“Our Food” is your food !

Alexander and Hanna

Life today is more hectic than ever and many people struggle to find time to cook at home. Eating out is more of an everyday principle than an occasional treat. Many people, who mostly eat out, say that it is cheaper and less time consuming than cooking a dinner at home. However, this claim has been proven wrong so many times. Personally, I do not think I have ever eaten out as much after moving to the States. In Finland people really do not eat out in daily basis: it really is for special occasions only. In general, Finns love to cook! I follow several Finnish food blogs to get ideas for easy dishes that I am able to convert into a more “student friendly” form.

One of my favorite blogs is  Safkaa (a Finnish slang word for “food”). This is a blog by a couple, Hanna and Alexander Gullichsen, and their mission is to make every day-cooking into something enjoyable and fun. Hanna and Alexander are focused on getting people inspired and generally interested in normal “weekday meals” more than fancy, challenging, dinners and to learn how to find new aspects of home cooking. Their recipes are simple, easy to follow, and very inspiring. The couple became famous by posting their recipe for Avocado pasta on Facebook and in just weeks the recipe was shared by hundreds of people. It did not take long when the biggest newspaper in the Nordic countries (Helsingin Sanomat – Helsinki Times) featured the pasta recipe on their food section. Since then Hanna and Alexander have published two cookbooks and have their own cooking show (called “Meidän Safkaa” – “Our Food”).

Hanna and Alexander’s story has been an inspiration for many and I think their examples and recipes show that you do not have to be a foodie to be able to upgrade your weekday meals up to a more enjoyable level.  By cooking at home you will always know what goes into your body and you are able to keep a better track of the portion sizes (which have grown drastically during the past decades).

Ps. I know it is inconvenient that the blog and the Avocado pasta recipe are in Finnish. If anyone is interested I would be more than happy to translate the website content/the recipe for you!