Engineering a Healthy Life: The Creative Entrepreneur Journey of Caryn Carruthers
In this episode of Mom to MORE®, host Sharon Macey is joined by Caryn Carruthers, cookbook author, photographer, ceramicist, and health enthusiast.
Caryn shares her journey from a high-powered career in mechanical engineering to becoming a stay-at-home mom and creative entrepreneur.
With a passion for healthy living inspired by her personal challenges with food allergies, Caryn authors the blog Tasty and Free and is the creator of Smorgasbowl, a beautifully photographed cookbook that offers a roadmap for creating delicious, nutritious, and allergy-friendly meals.
Caryn discusses her journey to intentional living through her cooking, photography, and ceramic artistry, sharing her insights into balancing parenthood with creativity. She provides practical advice on creating balanced meals, embracing challenges, and trusting the process, whether in parenting, cooking, or life.
Tune in for this inspiring conversation filled with practical advice, delicious recipes, and insights into creating a meaningful life centered around family and creativity!
[00:00] Introduction
[01:09] Meet Caryn Carruthers: From engineer to creative mom
[03:56] The genesis of Caryn's love of cooking and family meals
[05:38] Addressing food allergies and Caryn's personal health journey
[09:05] How Caryn manages her family's food sensitivities
[12:10] Raising kids while fostering creativity and pursuing passions
[16:13] Caryn's four pillars for building a balanced meal bowl
[19:05] The challenges of balancing motherhood, blogging, and writing a cookbook
[28:11] Caryn's favorite recipes and their versatility
[31:34] Caryn's MORE
Meet My Guest Caryn Carruthers:
Blog: Tasty 'n Free
Instagram: @TastyNFree
Cookbook: Smorgasbowl
Looking for More? Follow @momtomore on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. @Sharon Macey on LinkedIn.
Keep an eye out for episode #31 of the Mom to MORE™ podcast where Sharon is joined by Katie Greer, internet security expert. Coming soon - you won’t want to miss it ♥
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Sharon (01:13)
Welcome back to Mom to More. So what I find so inspiring about the moms I've had the privilege of interviewing is that everyone's story is so special and uniquely theirs. And today's guest, Karen Carruthers, will not disappoint.
Karen is a food lover, writer, photographer, ceramicist, I think I'm saying that right, and health enthusiast. Her passion for healthy eating and her love of cooking started young and flourished when faced with needing to create delicious food while accommodating various allergies. Does that not sound familiar to a lot of us? She is an advocate for intentional living and it shows in all of her mediums of expression. Karen authors the blog, Tasty and Free, and creates rustic,
elegant functional ceramics and they're beautiful. Schmortis Bowl is Karen's first book and boy will it have you salivating. So welcome Karen. I'm so thrilled you're here.
Caryn (02:09)
Thank you for having me, Sharon. Happy to be here.
Sharon (02:13)
Well, we have so much to discuss. And you know what I loved about your story, Karen? You have such an interesting origin story and journey. Having a child with food allergies, I know that this episode is going to resonate with so many moms and also moms who
sensitivities of their own.
So I like to start my conversations with my essential mom question, and that is,
How many kids do you have and where are you raising them?
Caryn (02:39)
Well, I have two kids. My son is seven and my daughter is 10. And we are in Austin, Texas.
Yeah. We moved from Colorado about seven years ago and my son was small. He was three months old when we made the move. But we've been loving Texas and warm weather, a great school here. We're very happy.
Sharon (02:48)
Such a great city.
Nice. So walk us through your decision to become the parent who stayed home. You had a really interesting career prior to having kids.
Caryn (03:14)
Yeah, so I went to school for mechanical engineering and I immediately after going to college went into oil and gas and I worked in facilities engineering and doing large scale vessel replacements at cryogenic facilities in western Colorado. So very technical background.
And I got my MBA while I was working full time as well. So very intense, you know, high powered twenties. And my husband was doing the same thing. I met him in college. We were both engineers and he was working full time as well. And we kind of realized, you know, adding kids into that picture was going to be really challenging.
And it really didn't take long after holding my daughter to realize I need to be home. I need to be home with her. And that's what's gonna work for me and for our family. So yeah, was a tough transition though, going from being in a high-powered work environment to being a full-time mom and caring for first my daughter and then my son as he came along.
