Featured Food Blogger
Krista Rollins of Joyful Healthy Eats
Krista Rollins is the force behind Joyful Healthy Eats, a food blog that focuses on healthy, family-friendly recipes that can be prepared in 30 minutes using fresh ingredients and bold flavors.
Her website offers healthy recipes, cooking tips, step-by-step instructions, yummy-looking food photography, and recommendations for kitchen essentials.
Her blog is a glimpse of her love for life and cooking.
1. Your recipes look positively delicious! How do you come up with new ideas?
Honestly, I'll look through cooking magazines or Pinterest. If I see a picture I like, I'll think, "OK. How can I make something look that good?" Then start brainstorming. Sometimes, I'll want to use a specific ingredient, like butternut squash and then just start brainstorming from there. Seasonal produce are great ways to change up recipes!
2. You've mentioned that you are your blog's food photographer? Is there a process that you follow before you take those beautiful photos?
I am the only photographer for my site. And my process is, get the recipe made and photograph it in 10 minutes before my 4 year old starts to eat it! But for real, almost all the recipes I make we are eating for dinner that night. So, there is not much time to process.
I usually add a few garnishes to enhance the food and think through what I want to convey in the photo. For instance, I just made some Baked Chicken Wings with a Thai Peanut Sauce. When I think of wings, I think of my husband and a bottle of beer. So beer was in the photo to 'set the stage.'
3. Do you create baby food for your son, Cason? Have you considered creating a 'baby food' blog?
I had baby food on the blog when I just started, and it was more out of necessity because it is what I was making for my son. If we have another baby, I will probably put a few more on my site but probably will not create another blog just for baby food.
4. Do you consider yourself a professional food blogger? What do you find most satisfying about food blogging?
Absolutely! I earn a living doing what I'm doing. Food Blogging is my business. But the most satisfying part is getting emails from people who have made my recipes. Knowing that my recipes are part of their families lives is pretty cool!
My favorite emails though are the sentimental ones when I hear that I've encouraged someones heart. I share a lot of the things that are going on in my life in my posts and challenge peoples thinking. My heart is to feed your tummy and encourage your heart!
5. Can you give us the three best recipes from your website?
Oh, that's a tough one! One of my favorites and actually one of the first recipes I shared on my site is my Creamy Tomato Basil Soup (excuse the photos, it's an OLD post). My Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread .. because chocolate..duh! And then probably my Cilantro Lime Chicken with Avocado Salsa or Bacon Wrapped Tenderloin Bites with Horseradish Sauce.