Hiiiii!
Thanks for wanting to know more about the woman behind the recipes 🙂
If you want the short & sweet on what this page is about, here ya go!
I love experimenting with and trying new foods, and I reallyyy love eating food that makes me feel good.
I know that these days, a lot of people are trying to do what everyone else says is “healthy” and are cutting whole food groups out of their diets. I feel like a majority of us fall into listening what other people tell us is healthy,even though those people don’t know us.
With this page, I don’t want to tell you what I think is healthy for you. I eat plant-based, but that doesn’t mean I’m telling you to. I’m not a registered dietician, I’m not a nutritionist. I’m just someone with a passion for cooking and eating tasty, filling, and wholesome meals, along with some sweet yummies :). I want to encourage you to try new foods and figure out what makes you feel good.
I’m still learning what balance looks like for me in my life- school, food, work, hobbies, family, friends, self-care etc. But, I know that those things are a lot easier to balance and handle when I’m fueled with balanced and wholesome food, which is what I want to share with you guys!
If you can believe it, that was the “short” & sweet haha. If you what the long & longer, keep reading, but I totally get if you just wanna go explore the yummies.
My Story
Growing up in a desi (South Asian) household, I feel like a lot of our day just revolved around food haha. So, I was always surrounded by cooking, and I think that that’s a big reason why I was curious about experimenting in the kitchen from a young age.
I started to bake simple snacking cakes when I was around 11 or 12, and kind of just never stopped. I became the household baker.
But, as I started to get older, I wanted to try more new foods and flavors. Even though my mom is an amazzzzingg cook, she pretty much ended up making the same 6 dishes on repeat because those are the only foods my siblings really liked.
As you can imagine, I got tired of this after a few years haha, which is when I started to get into cooking! So I really have my family to thank for this page 🙂
I followed other popular recipes online and started to understand how flavors worked together and what dishes needed what types of ingredients. So, I started to just use the recipes as a guide, and add my own flavors and twists to things.
After a little while, I started to get pretty decent. But, I also started learning more about how the foods we eat can affect how health in the short and long term.
Now, let me back track. Growing up, we were not the most nutritious household. Yeah we had fruits, but we never really ate veggies and I remember my dad giving me sweetened condensed milk with bread for breakfast on many occasions. My house was notoriously known for our pantry, always stocked with Hot Cheetos and candy.
Sidenote: I don’t think those foods are “bad” and the food I eat now is “good”, but processed foods made a high majority of my diet every day, which was definitely not giving my body what it really wanted.
I also never really learned to listen to my body. I think all desi people can agree that our parents get joy from feeding us, so my mouth was constantly chewing. No exaggeration. I felt like it was rude when I was younger to say “no” to food, so I never really learned to listen to when I was hungry and when I was full.
So, fast forward, I started learning more about how food really affects how energy levels and our health. I started to incorporate more nutritious food into my diet, and I really starting noticing a difference in how I felt. I had more energy throughout the day, I didn’t feel sluggish, and my skin started to clear up.
I also started to be more mindful of my bodies signals. I started to be more in tune with when I had energy, when I was hungry, when I was happy, when I was tired etc.
If I have energy to workout, I do. If I don’t, I won’t, and that’s okay too. If I have just eaten eaten, but I still want something sweet, I’ll have it. If I’m satisfied, I won’t. If I’m tired, but my friends are all going out, I’ll listen to my body and stay home.
With this page, I don’t just want to encourage you guys to have balanced and tasty meals that fuel you, but also to try and live a balanced lifestyle and slow down to take care of yourselves. Nourish your body and soul.
I also hope that I can be an inspiration to younger desi girls. When I saw all these plant-based or nutritious recipes online, most were from bloggers who didn’t look anything like me. I just thought it wasn’t meant for me to eat like that, because no one else around me did and I didn’t have anyone to look up to. So, if I can help just 1 person start to eat in a way that feels good to them with my recipes, I’ll be happy.
Told you that’d be long.
I hope that you find something yummy to make soon! Tag me in your recreations because it makes me SO excited!!
