Meet Kelly Hunt of "Eat Yourself Skinny"

If you haven't heard of Kelly Hunt yet, you soon will.  Although she just started her blog, Eat Yourself Skinny, in March 2011, she has already garnered herself well over a thousand Google followers, hundreds of Foodbuzz friends, nearly 5000 Facebook "likes" and about 1500 Twitter followers.  That's a lot of networking!  

And it's paid off . . .  her blog has been nominated for not just one, but two, awards at the upcoming 2011 Foodbuzz Festival.  (Winners will be announced the weekend of November 5-6.)   Kelly's up for "Best New Blog" and "Best Healthy Blog."  She's also been mentioned In Cooking Light, Glamour, NYC Resident Magazine, Honest Cooking, Taste and Tell and ROS:  Your Culinary Network.  Her photographs have appeared on just about every photo site you can name!

Kelly is a fun-loving and vivacious food blogger who has a passion for cooking and eating well and right.   She's determined to show us all that cooking healthy can not only be easy but fun.  She throws herself heart and soul into all she does, from loving her Yorkie (named Ollie,just like my daughter's!) to cheering the Caps. And her enthusiasm is contagious.  It's also totally ingenuous and sincere. Take a listen . . . .

You've come a long way in a very short time, Kelly.  What do you think you've done "right?" Well, one of the most important things I think any blogger should do is first connect with other bloggers. I love to spend any free time I have during the day to comments on other blogs, find new blogs and "friend" them , as well as really getting to know people personally.  Twitter is the perfect outlet, and if you don't have a Twitter account already, you should definitely get one!  I've made such amazing bloggy friends and it makes networking so much more fun!  Also, practicing your photography and having your blog designed professionally helps a lot, too :)

Tell us a little about your day job.
Oh, if only it was cooking and photography, right??  Nope, I'm currently a full-time paralegal at a law form outside DC and I absolutely love my job!  It keeps me really busy, but it also gives me access to a computer all day, so in my spare time I'm able to find recipes, check out fantastic blogs and maybe even do a post of my own.
What do you do for lunch?
I typically bring my own lunch to work since we have a nice kitchen with a fridge and microwave so it makes trying to eat healthy pretty easy :) I always have fruit and/or carrot sticks in the fridge for a ready snack when I'm hungry as well as plenty of diet coke to give me my daily sugar fix.  {Terrible, I know.}  I usually make a salad with cranberries and walnuts with a vinaigrette or else I bring in some leftovers from the night before.  My favorite leftovers would have to be my Skinny Chicken Enchiladas. Just sayin' . . . .
How do you fit in exercise?
This is where I've had to tweak and have had trouble with since I started food blogging -- not gonna lie!  I don't know about you, but since I have a full-time job and I live in a little one-bedroom apartment with few windows, finding time to cook and photograph my food is hard!  I used to exercise about 5:30 every day after work until about 6:30 or 7. Now, I've had to switch it to finding time in the morning before work in order to get a good workout in so that I can run home and cook before the sun goes down so I can get a good picture!  {Sigh.}  It's quite the change but my body has grown accustomed to waking up at early every day and heading to the gym. Makes me feel better, too.
How do you calculate the nutrition content and the Weight Watchers points for the recipes you share?
If any of y'all know of a quicker way PLEASE let me know!  Actually, I just to it the old fashioned way by writing down the nutrition facts for each item I'm using, calculating the entire dish including all the ingredients and then dividing that by the number of servings.  And, yep,  . . . I just use my nifty, thrifty calculator to do all this.  I don;t have a special program or anything.  To calculate the Weight Watchers Points for each recipe I do use this little site that calculates both the old and new points, which is really helpful to me.
Most of us food bloggers love to watch cooking shows. Do you have a favorite show?
YES!  I sure do.  I'm completely addicted to the Food Network and my absolute favorite show is Giada at Home.  Her cooking style and the way she carries herself is so fun to watch and I love learning from her!  Also (believe it or not) I LOVE Paula Deen!  I know she's in no way considered a "healthy" cook, but her recipes are always fabulous and I love taking them and trying to find ways to make them healthier:)  It gives me a challenge and, well, she's just super fun to watch!
One of my favorite recipes from your blog is your Strawberry Bruschetta.  Name a favorite -- or two -- of yours.
Aw, thank you so much!  My favorite recipe to make {and EAT!} is my Lemon and Rosemary Chicken.  Your entire meal in ONE skillet, takes little to no effort to whip up and is so healthy and delicious!  I found this recipe through the Food Network and everyone who has tried it loves it:)  I also love my Minty Mango Salsa which tastes great on its own or even with pork chops.

Have you ever attended a food blogging conference?
Unfortunately, no, I haven't :(  I had wanted to attend this year's Foodbuzz Festival in San Francisco, but being on the East Coast in Virginia made it difficult to try and make plans ahead of time for.  I'm hoping to go to one next year, though!
How did you first learn of blogging?
Well, I've always LOVED cooking and anytime I wanted a recipes I'd just type something into Google and would come across a few food blogs here and there.  It wasn't until I found For the Love of Cooking that I became fascinated with the idea.  I couldn't stop reading all her recipes and ultimately she inspired me to do my own, just for my friends and family.  Then I stumbled upon Foodbuzz and decided to go all out and see what happens!
What's one piece of advice you'd give someone considering starting a food blog?
Network, network, NETWORK!  Making friends through food blogging is not only fun, but I feel is really essential to bringing traffic to your blog.  The more you comment on other blogs, the more people want to come and check out yours.  I also try and respond back to each and every comment I receive; that way, I get to know the people who are commenting and find new blogs to be inspired by.  I also like to practice my photography as much as possible :)  The more attractive your photos, the more acceptance you get on sites like Foodgawker and Tastespotting, which allows even more exposure to your blog. See?  Easy peasy!

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She sure makes it sound easy!  And she just got herself a spanky new camera, so she's planning to dial up her picture-taking a notch or two.  So, watch out, world!  Kelly's coming!