About Me

I'm Terri, a passionate home cook and baker, award-winning recipe developer, hobby cake decorator, community volunteer, a Weight Watchers online member and busy working mom that is trying to eat healthy and fit everything into not enough hours in a day.

REAL FOOD. REAL LIFE. HEALTHY BALANCE.

• I believe in healthy balance, moderation and creating recipes for real life.
• I create recipes that are realistic for busy people and/or those people out there that don't necessarily want to spend hours in the kitchen. Check out my favorite and useful cooking and kitchen hacks, tips and tricks HERE!
• I focus on easy, quick, make-ahead, shortcut, healthy, family friendly and Weight Watchers friendly recipes and tips. Check out my 45 Easy Ways to Eat more Fruits and Vegetables for healthy, practical and economical tips and recipes!
• I’m not associated with Weight Watchers in any way, I'm just a longtime WW member who believes in the program and their message about the plan being a healthy and balanced lifestyle (normal healthy eating) and not a diet. I've personally lived it for 20 years (with gains and losses along the way, of course!) You can read about my personal Weight Watchers (WW) journey HERE  . You can see what WW strategies have worked for me over the years by reading my My Weight Watchers Tips and Tricks HERE and be sure to join my Facebook HERE for more support, tips, tricks and recipes!

It's about Moderation!

• I LOVE to bake and believe that you can eat everything in moderation so you will find decadent recipes as well.
• I  am also a hobby cake decorator and I think food is FUN so there is also some food art. Check out my Top 10 Tips for Building a Large Gingerbread House post! I built this house from scratch in 2013 (it was a bucket list thing)

• Being Ukrainian Canadian and a huge fan of Ukrainian food, I also love to modernize (and lighten) traditional Ukrainian dishes. This Loaded Pierogi Soup is one of my most popular recipes:

Some random things about me

• I can't carry a tune to save my life and still mouth the words (like I did in elementary school choir) when I'm forced to sing publicly
• I am crazy for cats and well on my way to being a crazy cat lady. I have a very cute but naughty grey and white tabby named Milo. He's also food crazy and is constantly trying to steal food.

• My husband (Dave) taught me to cook and I was pretty useless in the kitchen prior to that (although we were pretty young when we started dating). We've been together for 36 years!
• I love baseball and all associated baseball food!
• I started food blogging in early 2016. It's hard to believe it's been 8 years! I was entering a lot of recipe competitions at the time, so I was constantly thinking about recipe ideas. I wanted to share those recipes and write about food. I wasn't sure if I'd even like it and I'm still loving it!
• I hate water slides! I got stuck in one once and had someone crash into me. You can read more about that HERE!
• I will eat pretty much any food except miscellaneous meat, liver and Vegemite
• I love road trips, especially when I'm a passenger (this is me enjoying THE BEST apple pie on a recent summer road trip stop on the Alberta Prairies)

• I had planned to become a Social Worker when I started University, but decided it wasn't for me and left the faculty
• I have a degree in Political Science and an after-degree certificate in Gerontology and have worked in seniors services and health care for 20+ years.
• By day, I  have a great job in primary health care, where I work with family physicians & their staff on practice enrichment initiatives and integrating and supporting health team members in family practice clinics
• I prefer when there is harmony and everyone gets along
• My favorite food is roast beef (prime rib)
• Like a true prairie gal, I LOVE my Saskatoon berry picking and everything Saskatoon berry related! Check out my Saskatoon Berry Recipes!

• I hate sewing, even buttons and mending
• I am a bit obsessive and when I enjoy something (like food) it's hard to pull me away from it
• My favorite wine and food pairing is Vinho Verde and Miss Vickie's S&V potato chips

• Originally from Winnipeg, I have lived in Calgary, Alberta for the last 27 years.
• Most importantly, I am Mom to Clayton (18), Abby (16) and wife to Dave. And spending time with them is what I love more than anything in this world!

I LOVE all things food!

I love all things food and spend much of my spare time immersed in it. As you can see, my food interests are pretty eclectic and I find myself meandering down many different food roads. I also tend to ramble on about food. I started this blog to share those food meanderings and ramblings. If you want to know how my love affair with making food began, I believe that this article encapsulates it.

Featured Foodie

You can also read more about me and why I started this food blog in my Featured Foodie Interview with Food Bloggers of Canada.

Award-winning Recipes

I love to create recipes for contests because it allows me to be creative and think outside my box.  My original and contest winning recipes (See award winners list here) have been published in Taste of Home magazine, Saltscape Magazine, Simple and Delicious, Better Homes and Gardens Family Circle Hometown Cooking Cookbook, The Old Farmer’s Almanac Readers’ Best Recipes 25th Anniversary Edition Cookbook, Calgary's Child Magazine, Safeway Destination Cheese Champions, Farmers' Almanac. My recipes have also been featured on Huffpost.com and Parade.com,  among other publications and on several websites.

I was a Masterchef Canada (At Home) Finalist in 2018. I have also been included in The 50 Best Food and Cooking Blogs  and The Top 90 Canadian Food Blogs, Websites & Influencers in 2021 and you can catch me over on Punchfork! 

You can also listen to my interview about recipe contests, with Megan Porta on the podcast Eat, Blog Talk!

E-Cook-Book

I recently created an e-cookbook with a collection of my Award-Winning Recipes. Just sign up below, on te on the pop- up you'll see before you exit, and as a gift for becoming a subscriber, you'll receive a FREE download of my Award-Winning Recipes E-Cookbook~!

Family Recipes

Both my Grandma and my Baba were amazing bakers and cooks and had a huge influence on me. I am grateful to still have my Grandma and so many of her recipes, but unfortunately, have very few of my Baba's. I want my children and future generations to have my recipes and that is another reason I started this blog. I also wanted to share wonderful recipes with the world because I believe that great food is meant to be shared!

Here are a couple more of my most popular recipes:

Award-winning Maple Sausage Brunch Bites

Easy Layered Nacho Dip (Gluten-free)

Tried, Tested & Truly Loved!

Because I am often testing new recipes for competitions, my family and colleagues all serve as fearless guinea pigs for many of my food creations. This guarantees that my recipes are thoroughly tested!

On a weekly basis I will share my own contest winning recipes/other food inventions and my favorite recipes, as well as tips and updates. I hope you will find something helpful and/or interesting at Food Meanderings.

If you're not sure where to begin on the site, START HERE

Disclaimer/Please Note: In 2018 I began including Weight Watchers (WW) points in my recipes. I calculated the WW points for the blue plan,  based on a my nutrition calculator plug-in and my own Weight Watchers points calculator on my WW app. Now I create the recipe in the app and link to it from the post, so you can see how many points it is on your WW plan! I’m a longtime Weight Watchers Member who believes in the program and their message about the Weight Watchers plan being a healthy and balanced lifestyle and not a diet. However, this site is not affiliated with Weight Watchers in any way. What I write here is about my personal experience on the plan. The views expressed are my own and do not reflect the views of Weight Watchers. The WW Logo, Weight Watchers, myWW, SmartPoints, FitPoints, Personal Points, Points and Wellness that Works are trademarks of  WW International, Inc. and are not owned by me.

 You can read my PRIVACY POLICY & TERMS OF USE here

You can read my DISCLOSURE POLICY here

You can read my ACCESSIBILITY POLICY here

Contact me: EMAIL: terri@foodmeanderings.com

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