| Sources |
- [S26] Berry Funeral Home, (www.berryfuneralhome.com), 30 Sep 2008.
Olive Michaluk Meadows obituary
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 15 Mar 2009.
A Healthy Balance: Demand for healthy meals creates family's new business
They say necessity is the mother of invention, but in this case it was the demand for a mother's cooking that invented a new business for a local family.
Pat Michaluk would often make healthy meals for her oldest son Luke who, as a body builder, needs a well-balanced diet to augment his training. He would take those meals to the gym where he worked out.
"A friend of mine has a gym in town and he wasn't eating so good," Luke said. He was so busy with his business he was subsisting on power bars rather than healthy meals. Luke said he began sharing his meals with the gym owner, Charlie Burgess, at Shapers.
Soon, Pat was asked to make extra meals for Burgess, and then others started asking.
"People found out and said, "Can you cook for me?'" Pat said. "It snowballed from there."
Thus was born Healthy Balance Meals, the business the Michaluks created out of the demand for healthy meals, properly proportioned and ready to eat.
Cooking for a lot of people is nothing new to Pat Michaluk, whose family is of Ukranian descent.
"My mother loves cooking for a crowd," she said. "She's as happy as she can be when she has a crowd to cook for."
She also worked in the kitchen at First Baptist Church.
"I was in charge of desserts, believe it or not," she said.
Last May, Pat's husband Bill found a warehouse on Ridge Road out of which Pat and Luke could run the business. She's the main cook for the meals they make each day, and he delivers them to their customers.
Choosing meals to fill the menu wasn't too difficult, Pat said.
"I just took different recipes and took out all the fat," she said. That doesn't mean the dishes are without flavor. They try each dish before they decide to put it on the menu.
"They're kind of fun to create," Pat said of the dishes.
Their menu includes all manner of meals, from American classics like meat loaf to Mexican, Italian and Asian meals, and even desserts.
"It's not that hard to use whole wheat flour instead of white flour," Luke said.
The chicken enchilada, Pat said, is their top seller. Luke said the chicken wrap is the next best seller.
Along with healthy ingredients, proper proportions are part of the Health Balanced Meals philosophy. Their meals come in regular and large sizes, with the regular sizes including a 4-ounce serving of the main meat or protein and the large size including six ounces. There are even meals packaged especially for families that feed six to eight people.
Each meal includes nutritional information. Most of the meals come refrigerated and ready to reheat. Hot meals can be requested with prior notice.
"We like pre-orders," Pat said. They've developed a sign-up sheet where individuals and groups can send in orders each week. The day before each delivery, the meals are created in the Healthy Balanced Meals kitchen. Some orders are still called in the day of need, but not as many, Pat said.
"They're finally grasping our concept," she said. "And we didn't even know our concept yet."
The people most quickly grasping their concept include staff at city offices, banks, schools and businesses.
Janice Hendrix of Keep Sevier Beautiful has been ordering meals since being introduced to them by staff at Sevierville City Hall.
"All the girls at City Hall order and they sent me one home," Hendrix said. "I tried it and liked it and started ordering them."
Hendrix said she'll order about three times a week.
"They don't taste like frozen meals," she said. "They taste like a fresh, home-cooked meal, and I like the fact that they're low in fat and low in sugar and how she does a breakdown of the nutritional value."
Beth Penland, superintendent of recreation for Sevierville, has been ordering from the Michaluks for about two years.
"I can't say anything bad," she said. "Everything is prepared immaculately, delivered and is inexpensive."
She orders five meals a week, which are delivered to her office on Mondays and Wednesdays.
"It works out very well for me," she said. Between work and two small children, she said she doesn't have time to pack her own lunches. "I'd much rather pay for those than eat fast food. It's well worth paying, I think, $7 a meal for a healthy meal that's very satisfying."
Along with her weekly meals, Penland said she'll sometimes order a half-dozen muffins for breakfast during the week and a pizza to take home over the weekend.
Hendrix picks up her meals on the way home, getting enough for her and her husband Steve, the city's interim administrator.
"My favorite is the taco soup," she said. "My husband's favorite is the turkey corn chowder, and I like a lot of the other things. All of her Mexican meals are good."
Both Hendrix and Penland say they don't miss the fat Michaluks take out of the dishes.
"I can't tell the difference at all," Hendrix said.
Picking up her weekly order for her family, Rhonda Powell said everything they've had has been wonderful.
"I haven't had one meal that my family hasn't liked," she said. Even her husband, who prefers beef to turkey, doesn't mind turkey when it comes in the form of the Michaluks' turkey chili.
The convenience is another factor she likes.
"When my husband gets home, dinner's ready," Powell said.
Orders for Healthly Balanced Meals can be phoned, faxed and e-mailed. Signing up for e-mails provides a list of weekly specials. Call the Michaluks at 286-5394 or visit www.orderhealthymeals.com.
gcrutchfield@themountainpress.com
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