Meet Trailblazer Lindsie Zagiba

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsie Zagiba.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Lindsie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Coincidentally out of boredom, I started cooking. The more I cooked, the more I realized how much I enjoyed it and that I was pretty good at it too. I was a stay at home Mom at the time, with a 1-year-old, and money was tight. This is when I learned how to make healthy, delicious dinners without spending a lot and figured, why not share this with others and help them too. This led me to working with the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina and grew my love for blogging. They liked my recipes, as they were easy and could use ingredients that people get from food banks. Each year FBCENC has a 24-hour telethon. The first year, I was featured with my Sweet Potato Pie, and every year since, they still make my pie – that feels really good. They really encouraged me to keep blogging and work at it as much as I could. In 2013, we moved to Colorado. I spent a lot of time working on my blog when we first got here. And, I learned as much as I could about building a website and sharing who I was with everyone. My social media accounts slowly gained followers, and I was sharing the news that you can eat yummy meals without breaking the bank. Throughout the next couple of years, I worked with PTPA (Parent Tested Parent Approved), Mile High Mamas (Denver Post), Walmart Grocery, and multiple other companies, writing reviews etc. Also in 2013, I started a job as the cook at a preschool. It involved planning meals that picky kids would eat and staying within a budget. I did really well at this by making everything from scratch instead of just reheating processed food and to top it off we even saved the school money. I started sharing menus on my site. At first, it was just dinners and a grocery list, and then each month, I added a little more and more. With all of the work I was putting into these plans, I opened my Etsy store and started selling very detailed menus plans, while still sharing a simplified version on my site for free.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Haha – smooth road! I don’t think it’s been a smooth road at all, but I sure learned a lot along the way. My original plan of a “Mom Blog” changed a few times along the way, each with their own struggles, making my blog what it is today. Some of the biggest struggles I faced were initially, my lack of knowledge about building a website, and the struggle of sharing content, but no one seeing it – it made you feel defeated and I struggled with being diagnosed with Epilepsy. My seizures put a pause on things for a while but encouraged me to do more, and as I was feeling better is when I really put my all into it. I learned along the way to keep on going. Life is gonna knock you down, but get back up, and move on. Keep on going, and don’t let anyone or anything hold you back.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Mom’s Bistro – what should we know?
Where to begin? I am a food blogger that rocks at helping my family save time and money with my meal plans. Breakfast, lunch and dinner broken down into grocery lists, weekly and daily preparation tips to save time, recipes, and shopping strategies to save money. I learned from my experience with preparing so many fresh meals at the preschools I cooked at that being prepared and having a game plan was key to my success and it transferred right over into my monthly meal planning, cause hey let’s face it time is money! So naturally it started with my family and it just grew from there when I knew that this could help lots of people simplify their life while being able to enjoy more home-cooked meals together as a family. But honestly, a lot of my inspiration came from what has become one of my true passions, which is helping with hunger in my community. I think what I’m most proud of as a brand has to be my work with hunger. I started with my work with the FBCEN and there was a challenge to see if you could feed a family of four on 4 dollars and change a day to help raise awareness for hunger. It was so fun coming up with how to make food for so little but how to also make it taste good. Through volunteering and attending Feeding America events and their affiliate program no kid hungry, I got the opportunity to teach cooking classes for their cooking matters program. I taught not just parents but kids as well how to cook healthy meals on a budget. It was such an amazing experience, how appreciative the families were and how much fun they had cooking together. What sets me apart from others is in the details – my meal plans include more than others who d what I do, and cost less.

So much of the media coverage is focused on the challenges facing women today, but what about the opportunities? Do you feel there are any opportunities that women are particularly well positioned for?
Women are positioned for greatness! We are creating new roles for ourselves and we don’t let anyone stand in our way. If you don’t climb the mountain, you can’t see the view.

I personally admire the ladies who work with Rodan and Fields. I am in a Facebook group with these ladies. They don’t sit around and complain and look at the challenges, they are out there, making it happen, supporting each other and going for it each and every day. I think that this is the mentality we need to take. Of course, we’re all going to have challenges, but as long as we keep going and don’t let anything hold us back, there is nothing that we can’t do.

Pricing:

• Monthly Meal Plans – $5

Contact Info:

• Website: momsbistro.net
• Phone: 919-436-9658
• Email: momsbistro@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/momsbistro
• Facebook: facebook.com/momsbistro
• Twitter: twitter.com/momsbistro
• Other: etsy.com/shop/momsbistro

Image Credit:
Sarah Garrett Photography > Family Photos
Myself – remaining photos

Getting in touch: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.