Wednesday, 21 December 2011

What did you grow up eating?

My lovely friend Helene sent me through photos of her dinner the other night. I am thinking that when friends start doing that, you are officially food blogging obsessed!
The photos she sent through were so different to what I cook that it really got me thinking.

In general dinner for my family is one largish plate of food. From time to time we will have dessert with it. This is the way I grew up eating. I also grew up with parents who were not particularly interested in food, and who only cooked out of a packet. Mum and dad never cooked anything that took more than half an hour to cook (microwaved boil-in-the-bag fish anyone?), and we never really learnt to cook as children. I  am in no way am criticising my parents – this was how they grew up too.My husband quite clearly did not pick me for my cooking skills!

Helene on the other hand grew up with a mum who cooked the family very healthy meals, consisting of very little meat and vegetables vegetables vegetables.
The dinner her family had the other night consisted of four smallish separate dishes.

Tofu and Bean Sprouts
Green vegetables in light soy
Seaweed in soy vinegar and ginger
Shitake mushrooms and cucumber, peanuts and carrots in rice wine
This dinner looks so clean and light, and my mouth waters just looking at the photos. Helenes one year old baby eats whole, organic and generally home grown food, so no doubt will grow up with a very healthy appreciation of good food.
It took a huge effort for me to move from the way I grew up eating, and I can see now that I need to really involve my children even more in the discussion, preparation and cooking of our meals in the future.
Questions – Did your parents teach you to cook as a child? Do you eat in a similar way to how you ate growing up?