But it was just a different set of challenges as you call it. Yeah. Yeah.
Sharon (04:46)
Yes, yeah, very different set of challenges as we will talk more as we move on in this.
So what fed, pun intended, what fed your love of being in the kitchen?
Caryn (04:58)
Well, my mom was a home ec teacher and my grandma was an incredible cook. And so I started in the kitchen very early with both of them, making pies with my grandma, know, helping prepare whatever was going to be on the table that night with my mom. And I, yeah, I from a young age, I just really was drawn to food. It was always
It was always what brought my family together. And so I think I really, it does, it does. So I loved that family component of it. And I think that's what drew me to
Sharon (05:30)
Food has a way of doing that. Yeah.
Karen, take my listeners back to 20 to 13, when you had health issues that needed to be dealt with and what happened to prompt.
Caryn (05:40)
Great.
Sharon (05:51)
this journey that you're now on. And I'll point out that this was before you had kids, right?
Caryn (05:56)
Yeah, so I think in conjunction with working in a high intense environment and, you know, kind of being late in my 20s, my skin really started erupting. You know, I had a lot of itchiness and I had a lot of acne and I needed to do something. needed to, I was miserable. I needed to figure out.
what was causing this discomfort. And so I started doing food allergy tests at the time and found that I was allergic to wheat. being someone that grew up, I know, thanks. I love everything that, I love everything wheat. And it was very much part of the food culture that I grew up in.
Sharon (06:40)
because it's in everything.
Caryn (06:52)
know, the pies that I would make with my grandma that I mentioned, you know, it's sort of like, well, what now? Because the way I'd been eating was very heavy in things like gluten and dairy and sugar and other inflammatory things that were causing skin to erupt. So I needed to make a shift. I needed to make a transition. And as I started cutting those things out and when I...
started experimenting on my own, was like immediately my skin would, would calm. And I...
Sharon (07:27)
And you know what's so interesting about that is you realize that everything you put into your mouth, it's going to affect you in your gut, in your skin. And what I love about what you just said is so many of us think, I'm breaking out. Is it something I'm putting on my face? We kind of forget to go time out. What did I just drink? What did I just eat to cause that? So I think you are very much ahead of your time in terms of that.
that correlation.
Caryn (07:58)
I think I had to be. I I think that's the beauty of being a sensitive person is that you kind of get to be the canary in the, you know, the mind and you're like, okay, I see something and I'm feeling something really intensely that is probably going to help other people to see and experience and know about. But yeah, when I first cut out gluten and dairy, it was before all of the great substitutes we have in
grocery stores now, yes, there were some, but they weren't great. So that's really what launched me into cooking and really figuring out how to cook on my own. I had taken cooking classes before that because it's just a passion and an interest of mine. But as soon as I'm having to create recipes that I enjoy, that I love,
that I'm going to come back to again and again that also don't include the things that are going to make my skin feel really uncomfortable. That's what I had to figure out. And that was the education that I had to give myself in a lot of ways. Yeah. Yeah.
Sharon (09:08)
So interesting. All right, so then you started to have kids and
are you the only one in your family with food allergies or do your kids share any of that?
Caryn (09:17)
they don't have food allergies, nothing serious. they have sensitivities and they have various things. So the way, the way I manage that with my kids is I, I, I just, I just try to pay attention and whenever they're feeling uncomfortable or something's going on in their GI system or, you know, right after a meal, we're having a, you know, tummy hurts or whatever.
is going on. We try to just pay attention to what did we just put in our mouth? Is there any correlation with, you know, discomfort over time? And what you'll find is that, you know, a lot of the time when we're in really good place and we don't have other allergens and we don't have other stressors, we can handle most things, but you start layering those things on and then it's like, okay, let's cut out dairy for a little while because we know, you know, here in Austin, the cedar is out and we're
our system's already dealing with something. And so adding another load to the system, so to speak, is gonna set us off.
Sharon (10:22)
it sounds like you're really talking about, you know, consuming with awareness
know, and what's interesting is, as I mentioned before, you are really at the
forefront of all this gluten-free cooking, baking. I'm sure that what you're doing, obviously what you're doing at home is much better than what you can buy in the store. Although it's really come advanced a lot, but nothing really beats home cooked food, right?
