05 Sep Inside the Fridge: Melissa Kolbeck

Inside the Fridge welcomes high school math teacher, dancer, newlywed, and newbie blogger Melissa Kolbeck! This dancer’s challenging journey to cultivate a healthy relationship with food, all while trying to overcome the so-called ballet body image, is chronicled in her blog Dancing for Food. Take a peek inside Melissa’s fridge, and don’t forget to check out Dancing for Food, a yummy diary of food, fitness, and married life, through the eyes of a dancer.

ITF: Where do you shop for food?

MK: I shop for food at Trader Joe’s and Costco.  Trader Joe’s supplies most of what’s in our fridge, with a few major items or items we go through quickly coming from Costco.

ITF: Do you love food shopping or dread it?

MK: I love food shopping because I’m such a foodie.  However, I don’t actually get to do it often because my husband works at Trader Joe’s and just picks up groceries after work when we need them.

ITF: What is the single most important thing on your mind when you are shopping for food?

MK: A pretty important factor is cost, but the absolute most important thing is fresh ingredients.  You’ll never see our shopping cart filled with chips and cookies – it’s always lots of fresh produce, eggs, cheese, and dairy.

ITF: How often do you shop?

MK: We generally shop once a week on Friday or Saturday.  Sometimes we need a couple things mid-week but we try to keep it to once a week.

ITF: What is your weekly food budget?

MK: We try to stay around $100 for all necessities including food.  I’m honestly not sure how often that happens.

ITF: How many times a week do you eat out? (based on 21 meals/week)

MK: We eat out less than once a week.  We really like to create our own healthy meals at home.  I’d say we eat out about twice a month on average.

ITF: How do you plan your weekly meals? Create a spreadsheet of fly by the seat of your pants?

MK: Every other week, I browse Pinterest for ideas and think back to things we tried and liked and want to make again.  I create a two-week plan so I don’t have to do it as often, and make the grocery lists for each week from there.

ITF: What is the most coveted food in the fridge right now for each member of the household? Why?

MK: My husband and I are both obsessed with nut butters, particularly peanut butter.  Right now we have almond butter in the fridge that would have been gone in 2 days if I didn’t force us to have self-control.

ITF: Do you believe in leftovers?

MK: Absolutely!!  Teachers have busy schedules, and my husband works strange hours sometimes, so it’s vital that we plan our meals so that we don’t have to cook something new every single night.

ITF: What convenience product can you not live without?

MK: We don’t eat many convenience products, but I guess granola bars would be the answer.  Or maybe cereal.

ITF: What cooking utensil/piece of equipment/appliance do you live for?

MK: Salad tongs.  I have Oxo tongs with nylon heads that I use for tossing salad every single night.  We eat a lot of salad in our house.

ITF: What are your go-to food/nutrition/culinary/cooking website/s, book or cookbook?

MK: I get a lot of recipes and meal ideas from Pinterest, which means that most things come from blogs.  Occasionally I’ll use a cookbook, but that is getting more and more rare.

ITF: If one person could cook for you tonight, who would it be?

MK: My husband.  Everything he makes is amazing, and I’m really not sure what his secret is because when you watch him it looks just like when anyone else cooks.

ITF: What are you working on these days that you’d like to tell us about?

MK: I am working on building and promoting my blog Dancing For Food.  I started it in May, took a mini hiatus at the end of June through the middle of July when I got married (but did have some scheduled posts and guest posts during that time), and have continued building it since then.  Now that the school year has started and I am back to work, it can be challenging to post as often as I’d like, but I’m trying to make it work.  I love blogging and I love the healthy living blog world!

Find Melissa on Facebook -Dancing For Food and on Twitter- @dancingforfood.

Thanks Melissa! 

If you would like to be featured on Inside the Fridge, please email RobinsBite Intern Leah Wakefield– Leah *at* robinplotkin *dot* com