Skinnytaste | The Dinner Special podcast

116: Monique Volz: How Healthy Food Doesn’t Have to be Boring

March 30, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Ambitious Kitchen

Monique started her blog at the end of 2011 to share her love of healthy, nutritious food and baking, and in less than three years was able to quit her full-time corporate job to work on Ambitious Kitchen full-time. Most of Monique’s food is geared towards those with active, healthy lifestyles, and she enjoys getting creative in the kitchen with unique ingredients – pairing different flavor combinations and playing with gluten-free and vegan recipes. She’s been featured in The Huffington post, Buzzfeed and Today.com just to name a few.

I am so psyched to have Monique Volz of Ambitious Kitchen joining me here today.

(*All photos below are Monique’s.)

On Finding Time to Write About Her Food Adventures:

I think it has always been a goal of mine to start a blog. I just didn’t know where to begin, and so it took me about six months to get the guts and just say, “Okay, I need to start this.”

I worked a lot on my site on the weekends or after work. To be honest, it became this passion project, something that I just really, really enjoyed. So I’d come home and make a recipe, and then I’d photograph it really quick, and then I’d put it on my site. It was just learn as you go.

I was very familiar with the social media so that wasn’t a really big deal for me. But when I first started, I had no intention of blogging full-time. It was just really this thing that I really, really loved. I wanted to share my passion for food and nutrition with other people. It was about two years when I thought, “Okay, maybe I could do this full-time.” It involved me really working on it, every single night after work pretty much, and my weekends were devoted to photography and recipe testing. So it was basically working two full-time jobs for a long time.

The photography was a huge thing because I took one photography class in high school, and I was pretty good with it, but I had no idea what I was doing. I think it was about a year into my blog when I bought a Canon DSLR and started taking shots that were a little more professional. Before I was taking it with my point-and-shoot, and things were blurry. And I think no one really cared at that point. I got my professional camera, and things really changed, and I had to really pay attention. The whole editing process, it can take up to two or three hours. So that was really time consuming for me, and I had to learn how to, I guess, get that time down so that I was able to still blog and have my job.

On Turning Her Blog into Her Full-Time Career:

I really had to be strategic about what I was doing on social media. So that meant scheduling out my Facebook posts, scheduling out things on Pinterest and on Twitter. That was a really critical step, and then just making sure that I had a content calendar for myself. When I first started, I would just post whenever I felt like it, when I had time. Once I started committing to three posts a week or even more than that, I saw my traffic increase tremendously. It was crazy growth. I think that was a step in taking it full-time and also being organized and financially ready.

I thought about it every day for six months, and I remember I would complain about how much I didn’t like my job and how much I wanted to blog full-time. I think it just took a lot of courage to be able to do it. And so after six months of complaining, one day, I really didn’t have a plan. I was going to wait three more months, and then one day, I was just like, “Okay, if I’m going to do it, I’m going to do this.” So I went into my job, and I handed in my two weeks, and that was it, never looked back.

On Her Passion for Health and Fitness:

It was definitely something I picked up along the way. I really wasn’t conscious about the food that I was putting in my body until about my junior year of college. I was just at a point where I had gained weight. I was unhappy with the way I looked. I was not very confident. For me, it was this breaking point where I was like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t keep eating ranch or ketchup and french fries all the time.” So really for me, I had to teach myself about nutrition. I read every single women’s fitness and nutrition magazine out there. I purchased books. I just taught myself how to make healthy, wholesome meals. That was really my foundation. I don’t have a professional background in nutrition, but it’s very much become a passion of mine.

On a Misconception of Eating Healthy:

I think that people think that it’s really, really boring, and just because it’s ‘clean eating’ or ‘healthy eating’ that it’s just a chicken breast and asparagus and a sweet potato every single night. That was what I thought about it. It was just like, “It’s so boring. You can never have a burger,” but that’s not necessarily true. I think you can make really beautiful, healthy food, and it’s all about having nutritious ingredients.

When I first started, I was using a lot of sugar-free things because I thought that that meant that they were healthy, and I think a lot of people might think low-fat or sugar-free, but as I continued to learn about food and health, I learned that it’s good to have those healthy fats like avocados and nut butters and coconut oil and lean meats and vegetables. So that was a really big step in learning how to eat healthy for me.

You can be healthy and have nutritious food, but it doesn’t have to be boring. You just have to figure out a way to make the ingredients work for you.

On a Simple Way to Start Eating More Healthy:

I think the simplest way is probably meal prep, so making a list and going to the grocery store prepared so that you’re not buying a bunch of things that are unnecessary. What I like to do is plan out my meals before I go to the store. So I’ll say, “Where are all the ingredients I need? How can I make this meal a little more nutritious? Maybe adding in spinach to pasta,” or something like that. That has been a game changer for me.

