Featured Member: Green Healthy Cooking | Food Bloggers of CanadaName: Lorena Grater

Blog name: Green Healthy Cooking

Where were you born? In Ulm, Germany

Where are you living now? In Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Why did you start your blog?

Because I didn’t want to be a stay-at-home mom alone but also didn’t want to work on a set schedule that wouldn’t allow me to go to each and every preschool event of my kids. I also didn’t want to work as a translator (which is what I have a master’s degree for) because it’s boring. In other words I was being extremely picky about what I wanted to do. Something fun and flexible. What better choice than food blogging? Eh?

How did you decide on your blog name?

My husband’s favorite color is green, my favorite vegetables are all green, and healthy food and nutrition have always been my passion. It had to be something with “green” and “healthy” so I simply looked which domains were still free with those words, hahaha.

What do you blog about?

“Green” “Healthy” “Cooking”, lol (and my definition about healthy is very open. Anything that isn’t tremendously processed is healthy in my eyes. It’s an omnivore blog using fairly clean ingredients. White flour being “clean” enough for me, packaged pancake mix not though 😉

Is your blog your business, your hobby or something in between?

It’s mostly my passion but also my business. I’ve never started it with it being a hobby in mind. It was always supposed to be my business but it’s also my hobby because I love working on it during work hours AND around work hours 😛

What post on your blog most encapsulates you and why?

Featured Member: Green Healthy Cooking | Food Bloggers of Canada

Mini Cheesecake #Fail it’s simply one of my most personal posts. It doesn’t talk much about the recipe itself but rather failed attempts in the kitchen and how important they are for becoming an expert in the kitchen 🙂

Which post do you wish received more love and why?

Featured Member: Green Healthy Cooking | Food Bloggers of Canada

My Winter Salad With Sage Vinaigrette - this is one of my best tasting recipes on my blog and whoever tries it says it tastes extraordinary and asks for the recipe and it becomes their staple salad. For whatever reason it doesn’t do well on any social media channel though, ha!

Which post’s success surprised you and why?

Featured Member: Green Healthy Cooking | Food Bloggers of Canada

Avocado Toast With Egg - this is probably the simplest and easiest “recipe” on the blog and the millionth avocado toast post on the world wide web and still its video got over 1.5 million views. HUH?!?!

What’s your biggest challenge as a blogger?

Finding the time to do it ALL. I’m right at the turning point where my blog is business enough to serve as office job work replacement but not enough to hire people to help me out. I have an average 60-hour work week and never manage to do all the things I need/want to do. I’m working towards generating more income so I can outsource some of the tasks and thus concentrate on what I believe is the most important. Create high quality content and communicate with my readers.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned as a blogger?

That a successful business is like a successful relationship. It goes two ways and one has to meet in the middle. At first I was naive enough to believe that I can post “whatever I want” but soon realized that if I really wanted to make my blog my business I had to also please my readers and give them what THEY want while staying true to myself and my beliefs about nutrition. Just like in a relationship. Meet in the middle 🙂

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Share a couple of your favourite food blogs to read. Why do you like them?

I’ve got to be completely honest, I don’t follow any food blogs. I follow some food bloggers and their blogging successes because I’ve found so many friends in my fellow bloggers. I know which posts have done well for them and have read them and enjoyed them and shared them to help spread the word even further. I follow the bloggers personally basically because I like THEM. I don’t follow any food blogs without somehow knowing the bloggers behind them at least virtually though.

As a “consumer” I prefer to follow non-food related content providers. I’m a huge fan of a couple of Youtubers and I NEVER miss a video of

https://www.youtube.com/user/petermckinnon24

https://www.youtube.com/user/GabeandJesss

https://www.youtube.com/user/WhatsUpMOMS

https://www.youtube.com/user/SmoukahontasOfficial

Favourite food - care to share a recipe or a restaurant destination?

I don’t think I have a favourite food. I don’t like much repetition in my diet. I need variety. I grew up with an extremely varied diet. My mom wouldn’t repeat a dish in probably 6-12 months and it seems I’m very much like her. There are a couple things I repeat but not because they are my favourite but rather because I’m in a hurry and they are easy and fast to make. In terms of restaurants, I like Lucille’s Oyster Bar in Monkland (Montreal, Quebec) and I go there at least once every 18 months, hahahahaha

What are you working on next for your blog?

Oh my God, so many things a list would make this questionnaire become longer than most novels….

What else should we know about you that may or not be in your “About Me” page?

I hate beets. I used to be a heavy smoker. I’m a night owl and can’t get up in the morning. I’m 5’7” tall. I wear contacts.

What makes your blog unique?

I don’t think it’s any more unique than many others. We are all somehow unique I guess but I’m not more unique than others.

What part of the FBC site do you find most useful?

For me it’s mostly the community. I’m so thankful for all you do to connect all of us Canadian Food Bloggers. I love the Facebook Group and discussions held there. I love that Canadian Food Bloggers are so open and helpful and I love that I got to know so all of them pretty much through FBC.

Follow Lorena and Green Healthy Cooking on Social Media

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