Hi all – I’m Krishna, Delivery Coordinator for the YES Project.
How do I relax? Well, it’s a real cliché but I love cooking!! Yes being from Indian heritage and female, it was drummed into me to learn to cook at a very early age. I was cooking full meals for a family of 6 by the time I was 14 years old. In fact, it was more important that I learnt to cook, more important than my education! Which came a firm second in my family’s beliefs.
I’m a real foodie, yes I’ll admit to that (and so will my waistline lol). What better way than to indulge yourself and have a yummy meal every night. Food plays a huge part in my family’s life – I’m always asking what my children want to eat – whilst they’re still eating a meal lol. We have major discussions around home cooking and how we can make the meal even tastier.
Food brings my family together and the kitchen is definitely a shared space, with us all cooking and baking together. Lots of washing up to do, the dishwasher definitely comes in handy.
I get the freshest ingredients I can find, I find that fresh is best. I cook a mixture of Indian, English, Mexican, Chinese and Italian – as you can imagine my store cupboards are chock full of ingredients! I can always rustle something up, and in times like these I’ve been shopping for food every 10 days and we have been enjoying tasty, healthy home cooked meals.
My cooking inspiration definitely comes from my mum, she was the queen of cooking in our house and taught each of her daughters (3 including me) and her son the ways in which to never stay hungry. She showed us how to pick the best vegetables and cook them in an amazing way. And even though I’ve learnt many recipes throughout my life, my family still enjoy eating – and I still enjoy cooking – my mums old favourite recipes. The food-bug has rubbed off on to my children, my eldest son is studying for his GCSE Food Technology and I’m assured his food tastes delicious (just like mine!). I can’t unfortunately taste his food as I’m coeliac but he is venturing into cooking gluten free recipes.
Being coeliac doesn’t stop me from eating well, nooo way! I’ve been a diagnosed coeliac for 8 years and at first it was difficult but I soon realised being coeliac is just about eating differently. For my health, I don’t indulge in the office snacks such as cakes and biscuits, however tempting, I have learnt to desist. It’s about will power. I don’t find eating out a problem either, there is always something on the menu that I can eat. Where I do find it difficult is eating on the go, being coeliac you have to plan your meals be well prepared.
I will say, the pictures I’ve used here are actually from one of our delivery partner’s, Leicestershire Cares, regular World of Work Tours. This specific tour was held at Lilu restaurant, in Leicester city centre, and our participants got the opportunity to ask questions about the hospitality industry and practice their cooking skills. Our young people really enjoyed themselves as they learnt how to make butter paneer! Hopefully they’ll #SayYESto cooking at home!
Why don’t you give it a go yourself – make sure we see it and use #SayYESto!
Krishna 🙂