Introduction

Hi, Heejee here,
I wanted to share a bit about my background and [white blank space] today. As many of you already know, my husband and I are first-generation immigrants from Mexico and Korea, and we have two daughters, whom I call munchkin (4yr) and sweet pea (11months) here. We live in sunny California.

When I started [white blank space], I wanted to create a blog where I could share my creative work outside of my profession. (Professionally, I’m a licensed architect.) I wasn’t thinking of becoming a food blogger, but I soon realized that the only creative activity I was doing as a new mom was cooking food for my family. So that’s how [white blank space] started as a kid’s food blog!

I had very little knowledge of baby/kids food, and I didn’t even know the term “blw.” Another thing I didn’t have- mamma friends. All of my close acquaintances at that time were my work colleagues who didn’t have kids. So I improvised. I didn’t follow any rules as I didn’t know much about them to start with. I made food that I love to eat and cook, and just modified it a bit for munchkin. I did what made sense to me and shared what I made online. As my online community grew, I connected with many other foodie moms and learned a lot more about blw/kids’ food/nutrition. Looking back at my old photos and clips, I realized that I was a lot lax about cutting food safely- I served a lot of food just like how adults would eat them since I didn’t know- and that’s one area I changed this time around. But for all other things, I still don’t follow strict rules.

I must digress a bit and talk about my reasoning behind this. I grew up with a lot of food freedom, and in fact, I can’t remember even one incident when my parents asked me to eat food that I didn’t want to eat. My dad also liked to indulge my little brother and me with treats from time to time. It was his way of showing affection. Whether because of that or completely unrelated, I am one of the least picky eaters. I was that weird kid who asked for mushrooms, surprising every adult in the room. And I grew up to be a foodie (for lack of better words) who would happily spend half of my paycheck on a single meal just for the experience.

Munchkin, now 4 years old, is a typical kid. She eats a wide variety of food if looking at a broad picture, but she has days when she only wants sweets too. There are foods she is not open to eating at all. Sometimes I ask her to try the food she doesn’t eat, but a lot of times I don’t. In general, I don’t worry too much about it. Or the rules. I just figured that it would not ruin her, as my relaxed upbringing didn’t ruin me.

Now back to [white blank space]. 😄
I shared many lunchboxes on [white blank space], and it became one of my main themes—a little backstory of how that happened. When I returned to working outside of the house, I only knew how to take photos with natural light. And the only time I could find to shoot my meals with natural light was at 7:15 am, right before I head to work. So I shot munchkin’s lunchbox I prepared that morning. And naturally, it became a theme.

Although many things on [white blank space] happened by chance, I love to research topics I care about and practice improving my skills. I spent (and spend) a large amount of time learning cooking skills, reading feeding/nutrition advice, and shooting photos/videos. And I want to share what I learned and my creations with you. However, the most important thing is to do what makes sense to you and what makes your heart sing.

When sweet pea was just four months old, I returned to working outside the home, and I planned to keep working. Then covid hit, and I spent pretty much inside the house most of this year with two young kids, cooking constantly. It’s been a crazy, unpredictable year, but I see it as a gift from the universe as I got to see sweet pea grow and spent much-needed mommy time with munchkin. And as work projects seem to be perpetually on hold, I see this time as an opportunity to take [white blank space] to the next level. If you are reading this to this end, thank you! Thank you for supporting [white blank space], and I hope to bring you more exciting recipes, video tutorials, and many more!

Check out my latest projects.
Are you following me on youtube? Subscribe!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgW77-lZiMF3b5GBGjVUSYg?view_as=subscriber

Also, check out my first ebook.

http://whiteblankspace.com/lunches-for-kids-and-you/