Natalya Drozhizhin grew up in a small farming town in Ukraine. Population? 300 people. Her family originated the term 'farm to table,' literally living off their garden. Sometimes food was scarce but Natalya always remembered her mom's easy, quick and delicious meals.
Her family moved to the United States when Natalya was 13-years-old. School was difficult for Natalya, as she didn't speak a word of English. "I loved America, but I hated the fact that I couldn't understand anything. I would go to school, come home and cry." Looking back, she adds, "I think coming as a teenager to a new country is like the worst thing ever. It was really tough."
One thing her family all agreed upon was that coming to America was an opportunity. An opportunity to make money. So in spite of their struggles, Natalya says, "You're in a new country. Everything's amazing. You get this food in the store. Anything you want was there. 1991 was when Ukraine broke away from the Soviet Union. We moved to Seattle in 1998. It was only seven years that Ukraine had its own freedom. Things had started to get better, but they were not like here."
Natalya met her husband Tim (who is from Russia) and they have two boys, Jacob and Ethan. When they were first married, the couple was in the insurance business. They were selling auto and home insurance at a nationwide top agency and were so busy that they eventually burned out. They wanted to spend more time with their young boys and that's when Natalya's blog was born. In 2010, she created a Facebook group where she shared easy recipes for busy, tired moms. Eventually, it became so popular, Natalya turned to her web developer husband to create a website for her.
"Mom's dish kind of just took off," says Natalya. "I never thought about it as a business initially because I was in this community of moms. This is going to be my way of serving the community - serving other moms, helping other moms. I took a leap of faith."
Today, the Drozhizhins reside in Franklin and have made MomsDish a community of people who want to go back to Mom’s basics and are dedicated to making the kitchen the centerpiece of their homes. Their 46,000+ followers on Instagram learn quick, easy recipes for breads, breakfasts, meats, desserts, some specialty Ukrainian dishes and more. Natalya wants everyone to fall in love with cooking as she has so she makes it simple.
Natalya and her husband Tim are grateful to their parents for bringing them here. Natalya says, "My parents were 47 years old at the time. It's not young. It's a new country, new language, learning everything. But they did it for us. And it's amazing." MomsDish.com
