An Intuitive Cook

I am not a great cook. I do not follow recipes and neither can I put a lavish spread on the table. Nonetheless, I love cooking. I am, what I call, 'an intuitive cook'. 

I find cooking therapeutic ['coz I can clear my head while doing it]. I let my heart decide what I am going to make and how I am going to make it. Thus, seldom can I cook the same dish twice. Even if I try, it never tastes the same [good but just not the same]. Since I have the luxury to blow my own horn [it's my blog], I can honestly say that I am very good at putting a meal together with whatever I can find in the kitchen. 

To start from the beginning, I am a budget-nazi! Meeting my budget every month is a small goal I set for myself. It is a great high to achieve it. Makes me feel my life is on track and I am in control. I try and do grocery only 3 times a month [i.e. every 10 days, no more]. I hate rushing to the store just because I ran out of one bloody ingredient [only exception is milk]. But, thankfully, that doesn't really happen to me since I am a crazy-organized-list-making-maniac. I make a list and stick with it. [That's the whole point of making one, isn't it?!?!?]

However, invariably on the 8th or the 9th day the vegetables and other ingredients will start running low in the kitchen and I would have to turn to my innovative-creative-better-part of the brain and cook something up. And that's what has made cooking fun for me! I have successfully managed to remove the monotony of cooking and turned it into a, yet another, creative outlet for myself. 

I love healthy, yet, tasty food. 

I love the smell of the spices. 

I love colorful-crunchy vegetables. 

I love well-presented food.

And I love the praise I receive, 

when I serve it. 

This is my healthy version of the Penne Pasta

Tomato Paste, Garlic and Serrano Peppers [Green Chillies] sautéed in Olive Oil

Chopped, Washed and Steamed Vegetable 

I always use 2/3 of vegetable and 1/3 of pasta 

Bon Appetite!