Update February 2020: I’m so amazed and excited to be able to say that as a direct result of having this blog and then creating my sourdough site, I now have my first ever book coming out in September 2020. I’m amazed, and grateful, and so very excited. Thank you to everyone who has ever commented and liked my posts, thank you for your wonderful support xx
Update January 2019: as a direct result of this blog I have now created a whole new website and a whole new world…foodbod sourdough shares everything I have learned about sourdough, hints, tips, my master recipe & process, plus lots of other recipes using sourdough starter. This blog will continue too, albeit that I might not be posting as regularly as I used too..
Update January 2016: I wrote the introduction below when I first started my blog in October 2013; everything that I wrote still stands, and I am now cooking more than ever, I appear to have discovered a fearlessness in the kitchen that I never knew I had and I love it! I love playing and creating, and sharing it all with my lovely blog family and readers. The most amazing thing about having this blog, and so completely unexpected, is that I have met a whole new world of wonderful people, made some truly special friends and learnt endless things, and cooked many many new dishes from many different parts of the world, all from starting this blog.
I have now definitely found a really strong path for my food and recipes, so you will find a huge collection of vegetable based recipes, lots to satisfy vegetarian and vegan diets, lots of ideas for side dishes or light lunches, plus lots of healthy dishes, lots of gluten free options, sugar free options and dairy free options. You will also find lots of Eastern influences, lots of great spices, lots of focus on flavour and goodness.
I hope you like it 🙂
Original intro: I was introduced to the word ‘balaboosta’ recently, which means ‘the perfect housewife’ in Yiddish, someone who loves to feed and nurture her family. So, I’ve decided, that when people ask me what I do, that will be my answer, rather than saying I’m at home full time or that I’m a Mum, as some people seem to struggle with how to respond to that answer! I am a balaboosta and proud of it.
In April 2012 my beautiful best friend died of a vicious, rare cancer, aged only 43 and leaving four year old twin boys without their Mum. It was the most heart breaking experience of my entire life and lead me to look at my priorities.
All Caroline ever wanted to be was a Mum and I decided that I would do what she now couldn’t, and concentrate solely on my family. I’m so lucky that it works for my family, I know not everyone is as lucky.
So, as of the start of 2013, I am a full time Mum and wife and I am so lucky that I am able to spend lots of time cooking and baking and creating and trying out new foods and recipes and my son and husband are loving it!
I had always been interested in cooking but in previous years, hadn’t had the time or inclination to get truly involved with making everything from scratch and spending hours in the kitchen – when my son was a baby I used to make everything from scratch for him but then life got busy with work and being a Mum and things changed – but now I did have time and lots of inclination, so I started reading recipes and stocking up on ingredients and haven’t stopped cooking since!
I used to live in the Middle East and have always said that my favourite food was Lebanese food and that my last meal would be a Lebanese mezze, and now realising that any day could be your last day, why not eat Lebanese food everyday?? So that’s where I started perfecting my own homous and baba ganoush and shish taouk for my boys, all the things we love to eat every time we visit the UAE.
And I haven’t just stuck to Lebanese dishes, although they are probably may favourite collection of flavours, I cook a lot of other Middle Eastern dishes, as well as Indian, Mexican, Spanish, Italian and lots of others.
I am vegetarian and I prefer healthy choices, enjoying food full of goodness and fresh ingredients; I like to eat foods that I know are doing me good and looking after my body and mind, so my blog includes a variety of recipes, including vegetarian, vegan, dairy free, sugar free, gluten free, fat free, super healthy, happy food; I also cook non vegetarian, more typical dishes for my family, so will be posting a quite mix of recipes on here!
I hope you enjoy my blog
Elaine x
Email: foodbodATicloudDOTcom
Wonderful Blog, glad I stop by 🙂
OrganicIsBeautiful.com
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Thank you 🙂
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Hi Elaine! Lovely recipes. Greek food resembles middle Eastern in some ways, so I’m looking forward to trying some Lebanese recipes
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It does indeed! I hope you enjoy it 🙂
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So glad I finally read this page, after enjoying your blog for months now.
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Thank you, I hope you found it interesting 🙂
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So sorry about your friend, that was so sad!!! I found your blog through another blog which is how I find most blogs I enjoy reading these days. I am looking forward to exploring your recipes especially the Lebanese ones :).
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Thank you so much, for finding my blog, and for your lovely comment. I hope you like what you find 🙂
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Hello Elaine, so nice to meet you! Thank you for the follow on https://thewisercook.wordpress.com delighted to also follow your blog. I would like to invite you to check out a fairly recent site I started for Food Bloggers an easy concept directly linking to your blog. https://wegrazetogether.wordpress.com. You may see some bloggers there that you know! We would love to have you join us! Regards, Cheryl
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Hi Cheryl, lovely to meet you – you and I have often been commenters on other blogs so I thought it was time to check you out!
