Frequently Asked Questions

If you have more questions, email me and I may add it to this list!

1. Where did you get the idea and how did you know how to start a blog? The idea came from my friend, Sara, who suggested this after I did a talk for her MOPS group. I didn't have a clue what I was doing at first and did a LOT of reading and praying for help. Blogger (my original hosting service) actually made parts of it very easy – starting my other blog took me only an hour or so because there are no “bells and whistles” there. On my Kitchen Kop site, however, it took me months to get everything set up and to figure out what I was doing. I'm still technically challenged, to say the least, but I'm muddling my way through it all as I go!
2. Why did you start this blog? I have an odd interest for the topic of nutrition that began in early 2004 with what I call my “food conversion”. Even I don't understand sometimes why all this fascinates me so much! It has now become something that a lot of people ask me about, because they know how much research and reading I've done on various topics. I decided after praying about it to follow my passion and start this site so I have one place to send people for information, recipes, links to interesting articles, etc. As much as I love helping people become healthier, this has turned into more work than I ever imagined, but I'm too far into it to stop now… You’ll find a lot of “politically incorrect” health and nutrition information here, because I don’t believe everything “they” have told us is the way to good health. Why?  Look around, it isn’t working.  The goal of this blog is to get you thinking about what you’re putting into your body, the effects it will have, and to give you more of the knowledge you’ll need to help you make good choices for you and your family. With the overload of information available to us today, here is one place to easily find what you need to know (or at least a very good start) on a wide range of health & nutrition topics, and you won’t have to do all the time-consuming work of searching out the truth on each issue!  I also hope you’ll comment and share what you’ve learned on your path to better health, so we can all grow in our knowledge together!
3. How can I find what I'm looking for on this site?  The EASIEST way is to search online like this “Kitchen Kop TOPIC WORD OR PHRASE HERE”.  Or look through the archives or use the search box above.  If that doesn't work, email me:  [email protected], and I'm sorry for all the trouble!  (The secret with the search bar is to put in words from the post you're looking for that will be as unique to that post as possible.)
4. Do you earn money from this site?  If so, how?   I began writing here only to get the truth out about health & nutrition, and to organize it into one easy-to-navigate format – I didn't do it to make money.  Not very far into it, though, I realized the enormous amount of time it took to do this right.  I began to wonder how I could keep doing day care and my blog, and thought that maybe if this could turn into at least a part time income, then I could keep it up.  Well, now that I'm a year and a half into it, it is only slowly and painfully making anything. This gets especially frustrating when most of what is made has to go right back into site maintenance, hosting and domain fees, back-up costs, technical problems ($60-$150/hour for help with those), you get the idea…  As always, if you would buy the products I might recommend through my site (I'll only recommend what I use or believe in), then it will help me to continue blogging.  Keep in mind the cost is the same for you, but I would appreciate your help in that way. I also make a little money each month through the ads you see on my site – if someone clicks on one and buys something through there, I'll receive a small percentage of that purchase (and when I say small, I mean small).  Thankfully I'm passionate about the topics I write about, but it would be great if I ever actually get paid for all the time and sleep deprivation that have gone into this! (See my new resources page.)
5. What's the easiest way to print recipes from your blog?   I'm working on getting all my recipes updated with my new “print this” plugin, so it should all be much easier to print recipes soon!
6. Where did you come up with the name, “Kelly the Kitchen Kop”? I just thought something with the “K” theme might be fun (Kent & I named all our kids with K's, too – and all his brothers are K's!), and then I asked everyone I knew for their input. I remember talking with my friend, Lyn, one day, and told her I just didn't know about this name because it sounds so stupid to me sometimes. She said, “What's your other option? To have something boring that no one remembers?” Turns out she was right on – I think the fact that it's a little odd helps people remember it easier. Besides, this one got the most votes from friends & family.
7. You have 4 kids and a home business, how do you find time to work on a blog? It's not easy, and sometimes I'm up way too late, but I have learned to put boundaries around my computer time and that helps a lot (when I'm sticking to the boundaries, that is) – so if I don't reply to your e-mail or comment quickly, please understand that I'll get to it as soon as I can. I used to have day care kids part time, so on days off our toddler was napping, that's when I'd get posts written. Nowadays I get up early to work.  Another huge part of all this is that Kent has always been a great help around here (I'm thankful to his parents every day for raising such a great guy), and recently he's even taken a greater interest in cooking! This frees up more time on Saturdays to work on the blog when needed. Besides all that, I'm not really sure how everything comes together the way it does – God must help me pull it off, and I'm thankful to Him for allowing me to live out my passion for helping people become healthier.  (Read an update on this:  Benefits of Walking vs Running — How to Find the Time and Get Peace in Your Life.)
8. Do you have a nutrition degree? No, but the purpose for this site is to give you information (not health advice) that will help lead you to the truth as it relates to your health, so you can make good choices about what you put into your body. Although I've worked as an LPN in the past, my basis for offering you this information doesn't come from that at all, it comes from:

• Years of experience in the kitchen cooking for my family, knowing what does and doesn't work and what they will or will not eat!
• An unusual desire to read, research, and absorb all I can on the topic of health & nutrition.
• My being a fairly skeptical person by nature. Various things make me ask questions and motivate me to do more research. If I hear something from only one source, if I don't trust the source because what they're promoting is the same as what they're selling, if it just doesn't “set right” with me, all these are examples of things that put me on guard. So I start hunting for the Truth and use certain guidelines to help me find it, and hopefully you will benefit from my skepticism!
• Lastly, an ability to gather and organize information into one simple site so YOU don't have to spend a lot of time finding what you need. Research takes a long time for most of the topics you see on this blog, but since I love to do it, I can save you the time of searching for everything you want to learn more about. And I can also help save you money by finding the best deals available on the products I recommend.

I hope and pray that this site helps lead you and your family to better health, and that you are motivated by what you read here to do more research on your own, and then make better food choices every day.  However, I'm not an expert.  Don't take what I say as medical advice in anyway.  Do your own research!

I also hope you'll share your knowledge about healthy living, too, by leaving comments on the various posts, and by letting others know about this site!

MORE POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE:

• Where is the truth on health and nutrition?
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• Eating healthy on a budget
• More about this site