On Her Summer Sweat Series:

I have a really good friend named Lee, and she also runs a blog called, Fit Foodie Finds. We’ve been friends for a few years. We both grew up in Minnesota, and one time we were on this vacation together, and we just thought, “Oh my gosh, what if we put together a fitness and nutrition program and just see what people thought about it?” We started the Summer Sweat series back in June. It was a six-week challenge, and people were just so in love with it. It came with meal plans. There were a bunch of different workouts. We worked with a personal trainer. So it was just something fun and different and a great way to bring traffic to both of our sites during what we call the summer slump where everyone’s outside and not on the Internet. So yeah, we’re doing it again this year, and we’re really, really excited.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I was a fan of Food Network Star for a really long time. Anytime that Food Network or Cooking Channel was on, I would watch anything on there, but Food Network Star was probably my favorite.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

I really, really love What’s Gaby Cooking, and she has just a really great approach to healthy and indulgent food, and beautiful photography. You can pretty much find any recipe you’re looking for. FoodieCrush is another great one. If you like baking, Sarah of Broma Bakery who I think has already been on your site, is a very good friend of mine, and for healthy recipes, Skinnytaste is another good one.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

I really like following Andie Mitchell. She wrote a book, a memoir actually, and she’s just really inspiring and just a fantastic woman. It’s been so fun to follow her journey. She’s lost over 130 pounds and is just truly inspirational. So I follow her on Instagram, and then also I follow her blog.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

I have an avocado slicer. It’s really helpful, so I don’t have to do it with my knife and chop off my hand when I’m try to get the pit out. It does it all for you.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

Olives. My brother told me when I was a little girl that olives were, I think he said snails. I was five and I believed him for the longest time. Every time I looked at olives, it was just gross to me, but now I love them, especially black olives. I love putting them on my pizza and in my salads.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I have a lot of cookbooks. Skinnytaste, she has the website and she also came out with a really great cookbook. I love it because my boyfriend tends to not eat healthy but it has a lot of healthy meals, so we cook from it. Another great one is, Back In The Day Bakery cookbook. It’s just a fun baking one. There are a lot of cakes and cookies and pies, so I always use that for when I’m baking for my family and special occasions. I think those are my go-to’s.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Anything by Florence and the Machine. She’s amazing.

On Keeping Posted with Monique:

I would say either Instagram or Facebook.

100: Ali Maffucci: Getting Inspiralized

December 16, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

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Inspiralized

Ali discovered the spiralizer in March 2013 and since has created Inspiralized, which is a blog, a community, a product, and a book. She lost 30 pounds by eating Inspiralized and she aims to inspire others to always feel their best, in part, by helping turn vegetables into healthy, creative, and satisfying meals. Ali wants to show that eating healthy is fun and doesn’t have to be boring.

I am so pumped to have Ali Maffucci of Inspiralized here on the show today.

*(All photos below are Ali’s.)

On What a Spiralizer Is:

A spiralizer is a small kitchen tool that turns vegetables and fruits into noodles. So, at its most basic level, that’s what it does. And then, what you decide to do with those noodles afterwards is where the fun begins. But it’s just a basic kitchen tool.

My mother is actually a type 1 diabetic. She had gestational diabetes with her pregnancy and it stuck. She was trying raw veganism as a way to help manage her blood sugars. And she discovered zucchini noodles in a restaurant, and then did her own research and discovered the spiralizer; and found out that the spiralizer can make zucchini noodles. She bought one on Amazon and she loved it. And it was really, really helping with her health. And her knowing that I love healthy cooking and I love pasta, she said, “Come over one night. I’ll make you dinner so you can test the spiralizer out.” I was like, “Mom, what is this veggie noodle stuff?” Months later, I went over. It was sort of like a light, Asian vinaigrette on it, just a total raw noodle dish. And I took one bite – and I still remember that bite, it was just like, “Wow, this tastes like pasta.”

I was blown away. I was like, “How have I not heard about this?” So, I asked her that night if I could take her spiralizer. My poor mother was so excited about hers and I took it. That was on a Sunday and the next night was a Monday. I made dinner for my husband and he had the exact same reaction. He was blown away. It was such an easy way to make dinner and I had never used it before, and it just came so naturally. So it’s definitely great for a basic chef. I was blown away, so that’s how I first discovered it. And then obviously, once I got my husband’s approval, that was the big moment.

On Starting Her Blog:

What happened was I found myself in my desk job, sitting there writing recipes on napkins at lunchtime, and typing on my phone things to test out. “So, oh, can I spiralize this?” I was finding that at work I was dreaming of spiralizing, which kind of sounds corny, but it was the truth. I just felt so creative. And I was looking online at night searching spiralizer recipes and resources for spiralizing and there was absolutely nothing. There was no community. There were a couple of recipes. One was a simple pesto recipe in the New York Times and very basic vegan, vegetarian, raw vegan sort of recipes. There was just no community.

I was looking at the hashtag for spiralizer and there was really nothing. So basically, overall, I was so blown away by spiralizing that I wanted to tell everyone about it. And now, it being 2015, the best way to get out there is to launch something online and be on social media. So, I basically walked into my boss’s office one day, after like, two months of trying to build up the courage to quit and start this dream. So I walked into my boss’s office and quit. The next day I went to a Starbucks near my apartment here in Jersey City, and I just started from scratch. I just wanted to build a community. That’s really what I wanted to do at first and build this buzz around spiralizing.

