My 25-year love of cooking was left in tatters along with my sense of self worth. It was like I had forgotten everything I’d previously known about myself.
No matter whether you have babies or big kids I hope I can make your life a little easier by sharing my family cooking recipes and tips with you.
One of the hardest times in my life made me realise making dinner is a big deal and the family cook is One Tough Cooker.
I have always loved cooking. The biggest reason is that I love eating but I also get excited by the creativity of cooking and get immense joy from eating with family and friends. When post-natal depression showed up uninvited it was the beginning of a long journey back to my love of food and cooking. Along the way I found myself again too.
A few days after the birth of my second child I felt a hollow panic in my stomach that I would come to be very familiar with as post-natal depression. I couldn’t work it out at first. I was totally in love with my beautiful, baby boy, I was physically recovering well from the birth and I hadn’t felt this way in the previous 20 months of parenting my daughter so what was going on? To make matters worse post-natal depression left my sense of self worth in tatters along with my 25-year love of cooking.
A big part of my initial treatment was to keep a journal of my days. It’s so hard to feel like you do anything worthwhile through those early sleep-deprived, repetitive days. Writing it down made me see my achievements with more clarity. I saw that making the family meal every day, no matter what, was a massive achievement. And it still is.
Years on I am in a much better place but I still have to manage my depression on a daily basis so it’s a work in progress. One Tough Cooker is my way of making sense of what has happened and has taught me how tough the home cook is and should be celebrated. No matter whether you have babies or big kids at home I hope I can make your life a little easier by sharing my family-cooking recipes and coping tips with you.
onetoughcooker.com 