By Diane
How did I start cooking and making from scratch what I was eating? About twenty years ago, I was diagnosed with several allergies, from the usual dust and plants to food starting with canned food. That was the time my journey with food and cooking started. I love eating and will define myself as "buona forchetta" as the Italians say. It literally means "good fork" and describes a person, who loves and enjoys food. Being aware of what I was eating, what was on my plate and if it was safe, brought me to start reading the labels and the ingredients. At the beginning I was not that good at it, I didn't know what I was looking for and I only knew I couldn't have some of the preservatives in canned foods. Then, my laziness to learn and investigate further about the additives drove me into the kitchen. I thought that if I could cook my own tasty food, I would not waste time in the supermarket. The journey started step by step, I would look for recipes of the dishes I liked and I would make them. I buy the raw ingredients and put them together to make my own dish.
Have you ever made a lasagne from scratch? Well, the pasta might take longer than the filling or the topping. The pasta may take long and be difficult to make and that's somehow stressful if you want to have that lasagne for lunch or dinner. But you can at least learn what to look out for on the labels and which pasta, fresh or dried, to avoid. It's a matter of being aware of what is really healthy and what isn't. A tipp: start avoiding any product that lists more than one ingredient starting with an Exxx. Those are additives or preservatives and most of them are made in laboratories. There is a reason they are not written in full... guess what? If you really knew what they were, you wouldn't buy the product. So let's start learning together how to choose and make our food. Let's feed our eyes, mind and stomach in a healthy way.