On Being Conscious of What She Eats:

It sounds bad to say, but like any other girl in her early to mid-20s, I was very conscious of my body and being healthy. I think I always grew up with, sort of, healthy intentions, because, as I mentioned, my mother was diabetic. So, a lot of the things we had in the household were diabetic-friendly whether it’s obviously, low sugar, low carb. We always ate whole wheat everything. We weren’t allowed soda. I was just very interested, but I never actually started cooking until my senior year of college when I decided to become a vegan. Veganism was starting to be trendy and I was, like, “You know what, I really need a reboot. Let me try this.”

I was vegan for about two years and ever since then, I would say, “I’m an omnivore now. I eat everything. But I’m an omnivore with a vegan mindset.” I think it really helps you balance everything.

On Her New York Times Best-Selling Book, Inspiralized:

It’s actually a funny story. I self-published the first year that I was starting Inspiralized. I was getting a lot of emails and notes about it and people were asking, “I want a little something to include with the spiralizer I’m gifting to my friend, because of you. Do you have anything, do you have a recipe card I can include, or something like that?” And I was emailing people, “Oh, just print this out.” And I wanted something to hold onto and so people could spread the word that way. So I self-published just a small little cookbook and it was really, really successful and people loved it. People were sharing it over the Holidays. I actually got approached by a publisher who made a publishing offer to me. And I was like, “Wow, this is real. Wow, this is real.” So, I got a literary agent and then she took me on that journey and I finally selected Random House.

That felt like I finally made it. I got a cookbook deal. It’s like every food blogger or foodie’s dream to really have a cookbook. It’s like your first big milestone. I was saving my best recipes I wanted to post my blog, I’m like, “I’m saving it for the book.” But that was just an incredible experience. I learned so much as a cook. I became a better cook. My recipes on my blog are now better because of it. I learned different things about the spiralizer that I incorporate in the book. New vegetables I discovered along the way of writing the book I included.

It was a big discovery and a big proud moment in my life to write that book, and I put everything into it. I wrote it during the summer, so I didn’t go to the beach that year. I just wrote the cookbook, but I’m so proud of it. It’s an amazing book.

On Her First Product, The Inspiralizer:

The Inspiralizer is obviously my own branded product. And I wanted to make something that people could use on a daily basis like I do. So if you really love spiralizing, you’re probably spiralizing like three to four times a week, if not more. I wanted to make something that people could display proudly on their countertops that sort of have that effectiveness where you could use it constantly. You wouldn’t have issues with it; make something more sturdy.

I was spiralizing every single day. The product that I was using, I was noticing, like, “Well, if this was just a little different, and this was that…” So I basically went to the drawing board and sketched my own design for what I imagined to be the perfect spiralizer. I got a business partner, obviously. He guided me through the process based on my design of what I wanted. And then when it came time to name what it was, obviously, Inspiralizer sounds pretty good.

The Pressure Cooker:

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I love Chopped. Chopped is great because I always learn about new ingredients and I find that I learn a lot just from the fast thinking that the chefs have to go through. And I love Giada.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

I love Molly Yeh. She is out in North Dakota, I think. She’s sort of mostly recipes. Her photography is beautiful. Her cooking methods are really fun. I really love her. And then if we’re thinking about healthy blogs, I love Gina from Skinnytaste. She’s a friend of mine and she just has the most reliably, healthy, tasty recipes.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

I follow a lot of people on Instagram. I like NomYourself. She is a vegan blogger. RobinNYC. She is a spin instructor and a running coach. She started an urban running community, and she has great Instagrams, super motivational, and my favorite way to exercise is spinning. I spin with Peloton Cycle and she’s a head instructor there. All of her images are just very raw and gritty, but she shows her hustle and she shows it out there for people. I’m really inspired by her, especially in a fitness element. She’s an entrepreneur as well, but the fitness element, she always gets me in the gym.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

I actually have a good one for this. So, my first day of college, my father said, “Oh, you know one of the fun things you can do is have your friends over and watch movies and make popcorn.” And I was like, “Dad, I want to go to parties and have fun. I’m not just going to sit in my dorm and eat popcorn. But, of course, I did. I sat in my dorm room and ate popcorn, and he gave me this bowl. It’s like a ceramic bowl and it has the emblem of the college I went to, Wake Forest. I got it my freshman year of college and I’ve lived in five different apartments since then, and I still have it. And I still use it every single day. Not for popcorn…well, I do use it for popcorn, but I actually use it when I cook, as like a mixing bowl.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

Broccoli rabe. I used to think it was really bitter, but I learned how to cook it and now I love it.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

I have to say, I don’t cook from cookbooks. A goal of mine is to cook more from cookbooks, but I don’t cook from any cookbooks.

Except for my own. I’m too busy developing recipes. When I was vegan, I definitely used…I liked The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone. I used to cook from her book, but other than that, I don’t really.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

Well, I’ll say this. My husband is very good with curating music and he curates a playlist on Spotify. My name’s Ali. He named it Ali’s Mix, and he updates my music all the time. So, that’s what I put on every single day when I cook. And it just makes me happy.

On Keeping Posted with Ali:

Definitely Instagram or my mailing list.