Hello Hello!!!

My name is April and I love food. I live in central Florida with my three gorgeous little boys and amazing husband. I have been moving and shaking (or at least doing a bit of wiggling) around the internet since 2008, when I resolved that sweatpants and sippy cups were more my style than the suits and suing to which I was previously accustomed.

I began my blogging endeavor at April’s Little Family where I gush (and gush and gush) about my awesome family. The site started as a personal journaling experience and has grown into so much more. Soon after starting April’s Little Family, I decided to share my passion with (easy to make) food and thus, Mama Loves Food was born! Since then I have added a review site (Mama Must Haves) and a travel site (Mama Travels).

My love for cooking developed after getting married, when I realized my food repertoire could be summed up in about four dishes. I endeavored to gain the skills which would allow me to feed my family healthy and delicious meals. I enjoy cooking immensely, but do not have the patience for intricate or time consuming recipes. In my mind, the simpler the better. To that end, I am passionate about my slow cooker, my clay cooker, my dome covered roaster, casseroles and single skillet meals. (And cookies, but that’s neither here nor there).

What I've learned from having three children in a matter of three years, is that time is precious. Meaning, I have almost none. To combat our time management problem, I began batch cooking. About once every three to six months I spend a long weekend cooking hundreds of meals. Yes, you read that correctly. Hundreds! I stock our deep freezer with single serve, double serve and family sized meals that are ready to heat and eat. I also prepare fully cooked proteins for incorporating into quick sandwiches, stir fries and last minute casseroles. This technique has saved us enormous amounts of money and allows my family to eat healthy home cooked meals almost every night, without having to actually cook every night.


Thanks so much for joining me in this newest endeavor with Smithfield, I am excited and honored to be part of your homes and kitchens!

Let's Get Cookin'

Wanna hear a secret? There are cookbooks all over my house. I've a stack by my nightstand, under the guest bed, next to the loo. There's a horizontal string of them on a shelf in the pantry, and a vertical stack of them in an armoire upstairs. The weird thing is, I never use them. I positively love reading about food. But, I love even more mulling over the flavors and textures in cookbooks, then heading to the kitchen to conjure my own recipes for clever dinners and delightful desserts. I happen to think food is quite rad. If you follow me over at Cheeky Kitchen, you might already know that I have a teensy weensy passion for food. I believe in it. I believe it should be ridiculously joyful and over-the-top fun. I sort of have a big thing for it. Food rocks. The end.

Wanna hear another secret? Three weeks ago I was standing in my daughters elementary school classroom with a slew of PTA moms. These chicks are postively top notch. They are the "with it" crowd. They volunteer in every class, never miss a teacher's birthday, sell the most tubs of cookie dough for every school fundraiser. The entire lot of them are class acts. They and their slickly-planned mothering make me look like a silly little girl playing house. That wasn't the secret. This is: while I was standing in that group of fantastico women, one of them said (while rolling her eyes) "Ugh! I haaaate cooking dinner." The other three chimed in, "Me, too! It's the worst!," and "Two snaps up, Sister." (Okay, maybe she didn't say that phrase exactly, but I do so hope you're getting the idea.) The totally awesome women shared their secret admission...they hate cooking. And, you know what? As much as I love food, I get that. Our schedules today, with our hyper-connected lives, our intensely paced schedules, our driven commitments to being the best in every aspect of our lives can suck up a lot of time. Who has time to make dinner (let alone enjoy it) when there is a pile of laundry screaming, a handful of kids to bathe, work to attend to, and a sink full of dishes to scrub once dinner is done?

Allright. One more secret. The answer to that question: who has time? is you do. I fervently believe we all have time. I believe food can and should be fun. It should be blissfully delicious, fresh, and delightsome. And, it should fit into our schedules. That's one of the reasons I'm so excited to work with Smithfield. The company has a clear aim. They are dedicated to offer tips, techniques, and recipes for those of us real people who are trying to find time to make real food while maintaining a really hectic schedule. Well, good golly! I love such a concept, and I'm excited to share with you a lot of my favorite food finds.

