The 5 Best Food Blogs for Kids & Families
5. In Praise of Leftovers
The Story
Sarah Murphy-Kangas is down-to-earth. She’s a mom, a wife, an aunt, a group facilitator and an organizational development consultant. Her work does seem to be reflected in her cooking, since the food featured there is almost always about bonding with loved ones, nurturing, and maintaining a happy and healthy environment for all. That’s because, as Sarah herself puts it, nothing makes her happier than finding a way to use all the random bits in her fridge.
The Blog
Aside from the recipes themselves, which are simple, traditional, and often adapted from family recipes, the blog also features some great storytelling through food. There are plenty of pictures of the happy family enjoying their summers, winters, or any other season. There are series of holiday-themed entries, depending on the time of the year – for instance, as of the date this article was written, the blog featured a holiday series called “Advent 2013”, with a new cake or cookie recipe featured every day. Most importantly, the cooking style you’ll encounter on In Praise of Leftovers does justice to the blog’s title: it’s not about snootiness, but about thriftiness and living a simple lifestyle, but one that’s rewarding and filled with joy. For Seattle-based Sarah, “the kitchen is more about being together than about making the perfect meal”.
Blog Metrics
PR – 4/10
DA – 40
Alexa Rank – 2,116,982
Fans & Followers – For the time being, In Praise of Leftovers cannot be found on social media, but we’re willing to bet it’s going to be popular when it pops up!
Foodie Philosophy
“This blog is for anyone who’s ever opened the fridge and been overwhelmed by what to do with its contents. It’s for inspiration at the end of a long workday, parents at home with kids, novice cooks who want to get more comfortable in the kitchen.”
The recipes are easy, can be concocted out of both scratch and leftovers and they’re meant to teach everyone and anyone that balancing home-cooked meals, good nutritional value, and parenting, is an achievable goal. Check out the goodies below to convince yourself of this!
Signature Recipes
4. In Sock Monkey Slippers
The Story
Meredith Steele actually owns sock monkey slippers! She’s got an “amazing husband” and a “large floppy eared dog, Jack”. Also, she’s got a daughter called Mia, who was born in 2008, 16 weeks early, but with “as much fight and determination in her little pinky finger than all of us combined”. The baby girl, weighing no more than 1 pound and 13oz had to spend her first 5 months in the hospital and, as per doctor recommendations, had to be kept out of daycare for the first 3 years of her life, which turned her mom into a stay-at-home – not the kind of role she was used to. Meredith had to leave her job as a graphic designer, but decided to start a food blog instead, in order to keep her passion for beauty alive. At first, it was all about keeping the recipes and experienced stored for her own use, but then, all of sudden, she realized she’d gathered quite a following…
The Blog
As the name of the blog would suggest, In Sock Monkey Slippers is part recipes, part humor and fun. Meredith has made it her point to spike up her recipes, which are largely based on fresh whole foods, with a lot of creativity and personal touches. The best part about them is that everyone in the family can contribute and help out. Meanwhile, the stories told on the blog perfectly complement the recipes that highlight the principles of clean eating: they are lighthearted and fun. Mia is also a contributor to the blog (or a sidekick, as she’s dubbed), with a nickname she got in the NICU: “the feisty little bear”. Mia is an avid furniture climber, the inspiration for the blog, and its official taster.
Blog Metrics
PR – 4/10
DA – 47
Alexa Rank – 367,702
Fans & Followers – In Sock Monkey Slippers has no fewer than 2k followers on Twitter, 3.5k Facebook fans, and can, of course, also be followed on Pinterest, Instagram, and Google+.
Foodie Philosophy
“Today the blog is full of stories about life and how it relates to food. My goal is to create a place where we all can relate and bring a moment of laughter, inspiration, creativity, and fresh meal ideas for our families.”
Indeed, In Sock Monkey Slippers is very inspiring for all those who want to find a warm place, filled with creativity and enjoyment of life – both in terms of recipes, as well as in terms of the stories shared.
Signature Recipes
3. Dinner – A Love Story
The Story
Dinner – A Love Story, or DALS in brief, is the love child of Jenny Rosenstratch, the author of a cook book by the same name, and the co-author of yet another great book for foodies, Time for Dinner. Unlike many other food bloggers, Jenny is neither a culinary school graduate, nor a former chef. In fact, she’s the first one to admit that it took her quite some time to figure out the essentials of cooking. Yet she’s been working for most of her adult life as a food feature editor for numerous websites and magazines, including Bon Appetit, Martha Stewart and Real Simple. Jenny saw the birth of her two daughters within no more than 20 months, which what prompted her to strike a deal with herself: she would only continue to work full time if she found she “was able to put a meal on the table for [her] family more often than not”. Since October 2009 she’s been working part-time, as she then decided to focus more on the blog.
The Blog
The blog is maintained by Jenny and her husband Andy, who is a book editor by day. He cooks on the weekends and on those days when Jenny would “rather chew off [her] own arm than deal with dinner”. They write a food column together in Bon Appetit, while, on the blog, they aim to show all parents that they can do more about dinner for the whole family than fire up a frozen pizza. They understand that this is a tough job to pull off and insist they would never fault or judge someone for skipping a home-cooked dinner every now and then, or for not buying strictly organic. However, what they promise (and deliver) is strategies on how to cook up a balanced dinner, in easy steps, and with healthful results that the kids can enjoy, too. The blog places a lot of focus on entertaining guests at home and even offers vegetarian recipes, for those who follow this lifestyle. The name of the blog stems from its authors’ beliefs that dinner is “an emotional anchor to our day, the built-in guarantee that we’ll put down our Blackberries and our Polly Pockets Shimmer and Splash Adventure dolls and spend half hour or so hashing out whatever it is that’s on the collective family mind”. All photos on the blog are taken by Jenny herself, with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS5, equipped with a Leica lens.
