What I do outside of Plated Focus: I am the photographer and owner of Ushanti Photography, dedicated to Newborn & Family Portraits and Cake Smash photography. But I also enjoy entertaining and creating simple yet delicious meals to serve my friends and family any time I get a chance to experiment with my cooking skills.
Get to know me better
- I’m not a professional cook, but I’ve watched enough cooking shows and collected plenty of cookbooks to tell anyone how much I love cooking! My culinary skills have improved immensely over many years of different stages in my life.
- Indian recipes have embedded into my cooking history from an early age. My mother encouraged me to practice my rolling skills to perfect my oddly shaped chappatis (roti).
- Making roux in an economics class at junior school showed me how a simple technique thickened sauces in British recipes such as Macaroni Cheese.
- Having lived alone for a while, I taught myself how to make a meal for one person. I made dishes that lasted a few days to avoid cooking every day. Then I got married and learned to cook for two.
- Moving to the US initially and then Canada exposed me to maple syrup and thicker pancakes which challenged me to practice making the perfect fluffy pancakes for my kids.
- Acquiring many culinary skills has helped me find different ways to substitute ingredients and make my recipes work so that I can share with you what I learn from living a low-carb lifestyle.
Plated Focus has become a creative platform to make my two passions, food and photography, meet in the middle.
Random things about me
I am quite shy unless you really get to know me. More so over a cup of tea (sometimes wine) or a good meal. Deep conversations about all things low carb and who’s watching the latest TV shows are trending in my social zone right now.
One of my favourite bands (since I was a teenager) is Depeche Mode. Yes, I grew up during that decade of synth-pop music, big hair and breakdancing- aka the 80’s. Together with my hubby, listening to 80’s music even now makes us the perfect duo for dressing up at themed parties. Whenever a dress code calls for neon or shoulder pads, we are on it and get a tad crazy about it.
Pecans, pistachios and walnuts have become my favourite low-carb crave busters to keep me full and satiated. Avocadoes and sugar-free chocolate are up there with those nuts too.
I am the youngest of five siblings. We frequently share our latest edible creations on WhatsApp. Of course, there’s a little healthy competition in who makes the best dish sometimes but learning from each other’s cooking is the best part. It’s probably why I love sharing my recipes and ideas with anyone who wants to know. I don’t believe in keeping those kinds of secrets.
Why I follow a low carb lifestyle
In October 2020, I began cooking and eating low-carb meals after my health practitioner suggested I switch to a low-carb diet for three months to help reduce unchanging levels of high cholesterol that were always present in routine bloodwork. I have a family history of heart disease so naturally, having high cholesterol was a considerable concern.
I had also gained even more weight over time, which bothered me a lot. So off I went, determined to bring that cholesterol down and secretly hoped to shed a few pounds too.
I quit eating foods high in sugar and gradually reduced my regular carb intake of bread, pasta, rice, potatoes etc.
After reading more about low carb and keto diets on the internet, I began reading nutrition labels even more and learned how to make low carb substitutions whilst aiming to stay within a low carb and calorie budget.
I also learned the difference between low carb dieting and keto dieting and how they impacted individual lifestyles even though both diets involved reducing high carbohydrates.
One of my go-to low carb substitutes was is roasted Spaghetti Squash. I learned how to turn a family favourite Italian dish such as Spaghetti and meatballs into a low carb meal to stay within my low carb budget.
By the end of that three-month period of not eating sugar and avoiding high carbs, I had lost a lot more than just a few pounds!
I felt more energetic and got used to making delicious keto-friendly snacks, low carb dinners and enjoyable sugar-free desserts. More importantly, a visual marker in my blood test results showed me that my cholesterol levels decreased from a high cautionary RED to a low healthy GREEN. That was a definitive key turning moment in my life.
Ultimately, I was convinced that eating low carb meals daily was THE healthiest choice for me and honestly, I looked forward to making my own recipes of guilty-free pleasures like Sugar-free peanut butter cups, which fixed my cravings badly. It was a win-win situation.
Fast forward to now, I continue to keep my cholesterol levels low and I am a few pounds shy of reaching my ideal weight goal. It’s become increasingly evident to me that avoiding high carbs and sugar is a healthy, enjoyable AND sustainable lifestyle choice.
Plated Focus
Plated focus, is purely born out of a passion for sharing and photographing my low-carb recipes with friends and family who can’t believe my recipes are made low carb after they’ve tasted them. They always asked questions like how I made that Keto Cappuccino or where I bought that sugar-free chocolate even though it was homemade. Their genuine interest sparked off a wave of thoughts in my head, with a realization that sharing my ongoing experience of avoiding high carbs would be beneficial to the low carb community.
Plated Food
The variety of dishes plated at potluck gatherings provides an abundant source of creative influence for my recipes when I am surrounded by a close circle of friends who either come from or live around the world. This challenges me to re-create a friend’s yummy Biriyani dish for instance by finding ways to swap out the high carb ingredient i.e the rice, with low carb ingredients like cauliflower and give it the same taste and flavour.
A serious craving for something sweet or something savoury always prompts me to jump into the kitchen and revamp my favourite things like biscotti and turn them into Low Carb Lemon Biscotti or favourite Indian snacks like samosas and make them keto-friendly. This low-carb obsession has opened me up to experimenting with new and alternative ways to use low-carb ingredients and products that are increasingly becoming easily available in grocery stores and online.
Low-carb Focus
As a freelance photographer, I’m accustomed to presenting images that are visually appealing. As for the saying that goes “you eat with your eyes first”, I want to show you that low-carb snacks, dinners or desserts can look just as delicious as they taste even when there are no sugars or refined carbohydrates in the recipe. Your family and friends will love you for making recipes that look delicious and also tastes healthy for them too.
Food photography is quickly becoming a growing passion for me and combined with an obsession with creating unimaginably low carb recipes, there is always a plated focus in mind here. It’s important to me that honing in on my photography skills, helps me to enhance that focus on eating low carb with beautiful delicious looking imagery to help you stay on course with your own low carb lifestyle and keep you from falling off the wagon.