We were lucky to catch up with Megan Garvin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Megan, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

My husband and I had our first two children in the span of 15 months. I left my job running a yoga studio to stay at home with our first 2 girls but I picked up a part-time job as a consultant/content creator for a nutritional program that focused on teaching people how to maximize their health and wellness by eating real food with balanced macronutrients to optimize metabolism and stabilize blood sugar. During the process of teaching people how to shop for and meal-prep high-protein meals with healthy fats and balanced carbs that tasted good and was made from real food, I created the recipe for what would become Batch Balanced High Protein Muffin Batter.
As my children started to grow and started eating solids I wanted to instill healthy eating habits and a nourishing diet. It was a priority to avoid processed foods with a high sugar content. I discovered that as a busy mom, time is at a premium and it was exceptionally difficult to find options that were both convenient and healthy. I also discovered that many of the options that were marketed as healthy, did not meet my standards. So, I took it upon myself to create solution that would provide my children highly nutritious food that was convenient to prepare and tasted good enough that they wanted to eat. The recipe I was using to create high-protein muffins was workshopped and adjusted until I had several flavors. In order to make life easier, I began to make it in bulk and would store the muffin batter in my freezer in Ziplock bags so instead of constantly repeating the process of mixing more batter, I simply took the bags from the freezer to thaw and bake fresh muffins without any prep, mixing or mess. A number of my like-minded friends started asking if they could buy the batter I had made and stocked in my freezer so they could take home and make healthy muffins for their families as well.
At this point, I was pretty sure this could become a business. I had created a high-protein, gluten-free batter made from greek yogurt and egg whites that could be stored frozen and baked fresh. This created a perfect solution for busy moms and people like me who were short on time but unwilling to sacrifice their nutritional standards for convenience or taste.
The idea that excited me then still excites me to this day; Batch Balanced makes eating healthy convenient and delicious. We’re so proud to be the world’s only frozen high-protein muffin batter company and it fills me with so much purpose and joy to introduce our product to everyone who is searching for the same solution I was when I first developed this amazing product.

Megan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Megan Garvin and I’m the founder and owner of Batch Balanced. My husband Jon and I have been married for 12 years and we have 4 daughters Blake (7), Piper (6), Reese (2) and Shea (7 months).

I started Batch Balanced as a meal prep solution for busy people to have convenient meals and snacks made from real food and wholesome ingredients that is healthy and delicious. Batch Balanced was founded on the simple belief that healthy options create healthy choices and healthy choices create healthy habits. Our mission is to make preparing and providing healthy food simple, convenient and delicious to empower people to create and sustain healthy habits.

Batch Balanced sells frozen high-protein muffin batter. We are a macronutrient based meal-prep solution with every serving containing 16-24g of protein. The main ingredients of the batter are greek yogurt and egg whites. The product contains no gluten and no added sugar. We offer savory flavors with meat and cheese and sweet flavors that is sweetened using fruit. We are mainly direct-to-consumer with options for local delivery/pick-up and nationwide shipping but we have a growing list of retail partnerships. We also offer a subscription program that can be tailored to fit any customers needs.

The way it works: Our batches are sold and stored frozen. Most customers purchase several batches at once to store in their freezer, The customer pulls batches from the freezer to be thawed, piped into silicon muffin tins and baked. Each batch makes 12 muffins/6 servings (2 muffins per serving). The muffins can be stored under refrigeration for up to 7 days and provide a great healthy grab-on-the-go option.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

This business idea and product development started in my kitchen but myself and a staff of 2-4 people have been producing our batter out of the Mickle Center Shared Use Kitchen in Downtown Des Moines for the past 4 years. We have steadily increased our production capacity by purchasing production equipment, frozen storage and building efficiencies into the production process. We have been searching for a co-manufacturer for a couple years but because our product is so unique and we’re still relatively small, we never found the right partner until recently. We are in the process of moving our production to a co-man less than an hour away in Iowa. This will relieve the current production constraints and enable us to scale and market to a significantly larger audience.
I’ve enjoyed the manufacturing process and every single production run provides a wealth of lessons but I am very excited to outsource the production to a trusted partner in order to focus on marketing and growth. I’ve learned the importance of stretching every dollar to ensure success and profitability but the ultimate and uncompromising priority is on creating a product with the absolute best quality possible.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Our product is awesome at creating user-generated content. The vast majority of our marketing has been through word of mouth and happy customers who are proud of baking healthy meals for their families promoting our product on their social media. Batch Balanced is baked at home in the comfort of one’s own kitchen and the muffins are versatile because different toppings can be added. This creates an element of ownership that our customers love. The product is simple enough that young children can join in on piping the batter and adding the toppings. We’ve found that when our customers are part of the process of making wholesome and healthy meals for themselves and their families, they find a sense of pride that they think is worth sharing. We have so many customers that have so selflessly shared their positive experience of making healthy Batch Balanced muffins in their home and with their families and it’s been an incredible way to help grow our clientele.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.batchbalanced.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/batchbalanced/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/batchbalanced

Image Credits

Joelle Blomberg for all of the lifestyle photos, but not for the product photos.