Hi and welcome to Green Healthy Cooking! Here you can find out more about Lorena.
My name is Lorena Grater and I am…well….many things.
I am a German Peruvian, a certified translator, a globetrotter, a mother, a wife, a YouTuber (uuuuh), a real food lover and a self-proclaimed chef creating healthy recipes that fit into my definition of clean eating. I am an Instant Pot Pro and a Meal Prep addict, too, to be more precise ;)
I live with my Mexican husband and two kids in snowy Montreal, Canada, which officially makes my kids polyglots because they are growing up with 4 languages. How amazing is that?
Green Healthy Cooking is my online baby and where I share healthy recipes, detailed cooking tutorials, and other clean-eating how-tos.
My Story
I was born and raised in a small town in Southern Germany by a German father and a Peruvian mother. My grandfather was a butcher and my dad’s best friends were all hunters. Meaning, I grew up on wild meat, bucket loads of fresh fruits and vegetables, sweet potato, avocado, and quinoa because that’s what my mom knew how to cook from her culture. Basically everything was always cooked from scratch and I was taught to cook as early as 3 years old.
When I moved out of my parents’ home to go study at university I learned for the first time that there were other people that did not know how to cook, nor did they know what eating healthy actually looked like. Even after graduating and meeting “older” people (lol) that had had their independent kitchens for a while, I still kept meeting a lot that were struggling with cooking and meeting their nutritional needs and always asking me for advice and help.
I found out quickly that for most of my friends eating healthy sounded super complicated, not very appealing, and super expensive.
I’m not a nutritionist (though I wish I were) but I grew up being kept updated on the latest research and development in nutrition studies and never stopped reading about nutrition up until today. My mother was always very interested in this topic and definitely passed on the hunger for nutrition knowledge to me.
Needless to say, I felt like there was a huge need for easy but delicious healthy recipes made with clean ingredients. Recipes that could easily be accessed by everybody at any time from anywhere in the world. Recipes for all those that had a really hard time wrapping their head around eating healthy to feel healthy.
Green Healthy Cooking was born out of a passion to help others find joy in the kitchen and enjoy the wonderful natural flavors of clean ingredients. Healthy eating and clean eating doesn’t have to be complicated at all, can be incredibly delicious, and also fit into everybody’s budget.
Start here
If you are new to Green Healthy Cooking, these are great topics to start browsing through the website:
- Read more about my Philosophy.
- Browse through all Recipes easily sortable by category and find your new go-to favorites.
- Are you as much of an Instant Pot junkie as I am? Let’s be besties! Learn how to make Instant Pot Rice and you’ll never cook it any other way.
- Meal Prep is a million times more effective than will-power alone when it comes to eating a healthy diet. Start with something easy like overnight oats.
- If you’re unsure which diet to follow, give each a try for a day and figure out what your body thrives on and what makes you feel good: 1-Day Clean Eating Meal Plan, 1-Day Keto Diet Plan, 1-Day Paleo Meal Plan, 1-Day Vegan Meal Plan.
Next, join the community!
Wow, you read all the way here. Thank you so much! I’d love to hear YOUR story as well and get to know YOU.
So please join my community on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest and say hello.
You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel to find all of Green Healthy Cooking’s video tutorials.
If you’d like to contact me privately the fastest way is through Facebook messenger or via e-mail to lorena@greenhealthycooking.com. I absolutely love hearing from you!
Features
Green Healthy Cooking has grown quite a bit over the years and it’s thus been featured in various media including Forbes, CBC Radio, Food Bloggers of Canada, Buzzfeed, msn, Elle, Popsugar, and Greatist, amongst others.
Lots of love from my kitchen to yours,
Cheryl Barron says
Hi Lorena,
I’m a huge fan of yours and always look to see what you’ve been cooking! Something I’ve never seen in your recipes is a trick I picked up several years ago: When a recipe says to saute onion, I always use the required amount of oil, and add about a teaspoon of dark sesame oil – the aromatic asian variety. It absolutely opens the flavor of the onion and caramelizes it, so you have to watch it so it doesn’t burn.
Thanks for all you have given us!!
<3 Cheryl
Lorena Grater says
I’m so happy to read you are enjoying the recipes :) I love sesame oil. It’s so delicious. Like you say one has to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn. I add sesame oil to most of my Asian-inspired dishes but tend to keep it out of recipes where other flavors are meant to shine because sesame oil can be overpowering :)
Julia says
Hello Lorena!
You’re definitely my “Go To” instant pot site. Your thorough research on all things Instant Pot keeps you in my top tier for IP recipes.
Thanks!!
Lorena Grater says
I’m so happy to read you find my guides useful and like my recipes :)
Bo Irish stephenson says
Hi Lorena,
We use your recipes at least 4x/wk, thank you for the easy, tasty, healthy recipes! We are experimenting with vegan – would you add some more vegan options?