Caryn (10:44)
No, I agree. agree. Part of my journey has been from really trying to create substitutes for things that I love. And some of those substitutes work really well.
And sometimes it's like, how can I use the ingredients that I don't react to and make them really delicious? So my journey has been from
really just trying to mimic and substitute to what are the foods that I'm actually really working well for me and how do I make those delicious and, and.
special in their own way.
Sharon (11:26)
Got that.
And so, you know, when we first talked, you mentioned something about that your children and your creativity were being cuddled at the same time. Why don't you, why don't you talk about that?
Caryn (11:38)
Yeah, well, it was an interesting correlation because when I left the technical world and I had kids, pretty much immediately after having my daughter, I started in on really wanting to teach myself how to be a good photographer. It had always been a passion of mine, but I'd never really tried to do it professionally. So I started taking pictures.
putting myself in uncomfortable situations, taking pictures of other people, you know, and just teaching myself how to do it. And at the same time, this is, I'm cooking a lot, I'm teaching myself photography. It's been a really interesting, I started my blog when I was pregnant with my son. So it's been a really interesting correlation of my creative journey.
happening at the same time my my son and daughter have I'm raising my son and daughter they Yeah In and of itself, I know so much. Yeah, it's just a really It's a really special time where you get to Raise and you know be part of creating who someone's going to be
Sharon (12:44)
Right. Which requires a lot of creativity anyway. Just being a parent, being a mom requires a ton of creativity. Yeah.
beautifully said. That's true. That's true. Okay. So you started working on your cookbook. I think it was 2018. It was a multi-year process. Tell me about your self discovery process that led to this. Like, did you wake up one day and go, I need to do a cookbook.
Caryn (13:21)
Gosh, well, it's easy to condense it now because I think when I think back on it, I would love to condense it down to a couple of sentences and be like, this is how it happened. But I think what would be most beneficial to hear as myself in my 20s before I started this process was it took a really long time for me
love cookbooks, read a lot of cookbooks, start my blog, start cooking,
start taking photography really seriously,
then have an idea strike. And you know, smorgasbord was truly an idea that was living in me and I was using it daily.
So it worked really well as a large concept. Ideas pop in and out all the time. It's like, why that idea? Why that thing? And I think that idea I really liked because it had so much that went into it. was every meal of the day. It was a way to entertain. It was a way to deal with allergies.
when you're cooking for people who are, have a lot of different needs, there was just a lot of ways I could work with it. And it just happens to be a beautiful thing to photograph as well. So.
Sharon (14:53)
I will point
out that you have done all the photography in your cookbook and it is beautiful.
you are a very talented food photographer.
And it just, looks yummy as I'm sitting here looking at your cookbook. It just, looks so inviting and enticing. So to be able to achieve that is huge. So congratulations on that. You know, you also talk about
four pillars for a balanced bowl meal.
Caryn (15:18)
Yeah, well, I wanted my cookbook to be a roadmap for how to get to a good meal from start to finish on your own, as much as it is composed recipes, which are also in there. But I wanted to put together a way of thinking about a bowl of food every day in a way that could be repeatable. And so came up, I, well, I mean,
These are bowls. These are based on bowls. I've had bowls I've eaten. So I pulled together all of the information that I had seen and found these four pillars that I really think are important in a bowl. And nothing crazy. It's taste, temperature, texture, and nutrition. And when you...
put all of those things together in a bowl and you're thinking about it as you're putting it together, tastes great. It's a way to refine things.
it's like Thanksgiving, right? If you've only got the mushy stuff, it's not gonna be quite right, right? You need to add some texture to make it work. Temperature, that's a sneaky one because you can really elevate a dish by.
adding something cold or hot or some contrast. And then nutrition. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Sharon (16:38)
I like that idea. And we did that at Thanksgiving, actually. Yeah, we
had like warm things and we had a like a like a rice, almost Brussels sprout salad. So there was the cold and crunchy and then the warm and the ooey gooey.
Caryn (16:48)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, it adds interest and contrast. Yeah, when you can add a little contrast, it just keeps your taste buds really interested. And then of course, nutrition. When you're putting together a bowl, if you only have carbs, you're going to crush. So adding the protein, making sure you have healthy fats, and using a light hand with sugar is just
how I do things and the mix of nutrition is going to be different for everyone. So discovering what that is for you is really important and going to be everyone's individual journey because I think there is just a very need other than some basic things you can work through.