Thank you, I’ll check out the link x
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Ha-so kind of you and I am so glad that you did! Looking forward to sharing with you as well. Cheryl x
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Such inspired blog and so many middle eastern recipes that I love!! Tomorrow I’m going to get some fresh vegetables and I have to try one of your goods!
Cheers from Italy….(sorry for mistakes)
Valeria
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Hi Valeria, thank you so much for visiting and for your lovely comment. I hope you enjoy experimenting 🙂
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So sorry to hear about your friend. When we lose someone so young and before their time it has such an impact on our life’s and makes us rethink our priorities and our dreams. I love the word Balaboosta , what a great way to describe yourself. Its brilliant that you are still loving cooking. I look forward to reading your posts and trying out some of your recipes.
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Thank you so much for your kind words, and for coming over to read more about me and my blog. I hope you find some recipes that you like 😀
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What a lovely blog! Thank you for sharing all of these wonderful recipes. My favorite flavors! 🙂
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Thank you so much, Hanady 😀 I think we will definitely enjoy one another’s dishes x
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I am sure of that! Xo
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I love your photos of Palestine on Instagram, and such wonderful food and produce 🙂
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It makes me ache for the Middle East x
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Thank you for your kind words! The produce here is the freshest I have ever had. It add so much character to everything! I’m just getting started!
And yes, it is quite saddening. But my mission is to focus on all of the beauty that overshadows the darkness. I am optimistic that there will be a brighter future. Xo
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What you are showing the world is a country full of beauty, that can only be positive x
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Thank you, Elaine. That is my greatest source of motivation for this project. 🙂
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I will look forward to what you will be sharing x
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Love your blog! Such inspiring story!!
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Thank you for visiting and reading, I hope you continue to enjoy my offerings 😀
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Beautiful story. We must live our lives to the fullest everyday and follow our passions. My best friend died 6 years ago at 45 of pancreatic cancer, so I understand what you went through completely.
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Thank you so much for reading my story and for your lovely comment. I’m so sorry about your best friend too xx
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Question, my friend. Do the restaurants there do Dash and Dine? I use an Italian restaurant one night a week. On Tuesday – Thursday, they have a dinner, one entree. . . last night it was seafood marinara , salad and Italian bread and herb butter for two people $16, 4 servings $ 24 , and 6 servings for $30? Cheaper , healthier and tastier than MacDonald ! Pick-up is between 3:30 – 6:00. Great on the way home. Here is the restaurant. . . Paulo Lombardi
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I visited your blog some time ago but never had a chance to really explore your site. I was real saddened by your loss and I know how that felt as I have gone through it enough times to know the pain. I too am a vegetarian, well now vegan due to egg and dairy allergies, but I cook non-vegetarian food for my family. I see you have a lot of great recipes that I can learn from. I also avoid sugar and gluten so that means I will be spending a lot of time exploring your site. Thanks for all the wonderful comments you made on my blog. You have an amazing site and I cannot wait to learn from you :).
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Thank you so much for all of your kind and lovely words xx I hope you do find lots that you like, and I shall also be searching you blog too! I look forward to chatting more xx
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As a new reader…can I ask if you think that I need a recipe index? I did have one but it got so messy I took it down…I don’t know if I should try again?
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I checked your categories Elaine and you have all your recipes neatly organized by category. Personally I like indexes because they make the search so much easier especially if you’re in a hurry to find something quickly. It is a lot of work to manually create and maintain an index I should know. There must be plugins for it but since your site is hosted by WordPress.com, you wouldn’t be able to install any plugins. The categorized image galleries that link to the recipes are easy to navigate also. My site was intended for sharing recipes only because I am not much of a blogger, but you have very interesting stories to share and that alone gets us hooked :). I think you have done well without an index but it’s up to you.
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Thank you for the feedback. I have had an index for the past couple of years but as I’ve tried to keep it up to date, the page has gone all weird and it ended up looking a real mess 😦
I need to decided if I’ve got serval days to try again!!
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Good luck
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I think I’ll need it!
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Your intro really touched me, Elaine. I am very happy to have met you through this wonderful blogging journey. Looking forward your recipes 🙂
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Thank you so much, I look forward to reading more of your blog too x
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I just read your introduction here and, oh my goodness, it went straight to my heart! I will remember the ‘balaboosta’. Thanks for sharing this.
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Hi Julie, thank you so much for reading my story 🙂
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And thank you for finding my little blog 🙂
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My pleasure! 🙂
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I remember that you lived in the Middle East, but for some reason I keep thinking you’re in the US! Lucky you, living in England. I fell in love with the country when my daughter spent four years in London.
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Thank you 😀 I’ve lived in many places, but never the US!
We are very lucky where we live, in the middle of the countryside whilst only being 1 hour from London and other cities.
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Loved to know a lil more about you ….really interesting to know that you cook indian food too …I still have to go thru your recipes …n am now looking forward to trying out your Lebanese ones … thanks elaine
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Thank you Ritu x x I haven’t listed everything in my recipe section yet, so please do just have a look through x
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