Back in 2018, Stella Vanstone was working as a holistic nutritionist and frequently received requests for healthy meals from clients, so she started Stellar Eats as a meal delivery service. Her cousin, Michelle Boigon, had just had a baby and offered to help out with the business side of things, as she had previously owned a wholesale business for eco-friendly products.

Vanstone’s longtime friend since high school, Emma Kula, was looking to leave her corporate sales and marketing job to pursue something more creative, so she began helping out in the kitchen with the meal delivery business.

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In 2020, the three decided to completely pivot the business and create a line of baking mixes. Not only did they see a gap in the market for products like this, but they also wanted to create something that would help people get into the kitchen themselves to learn and feel empowered. Now, Stellar Eats offers a wide variety of tasty and healthy baking mixes for everything from brownies to pizza dough, and due to their simple ingredients they are suitable for various diets including vegan and gluten-free.

“The mission behind the brand has always been not only to make people feel confident in the kitchen, but to change the way health food brands speak to consumers,” say Boigon, Kula and Vanstone. “We were sick of the diet culture language we were fed growing up (brands using words like ‘skinny’ or ‘guilt-free’ to sell us products), so we wanted to create a brand that makes people feel really good about healthy eating and makes it come from a place of love, not restriction.”

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“We went from bootstrapping our business and hand mixing/bagging every single product back in 2020 to now being in over 1,400 retailers across Canada and the U.S.,” say Boigon, Kula and Vanstone. “We're so excited for all the growth on the horizon in the upcoming year and beyond!”

We chatted with the three co-founders, who shared the inspiration behind the brand, their best-selling baking mixes, future plans, and more.

When was Stellar Eats founded and what’s the meaning behind the name?

Stellar Eats was founded in 2020 by three female co-founders: Stella, Emma, and Michelle. The name comes from Stella, who is a holistic nutritionist and had a meal delivery service called Stellar Eats prior to the three of us starting the baking mix brand. We loved the name and decided to keep it when the business pivoted!

Tell us more about your products and what makes them special.

Stellar Eats is a premium line of healthy, grain-free baking mixes that are made with eight or less real food ingredients. We make the cleanest baking mixes on the market that are almond flour-based, sweetened with coconut sugar, and contain no preservatives, gums or fillers. All of our ingredients are simple and recognizable, which makes us stand out (along with our clean, colorful branding), and the finished product *actually* tastes incredible.

Do you have a hero product? What’s your favorite?

Our consistent best seller is our Banana Bread + Muffin mix, but we launched two new mixes this year—a Carrot Cake + Muffin and a Coffee Cake mix—that have quickly become top sellers as well. These new mixes are sweetened with organic date sugar (unlike anything else on the market) and really fill that gap for a quick, healthy breakfast or snack. Our entire team is a huge fan of all three of these! Our Chocolate Chip Cookie and Pizza Dough mixes are also fan favorites.

Where are your products sold?

Our Coffee Cake mix is now available at Whole Foods stores nationwide! Our products are also available at Lassen's, Gelson's, Bristol Farms, and Erewhon in California, as well as Central Market in Texas, plus you can find us at hundreds of independent natural retailers across the country (store locator on our website).

What's next for the brand?

We're working on a brand new innovation and format that we are all so excited about and will give us the opportunity to expand even more into major grocery chains across the country. We can't say much more yet but stay tuned!

For more information and to purchase Stellar Eats, visit the website and follow on Instagram: @stellar.eats

[Images courtesy of Stellar Eats]

Kamala Kirk is a University of Southern California graduate and has been an editor/writer for more than a decade. She has written for E! Online, Total Beauty, TravelAge West, Malibu Times Magazine, and many more. She resides in Los Angeles and is a proud pug mom. Follow her on Instagram: @kamalakirk