What Happened When I Started Cooking My Own Food...

I started this year by buying my brand new refrigerator for our apartment. The moment that it was delivered, I immediately went to the grocery store and bought my food supply after promising that I will start cooking my food at home.


On today's blog... and this is the first blog of 2020 too, I want to share with you guys the changes that I noticed the moment I started cooking consistently.

To give you a short background, I don't have a formal education when it comes to cooking. I usually watch my mom cook and ask a few tips from her. I used to follow recipe books and guides online but I find some recipes hard to follow and I'm too lazy to find the ingredients needed.

I also watch food prep videos on Facebook and Youtube. You know, those random Tasty videos that you see on your newsfeed? That's mostly how I learned to cook.

I make my own Peanut Butter & Banana in the office 

I did not jump into cooking immediately though. When I started contributing to WhenInManila.com, most of my assignments were food reviews and features. I even remember reviewing a horrible meal prep plan a few years back. After trying out different restaurants and dishes to review, I realized that along the way, I'm knowing more and more about flavors and dishes too. Interviewing chefs during features are my favorite part since I'm learning different hacks and ingredients used for the dishes they serve. I learned to incorporate flavors into what tastes I want to achieve. Over time, my standards when it comes to food became high up that now prices have become a non-issue to me when eating out because my top priority when it comes to knowing what good food should be is now based on its quality, taste, and overall experience.

Most people eat out because of its "Instagrammable" feature. To be honest, I've tried eating in a lot of Instagrammable restaurants. Their ambiance is perfect for your social media feeds and the food presentation is IG-worthy but when I started eating their dishes, I must say, I'd rather go home and eat some cup noodles.

When I say that my standard when it comes to food became high, its not just the food experience but I'm also talking about the whole shebang. I go to restaurants and purposely check out their kitchen, utensils, tables, and chairs... pretty much EVERY SINGLE THING THAT I CAN SCRUTINIZE. Yup, I blame that to my detail-oriented alter-ego.

So when only a few restaurants can pass my standards nowadays, I decided to cook my food at home and as my packed lunch during weekdays.

Starting this habit is a little tricky since every single fast food that you can think of is just around our office. McDo just opened their branch here and KFC is just across Jollibee. I stopped eating fast food even before the new year started so I want to keep the momentum going by avoiding these options. I also don't want to pay a lot of bucks for fancy restos. I mean, frankly speaking... it is not practical to always eat out and not be satisfied at all.

I started cooking a few years back but I only cook the usuals... Chicken Buffalo Wings, Bolognese Pasta (this is my specialty), Adobo, you know the basic ones. Last year, I tried expanding my cooking skills by making my favorite pan-seared salmon recipe (fave resto inspired) and I started experimenting in the kitchen. Right now, I know a few numbers of my go-to dishes and I'm into meal prepping.

My packed lunch of Carbonara Pasta and Herbed Chicken

The past few meals I made are Pesto Pasta, Carbonara, Bolognese, Herbed Chicken, and Italian Salmon. I love how I successfully created my Pesto Pasta because I remember seeing a horrible looking version of this dish online and I was so scared that it might turn out that way. It was also my first time to make carbonara but I forgot to add some bacon. It's fine though, it turned out great too. I don't like using additives/flavor enhancers on my dishes so when I cook, it is messy. I use a lot of herbs for flavor and I make everything from scratch. I'm proud that my Carbonara sauce got some compliments with how good it smelled from my office mates.

My own recipe of Italian Salmon

The dishes that I am proud of are my Herbed Chicken and Italian Salmon. I marinade the meats that I use overnight and make sure to cook them perfectly in the morning. I swear, the first time I tasted my recipe, I remember eating at my fave Italian restaurant.

However, the recipe that I can say my mom passed to me is our secret pasta recipe. I am proud to say that I finally perfected making good pasta. I cooked 1 pack of pasta during one weekend and used the sauces I made throughout the week making me excited to have lunch in the office. Good pasta is something that cannot be cooked easily. It takes effort and patience and a little bit of science so I'm grateful that my mom taught me well in that part.

My homemade Hungarian Salad 

After feeding myself with my homecooked meals, I brought some of the Italian Salmon for my boyfriend to try. He is a little picky when it comes to flavors so I am not 100% sure that he'll like my Salmon recipe. When he tried it though, I am giggling with happiness because he even asked for extra rice while eating. I can see that he was very satisfied with what I made. He also didn't ask for any condiments which he usually does when we're eating out. He loves his soy sauce and ketchup. But for my dish, he loved it just the way it is.

I've realized that practicing cooking for myself at home and for others is one of the best decisions I made this year. I don't have to worry anymore if the food being served to me is clean or if the kitchen where they prepare my food is clean. No more stomach flu and I am 100% sure that whatever I'm putting in my food is clean and healthy.

Call me maarte or whatever but home cooking is practical and healthy. For the busy people out there, you can always meal prep during the weekends. And truth be told, if you want to do something, you will make time for it.

My Pesto Pasta with Hungarian Sausage

One benefit of home cooking too especially to me as a "somewhat" food blogger is that I know what these people are doing with my food. I know a certain ingredient when I taste it making my review easier. They say that when you know how to eat, you should also know how to make what you eat and so far, I am at par with that. As you can see, I don't have a food blog or food account on Instagram. It's because I don't want to promote food that I don't even want to eat or feature something that I don't want to feature because of course, at the end of the day, my name is on it. Also, if you'll check my food articles on WhenInManila.com, you'll immediately see what restaurants are really good and what are not because of how I write about it.

To cap this all off, I encourage you guys to try cooking at home. I know, cooking is not everybody... it's not even for me before. I can't even hold a frying pan because I feared for my life. But here I am now, blogging about how I enjoy cooking! Try it first and see what it bring to you.

Hope you enjoyed today's blog! Should I make a separate post about some of my dishes next time? Let me know!

Ciao!

Love,

KAT 🍴