Sharon (17:20)
Right.
True,
So,
because this is life, okay, your struggles and challenges
there's so many challenges already built into being a mom. So, you know, let's talk about some of the ones that you, that were unique to you and your journey
Caryn (17:43)
Yeah.
Sharon (17:48)
I will
point out that years ago, I learned that our son has a food allergy. He's anaphylactic and, and also had some sensitivities. And I remember talking with someone and they were telling me all the things that I had to now cut out of.
Caryn (17:53)
over
Sharon (18:02)
how I cooked and diet and things like that. And I remember sitting there wanting to cry because it was so overwhelming.
Caryn (18:08)
Yeah,
I'll kind of touch on what you just said.
I think the struggle and challenge of cutting out certain foods is emotional. It's taxing. It takes a lot of time and energy. It can be really hard to think that you can't eat your favorite food every day. That's, that can feel really hard emotionally. So I think
seeing food as simply fuel is not quite right. There is an emotional component, there is something there, but at the same time we're trying to keep our bodies healthy. So there's always going to be that little bit of conflict there figuring out how much dessert really makes sense all the time or whatever your trigger is.
Yeah, I think that's a struggle. think for me personally, know, keeping my diet on track is a struggle
a struggle.
Sharon (19:12)
also doing this while you were raising two kids.
Caryn (19:15)
think when I have really specific needs in the kitchen and then I'm also
in what I'm eating and then I am also feeding my family. It is a challenge. It's a challenge to feel like I'm creating two meals when I'm really only creating one. And then, you know, so then enter book and wanting to stay focused and on task. you know, I've shared my background with you. I have a technical background, so I'm wanting to lay it all out.
My type A's got a schedule. I've got to stay on it. Babysitter has to be here on time so I can get cooking. It's like, do I have all my ingredients? Do I have everything I want to cook? Is everything set up? I've got two hours. Let's get this book material done in every moment. Yeah. And so the beauty is when you drop in and you're kind of in that intense environment, creative environment, I...
Sharon (20:10)
Let's use every moment of those two hours while the kid, yeah. Yeah.
Caryn (20:20)
personally really thrive and love love that environment where I'm I'm make a recipe and I'm photographing and then I get to play. But what's hard is when the time is done, it's done. The kid is in and they're drawing and eating, they're eating the food that I'm preparing, they're in there and they're with me and you know, then the work is done and it's now about including them. So.
Sharon (20:47)
Right.
Caryn (20:49)
You know, it's a time struggle and a time management struggle.
Sharon (20:54)
It
also sounds to me that you and your family are really in tune with your bodies, which I think is amazing, especially because your kids are, you know, seven and 10 right now. And for a child to actually have that awareness is such a gift that they're going to carry on for the rest of their lives.
I also was thinking, you know, is a parenting wasn't
enough of a huge job on its own, you now layer in food and food prep and your health and your awareness journey, you know, equals like a really huge job.
The mom skills that you've while you've been doing the mom thing and how they have transferred to your cookbook, your photography, your ceramics.
Caryn (22:09)
Mom skills. just have Patience. You know, really trusting the process. You know, I think, you know, watching something develop over time.
you know, in a creative process, you know, to believe a child that you've known since they were one will one day be a teenager is mind blowing in the same way that that seeing a lump of clay turn into a bowl is sort of mind blowing, right? It's like Trust the process, trust that, you know, every day you show up and you're you're you're doing your part that day. or that minute.
Sharon (22:55)
Trust the process, you know, For moms wanting to reinvent whatever that looks like for them, trusting that process, doing it, you a day at a time, a step at a time, and nothing happens overnight, right? Your book took three years to produce and create.
Caryn (23:01)
Yeah.
Yeah. No.
Sharon (23:11)
Okay, so here's another question. Ceramics,
and you had talked about, know, like with the lump of clay, I've tried to work on a potter's wheel. It is not easy, right? Everything was like a little sort of askew. So why bowls?
Caryn (23:18)
Yeah.
