Rediscovering my love for food with Holly Goes Lightly #Tasty Thursday
Holly Nicol
17th January 2019
It’s Tasty Thursday and this week’s instalment is Holly from Holly Goes Lightly and We Blog North. Her feature is all about starting off the new year right and getting back in to food that she loves in the best way she can.
Okay, so the title of this piece is a bit misleading, as I’ve always loved food, eating it, cooking it, reading about it. What I mean by the title is rediscovering variety and changing things up a little bit when it comes to food.
Over the years, I’ve firmly established my food favourites: pasta, noodles, peanut butter, yorkshire puds, chocolate brownies, cheese, cheese, cheese. I’ve developed a repertoire of dishes that I love to cook and that I enjoy eating and this have been on rotate for years now with the occasional new one thrown in for good measure which will either hit the mark with me and the hubby, or be destined never to make the cut again.
But with the new year, it goes without saying that like 99% of the population, this month I’ve been thinking about things I can change, develop and make better for the year ahead and naturally a large focus of this is centred around food.
Mixing things up.
So what exactly do I mean by all this? Mainly for me, in 2019, I want to achieve balance and variety with my food. This goes for home-cooking, ordering in and eating out. As I said in the opener, I’ve always loved food and I always will, but a busy lifestyle (working mum of two kids under 4) alongside hosting and attending events regularly, means I often rush my food decisions and stick to what I know.
My new year’s food-olutions.
I’ve focussed on three areas when it comes to rediscovering and mixing things up with my food in the year ahead:
- Home-cooking
- Ordering in
- Eating out (my favourite thing EVER!)
- Home cooking
I’ve already made steps to mix things up with this, having a new monthly subscription with You Say Tomato Cooking, where Gemma (a professional cook and busy mum from right here in Cheshire) takes you through revitalising your home-cooking, family dinner-times and weekly grocery shop. I’ve been planning more already, utilising leftovers, trying new recipes and freezing foods more to avoid waste. My favourite new recipe so far is Almond butter noodles with chicken, which the kids have loved too. Delish. I’ve also been eating better at lunch-times as I’ve had delicious, balanced leftovers to eat, rather than grabbing something bland on the run.
- Ordering in
This is the area that I think needs the most focus for me. I always order the same things from our local takeaways. Pad Thai and deep-fried prawns from the Thai takeaway, Salt & Pepper chicken and wontons from the Chinese takeaway (with prawn crackers obvs!), Chicken Makhani and onion bhajees from the Indian restaurant, Chicken skewers and rice for the Lebanese. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all sooooo delicious and there’s a reason I order these dishes a lot, but it’s the same every time and I’ve been forgetting to discover new dishes. So as well as trying to reduce the number of takeaways to just once a week (point number 1 will help with this!), I’m vowing to order a new dish each time!
- Eating out
My favourite thing to do ever! We eat out on date nights, for celebrations, on weekends as a treat with our kids and I love to discover new places. It’s all about the experience and the discovery, as well as the actual food. Here in the North-West, I feel we’re spoilt for choice with not only amazing local produce, but some seriously impressive independent eateries, street food and foodie events. 2019 is the year where I’ll venture further afield into Cheshire to discover new restaurants, where I’ll make sure I hit more of the local food events and really submerge myself into the world of local produce and food.
So where lots of people are talking about eating less at this time of year, I’m talking about eating more! More variety, more exciting, more local – and I can’t wait!
What’s your new year’s food-olution? Share them with me here and at @hollynicol on twitter.
Thanks Holly for sharing your Foodie plans for 2019, if you liked Holly’s piece and want to keep up to date with everywhere new she visits and the new recipes she try’s, check out her blogs Holly Goes Lightly and We Blog North. If you enjoyed the piece then give Holly a like on Twitter and Instagram, and keep up to date that way.