Our story

I began my baking and cooking journey as a teenager. As part of a large family on a limited budget, we always did a lot of cooking together.

My mom was always on a mission to increase the health factor of her family's diet. She is a firm believer in healthy eating as the most important factor in overall health.

Now that I have a large family of my own, I've 100% bought into my mom's mission to help my family stay healthy through a nutritious diet.

Overall, we eat healthy and, in general, have few health concerns. I can't take all the credit for it, but healthy habits do pay off. Thanks, Mom!

I've also learned along the way that healthy eating doesn't have to break the bank.

In fact, home cooking and baking is more budget-friendly than buying pre-made foods, and it's generally healthier.

For example, we almost never buy bread. We make our own sandwich bread, sourdough, baguettes, bagels, waffles, and more.

It's a huge budget savings, and our breads come with none of the additives found in packaged bread. There's a time cost, but it's worth it.

I like to think I have a well-balanced approach to life, and that applies to healthy eating too.

I take a moderate approach to making the dishes I prepare a little healthier over time. I need to, in order to bring the rest of the family along with me.

I would happily eat everything whole wheat, but they don't agree. So we usually compromise: part whole wheat, part white flour.

I take it as a win that there's some whole wheat, and no additives or preservatives.

Sugar is a big area where I work on the health factor.

We don't eat a lot of desserts, but when I do bake sweet treats, I'm always looking for ways to replace white sugar with natural sweeteners like honey, sucanat, or maple syrup.

Again, I take the moderate approach, because sometimes a recipe just won't work as well without white sugar. If it's a once-in-a-while treat, I'm okay with that.

As a family, we talk a lot about healthy eating, and I hope to inspire my kids to a lifetime of healthy food choices, just as my mom did for me.

I also hope to inspire them to be adventurous eaters and adventurous cooks by taking them along on my kitchen experiments.

All five of them love to help in the kitchen, but five at a time is a bit too chaotic for me to stay sane.

The best way I've found to teach kitchen skills is to have one or two helping at a time. It might be mixing up the pizza dough or chopping veggies for a stir-fry.

Getting everyone involved in making food is the best way I know to get my kids started on a life of healthy eating. That and gardening.

Growing our own summer veggies is another great way to get the kids to love fresh, healthy food, along with all the other skills and character that come with it.

But that's another journey!

Thanks for joining me on this journey of delicious, healthy cooking. I invite you to taste the difference small changes can make.

We love to travel as a family, and some of our best memories are about something we tasted along the way. A new place usually means a new dish to try.

We have one rule in our house, at home or on the road: you don't have to like it, but you do have to taste it.

That goes for the kids too.

That's how they find out what they really like. Sometimes the dish they were sure they'd hate turns into a new favorite.

Most nights, I cook dinner for all seven of us.

For years, our whole dinner rotation lived in my head: which recipe was on which blog, what we had last week, and what to make tonight.

That's a lot to carry every day. I kept wishing for one place that held all our recipes and just told me what's for dinner.

I mentioned it to my husband, Vali. He loves building apps and websites, and he said we should make it ourselves.

So that's what we did. Tasted is the first thing we've made under the Tasted name, and it started right here in our kitchen.

Tasted.com is our home for all things food. Right now that's the app and our family's recipes.

Over time, we'd love to share more, like ideas for getting kids to try new foods, simple ways to eat well, and honest reviews of places we eat when we travel.