ChefJudgejudyjudy.

Hi guys,

Hope you've had a swell week! Well, thank God it's weekend already, nothing like having a good lie-in on a Saturday morning. 

Anyway, I've been thinking about my blog and how to categorise it. This question always comes up in blogger circles- "What type of blogger are you?". Well, a lot of what I write has my personal touch and perspective to them but, I am essentially a Lifestyle blogger- or at least, that's where I am headed. As much as I share my life, experiences, my views et al with you, I also want to share my recipes with you, my travel diaries, my style, my fitness journey etc and I want to do so with the most eye-catching pictures and visuals ever- once I can get my Canon camera and fully get into proper photo-blogging that is (been on my wish-list for a while now but it isn't a priority in my life at the moment) so, I'd say my blog is a hybrid between a Personal Blog and a Lifestyle Blog. So, a PerLife blog if you will. #PerLife.

Anyway, part of what I love to do as a hobby is cook. I have loved to cook and to create for as long as I can remember. My hobbies, which I hope will find full expression via this blog (here's hoping for real) are; writing, cooking, photography, fitness, fashion, travel, music, to mention a few. So I've been cooking a lot lately and thought that I better begin to share some of these recipes and tips with you. One of the things I love about being in a different country is having to try out their cuisine. My first months in the UK were horrendous- I was frustrated out of my mind craving Nigerian food- it didn't help that I got pregnant just about the time too so my food frustrations were real and we made monthly trips to Peckham to stock up on Nigerian produce. That all changed by my second year anyway. 

I've always loved to experiment with different foods and, after watching a lot of Come Dine With Me on ITV and going to restaurants with the hubster, I began to adjust my palate and really began to enjoy some English meals. I love a good Sunday Roast (consisting of any choice of roasted protein called a "roast", potatoes or any root veg, Yorkshire pudding, veggies and sauce), a tasty Shepherd's pie (consisting of minced meat and mash), a Full English ( full English breakfast consisting of eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans, toast, caramelised mushrooms and tomatoes with tea or coffee), a slow-cooked leg of lamb, veggies and mash etc, etc. I loved learning about these different meals, learning how to prepare them and, where necessary, learning how to adjust their flavours to enable us enjoy them better.

Also, when I was back home in Nigeria, I honestly knew nothing about losing weight via healthy eating. I just knew that whenever I wanted to lose some weight, I starved myself for a long time, worked out like crazy and the weight fell off. My meals consisted of the regular meals- you could set a trap with bole and fish or isi ewu and ugba for me. However, I had never had to deal with weight as I saw it after I had had my first son- that weight left me demoralised- I didn't know where to start. Up until that point, I was used to starving myself and working out for a week to go back to my desired size, this was different- my cravings were off the hook (as normally is when you are breastfeeding) and I was the biggest I had ever been. I started looking for a pill to take to, at least, help me get a bit of the weight off before I started thinking about this "healthy-eating" thing or even working out to get back in shape. Thankfully, this was also when I joined Instagram  (2015) and became introduced to the mantra and sayings, "You cannot out-exercise a bad diet; Consistency is key, you have to be patient; Eat clean and get moving....". All these sayings were essentially hammering on the need to eat clean as no other method of weight loss was sustainable. I began to listen and tried to apply it to myself.

In trying to "eat-clean", I found myself trying out a lot of the touted and popular "clean-eats" and trying to incorporate them into my everyday meals. I tried to make them "tasty" and not bland and boring- as greens and legumes tend to be. I took lots of pictures of these meals for fun as you can see here and a few people have said to me that it gives them ideas of what healthful meals to cook for their own homes. To be honest, I hadn't even realised that I had begun "eating differently", it doesn't feel different to me- I still feel like I am cooking a lot of normal stuff with a few twists here and there. I have decided to bring you easy, quick recipes on how to toss these meals together, if you like that kinda thing. Errrm, please, I'll just say now that I do not eat like this 100% of the time, I am naughty a lot of times and the pictures you get to see are of how I cook my home-cooked meals, I'm still guilty of eating junk and pastries. #stillworkingonthatwillpower.

I've given you the two narratives above to explain where my food inspiration really comes from: Nigerian food, English food and Healthy food (and any other foreign foods I can healthily make my own and share with you) so, the #chefjudgejudyjudy label should basically bring up any of these recipes when I begin to update them. I just wanted to give you a soft intro so you don't begin to wonder where the food blogging was coming from- it's been there, I just want to share it properly with you.😊😊😊

Have a great weekend my friends and please tell me if this is something that would interest you.

Love Always,

Judgejudyjudy...

Xxx....