Spotlight Blogger Of The Week: Delightful Mom Food
We're proud to feature Danielle Fahrenkrug in this week's Blogger Spotlight, where we highlight a member of The Daily Meal's Culinary Content Network, a selected group of talented and influential bloggers who write about food and drink.
Danielle is a California-based blogger who is passionate about healthy, budget-friendly recipes that are easy to make. She discovered balance within her body after being diagnosed with poly-cystic ovary syndrome at the age of 26.
By eliminating processed food, decreasing gluten intake, eating no fake sugar, and taking regular exercise, Danielle completely overhauled her lifestyle and has not looked back since. With her blog Delightful Mom Food Danielle aims to show her readers that there's no need to sacrifice taste and pleasure for healthy food. Her blog is full of gorgeous photographs and easy-to-follow recipes that are gluten-free and can be enjoyed by the whole family.
Whether you're in the mood to make sushi or soup, entrées, snacks, or even dessert, Delightful Mom Food is so full of great recipes that you are certain to find something great.
Danielle lives in Santa Barbara with her husband, two sons, four chickens, and a dog!
The Daily Meal: What is the mission of your blog?
Danielle Fahrenkrug: To provide families easy, healthy, gluten-free recipes that the whole family enjoys, eliminating the hassle of having to make separate meals for everyone.
How'd you get started?
Getting started blogging is like taking a cross-country ride in a horse and buggy. It is traveling a slow, bumpy road that leads to great things if you stick with it!
Are you ready for this bumpy "Delightful" journey? I started blogging in 2011 about food, crafts, and our home remodel. After I had children it was my way to find myself and keep my creativity flowing as I embraced the selfless needs of motherhood. Once our home remodel was complete, all my time became focused on cooking and simplifying meal-time chaos! As my children started experimenting with foods they grew pickier and pickier! I pretty much live in the kitchen, whipping up unprocessed healthy meals for my family. That change in lifestyle led to closing one door and opening up another.
I was getting visitors to my old blog but I knew if I wanted more traffic and to share what we were eating on a greater level I had to focus on one subject: food. I took a giant leap of faith, trusted in God, deleted my old blog and started from scratch in August 2015. That meant losing most of the traffic, domain authority, etc., the old site had. But guess what? Closing that door and starting with a fresh mindset has been the best decision! New doors started opening.
To get started, I bought a domain (not just .blogspot), shut down my old Blogger website, and started over in a WordPress platform and began rebuilding. I learned and implemented simple SEO techniques, and really all around just try to learn as much as possible to make it better and better for the readers! In addition to that, we have been working on building a product line of high-quality and affordable kitchen products to help take the guesswork out of that too and really help streamline the kitchen process as much as we could for ourselves and for others. So currently we are investing some time into building that too.
Delightful Mom Food offers tons of simple veggie-filled muffins, fruit-based snacks, and gluten-free dishes that take the hassle out of dinner-time! Blogging never feels like work, especially when I get wonderful comments from readers saying they made one of the recipes that their whole family enjoyed!
My mission and sole purpose of Delightful Mom Food is helping others make simple, healthy, and delicious snacks and meals the whole family enjoys! Most everything is 400 calories or less, gluten-free and simple to make. I like to say "kid tested, husband approved" before a recipe makes it to the blog!
What is your philosophy of cooking or baking?
Use only the best ingredients, nothing fake, and plan, plan, plan the meals! If you can source locally at the farmers market you will find the juiciest tomatoes and tastiest produce. Your food will be unstoppable from consuming because it is true — fresh is best! Also eating organic is not as expensive as one might think. Especially when in the long run your body is thriving from it. If there is leftover produce in the house that might rot soon I freeze it or toss it in the slow cooker to turn into soup. I also freeze any leftover soups for a quick dinner on nights I do not feel like cooking.
What are some of the foods you can't live without?
Bread, Greek yogurt with fresh fruit, tomatoes, and broccoli sprouts. I just love carbs, and so I make my own muffins about daily, pizza dough once a week, and a couple of batches of homemade bread about once a month. Whenever I want a light lunch I top a piece of bread off with market tomatoes, mustard, and broccoli sprouts. It fills me up and tastes delicious!
Are there foods you can't stand?
Red meat, unless I am pregnant. Sorry friends, I just cannot stand the taste of regular pepperoni, steak, pork, hamburgers, etc. Maybe the repulsive taste is just in my head, but you won't find those recipes on my blog. Like I said, unless I am pregnant — but when I was expecting both my boys, all I wanted was a pepperoni and sausage pizza! That was the big giveaway that something was baking in my belly!
What is your proudest post?
My proudest post is my slow cooker cabbage soup diet recipe. It has gotten rave reviews and talk on social media, so I am so proud that people are captivated by the pictures, are making it, and raving about how delicious it is! It is incredibly nourishing and easy, and I explain all the health benefits, include a video and the nutritional information within the post. A lot of time was put in, so I appreciate that it has popularity.
Do you have a blogging blunder?
Haha, yes many! I like to hope we all do. In the past I was not making my URLs correct, so I went back and re-corrected all of them. Lesson learned, and time was worth correcting my mistake. I am sure I have more, but cannot think of any now.
What is your most memorable comment from a reader?
I actually saw one of my readers at the beach one afternoon playing with her children. I did not even know she followed the blog, but she let me know she just made my vegan corn chowder (which I had posted that same week), along with my Tex-Mex quinoa recipe and a few muffin recipes. Her whole family (including two little children) all loved and ate it! That is my goal, so to hear that makes me keep going, keep creating, and keep posting.
What do you like to listen to while in the kitchen?
I do always have music in the kitchen and I am very diverse in that aspect! Whatever I am feeling at the moment! I am a big country fan, and lately it's been a lot of that!
What are some other blogs you love?
— Chelsey's Messy Apron (also, she has a great book how to start a blog)
— Lauren's Recipe Box
— Pinch of Yum
— Damn Delicious
— Garden in the Kitchen
— Chocolate Covered Katie
— Food Faith Fitness
— A Hedgehog in the Kitchen
— The Cookie Writer
— Kim's Cravings
— Baking a Moment
— Minimalist Baker
— Cotter Crunch
— Culinary Hill
Oh my goodness there are so many driven, talented bloggers out there I could just go on and on!
What is the best thing about blogging?
Being able to help other families eat well, and the community and relationships that are built. I have met so many wonderful people online and in my community from the blog.
What is the most challenging thing about blogging?
Time management and time blocking with being a full-time stay at home mom.
What would even your most loyal followers be surprised to learn about you?
Hmmm... Well, one thing is that even though I am a health fanatic, I do tend to always have a chocolate stash at all times for those moments when you just gotta have some! Don't tell!
Anything else you would like to share?
I am just so blessed to have so many wonderful readers, and I just want to thank you all for your amazing support and feedback! Please keep letting me know things you like or even dislike when visiting my website. That ways I can continue to provide to you the best experience.
Also, blogging is an extremely hard job. Especially food blogging because there are so many delicious choices out there and to get yours noticed is especially challenging. Whatever you are doing in life, just keep moving forward and never stop! Blogging is like a river, and rivers know this, "There is no hurry so keep moving slowly and you will get there."
What are five of your all-time favorite posts?
That's a tough one, I have so many! Five great ones are:
— Chocolate Chip Spinach Muffins
— Cabbage Soup Diet Recipe in a Spicy Miso Broth
— Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup
— Apple Muffins Made With Zucchin and Carrots
— Cod Fish Tacos With Southwest Sauce