As a food blogger, food writer, recipe developer, cooking show host, and cookbook keeper, I know it's possible to make homemade fit into our busy lives. As a mom to four uber-adorable kids and wife to one cool cat of a hubby, I believe it's VITAL that we make room for homemade in our busy lives. There are few other times in the day that offer an opportunity to pull our loved ones around us, slow down, stir, and connect. There are few other scheduled tasks in the week that give us the chance to laugh over a plate of warm food, ask questions, share stories, toast to another day done well. Food--especially the sort cooked at home with your own hands--makes such moments possible. It is over family dinner that I wink at my cute husband, wipe spaghetti from the round cheeks of my precious children, ask the question "how was your day," and take time to really listen to the answer. These are the moments when everything we do becomes entirely worth it. It's not hard to make these moments happen, but it does take a few good recipes, a couple of great tips, and a good stack of napkins.

If you've got the napkins, I've got the rest ready to go. I can't wait to share my best recipe, tips, and tricks right here on Smithfield.com!

From my family, my home, my kitchen to yours. We're going to have a grand time. Let's get cookin'!

Good morning! My name Stephanie O'Dea and I love my slow cooker. Actually, I love all eight of them—and while I type, I've got two bubbling away on the countertop.

I first fell in love with my slow cooker at age twenty-one. I was newly engaged and thought it was about time I learned how to be “domestic.” I brought home a pasta machine, food dehydrator, and Crock-Pot slow cooker. Determined to become the next Martha Stewart, I spread out the instruction manuals on the kitchen table and got out my highlighter.

After sampling the squishy pasta and shriveled fruit the first two machines produced, they were shoved to the back of the pantry cabinet. But the blue floral slow cooker? That thing rocked.

I quickly figured out that I could make real food, food my family would actually eat with very little invested time and effort. I was hooked.

I fell in love with my slow cooker all over again when I had children. I found that it was just not safe to chop vegetables with cranky kids hanging off my ankles during the evening “witching hours.” I liked that I could throw together our evening meal early in the day while still heavily caffeinated and then leave the house to run errands or head to work. I now have three children, ages 8, 5, and 8 months. I had the misconception that once the kids were in school full-time my days would ease up a bit. Instead, I find the afternoon hours even more hectic—we’ve got homework, sports, Girl Scouts, and nighttime school events such as PTA. Although I try my hardest to limit outside activities, there are days when I feel like we are bouncing around all over the place. If I didn’t have a slow cooker plugged in, we’d eat fast food. Often.

I’m not a purist---I don’t have a problem with eating fast food or picking up a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket for dinner (I actually really like them), but I can’t justify the expense to our family budget or to our health by making a drive-through dinner the norm.

Our family has allergies. We stay away from gluten, and I prepare all of our meals completely gluten free. If you are not gluten free, simply ignore my notes or file them away in case you ever need to cook for someone with a gluten intolerance. It was a shock when I first learned that our family would need to eat gluten free, and I’d need to prepare most of our food from scratch. There is no easier way to cook from scratch than with the slow cooker.

In 2008 I decided to make a New Year’s Resolution to use my slow cooker every day for a year and write about it on the Internet. The result was an award-winning blog, appearances on The Rachael Ray Show, Good Morning America, and three books. My first cookbook, Make it Fast, Cook it Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking spent six weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list. My second cookbook, More Make it Fast, Cook it Slow: 200 Brand New Recipes for Slow Cooker Meals on a Budget comes out at the end of the year. In the fall of 2011, I will release a housekeeping shortcut book for busy families (the name is still in the works!)

I am overjoyed to have been asked by Smithfield to write articles and post recipes. Before becoming pregnant with my third daughter I was allergic to pork. In fact, during my yearlong slow cooking challenge in 2008 I wrote a post called “Where’s the Pork?!” where I discussed my allergy and asked readers to write in their favorite pork recipes. When my chemical make-up got wonky during pregnancy and I started craving bacon (a lot. I’d go to the neighborhood pancake house and order 2 side orders and eat all the strips myself!) and realized I was no longer sensitive, I was thrilled to have so many great reader recipes to try.

