Meet Nicki!
Thank you for visiting my food blog! I have so many friends that come to me for recipes or food ideas that I decided to create this blogspot. I am not an easy person to get ahold of as I love to be out traveling and trying new cuisines, in the kitchen cooking or doing arts and crafts. All of the recipes here I have made in my own kitchen and are taste test approved by me!
I started cooking when I was 16 because I couldn’t stand the taste of the food that my parents were preparing for me. It was a lot of “hamburger surprise” and “mac n’ cheese” out of a box. That classic term “If you don’t like it, make your own!” backfired and I started making my own food. I didn’t become a “good cook” for several years until I started working in a kitchen as a chef’s apprentice. I had spent 2 years as a strict vegan because I couldn’t prepare meat or know anything about a decent cheese that wasn’t “cheese whiz.”
I started out as a dishwasher and my curiosity in food preparation intrigued the head Chef of The Black Swan to take me under his wing. There, I learned quickly how to wield knives, cook several things at once, bake, deep fry, cook from scratch, clean meats and fish and how to use a blender. The problem with that was, I was eating rich, delicious foods all the time and you can imagine what it did to my slender figure!
Well, I ended up taking a job opportunity that wasn’t in a kitchen but paid much more and worked there for 5 years having little time to spend in my own kitchen. I had lost all the weight I had gained and with the help of LA Weightloss Center, learned how to start modifying dishes so that they were lower in calories and fat.
After a bad divorce, I ended up leaving that job and going back to the kitchen where I had a lot of pleasure in the work I performed. Then I met my current husband whom is a food lover! The perfect couple, a woman who loves to cook and a man that loves to eat! Shortly after we met, I became pregnant with my second child and had to quit working in the kitchen as it was too hard on my body.
After my son was born, a few weeks later I was reaching into his crib to pick him up and something snapped in my back and I fell to the floor with him. That single action ended my working career for good. But it didn’t end my love of cooking! Sometimes I may be in a wheelchair in the kitchen or hobbling in there with a cane, but my food is still amazing and I still, after 18 years of cooking, am learning new techniques and opening up my palette to new flavors!
The majority of my life I have been on a very frugal budget so you will find most recipes don’t cost much to make or there are helpful money saving tips included. As you will see, many of my recipes evolve with the diet requirements of my growing family. I now have 3 beautiful children and my father has moved in with us so that I can take care of him in his golden years. My grandmother passed last year and now the torch has been passed to me for Holiday family get togethers. That is great since I love to cook for large crowds! Life is busy but well worth it.
Enjoy cooking and good luck in your food adventures!