By JAKOBI PEARCE
I recently ventured into the murky waters of what I like to call “Free” Cooking. No, this is not some new, miraculous style of cooking which costs nothing and leaves you feeling wonderfully satisfied.
Actually, it’s quite the opposite. Free cooking is, in my opinion, very expensive and more often than not, just a little bit unsatisfying. Free Cooking eliminates a lot of staple ingredients such as dairy, gluten etc and replaces them with other, natural (read expensive) ingredients.
For our family, the enemies in the fridge were dairy and fruit. Our one year old was suffering from obvious food intolerances and through a process of elimination, we were soon pointing the finger at these two food pyramid stalwarts.
So, in this day and age, what does one do when faced with a dietary problem and only a little bit of factual information? Go to a dietician? A nutritionist? No. Jump on Google of course.
A couple of hours later I was feeling pretty confident, not only about living dairy free, but also limiting our intake of that other evil, over-engineered, modern day necessity – gluten.
See, a lot of the thousands of people across the world who live dairy free, are also gluten free.
I began to envisage myself as a kind of earth mother. Packaged foods would be eliminated and my children would never eat another preservative again. Day care teachers would look at my son’s lunch box and wistfully say, “Now, why can’t all children have a lunch box like that”. I would be a kitchen goddess, revered by all for my ultra healthy, organic way of living. I might even start a blog.
Top Comments
Yep, I read ya. My family determinedly rejected the 'awesome' buckwheat both in pancakes ('tastes like sandpaper'), buckwheat pasta (worth its weight in gold), and the now highly circulated facebook recipe for gluten-free pancakes using 'just eggs and ripe bananas' - which even made me (despite best intentions) gag. Sigh. 'Healthy eating' is harder than I thought.
Very funny account! Clean Eating doesn't always need to be quite so hard as Free Cooking sounds. There's an Australian mag called Clean Eating that caters to the family with or without allergies/ intolerances. Lots of great, simple ideas for preparing clean, fresh, meals with minimal fuss, using real food and easy methods plus readily available ingredients.
Best of luck with your clean cooking endeavors!!