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Foodtastic Mom

Welcome to Foodtastic Mom! I’m Jill McOwen, the owner and author of this website. I founded it in 2012, as a gift to myself for my 40th birthday. What began as a hobby and a way to share recipes with family, friends and catering clients has become my full time career.

a collage of three pictures of jill mcowen aka foodtastic mom

What got me cooking?

I loved looking at my Mom’s cookbooks from an early age. Starting in middle school, I was planning dinner parties for my friends. I’ve taken some culinary classes and won a few cooking contests over the years.

Throughout my 20’s and 30’s I was catering quite a bit as a side hustle. During those years, I cooked breakfast and lunches for a team of hungry high school football players. I’ve served buffet style lunches and dinners for countless school and church groups. I even catered a wedding for over 200 people by myself!

Friends, family and clients were always asking me for my recipes, so my blog started as a way to conveniently share my knowledge with them.

I am a home-cooking expert with over 30 years of experience!  I often don’t need to test my recipes more than once because of my extensive cooking and baking knowledge. All things related to food and the art of recipe creation has been my hyper fixation for most of my life.

My magazine subscription to Cook’s Illustrated has helped bolster my knowledge about the science of cooking over the years. But for me, cooking is an art and my true passion. My right-brained creative side thrives in the kitchen. And I want you to feel super in your kitchen too!

Cooking philosophy

My cooking style has evolved over the years. I still enjoy cooking everything from scratch when I have the time. I enjoy listening to music and standing at the stove lingering over a homemade risotto, soup or pasta sauce. I like to impress people with a fancy dinner served at home.

Here’s a few of my favorite fancier recipes from my collection –

But life moves fast and requires efficiency. Most of my recipes are best described as streamlined comfort food. It’s important to share food and conversation to connect with the ones you love. Most of my dinner recipes can easily be served to your busy family during the week.

Here’s some of my favorite family dinner recipes –

I’ve developed (as far as I know) a unique method for thickening gravies and sauces in my Crock-Pot with this recipe for microwave roux.

Here’s my collection of slow cooker recipes using my unique method –

And my very first viral recipe was this French Strawberry Cake. I love to bake and am known for my unfussy cakes and homemade cookies.

Here’s a few of my favorite cake and cookie recipes –  

Where else can you find foodtastic mom?

I was approached early on in my blogging career by the Ohio Beef Council to create some recipes specifically for them. That led to me getting more sponsored recipe work with the Ohio Pork Council and Ohio Eggs.

Some of my most rewarding work over the years has been to promote the stories of Ohio family farmers.  Many of my recipes using beef, pork, eggs and poultry are thanks in part to them.

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Let’s connect on social media

Follow me on my current favorite social media platform, TikTok. You can also find me sharing free recipes on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook.