Winner Profile Q&A

Tell us a little about yourself!

My interests include recipe creation, gardening, traveling and reading.

Who do you cook for?

I love cooking for my family and friends. I have three grown children; my eldest son is 27 and is a personal trainer, my second son is the middle child at 23 and is serving our country in the US Navy, and my daughter, the baby of the family, is 21.

Why do you like to cook? What, if anything, do you dislike about cooking?

I've always loved to cook, and I can usually cook in any style. I especially enjoy preparing ethnic foods, such as Mexican, Cajun, Southwestern, etc.

What are some of your cooking secrets or tips?

One of the things I like to do is prep anything I can ahead of time. I also like to make a few meals at one time so I will have free time to do other things later.

Do you have any suggestions for cooking on a budget or in a time crunch?

Again, I like to make a few meals at once to free up my time. A good thing to do is pick one day a week, prep several meals and put them into the freezer to be reheated later. Another thing is if I'm going to make a dish but I need something to complete it—for example, onions—I'll go to my supermarket's salad bar. I love to use fresh ingredients, but sometimes buying a whole red bell pepper is too expensive at $3.99 lb. If I only need half a pepper, I'll buy it from the salad bar. I get what I need and there is no waste!

What is dinnertime usually like for you and your family?

All of my children work so we never have dinner at the same time everyday. One of us will make dinner and leave it on the stove. Everyone will sort of drop in, eat, then go on with the rest of their evening.

How does SeaPak make feeding your family easier?

Seapak makes feeding my family easier because it's easy to prepare. Unless you are adding other ingredients to the product, it's pretty much fool-proof.

What are your favorite ways to use SeaPak products? What are your family's favorite SeaPak meals?

I love to take a product and make it my own by experimenting with flavors & textures. My boys love shrimp so they eat a lot of Seapak's shrimp entrees.

If you have children (or a picky spouse), how do you get them to eat more seafood? In what ways do you ensure that they get healthful, well-balanced meals?

My daughter is not so much into seafood. One way I sway her attention to try new things is to combine it with something she likes. It was my daughter's love of spice & coconut that inspired my recipe, Sweet & Spicy Key Lime Coconut Shrimp.