Thank you for having me, and I look forward to sharing some great meal planning ideas and recipes with you!

Hello, I'm Heather of Multiply Delicious. I'm a Wife… Mother of twin toddler girls…Full-time worker….Southern girl at heart… Fashionista… Always on the go…Suburban-mom…SUV mommy… Work clothes to t-shirt and jeans… Runner…Dog lover...Loves a home-cooked meal…Lover of all things cupcakes...And loves being in my kitchen. Whew, that was a lot.

My love of cooking all started back when I married my wonderful husband, and started my journey towards becoming a better cook. After all, good cooks run in my family. I started to read cookbooks and watched cooking shows and made a lot of mistakes along the way. After the mistakes (lots of them), I started to get a little better. Then one day, I realized how much I loved cooking. I mean, I LOVE cooking. I love exploring my fridge and cabinets and grabbing things to create something I’ve never made before that actually tastes really good! Then things got more exciting. In 2007, my husband and I welcomed into our world twin daughters. After a crazy year of bottle after bottle, things changed and the girls started to eat “real” food. This is when my love of cooking went into over drive as I tried to find recipes that fit their taste buds. I was determined to cook healthy meals that the whole family could enjoy together. In September of 2009, I had a conversation with my mom who encouraged me to pursue teaching others all that I have learned about feeding toddler’s and handling the busy and crazy life of multiples. And as we all know, mothers know best! Soon after, Multiply Delicious was born! The blog first began as a place to share my recipes but quickly changed into covering many topics.

- You’ll find recipes for breakfasts, lunches, dinners and desserts that feature nothing but gloriously old-fashioned, family-friendly, budget-conscious home cooking.

- There is a place for all things dealing with the little ones in your lives. Everything from cool finds, activities, party ideas, fashions, and kid decor.

- Then there is a Mommy section completely devoted to mom’s. Ranging from health and fitness to house and home. After all, we need a little something for us too.

- And there is even a place where I share my random thoughts on my life as a mommy of twins, a wife, a daughter, full-time worker, and everything in between.

In the end, my hope is that Multiply Delicious could offer something for everyone! I'm so excited to be here with Smithfield.com and look forward to sharing with all of you out there.

Hi, I’m Shaina Olmanson, the voice behind Food for My Family along with my husband, Ole, who waxes poetic about his love for the grill and his smoker. I work from home as a freelance writer, recipe developer and photographer in Minnesota, and I’m “Mom” to four young kids, ages 10, (almost) 6, 4 and 2.

I used to spend countless hours watching my Yugoslavian-born grandmother roast meats, simmer sauces and bake elegant treats. Growing up in a home where everything was made from scratch and so close to several local farms, I learned the importance of eating real food, and I strive to teach my children how to prepare and eat real food in a day and age where there are so many convenience options available. I love feeding people, and I’m constantly sharing treats. I wholeheartedly believe that the best kind of gift is one that fills you up, and I have been sharing my home cooking skills with family members and friends for as long as I can remember.

While I initially went to school to be a psychologist, I abandoned dreams of graduate school and my career in the nonprofit world to let my husband finish his graduate degree. Instead, I started my own business working from home as a transcriptionist and editor, and after six years I decided to pursue a few of my own passions that had never fully been recognized. I now work from home as a freelance writer, recipe developer and photographer on my own blog Food for My Family and through my photography business, Olmanson Photography. I am a daily contributor to Babble.com's Family Kitchen Blog and the editor of the food channel for Lifetime Moms.

I’m thrilled to be exploring my own passions again and have found life to be quite full – and fulfilling – as I juggle cooking, the computer and a camera all while my kids hang on my apron strings, lick spatulas when they think I’m not watching and inevitably dump flour all over freshly cleaned floors. Life couldn’t be better.