Blog Metrics
PR – 5/10
DA – 62
Alexa Rank – 125,868
Fans & Followers – This family has got over 12k Facebook fans, 5.3k Twitter followers, and can also be followed on Pinterest.
Foodie Philosophy
“Family dinner is a mindset, and once you get comfortable with the idea of not doing it, the harder it becomes to make it happen. But the more you force yourself to make meals for your children, the more it will become second-nature, and the more addicted you’ll get to all the pleasures and dividends a family meal can yield.”
The DALS team is understanding, real, and genuine. They are fully understanding of the fact that juggling the demands of a busy life with those of cooking for the little ones can be taxing, especially for those who don’t enjoy cooking or who don’t know how. However, that’s where they step in to help. Check out some of their amazing results below!
Signature Recipes
2. Family Fresh Cooking
The Story
It seems like there’s nothing Marla Meridith can’t do right. She’s a food blogger, a mother, a wife, a photographer, and a huge fan of traveling. Marla grew up in Long Island, NY, but then went on to live in SoCal for 15 years. She loves the outdoors and does yoga, skiing, hiking, and weight lifting on the regular. She’s got a 9 year-old daughter and a 6 year-old son, loves cooking, and also keeps up a professional food and portrait photography portfolio at MarlaMeridith.com. She’s a very active person, who doesn’t do lazy days and naturally wakes up at 4 am all by herself. She’s passionate about art and design, loves coffee, “honest people, real food, bright colors, plaid patterns, polka dots, and the color pink”. She used to work as a freelance designer for Disney, Warner Bros. and many others. She travels a lot, too – but, of course, her number one love is that of food.
The Blog
Inspired by Marla’s mantra of mindful living in every aspect of one’s life, Family Fresh Cooking is a bit of everything, with a focus on food and families. You can also find quite a lot of blogging about active luxury travel and DIY crafts on the website, too, but it’s mainly the beautifully shot, simple and natural recipes that catch the eye. It’s all about keeping her family healthy and happy for Marla. She gets very creative with her recipe and meal planning and of course encourages her readers to do the same. She invites them to rely on as many fresh and organic ingredients as they can and also promotes mindful eating and portion control as a recipe for staying fit and healthy. Marla also runs a project aimed at demystifying the home cooking experience, which is called Project Lunch Box. Most recipes on the blog are sugar-free and employ healthier substitutes for sweeteners.
Blog Metrics
PR – 5/10
DA – 63
Alexa Rank – 105,948
Fans & Followers – The Family Fresh Cooking Facebook page has got an impressive 40k likes, while their Twitter account is followed by more than 8.3k people. They can also be followed on Google+, Instagran, and Pinterest.
Foodie Philosophy
“Daily we have multiple opportunities to decide what food to eat. Certain foods make us feel great, while others destroy our moods and energy levels. Whole food ingredients and mindful eating behaviors allow us to live healthy, happy lives. The most important thing is to never feel deprived, as food is one of life’s greatest pleasures.”
The above foodie philosophy that this blog brings has a lot to do with practicing mindfulness – and that’s what Family Fresh Cooking is all about. Health, happiness, genuinely natural food, and enjoyment.
Signature Recipes
1. Simple Bites
The Story
Aimée Wimbush-Bourque seems to be doing everything at Simple Bites: she edits the site, acts as its main writer, cooks away, and, of course, does the bottle washing, too. She’s got a husband called Danny, three adorable little ones (two boys and a baby girl), two cats, and six brown hens, too! She used to be a chef before she turned into a self-professed “modern homesteader” and food blogger. For the past three years, the family has been living in a semi-urban homestead by a maple forest right outside of Montreal. As she tells us, she writes about her adventures in family life “from the dining room table, surrounded by toy cars and cookie crumbs”. In terms of preferences, she loves good spices, olive oil, and sea salt, and has even taken her love for organic food up a notch by also trying her hand out at gardening, foraging, and canning. Aimée grew up on a farm where they grew their own food, which allowed her to learn about baking, milking, and all it takes to run a household from her early days. Oh, and she’s also kind of addicted to Instagram, too (aren’t we all, these days…?).
The Blog
Simple Bites is all about bringing the family together in the kitchen, for a bit of fun, and some lessons in healthy eating that literally teach themselves. Don’t worry about fighting with your kids in order to get them to eat their veggies anymore. Simple bites can start you up on eating unprocessed, nourishing, seasonal, and local. It’s got so much more than just recipes: check out the blog for tutorials, tips on how to go about cooking with the kids – plus the special section on urban homesteading! The blog features a team of dedicated contributors, aside from Aimée, the driving force behind the site. The site also features a great resource section with cook books that will help you catch onto the basics of cooking, while also working your way to kitchen mastery together with your tots. Aimée and her team are currently hard at work at bringing us a cook book, so stay tuned with their blog to find out all about it, the second it drops.
Blog Metrics
PR – 5/10
DA – 62
Alexa Rank – 89,770
Fans & Followers – 4.7k fans follow Aimée’s adventures on Instagram, she’s got 3.4k Twitter fans, and upward of 17k fans on Facebook. Plus, you can also find her on Pinterest.
Foodie Philosophy
“Come here to find delicious recipes, captivating stories, and an encouraging perspective to help you provide great food for your family.”
Simple Bites has got all the right ingredients (pun intended!) to keep the foodie in you entertained, as well as the kid – either the one we all still have within us, or the actual tyke we’ve got romping around the house! Check out some simple, scrumptious looking treats in the signature dish gallery below.
Signature Recipes
After the jump, more on the 5 top cooking science food blogs!