Blogger Spotlight: Las Recetas de Laura

Laura has been sharing her recipes on YouTube for ten years. Her husband stays behind the scenes with the camera in hand. She also has two wonderful sons and two adorable cats.

I was so excited to round out 2021 by sharing her story with the SideChef community. Laura has opened her heart and home to millions over the years and made Mexican-inspired recipes available to home cooks everywhere.

Before becoming a popular YouTuber, Laura was a journalist in Mexico. She wrote a syndicated column that grew very popular and later became a book, Recetas Saludables.

Laura’s book focused on family-favorite healthy Mexican recipes. She helped many people enjoy delicious and healthy versions of their favorite Milanesas, Chilaquiles, and many Mexican desserts.

In 2014 Laura was named one of the 100 most influential Latinas in the United States and had been recognized on various occasions for her work in promoting people's health through creative and delicious food.

On her YouTube channel, you can find many easy healthy recipes suitable for special diets and weight loss.

I have always been dealing with being overweight. When I turned 30, I decided that I wanted to lose weight. I needed to lose weight to continue with my career in journalism. I wanted to get into TV news, and sadly, you do not see all sizes of people in the news. I quit my job. I was very successful in my career, with a book published before my 30th birthday, and I was giving speeches up and down Latin America. Suddenly I decided to leave everything to take a sabbatical year.

I lost 110 pounds with emotional therapy and a very strict diet in that year. People started asking me how I lost weight, so I started sharing the recipes I cooked for myself to my friends, uploading them to YouTube, and sharing the ingredients on my blog. Suddenly it was not only my friends who were watching my recipes. They started to get views from all over the world. The recipes were in Spanish and were helping a lot of Hispanic communities in the US to lose weight and control diabetes and cholesterol. Soon their doctors asked what they were doing, and they said they were cooking with my recipes, and I started getting emails asking me to have my recipes in English too. So I started publishing bilingual content.

It's been ten years of many adventures creating content for my social media. Among my favorite highlights is being invited to participate at the Michelle Obama, Partnership for a Better America Conference in Washington. I had an opportunity to be a Storyteller for Disney Princess in California and was invited to give a cooking class at the Centro de Convenciones of Mexico city. And, of course, being named one of the most influential Latinas in the US.

I became a mom, and my interest in getting into TV news faded. You never know where things that you make with love will drive you. I had many opportunities to share my recipes on television and printed media. I had the honor to share my experience from some important stages in the US and Mexico. Such as McCormick convention center in Chicago giving cooking classes for the American Diabetes Association or the Centro de Convenciones In Mexico City and small cooking classes for Hispanic schools in Chicago. My background as a writer and journalist has definitely helped me in this journey.

My Spanish Youtube channel has over 167 million views and over 2.3 million followers!

You can find Laura’s English recipes on Spicy Latina Mom!

I have decadent Mexican rice, a kind of Mexican Risotto with cream and Poblano that my whole family loves! They also love to have Mexican Style Chili Beans made with a guajillo sauce and the traditional Mexican Charro Beans with a twist to make them healthier and low fat.

My kids really love Frijoles Charros or the Mexican Chilli Beans recipe.

I try to prepare meals that contain veggies already in the recipe. My kids love pasta, so I make my own tomato sauce with fresh tomatoes, carrots, celery, garlic, onion. That way, I know they eat tons of veggies in a single meal, and they love it!

Homemade Tomato Sauce For Pasta

Mexican food is prepared with a lot of vegetables on it. Many people do not know, but jalapenos are actually a fruit. And they are full of vitamin C, so if you make Mexican Enchiladas Verdes with some lettuce on the side, you are eating a lot of veggies. My trick is preparing all of this without frying.

Chicken Enchiladas in Green Sauce

Another trick I use is grated vegetables in the recipe. I have this traditional Mexican Croquetas de Atún that are basically a kind of tuna nuggets, and I add grated Zucchini into the mix.

Mexican Croquetas De Atun

I have a few tricks, such as using food coloring for coloring mayonnaise and putting a bit on some steamed cauliflower. I always tell them that it is a cloud with rain (I color mayo in blue)

I just decided I would take it slow. With two little kids at home, we were going crazy. We had no family around, so we were very isolated. It was for my mental health just to slow down and know that it was for the best of all that I would not grow much professionally during this time. The truth is you can’t make it all, and for me, my most important treasure is my family.

Slow down and enjoy the process. Things will come when it is the right time.

I am working hard on having most of my content in English. I have over 600 recipes in Spanish, and it is not as easy as just translating them into English. I need to transform them for the English-speaking audience. This is where my energy and time are going for now. I am enjoying the ride!

Sharing my Mexican recipes cooked more healthily is a way to share my heritage and leave a legacy for my kids. I also talk to my audience very openly about being overweight, enjoying your size, body, and making the right choices in what you eat, no matter the size.