Welcome to Compelled to Cook, a food blog to elevate your everyday meals. My name is Nicole Bouliane and I’m the human element behind the scenes, working hard to bring you fantastic recipes to enhance your meals, suiting your diet and lifestyle. I believe cooking is an extension of one’s self and a creative expression. Great food shouldn’t be dependant on diet or lifestyle but go together, meeting your wants and needs.  Whether you eat vegetarian, gluten-free, love cheese, or just hate onions, your everyday meals can and should be satisfying, easy to prepare and most of all delicious. I invite you to join me in my culinary and dietary adventure to help make your everyday meals the ones you want to share with family and friends.

I’m professionally educated in cooking and nutrition from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and Journeyman Certified in cooking.  I started my culinary career working on movie sets, in health care and restaurants, however, it was the Correctional Service of Canada that led me to the career I have today as a Correctional Officer.  Starting with the service, I worked in a kitchen supervising and teaching inmates how to cook.  Every day this kitchen made food to feed 500+ people, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Almost every item was made from scratch, including the soup and bread.  I was very young at the time and learned a tremendous amount from the variety of challenges that the environment posed. Everything from food production to “counting the knives”.  From this position, I moved on to become a Correctional Officer, and while I don’t regret the decision I made twenty years ago, I certainly missed the cooking and creativeness that goes along with it. As life moves forward, I am in a position to devote time and resources to my passion for cooking and created my food blog Compelled to Cook.  It’s my way of living life doing something that I love and having fun along the way.  

Along with a love of all things culinary, I love cats, enjoy hiking, camping and overland travel. I am fortunate to live very close to the Canadian Rocky Mountains and enjoy them as often as I can. You can find my husband Mark and me at Mark Bouliane – YouTube where we travel in our jeep Gizmo to a variety of adventurous places.

Please feel free to visit my Contact Page to leave me a message or simply say hello, I’d love to hear from you. 

Mission

Inspire…others to cook what they love and be adventurous with food
Be informative…about food, cooking techniques and dietary considerations
Challenge…myself and others to be more creative
Have fun…doing what I love
Eat well…because life is too short for bad food