Vlada Vladic is on a mission. Concerned by the country's childhood obesity epidemic, the 41-year-old Wine Country mother of two said she wants America's children to eat healthier.
So she got to work, launching a business called Cooking and Kids that aims to educate families on healthy eating habits.
"I am just a regular mother tapping into her passion," Vladic said. "Nothing extraordinary ---- just something that should be done to help other mothers along the way."
Her website, cookingandkids.info, touts tips, recipes and more.
Locally, she can be found at Delany's Market & Cafe in Old Town Temecula on Saturdays teaching people how to make strudel and pizza dough from scratch. And she's produced three half-hour shows on how to cook healthy meals for and with kids that have aired on public access television.
The gist of her cooking shows are that if you cook a healthy meal with your children and make it fun, they'll eat it ---- vegetables and all, she said.
"I am not a scientist; I am not a doctor. I live it," she said. "For that reason I think other mothers can relate to me. I face the same struggles they do."
As for her cooking credentials, they're varied.
For one, she grew up in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where she worked in the kitchen alongside her grandmother making food from scratch. In her 20s, after she immigrated to America, she and her husband owned and managed two successful restaurants in Florida before they got into the construction business.
Last year, Vladic won a Food Network television show called "Thanksgiving Family Faceoff Challenge." In it, she squared off against three other families to create the best holiday meal. She earned the top prize of $10,000. One of the judges told her she could "retire a millionaire" on her homemade strudel dough, which she had stretched by hand in front of the amazed judges.
Vladic said that trick is one of her specialties. She's been known to demonstrates the technique at Delaney's.
"What she brings into the store is handmade, chemical-free, wholesome and very delicious," said Jordan Stone, the store's owner. "She is dedicated to making simple food in old world traditional ways that are far more delicious than any food in other places. ... Nothing is processed, nothing is out of a can, nothing out of a jar."
Vladic said having her two children is what spurred her to launch Cooking and Kids.
"Having kids, it changes a person, it crystallizes the person you are meant to be," she said. "I understand how important it is to feed kids well. Their bodies are developing, their little cells are splitting. You have to put in the right kind of fuel for them to grow good."
She said her efforts are not just about targeting overweight kids. Children of all ages and sizes need nutritious food.
"It's not just about excess weight," she said. "It's about the building blocks. It's what kids are made of."
