Hi! I’m Kari. My full-time blog is Southern Bytes, but I blog part-time here at Jeannie’s Tried & True Recipes to share my family’s “Tried & True” recipes that are not “Southern” food. I am taking over here for Jeannie to keep the site going while she pursues her food photography career (and enjoys mom life!)
I love food. I love to cook, eat, experiment in the kitchen, and work in the garden to grow food. I live with my husband and our border collie mix, Melly, just north of Chattanooga, TN, and have been running Southern Bytes for 4 years – it has been a whirlwind. I’m a web developer for food bloggers as my day job, so the merging of careers has been exciting.
My husband and I love traveling to try new food and unique beers – then I try to recreate the food at home.
Background & Education
I learned to love cooking from an early age, but I didn’t always cook well. I started making food from scratch in college and eventually started learning to grow my own food. This sparked my desire to become a health coach at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in 2015.
At the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, I learned a lot about nutrition and balance. A lot of what I learned in school is incorporated into my approach to meals and planning. At home, I still cook a lot of Paleo food, but we also enjoy plenty of goodies in moderation.
Before studying at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, I studied Math and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Vermont. When I finished school, I felt a little lost because I didn’t really want to be an engineer.
I worked as a dog walker and pet sitter for a while, and then I became a vet tech. I worked as a vet tech and worked closely with a holistic vet focusing on animal nutrition for a long time until I got really burnt out from it. I was gaining weight, I was stressed out, and all I did was work. I eventually went back to just pet sitting and ended up falling into nutrition after losing a lot of weight with the Paleo diet. I enjoyed it, but it still didn’t feel like my place. I finally found my “thing” when I started building a website for my health coaching business. I loved it. I started diving deeper into web development and learned the basics – then I did a coding bootcamp. It felt like l had finally figured out how to use my engineering skills, challenge my brain, and enjoy my work.
Then, it got even better because I found a job where I could work as technical support for FOOD BLOGS. Recently, I changed paths and became a developer and now I build themes for food blogs at CultivateWP and every day is a balance of work and blogging.
I love to cook for friends and family and I love meals that are delicious but don’t take hours to prepare. I hope you enjoy sharing Tried & True Recipes from both of our families!
About Tried & True Recipes Blog and Recipes
What You’ll Find Here
- Recipes that are Easy to Make at Home using everyday ingredients and won’t have you spending hours in the kitchen.
- Lots of kid-friendly grab-and-go breakfasts for busy mornings – tons of muffins and smoothies!
- 30 Minute Meals and Crock Pot Favorites to help you make the most of your time.
- Lots of Holiday and Seasonal Recipes that are great for kids and are lots of fun to make! (The most popular seasonal recipe is our witch hat calzone recipe that has been featured by Country Living!)