Thanks so much!
Bo
Lorena Grater says
I’m so happy to read you are enjoying the recipes. In the main menu at the top which says “recipes” you can search by type and pick vegan. Those are all the vegan recipes I have on my website. I stopped calling vegan recipes vegan in order not to attract the wrong people. I am a mainly omnivore page and a lot of vegans naturally don’t want to see meat recipes so I try to be very clear in my social media descriptions and everywhere. You will always find all recipes that fall into the vegan category under that catergory though and there are always 1-2 new vegan recipes a month that I publish on my blog.
Tairi Huff says
Thank you ,Lorena I love your recipes! I love to cook and try new recipes all the time.Came across your blog on Facebook and have been following ever since.Have referred family and friends to check it out.
Thank you Tairi
Lorena Grater says
Thank you so much for recommending my website to your friends and family :)
Dan Grasso says
This website is frikkin’ great. I can stand to lose about 25lbs. Eating healthier is easier with these recipes. I eat pretty healthy now, but these ideas are more varied and not that hard. I am glad I came across it. Thanks Lorena!
Lorena Grater says
I’m so happy you are enjoying the recipes :D My philosophy is that eating clean and healthy doesn’t have to be complicated nor boring. That way it’s easier to stick to it which brings you results long term, not just short term :)
Kelcy says
Hello Lorena! I stumbled upon a photo that you posted on Pinterest. Was wondering if you would be open to selling or lending us the rights to it so we can use it for design purposes. Thank you very much!
Carol French says
Love your website. I could NOT get decent rice out of my instapot until I stumbled on your guidance. Thank you, thank you.
Paola says
Hola Lorena! My name is Paola and I live in Costa Rica! I found your site while looking for a daily plan for my family (2 kids plus my husband). I love all the recipes, tips, and imagination you put on your recipes!!
Lorena Grater says
Thank you Paola :) Welcome to Green Healthy Cooking.
Colleen says
Good Morning,
I love your recipes, I have put on the obligatory covid 10 pounds time to get back to WW. I am wondering when you give nutritional info is it just for the protein or for the entire meal. I am making your parchment paper salmon tonight and if your info includes the asparagus and potatoes or just the salmon? Thank you in advance for any assistance.
Lorena Grater says
All nutritional information is always for the whole list of ingredients divided by servings so the calories and all will always be for 1 serving. The salmon has the asparagus and the potatoes in the ingredient list so the nutritional information is for one serving of the whole meal including sides.
Bridget says
Hi Lorena
My name’s Bridget and I live in Durham, UK. I’m originally from London with an Irish mother. My husband is from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
When the lockdown started in March I overindulged in chocolate &wine, due to anxiety and working in a school. I gained so much weight, I’m 59 & I’m at my heaviest for over 20 yrs. My youngest daughter is vegan & I’ve been heavily influenced by her, especially with overnight oats!!! So delicious.
I’ve been making your salads, so many choices and so tasty. I feel so much healthier. I’ve still got 14 lbs to lose.
Will your recipes help me to lose weight? Can I set a program for losing weight?
Thank you so much. Xx
Lorena Grater says
Hi Bridget, how wonderful to read about you. Do you mind sending me an e-mail to continue this conversation in private? You can find the address under the “contact” tab. Best wishes.
Barb Camusi says
Wondering how this recipe differs if I put stuffing in both small chickens?
Lorena Grater says
I’m not sure which recipe you are referring to but if you cook the stuffing separately in a casserole next to the chicken you can ensure that everything cooks evenly and the chicken doesn’t overcook.
Alice says
I absolutely love this recipe! I discovered it while searching for ways to use the 60+lbs of apples my mom had given me. There’s only so much applesauce a person and her friends can stand!
I’m an avid baker so I borrowed a 6.75qt le Creuset enameled dutch oven and tried the recipe. Oh so delicious!!! And ENORMOUS. It almost completely filled the pot. I now split the batch of dough in half and make 2 smaller loaves at a time using 3qt Lodge enameled dutch ovens. I have also been experimenting with various additions creating both sweet and savory breads. The possibilities are endless! I’ve made roughly 30 loaves (1/2 of dough each) made to date and not once been disappointed. This is now my go-to recipe.
THANK YOU LORENA!
Lorena Grater says
Alice, I’m so happy to read you love the bread recipe. It’s one of my favorite, too. Bread-making is a form of meditation for me.
Duncan says
Randomly found your blog while looking for a vegan sweet potato and chickpea curry. (trying to vastly improve my diet) and found yours, tried it… absolutely incredible (I added a couple of extra things because i can) so I will be definitely be coming back for more (just like the curry)
Thank you :)
Lorena Graeter says
I’m so happy you liked the recipe Duncan :) Thank you so much for coming back and commenting.