Well, know what bulls really started for me when I when I had to cut out grains to try and deal with some of my information. So when once I cut out grains, it was a lot harder to, you know, put.
put together sandwich or something easily on a plate. It was about the vegetables and the meat and however those were together
And then if they're not very interesting, adding a sauce, adding some crunch here there with some nuts or seeds, something like that keeps.
keeps it really interesting together. So, and the bowl is what holds it, holds it together in a way that a plate can't
Sharon (24:08)
Yeah, when I think about a bowl versus a plate, sometimes I feel the plates, things will spread out, but a bowl, everything is sort of like all there together, almost like a food hug or something like that. Cozy, cozy eating. Yeah, I love that. So
Caryn (24:13)
Yeah.
Yeah, cozy. Yeah, yeah, it's very
Sharon (24:24)
do you have any favorite recipes? I'll share some of mine if you share some of yours.
Caryn (24:28)
Yeah, well, I love from the cookbook, I still probably make the egg roll bowl weekly.
It's easy. It's sliced cabbage, shredded carrots, scallions. You can add mushrooms. You can add other veggies if you want to. Saute some ground beef. Add the veggies in, let them cook down.
and then add soy sauce and some ginger and garlic to it. If you want to get really fancy, you can make like a crunchy chili sauce to put on top. But yeah.
Sharon (25:09)
like the chili crisp. My kids are
obsessed with that stuff. It's so good. Yeah. Yeah.
Caryn (25:13)
It's so good. It's so good.
But it's kind of like the inside of an egg roll. If you have people who really want that carb with it, just put a tortilla on the side. It's so good. It's really good. Yeah.
Sharon (25:25)
interesting, interesting. I'll
tell you some of my faves. The spiralized veggies, so good. So I went out and bought a spiralizer
after I had that, after we talked about that. Some of the other ones, so I was looking at your smorgasbord and also at your Tasty and Free, because you've got recipes on both and all the information is gonna be in the show notes. The paleo pumpkin bread, the very delicious muffins, I love things like that.
Caryn (25:37)
You
Yeah.
Sharon (25:54)
Obviously the spiralized zucchini apple salad, so good. And your Brussels sprout salad looked really good. So I have so many things I want to try.
Caryn (26:03)
Yeah, thank you. yeah, and all delicious, all pair really well. When we did the spiralized salad you really like, that's great on its own, but it's great with a piece of fish. You could add some rice on the side.
it fits in really well in a lot of different scenarios. So that's a good one.
Sharon (26:24)
So if someone had told you 10 years ago, hey Karen, guess what? You're gonna have this really cool cookbook. What would you have said?
Caryn (26:32)
I would have been thrilled. I have wanted to be an author and write a cookbook. and I just adore cookbooks.
Yeah.
Sharon (26:44)
Right, and
also you get very thoughtful in it. As I said, the pictures are absolutely gorgeous, but you you talk about secrets to a successful bowl and why we love veggies and texture examples and as we talked earlier, the four pillars.
I feel like this cookbook, and I have a lot of them, but
it feels very sort of warm and fuzzy. So I really like where you're coming from on that.
Caryn (27:07)
Thank you for that.
really wanted it to be something that could be a roadmap and could empower people to cook on their own.
Sharon (27:12)
Yeah.
And I think it is, so you have achieved that. So congratulations on that. So our time is drawing to a close, Karen, but I have a question for you that I ask all of my moms. And that is, since this is the Mom to More podcast, Karen Carruthers, what is your more?
Caryn (27:35)
I'm more, so I get to dream a little bit. I would love to establish myself as an author. I really would. I'd love to see another cookbook and potentially more books in my future. Yeah.
Sharon (27:59)
I love that. Okay, so when your next book comes out, we'll have you back on and we'll take it from there. So please tell our listeners where they can find you online, where they can find the cookbook and everything folks is gonna be in the show notes.
Caryn (28:10)
Yes.
so you can find me at tastyandfree.com and you can also find me on Instagram. My handle is the same as my website at Tasty N Free and the book is Smorgasbool and you can find it on Amazon and all other major retailers online.
Sharon (28:34)
fantastic. Karen, this has been so much fun. I'm now really hungry. But I want to thank you for your time and your mom wisdom and your insights. you you made me feel more comfortable about food allergies and just also being more aware of what I put into my mouth and how it just affects my entire body inside and out. So thank you for that.
Caryn (28:58)
Ugh, I love to hear that.