Whether you are new to Dashing Dish, or you have been around for a while, this in depth interview with Katie Farrell, the creator and founder of Dashing Dish will give you an inside look at what Dashing Dish is all about!

What inspired you to create Dashing Dish?

I created Dashing Dish because I wanted to create a place where people could learn how to live a healthy lifestyle without feeling like they had to be on a diet, feel deprived, or eat boring bland food! After years of battling an unhealthy relationship with food, I started to get serious about making permanent lifestyle changes, which meant that they had to be enjoyable.

When I made the decision to change my lifestyle, I started experimenting in the kitchen, and quickly fell in love with cooking and baking. I started sharing my food with others and received a ton of feedback about how good the food tasted...(which is when my husband prompted me to start sharing these recipes online)...and a few months later Dashing Dish was created! After starting Dashing Dish in 2009, there has been no greater joy than for me to share this passion with the world!

What are your personal favorite recipes on Dashing Dish?

My favorite foods are often changing as I come up with new recipes and discover different flavor combinations, but I would say that one thing that never changes is my love for sweets and peanut butter! Some of my favorite recipes on Dashing Dish include the pizza noodle-less lasagna, the parmesan roasted broccoli, the peanut butter protein shake, the chocolate chunk clean eating muffins, and the clean eating chocolate cake for one!

What is your cooking style?

My cooking style is simple, clean, and practical! There is nothing more rewarding to me than making a complete meal in under 30 minutes, and have one dirty pan to show for it. I also love to make my meals around a few basic unprocessed real-food pantry staples, so that I can keep my grocery list short and simple!

What do you love about cooking?

I believe that cooking a meal is one of the most caring things you can do for someone…and to me it is one of the greatest expressions of love! When you make a meal for someone, you have thought about that person, what they would enjoy, and took the time and thought to invest in providing nourishment for them. My favorite people to cook for are my husband and my family, but I also love making food for friends and people in need of a home cooked meal!

What do you think prevents people from living a healthy lifestyle?

I think that food in our society has almost become an afterthought, and that people are honestly too stressed out, maxed out, and busy to even think about what they are eating for dinner. I have had the privilege of working with countless women over the years, and the common factor that I hear all across the board is that the three greatest obstacles are time, money, and the stress of planning and preparing meals. With Dashing Dish, we are constantly working on ways to overcome these barriers, and make living a healthy lifestyle as realistic as possible!

There is nothing more that I want than to get people excited about cooking and food again! As silly as it sounds, I even want people to get get excited about going to the grocery store!

How does Dashing Dish solve this problem?

At Dashing Dish we have made it our goal to revolutionize peoples opinion of planning, preparing, and enjoying healthy meals. We spent three years developing and fine tuning an original custom meal plan builder and grocery list builder that was designed to take the stress out of planning!

With these tools you can plan your meals ahead of time by saving recipes to your calendar, while keeping track of the ingredients you'll need as you go. Open Dashing Dish on your phone at the grocery store, and your list will be there waiting for you.

Why were you passionate about solving those problems?

About 3 years ago, I told my husband that it would be a dream of mine to create a grocery list and meal plan builder for Dashing Dish. This dream was placed in my heart after watching my mom struggle with meal planning growing up. Like many busy moms, she desperately wanted to feed us healthy meals, but being a working mom of three, she often struggled to plan and prepare healthy meals and get them on the table. I remember her buying groceries, bringing them home, and saying, now what do we make for dinner!?

Watching this struggle growing up, I knew that countless women were in the same position, and find that the hardest part of feeding their families is getting the grocery list made out, figuring what to buy when you are there, and then... actually figuring out what to make!

If you can relate, we are here to help! In fact, the tools on Dashing Dish were designed with you guys in mind! We spent years crafting the most useful resources that would help the process of planning and preparing healthy meals go from being the hardest part of living a healthy lifestyle, to the easiest part of all!

When you say Dashing Dish is a clean eating website, what do you mean?

Clean eating refers to a way of eating (or a lifestyle) that revolves around eating food in it’s most natural state.

What kind of recipes can you expect to find on Dashing Dish?

-Clean Eating; Which means they are made with 100% whole ingredients and do not contain any flour, sugar, or processed ingredients.

-Most of the recipes are gluten free, and most of the recipes provide alternate versions to meet the needs of those with food allergies such as grain free, peanut free, and dairy free versions.

-All of the recipes abundant in protein, fiber, and wholesome ingredients. They are also low in high glycemic (simple) carbohydrates.

-All recipes provide the weight watchers points (Points Plus and Smart Points), as well as the nutrition information for every recipe.

Is Dashing Dish a diet?

Here at Dashing Dish we are on a mission to get people off the dieting crazy cycle! I am a firm believer that living a healthy lifestyle can and should allow you to enjoy the foods you enjoy on a daily basis and never feel deprived. There are far too many myths out there about how to drop 10 pounds in a week, and what foods are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ for you. I have seen, and been a victim of the vicious cycle of defeat and failure that diets produce in countless women, some of whom are very close to me...and there is nothing more that I desire to see women break free from diets once and for all!

Can you go to a regular grocery store to shop for the ingredients?

Unlike many healthy recipes, you can make all of the recipes on Dashing Dish using ingredients found at a general grocery store. I completely understand that not everyone loves to cook, or has the time for that matter. Which is why I design my recipes to be incredibly simple, and only require a few basic ingredients (from a general grocery store) to prepare. Even I don't have the time to go to multiple grocery stores...and I actually love grocery shopping!

Are your recipes family friendly?

All of the recipes on Dashing Dish are absolutely family friendly, and picky eater approved! How do I know!?! Well, I have a very picky eater testing each and every one of the recipes before they make it to the website!

When I married my husband, he was basically an adult with a 2 year old pallet! His diet consisted of hot dogs, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, and donuts! Needless to say, I knew that had to change, and fast! I started creating healthy versions of his favorite foods, and testing my recipes on him. I know that if my recipes can pass by my husband Sean, then they will pass the taste test of any picky eater!

Why are you so passionate about teaching women to nourish their body?

After years of dieting and disordered eating, I decided to educate myself on nutrition and the importance of eating real food, and I started to shift my focus from weight loss to caring for my body. I can now say that investing in my health is one of the best decisions i’ve ever made. I now see my body as a wonderfully complex gift, and I want to treat it with respect because it is just that; a gift from God that I only get one of!

I also can say that making the choice to live a healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean that I have given up everything that I once enjoyed. In fact, I can honestly say that I am more balanced and enjoy food and everyday life more now that I ever did before!

Another misconception that I have seen to be false is that living a healthy lifestyle doesn't have to be overwhelming, expensive, or time consuming! These truths are all ones that I have (or hope to) share with you here at Dashing Dish!

Here at Dashing Dish, I desire to empower each and every person who visits with the resources, tools, and encouragement needed to live a healthy and balanced lifestyle that is enjoyable and maintainable long term!