Welcome
Hi there, I'm Kelsey!
My name is Kelsey Smith. When it comes to cooking, I'm all about simplicity and shortcuts. If a recipe calls for more than a dozen ingredients, I'm out of here!
Tasty food doesn't have to be hard to make. I'm a busy mama who hates grocery shopping, so I love pantry staples, quick recipes with five ingredients or less, and one-pot meals.
Everyday Cooking
Here, you’ll find easy recipes that use convenient, time-saving shortcuts to create delicious meals without the stress of long ingredient lists or complicated techniques. It’s all about making cooking approachable for those who want homemade meals without the hassle.
- Easy recipes: 200+ approachable comfort food recipes.
- Email newsletter: A weekly email newsletter delivers my recipes straight to your inbox. Mmm.
- Exclusive Facebook group: Join Easy Family Meals, a recipe sharing community where I share not only my recipes but also recipes I've tested from around the web.
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Contact Me
You can find me on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me at [email protected].
Sponsorship and paid advertising emails are welcome. I do not accept free products in exchange for reviews. I am happy to provide site statistics upon request.
Join My Facebook Recipe Group
Join Easy Family Meals Recipe Share for quick, simple, and delicious meal ideas the whole family will love!
Featured On
- Taste of Home: Avocado-Lime Ranch Dressing (Contest Winner)
- Mashed: The Delicious Sauce You Never Thought to Add to French Fries
- Right This Minute: You're 90 Seconds Away From Enjoying a Delicious Pumpkin Spice Mug Cake
- Loore: Featuring: Modern Martha by Kelsey Reddick, Living the Simple and Classy Life
- Safeway: Real Taste of Mexico Meal Solution Challenge (Contest Winner)
Learning the basics
My mom taught me cooking basics (boiling pasta, browning ground beef, making béchamel sauce) from an early age. Mac and cheese and tuna crescent ring were staples at my house.
What I love most about food is how it brings people together. It's rewarding to cook someone food that makes them smile.
Every Wednesday, it was my turn to get dinner on the table. Before my family gathered around the television to watch Iron Chef, my little sister and I prepared "mystery dessert" using whatever ingredients we had on hand.
Starting my first food blog
In college, my roommate Megan and I decided to document our recipe creations on our blog, What Tasty Food (or WTF as we liked to call it).
We made margarita cupcakes, pumpkin custard, lentil soup, buffalo chicken pizza, and much, much more. We made it onto the Nerd Lunch podcast and were featured in the Tampa Tribune (now the Tampa Bay Times).
We learned about blogging, promotion, networking, and social media. I continued to use these skills long after Megan and I said goodbye to the blog.
My solo venture
After earning my Master's degree in Marketing from Florida State University, I began a career in digital marketing in Denver, Colorado. Social media, digital advertising, SEO, influencer marketing, and blogging were just a few of my specialties.
On the side, I started a lifestyle blog called Modern Martha, writing about everything from makeup and food to books and travel. I amassed more than 20,000 subscribers and 6,000,000 views in the process.
In 2019, my husband and I moved to Knoxville, Tennessee to start a family. I intended to keep up my YouTube channel, but over time I fell out of love with makeup and the world of beauty blogging.
The pandemic struck in 2020, and it felt like the perfect time to step away. When I got pregnant, I broke down my filming studio for good, packing away my backdrop and lights and replacing it with a nursery.
A recipe blog is born
During the pandemic lockdowns, people began to cook from home, sending record traffic to the small collection of recipes on my website. I decided it was time to go all-in on recipe development and relaunched my website under my own name, By Kelsey Smith.
In addition to developing and photographing new recipes, I spent (and continue to spend) time revamping recipes. Some even date back to my What Tasty Food days!
Kelsey's Favorite Recipes
more about me....
Fun Facts
- To say mac and cheese is my favorite food is an understatement.
- When I'm not blogging, I work as a part-time freelance writer for college textbooks.
- I'm left-handed and it's mildly inconvenient.
- I love to country line dance.
- My favorite artists are Taking Back Sunday and Taylor Swift (#swemo).
- I married my college sweetheart.
- My most re-watched TV shows are Veronica Mars, The Vampire Diaries, and Gilmore Girls (Team Jess).