Names: Erin Macgregor & Dara Gurau
Blog name: How to Eat
Where were you born? Well, there are two of us! Erin MacGregor was born in Windsor, Ontario and Dara Gurau was born in Toronto
Where are you living now? Both in Toronto!
Why did you start your blog?
We became fast friends working as dietitians in a large Toronto teaching hospital. You would think working as a dietitian has something to do with food, but in our specific areas of practice, we work mostly with people who need nutrition through feeding tubes and IVs.
Short story, we needed a creative outlet so we could set our foodie souls free! We decided to team up to blog part time.
How did you decide on your blog name?
We wanted to inspire people to have a happy and relaxed relationship with food and teach them that the best way to eating healthfully is through cooking!
We wanted to be the “how to” guide for all things cooking and eating well and show people… how to eat.
What do you blog about?
We’re a recipe and cooking blog and most of what we’ve shared until now has been simple, straightforward, and (mostly) healthful recipes and kitchen tips.
We’ve recently expanded and have also begun blogging more about meal planning and creating a family friendly food environment to help kids become happy, relaxed eaters too. Can you tell we’ve had a few kids since we started the blog 5 years ago?
Is your blog your business, your hobby or something in between?
In the past, it was simply a creative outlet for us outside of our jobs at the hospital, but we’ve recently re-launched and rebranded and have added some services with the hope of building a business. So we’d say that now, it’s something in between.
What post on your blog most encapsulates you and why?
Our Cheesy Gnocchi Bake is a perfect recipe to showcase what we are all about. A simple family friendly recipe, using a mix of fresh and convenience ingredients, including butter and cheese! As dietitians, we feel there’s an outdated notion that our MO is to restrict food and take the joy out of eating. This recipe, with potato gnocchi and three different kinds of cheese showcases our love for food, helping our readers understand that all foods fit.
Which post do you wish received more love and why?
Our Grilled Potato Poutine with Mushroom Gravy. Because it’s poutine. Awesome poutine.
Which post’s success surprised you and why?
This is an easy question to answer! Our No-Bake Oatmeal Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Balls went viral! At the time we didn’t think it was anything game changing, but it was a post that was perfectly timed with the height of the energy-ball fad, and it’s still going strong today.
What’s your biggest challenge as a blogger?
Time! We’re sure most bloggers can relate to this. Between family life, our “real life” jobs, and our day to day to-do lists, getting a blog post up that’s well written, well tested and photographed is a huge challenge. We aim to post twice a week, but try to cut ourselves some slack when it doesn’t happen (like, when we have newborn babies!). When we do manage it though, we feel like rockstars!
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned as a blogger?
One of the things we’ve had to learn is to put ourselves out there more. It’s hard to “toot your own horn,” but it’s something you’ve got to do if your voice to be heard and your blog to be read. It’s something we are both a little uncomfortable with, but have been making more of an effort to do.
Share a couple of your favourite food blogs to read. Why do you like them?
How Sweet Eats Jessica is someone we feel like we would be friends with IRL. Her food is beautiful, her recipes are delicious, and she is so darn hilarious.
Family Bites We LOVE Jan! Her style is extremely down to earth and approachable. Her recipes fit with our MO - easy, healthful, delicious. You just want to invite her over for a cup of coffee and cookie.
Dinner A Love Story From family friendly recipes to informative and engaging posts, we look to Jenny when we are planning a dinner party or having a family brunch. One of our goals is to inspire others to enjoy meals with their family and friends and for this we feel like Jenny is our soul sister.
Immaeatthat Kylie is a fellow dietitian and food lover. She totally embodies the undiet approach and we love her philosophy. We also admire and respect her open and honest posts about her own food journey.
Favourite food - care to share a recipe or a restaurant destination?
Hardest question ever! It’s like asking us to choose our favourite child. I think we’d have to go with pizza. Not just any pizza, but pizza found at our favourite pizza spot in Toronto, pizzeria libretto. The perfect stretchy crust, sweet sauce, melty cheese. We could go for a slice right now.
What are you working on next for your blog?
We’ve been really loving the Facebook LIVE function and have been working on promoting some our most popular How to Eat recipes through live video tutorials. We’ve founds it’s a fun way to interact with our audience in a unique way.
What else should we know about you that may or not be in your “About Me” page?
Erin hates cilantro. Like, HATES it! Dara is pretty much a Toronto restaurant encyclopedia. Go on, try her!
What makes your blog unique?
Well for starters, there are two of us writing it! There aren’t that many blogging duos out there who share the same love and passion for food and cooking like we do.
We are also unique in the fact that while we’re dietitians, we think of ourselves as food lovers and home cooks first and foremost. We have nutrition knowledge and food know-how and we truly embody the “all foods fit” approach. We want people to enjoy food, all food! We hope to bridge the gap between the culinary and dietetics worlds.
What part of the FBC site do you find most useful?
We find the blogger resource section so so helpful. We’ve been working on improving our food photography, and the articles about doing so with only your iphone have been so helpful. There are some great resources there on such a wide variety of topics.
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