithstanding).  Then I had kids and now I just muddle through.  I miss the structure of working for someone else and struggle to create that structure in our lives.  Perhaps that's why I focus on food: it's something that I can control in our house where I can't seem to control much else! 

It’s easy to put some low-effort, pre-packaged food on the table every day but, you know what, it doesn’t take that much time or toil to put something together that will feed (and not just fill) us and, as I say to them all the time, makes our bodies work well.  The bonuses of making fresh meals are great flavours, no guilt that I’m giving them junk and a chance to play around and enjoy creating something in the kitchen.  A small sense of pride in an otherwise mundane day, perhaps.  But wait - if you actually have an exciting, vibrant, stereotypically-successful life, you can love making these dishes too!

So, while I’d say my eating has gradually gotten better, it’s only now that the reality of being responsible for the nourishment of other people – as well as the punch-you-in-the-face truth that I just can’t abuse my older, creakier body any more – has finally hit.  I’ve made the decision to scrap the junk and go for goodness instead.

Whatever your food past, there’s always a great time to upgrade.  Wholesome ingredients are becoming more widely available and more affordable, and eateries are following suit too.  Not that I would say that here in Dundee, "Scotland's fourth city", there is a particularly innovative or vibrant food scene along the lines of what I'd like to see.  But I hear that things are on the up...

(Oh - and the hair.  Was always reeeeally long, dark, curly.  In a moment of madness, I got it all chopped off (didn't even donate it to some worthy cause) and it's been going shorter ever since.   I hardly know anyone under 50 with short hair and I'm pretty conscious that in my uniform of jeans and flats I look not entirely feminine.  On the plus side, it takes me about 7 minutes to get ready in the mornings.)

So if you’d like to make more quick meals, tasty bakes or just do some foodie experimentation with whole, unprocessed ingredients, stick with me, my clean (or not so clean) little friends.  Subscribe by email to get my posts delivered straight to your inbox (no need to keep seeing my big face that way) or follow me on facebook or pinterest.

Let’s do this!