About
Hello and welcome to Flavor the Moments! I’m a wife, mother of two boys and a cooking school graduate, residing in Northern California and Boise, Idaho.
My true joy is being out in nature walking my dog or hiking, frequenting local farmer’s markets to pick up beautiful seasonal produce, and incorporating it into new and exciting recipes.
I love preparing easy, healthy meals packed with organic, sustainable ingredients, along with cooking techniques and make ahead tips because meal prep can get overwhelming.
I’m a firm believer that life is about balance, so you’ll find plenty of healthy recipes as well as both healthy and indulgent treats.
My food journey
I’m living proof that anybody can learn to cook because I wasn’t terribly good at it until much later in life. 🙂
I grew up baking in the kitchen with my mom, so I was a much better baker than I was a cook! When I got married at age 30, I finally found the motivation to develop my cooking skills.
In 2002 I quit my job as a network administrator/computer system analyst for a major utility company and became a stay at home mom, which is when I found my true passion for cooking.
I watched countless hours of Food Network, read cooking magazines and cookbooks, and took some hands on cooking classes here and there. I was obsessed and started this blog in September of 2012.
My dream was to go to cooking school, and in September of 2013 that dream became a reality. I began a 6 month full-time cooking program in San Francisco at Tante Marie Cooking School, where I was trained in classic French cuisine, including pastry, with heavy emphasis on the use of seasonal ingredients. Cooking school was demanding, challenging, fun and extremely rewarding, and was 6 months of the best food I’ve ever encountered.
After cooking school I continued on with my blog, and I had no idea things a few years later that my diet would change drastically.
Over the years I developed a few food sensitivities that impacted the way I eat. I simply feel better when I limit processed foods, refined sugars and oil, and dairy and gluten.
In a nutshell, my food philosophy is to eat a well balanced diet that includes a wide variety of vegetables and some fruit every day, and supplement that with good quality protein sources, healthy fats and carbs, and steer clear of processed foods as much as possible. It can be tough to stay on track at times when I go out or travel, but I do the best that I can and I don’t beat myself up if I stray a little bit here or there.
This blog truly reflects my food journey. When I started it I had no dietary restrictions, thus many of my early recipes are not how I eat today. I do revisit many of my older recipes to enjoy on special occasions and holidays, and sometimes I modify them to reflect the way I eat now. Things have changed significantly since I started Flavor the Moments over 10+ years ago, and I couldn’t be happier about where this journey has taken me.
I hope my recipes inspire you to cook more healthy meals (and occasional treats!) in your kitchen, and if you ever have any questions about my journey, please contact me via email at [email protected].
Join the community
Thanks for reading about me and most of all for being here! There are many ways to join the community here at Flavor the Moments.
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