I’m Shaina Olmanson. I’m the freelance writer, photographer, and the home cook behind Food for My Family, which has been named one of the top food blogs by Babble.com, SheKnows.com, Working Mother, and Circle of Moms. I am the author of Desserts in Jars: 50 Sweet Treats that Shine, have served as the food editor for Lifetime Moms, and contribute regularly to a variety of online sites and traditional print magazines. I have worked as a spokesperson and recipe developer for several food brands, working in conjunction with their marketing departments to develop recipes for product packaging and helping to share those recipes on national and local television and radio. My work has been featured in Family Fun, Parents Magazine, Parenting Magazine, Women’s World, and Better Homes and Gardens.Driven by a desire to overturn people’s attitudes towards cooking and reinvent society’s kitchen culture, I share my experiences in the kitchen and my outlook on raising a food aware family. Cooking daily with and for my four kids and husband, Ole, I work to inspire other families to do the same. We live in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, an urban oasis surrounded by farms and fields of green.
About Food for My Family:
Feeding a family isn’t the easiest thing to do. From dating to marriage, birth to college, allergies to preferences, affordability to quality, processed to organically grown, there are choices and decisions that have to be made along the way. Food is all about choices, and there are plenty to make, especially when other people are involved. We’re a busy family of six, wading through the process, trying to eat right and enjoy our food while still saving money and time.
Our Favorite Recipes
From my grandma’s Christmas cookies to authentic enchiladas, you’ll find them here. I love recipes, but I can’t help but make changes to ones I find. I am constantly tweaking recipes online or that are given to me to figure out what I think works best for us.
Menu Planning
It’s a look at your week (and ours) with room for spontaneity. Embrace spontaneous combustion.
One Deal, Five Meals
How to save money when you find a deal you just can’t pass on. Like a $3.00 turkey after Thanksgiving. This is how you take that price cut turkey and turn it into five different meals that you’ll enjoy eating without getting so tired of turkey that you throw the last third of it in the garbage. (You would never do that, would you?)
The Kitchen Sink
Money-saving tips, cooking techniques, random facts, timesaving secrets, dining out on a dime, product reviews of my favorite things: they’re all in here.
Make-Ahead Meals
There are days when cooking a meal isn’t going to happen. Things come up; there are places to be – whatever the reason, having a meal you can pull out of the freezer and stick in the oven saves you from spending unnecessarily on fast food restaurants, pizza delivery and takeout.
From the Patio
Ole takes you all around the outdoor eating arena, from grilling in the winter to showing you how to make your own smoker.
Manic Organic
A look at nutrition and what you put on your plate.
Going Green
Whether you grow your own food at home, buy in bulk packaging to reduce waste, or recycle everything you touch, being environmentally friendly is a trend that’s not going away.
The Cast of Characters:
Shaina and Ole
I’m the one writing (the majority of the time).
Ole “mans” the grill. And the smoker. Dad to our four children, we fell in love when I brought him to the farmer’s market with me. On his motorcycle. (The motorcycle did it for me.) You’ll see Ole talking about meat. And smoke. And the tasty things you can do with meat and smoke.
Kiera is the oldest, which makes her the queen bee of our home. She swims for her high school swim team, so she’s always looking for ways to get extra energy out of her snacks and meals. She can manage dinner for the family on her own, and you can often find her baking with her friends on the weekends.
Kjell is my crunchy candy shell with a soft inside. He plays the cello, snowboards, swims, plays basketball, baseball and will try anything we let him. An engineer at heart, he is always taking things apart and finding new ways to put them back together. He lives for pasta night.
Lene is my spitfire. She is sweet and tart and sassy, if she trusts you. Lene loves science and biology, Neil Gaiman, her toad – Herman, and swimming. Her favorite food is sushi, and she is the first to volunteer to help in the kitchen no matter what we’re making.
Magnus is my youngest little man, and he is very much the baby of the family, despite my best efforts to have him turn out otherwise. His older siblings spent years spoiling him and holding his hand. It’s a good thing he’s so sweet he makes you want to squish him. In a good way. Mostly. He loves rolling dough and baking, and his favorite food is apples.
Food is many things to many people. For our family, it is something we enjoy doing together, whether it is in the preparation or the consumption. It gives us energy, keeps us healthy and helps my little ones to grow. It provides a reason to get together with friends and talk and makes a wonderful gift. Food is a necessity, a passion, a way of life.
Come share our food with us.
