Laura Fuentes, CEO & Chief MOM in the Kitchen I’m a mother of three young school-aged children with more on the way (some day). I was born in Spain and raised on homemade food from my grandmother’s kitchen. My Abuela Maruja’s passion for fresh ingredients built the foundation and appreciation for wholesome foods. My extensive travel through Spain ignited my love for Tapas, or small plates. My oldest children, two ultra-picky eaters, are a daily challenge to feed nutritious food. Growing tired of my kids asking for processed packaged items claiming to be nutritious, I set out to make food that looked like what their friends were eating, but made fresh in my kitchen — all without the preservatives and processing typical of children’s store-bought lunches. My love for fresh food in tapas-sized bites has helped me create fun, convenient ways to feed my kids nutritious foods. For the past five years, I’ve been compiling healthy recipes and am now ready to share them with other moms and dads looking for alternative, healthy lunches for their kids. In the process, MOMables™ was created. I’m not a trained chef, but a busy parent like you — one who wants to simplify the lunch process and help you make it fresh, fast and kid-friendly!
Chef Amparo Fuentes, MOMables Chef Chef Amparo Fuentes is the mother of three (still) growing children and loves everything about nutritious foods. In 2004, she began working in an organic marketplace in Spain teaching cooking classes and established their prepared fresh-food department. A graduate of Madrid’s School of Nutrition, Amparo has a background in holistic nutrition and child nutritional education. In 2007, Amparo moved on to work as a Sous Chef in an organic restaurant while attending pastry school. And in 2009, turning her focus back to children’s nutrition, Amparo enrolled in Culinary School while cooking at the Gredos San Diego School in Madrid. For two years, she has cooked in the school’s kitchen, serving over 1800 wholesome, fresh daily lunches to school aged children (pre-K through 8th) every day. Her creativity, efficiency in the kitchen, knowledge of nutritious foods and motherly instinct make her a fantastic addition to our MOMables team. Best of all, Amparo happens to be my aunt… So I guess you could say that healthy meals are part of our DNA (Definite Nutrition Advocates).
Heather Reynolds, Menu MOM Heather assembles our menus each week so busy parents everywhere can make fresh lunches for their kids. She has three kids (including 2-year–old twins), and her passion for healthy family food arose when she realized that her diet of Red Vines and Diet Soda wasn’t going to inspire healthy habits in her children. In a previous life she was a teacher. Now, you can find her bent over her MOMables menu paperwork most nights instead of correcting spelling papers and classwork. She is now a fresh lunch convert and her daughter’s lunches have earned the title of “healthiest lunches in the class”.
Alison Bickel, Contributor and Special Projects. Alison lives in the heart of the mid-west where, along with her husband, they raise their three boys. Whether it’s in the garden, the kitchen or tagging along on her boys’ latest adventure she looks for the simple beauty in everyday from behind her lens. On her blog, ‘this homemade life’ Alison shares tales of mothering, her passion for vegetarian cooking and obsession with farmer’s markets.
Corey Valley, Contributor and Social Media. Corey is a proud mother of “Big D” & “Little D” and awesome wife to Darryl. In January of 2011 after watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, she made the New Years resolution to start a food blog. By the end of January, Family Fresh Meals was launched! She finds great joy in posting step-by-step recipes of new and fun fresh meals that the whole family can enjoy. Her blog is full of my love of fresh food, family & friends.
Keeley McGuire, Contributor Keeley is our resident gluten free and peanut free contributor. She is a mom of one little girl who enjoys eating her creative mom’s bento lunches. Keeley views the challenges of motherhood, working full-time, and food allergies as an adventure! In her personal blog, KeeleyMcGuireBlog, she shares her gluten free and peanut free recipes, her love for her crockpot, and the occasional craft. People describe Keeley as a sports nut, allergic to sleep, hard-working, creative Mama, who always puts her faith and family first.
Michelle Castañeda, Contributor and Special Projects. Michelle is married to her college sweetheart David and together they have a beautiful daughter and a cute puppy. She has a love for baking, breakfast foods and presenting her daughter’s lunch in creative ways. In her personal blog, Creative Food, she shares fun and creative bentos and lunches that she makes for her daughter.
Brooke Wheeler, Contributor and Menu MOM. Brooke is married with two young children. She took on the role of household lunch packer this Fall when her oldest son started kindergarten. Because her son is a type-1 diabetic her main focus in lunch packing is preparing low-carbohydrate lunches. You can also visit Brooke’s blog over thewheelerweekly.com
Rachel Lacy, Contributor. Rachel, a wanna-be knitter and unashamed shower singer, is busy mommy of three wild and precocious children and the wife of a pure-bred Texas boy. As the author/owner of Following In My Shoes, Rachel uses her humor and love of photography to blog about Mommyhood, Family-friendly Food and Bento Lunches, and Life in Texas. She is a lover of all things Coffee and Nutella.
Isra Hashmi, Consultant. Isra is blogger and founder of TheFrugalette.com After getting her family out of mounds of debt, they changed their lifestyle completely and went fancy to frugal. In one year of blogging, her tips have been featured in all avenues of media outlets, including The Anderson Cooper Talk Show, Mint.com and Redbook magazine. She lives with her husband and three young children in Boston, MA. Say hi to her @thefrugalette.
Kendra Peterson, Contributor. Kendra has two daughters on a diet free from artificial ingredients (and gluten, just to make life more difficult,). She cooks meals that don’t come from a can, boxed or with unidentifiable ingredients. She makes miracles with the random veggies she gets from her CSA box and can be seen pulled over at the park or library feeding her kids food packed in lunch boxes. Blogging under the name of Ludicrous Mama, you can find her channeling her creativity into making fun waste-free lunches on her blog, Biting the Hand That Feeds You and laugh at her cooking flops.
Trina O’Boyle, founder of the O’Boy! Organic. Trina offers; parent cooking classes, baby food personal chef services and Kids Cooking Parties in the Philadelphia area. Trina has been passionate about healthy foods and eco – friendly living for over 20 years. Trina strives to be a good role model to her 2 boys by cooking and eating healthy food, while still allowing for the splurges of childhood.
Trina is also the Social Media Editor for Happy Family Brands – a leader in organic foods for babies and kids. You can follow Trina at O’Boy! Organic and on Facebook and Twitter.
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