Sally J King

I knew at an early age that being a mom would be my passion. I have enjoyed a successful career as a hairdresser,but having my children has been the icing on my life's cake.

I thought this motherhood thing was going to be a breeze until my oldest son had his first grand mal seizure at 11 weeks old. Then I was again totally shocked when my youngest son developed anaphylaxis to peanuts! The reality that he could actually die if he ingested them rocked my quiet, contented world.

I then realized that what I did now could affect them later in life. Reading food labels, often with unpronounceable ingredients, looking for anything that might indicate a trace of peanuts became the norm. Learning about food cross-contamination was frightening to say the least and I soon realized that my creativity would take on a new direction – that of preparing healthy and safe food for my family.

The more I read, the more I realized that my new passion included not only avoiding peanuts but also a host of other dangerous chemicals. This new focus in my life has been tremendously rewarding and I hope your family will benefit from what I have learned about keeping our precious children healthy.

When my oldest son Brady started school I saw what the other kids were bringing for lunches and I was shocked at what was being sent. I started reading a lot of books and really became a food detective. I realized that not just because of Tyson's peanut allergy should I be making everything from home, but also that all those other nasty ingredients that cannot be pronounced were even worse and the only way to ensure my kids stayed healthy was to make everything myself from scratch.

I started looking for healthy cookbooks and there was lots, but everything tasted like a 'bale of hay' and the kids did not want it. I realized that healthy serves no purpose if the kids would not eat it. I started making my own recipes with kid appeal.

I started to get phone calls from teachers and other mothers about what I was putting in Brady's lunch. I knew that there was a lot of need for this as coming up with lunch ideas is hard enough but to have them be healthy was virtually impossible. I knew then that I had to write Lunchbox Love.

This has turned into an absolute passion – and frankly my family is thrilled as they get to be the taste testers. I really feel that food marketers are doing children an extreme disservice and just felt that I had to do something about this.

Lunchbox Love is just the beginning… enjoy!