Our Story
Kathy McIlhany and Christy Wickenkamp own this small family business that opened its doors in December 2006. They want to help people put healthy meals on their dinner table that focus on organic, fresh, and natural ingredients. They share a passion for good food. Kathy and Christy are self taught chefs. Both can tell you first hand how the meal prep business can help you. “It has been such a relief knowing that dinner is ready to pop in the oven when we get home!”
Kathy is a busy mom with 7 children. She knows the importance of families eating together. She learned early on that getting dinner on the table was a challenge. She started preparing meals for her family in advance and freezing them for future use. The ease and success of assembling tasty meals in advance for her family left her wanting to pass on the hassle-free cooking idea to other parents. She taught her method to other people through formal organized training programs for church groups. Now Kathy has the opportunity through Easy Gourmet Meals to help even more people.
Kathy has developed a love of cooking over the past 25 years of marriage. A strong desire to put food on the table that was tasty and fresh was her motivation. Learning to cook without processed ingredients was a challenge. Something she felt was necessary in order to feed her large family in a thrifty, but health fashion without compromising taste. Using her skills in research, she has been able to develop a cooking style that accomplishes her goals.
Christy is a step mom of two. She has many years experience as an executive in the corporate world and owned her own information technology consulting business. Through this experience she has developed excellent management, finance, customer service and organization skills that serve her well in this type of business. She realizes she gained these skills at a price and understands the pressures placed on families today. She always felt guilty when her family ended up eating at a restaurant for most of their meals.
She is a two time cancer survivor who spent a lot of time educating herself about tools she could use to become more healthy. Focusing on organic, fresh, and natural ingredients in foods challenged her. Time, energy and money were constant hurdles. When the opportunity presented itself to start this business, she knew she could help other people overcome these hurdles in their own lives.
Christy loves to cook. She started cooking as a small child when she would pull a chair up to the stove to stand on. She enjoyed creating different foods by putting things together that were unexpected for flavor and appearance. She had some failures but with her families loving support she continued to learn. Later she entertained and took requests to do baby showers for friends where they would suggest she open a restaurant or a bed and breakfast. Throughout the years when she needed some “me” time, she would schedule a weekend to spend cooking. This was usually scheduled around the season changes where she could work on creating with the new flavors of the season. She also feels very blessed to be surrounded by some very good cooks that have taught her about their foods they were raised on. These friendships, along with her travels exposed her to Italian, Indian, German, French, Polish, Spanish, Mexican, and Southern US cuisines.
Both credit God, their families, and all the talented cooks that have blessed them with their help in this endeavor for the creation of Easy Gourmet Meals.