ARKANSAS, USA — After competing on the 2022 Netflix show Easy Bake Battle, Northwest Arkansas local Haley Herridge is using her love for cooking to help other people take on the kitchen.
Herridge won the title of Episodes 1 and 2 champion on the Netflix show, which features home cooks making quick and easy dishes.
“We had multiple very quick challenges where we needed to use minimal ingredients in a small amount of time, and it still be delicious and presentable,” Herridge said.
Making fast, affordable, and high-quality meals is a skill Herridge says comes in handy as a mom of three kids, but it can seem impossible to master.
“I’ve seen a lot of recipes being shared around the internet where they were requiring a million ingredients, and then you go to the grocery store to get those ingredients, and you use all the ingredients for that one recipe,” Herridge said. “And not always all the ingredients; a lot of times you have sauce and all these random things you're never going to use again that just sit in your fridge."
That’s why she started the “Kitchen Happy” meal plan, a free weekly plan to help others grocery shop and meal plan on a budget while minimizing wasted food.
Anyone can access the weekly plans by visiting Herridge’s website or signing up for her email list.
"It includes the grocery lists, and it's all organized by how you can shop in your grocery store. It'll be your proteins, your produce, your extras, anything in the frozen, and it has each recipe typed up for you for each day. It's a Monday through Friday thing,” Herridge said.
Each list is carefully planned to use many of the same ingredients while still keeping things fresh.
"If I’m deciding to use something like a bell pepper or salmon, you'll see it a couple of times that week, so you're not buying a thousand things at the grocery store, but at the same time, you will not get leftover burnout or repetitive burnout on different things," Herridge said.
As she shares her ideas with others, she’s saving many of these recipes for her next project.
“I would love to really get started on making a cookbook,” Herridge said.
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.