Here's a little bit about me, and what makes me qualified to share my journey with you

Hi, i'm Kayla, Chef Ashton's Mum. I used to think i was crazy, with all my fandangled ideas about food, and their correlation between health, well-being and allergies. But the cat is out of the bag now, and so many people are jumping on the real food bandwagon, so either i was on to something ... or we are all crazy? I don't just mean these diets like paleo etc which have taken the limelight lately, i'm just talking about a commonsense approach to food - you know, the real stuff, that doesn't come with an ingredients list! Yeah, we need to eat more of that!

I am not qualified in health or nutrition. I am not a nutritionist. I am not a naturopath. I am not a dietician. I am not a medical professional. Our eating habits go against the grain and in some cases we do the opposite to the advice you may be given (and some advice i have been given) by medical professionals. So what makes me qualified to share what I know with you?

What i am is:

• A Mum who was first forced to take a good look into what our ‘food’ is made from, and later became curious about what our food has become.
• A Mum to a 5 year old boy who has had allergies to dairy, soy, egg and tomato and intolerance's to wheat and many chemicals, preservatives and sugar added to the ‘food’ on our supermarket shelves.
• A Mum to a one year old boy, who on his first birthday could only eat FOUR foods, with any others causing eczema, rashes, inconsolable screaming, vomiting and intestinal bleeding.
• A Mum to two boys who have been diagnosed with FPIES (Food protein induced enterocolitis syndrome)
• A parent who has seen a remarkable and rapid recovery of her sons and their allergy symptoms since cutting out processed foods and bringing real food to the table.
• A curious consumer who started to ask questions about the information we have been given about food.
• A qualified primary school teacher, who has had an insight into school lunchboxes for the last 5 years.
• A teacher at heart, with an intense passion for teaching and sharing information. I want to help you all gain the knowledge and skills to make nourishing food choices.
• A home cook, I LOVE cooking, baking and creating and i have discovered that we can choose nourishing ingredients to make delicious treats and healthy meals.
• An artist. Pre-children i used to paint, food is now my artwork (since it serves a second purpose I save time that way!) I enjoy photography so taking photos of my food-art brings me great joy.
• A life-long learner, we never stop learning and discovering. Research changes, guidelines change and new studies are coming out all the time. I love reading research papers and i’m fascinated with how our bodies work and the role that food plays in our health and wellbeing. I love reading and learning new information, but the analyst in me takes everything with a grain of salt. The first question to ask is ‘who is this study funded by’!
• An organised housewife! Since choosing to focus on living a more mindful and grateful life, my overall level of organisation has changed (in other words there are piles of washing and toys all over my house). But feeding my family nourishing food is pretty high up on my priority list, so this area of my life is quite well polished. Making real food, daily, from scratch isn’t child's play! Meal planning, meal prep, shopping lists, food budget, sourcing ingredients and recipe practice are daily tasks here. I’d love to share my skills and help you all become organised so you can put real food on your table every day too.
• A scrooge - i did not gain the nickname ‘moth wallet’ growing up for no reason. We have an extremely tight food budget. I can make something for nothing and i’m highly skilled in preparing real food on a small budget. You will seldom find cassava flour or almond meal in my recipes, as we just can’t afford to use these ingredients all the time. I can find the cheapest price and best deal for all things food.
• A University Graduate with a degree in media studies, excitingly, sometimes, I get to use this! You see many of the papers i took focused on analysing advertising, marketing techniques and popular culture. Its made me wary of following trends, encouraged me to question the 'norm' and I can see right through all those terrible marketing ploys and advertising tricks trying to convince us that we 'need' all these packaged foods in our lives!
• A realist - i am realistic about how much time, energy and money we have to spend on food. I want to make real food quick, easy, affordable and delicious for everyday families.

I would love to study food and nutrition, to help further my knowledge and understanding of the stuff we fuel our bodies with, hopefully this is in my future. But for now, this is me, who i am, at this moment. These small people that hang around our ankles in the kitchen and swipe at us for tid-bits (does that just happen to me?) are our future. I am so damn passionate about making sure every small person has access to ‘real food’, food that has grown in the ground or on a tree, food that has been raised from the ground up, food that’s pure and doesn’t come from a packet with a mile long ingredients list or a bunch of added sugar. I want to help fuel a change and i won’t be satisfied until I see it!

If you want to follow us for our day to day food inspiration you can do this on Chef Ashton's facebook page.