Blindingly Good Food is One Year Old

I find it hard to believe, but I’ve been writing this blog now for 1 year. I started it for 2 reasons really, to showcase the kind of diet I have as a full-time athlete and also to demonstrate how someone living with a visual impairment can cook independently, safely and successfully. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but one year in and I’m still really enjoying it. 

One of my biggest worries when starting out was how would I keep coming up with content to write about, but fortunately that hasn’t happened. I’ve shared advice on the basics like knife skills, how I know whether things are safe to eat and how I make a cup of tea. I’ve focused on more specific things such as my talking microwave and how I weigh and measure my ingredients. I’ve even shared some of the common cooking mishaps I have had and some of the things I struggle with. Thanks to this article I got lots of advice in return and even a talking thermometer. 

In this past year I’ve been on several cooking adventures including learning to bake bread, going to an Indian cookery class and then a Middle Eastern one. Personally I think I enjoyed the bread experience most and it is the new skills I acquired from there that I have used the most. I have also got lots of new equipment to try including a mandoline, and of course my Vitamix. I’ve shared several posts on what my beloved Vitamix has enabled me to do including making soup and making pesto.

I’ve also given several insights in to my own personal diet and how I approach food as an athlete. From describing the sort of food I eat on the bike, my nutrition during the week building in to an important race and my enjoyment of food when I’m on a recovery week. I’ve shared 10 of my top nutritional tips, some advice on how to stay healthy in winter and i’ve even given you a list of 10 of my favourite things to eat.

I’ve shared over 100 recipes from a simple bolognese to a goats cheese and beetroot risotto. I’ve shared the first recipe I ever made from scratch, chicken creole, to my first attempts at cooking with gnocchi. I’ve even shared a story on when it went wrong when trying to make rosti’s. Some of the more popular recipes I’ve shared include my chicken, parsnip and carrot curry, my sausage and root vegetable stovies and my prawn vegetable korma. 

Thanks to Google Analytics I am able to see what have been my more popular posts and so here they are:

1. 5 Favourite Places to Eat in Altrincham

2. My obituary to Libby

3. Eating Out with a Guide Dog

The 3 most popular Ingredients of the Week are:

1. Basmati Rice

2. Peas

3. Chicken

The hardest post I wrote was the one about Libby, but its also the one I read back to myself the most as it now makes me smile. The posts I enjoy writing the most are the ones that describe how I successfully do things without sight, such as making an omelette, handling meat and identifying my ingredients.

I’m taking this opportunity to get some feedback and involvement from you, my readers. What sort of things would you like me to write about next? Do you have any burning questions I haven’t yet answered? Is there anything you would like me to change or improve upon?

Hopefully soon the video of me cooking that I made with a sight loss charity in Manchester called Henshaws will be ready to share and also some stories about an exciting trip to Trafford College to speak to the catering students I have planned. I’m currently out in Canada at this year’s Paracycling Track World Championships where I race the 3km pursuit on Friday and the 1km time trial on Saturday. Then I go to Paris for a few days with Neil for a nice relaxing break where I plan to eat lots of nice French food and share my experience with you after. There will be a couple of weeks now until my next post, but in the meantime please do leave any feedback or suggestions in the comments below and I will read and try to act on them as appropriate.

Thank you for your support over the year and heres to the next one.

Lora.