20. Eat dessert first! with Maria Carras

Maria tells us about her love for dessert, her fulfilling career, and why her children make her happy.

Show Notes

Maria Carras is a professional copywriter and virtual assistant with a background in PR for the film industry. Currently, she lives in Greece. If you notice a bit of an American accent, that’s because she’s originally from New York.

What makes Maria happy? She begins with dessert. She loves it and thinks about it a lot. Her favorites are donuts and pancakes, which she calls a fantastic excuse to have dessert for breakfast.

What makes her happiest, even above dessert, are her children. Maria has two boys, who are 2 and 3. Watching them develop while taking good care of them makes her happy. Not to mention it’s lots of fun. Just like her children, she is very close in age to her sister. Because they have an amazing sibling bond, she’s really excited her children will grow up to hopefully experience the same type of relationship.

“Three hours of solid work. Going out to the beach, ice cream cones in hand, with my boys. That’s perfect.”
Maria Carras on @thehappypodcast
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As much as she loves spending time with her boys, Maria also loves her work. Luckily, she has her mom to help take care of them while she’s getting things done. This is amazing because she gets loads of fulfillment from work. Through it, she gets to grow and build new things. Plus her set up is great! She works from home, allowing her to take breaks and spend time with her boys whenever she wants. She also feels proud of the example she is setting for children of having a working mom despite traditional Greek culture and gender roles.

What does Maria love doing with her children? They live by the sea so it’s used as therapy. They sit on the beach, throw rocks in the water and feed the pigeons. Other things include riding bicycles or anything that has to do with being outdoors. No matter what they end up doing outdoors as a family, they return home happier. So long as an ice cream cone is involved, of course.

Maria’s favorite ice cream is Kayak, native to Greece. Her flavor of choice is a rich, creamy chocolate with brownie bits and forest fruits mixed in, topped with raspberry syrup. Talk about yum!

What else makes Maria happy? Planning trips with her family. Circling back to food, part of the planning includes choosing which restaurant they are going to eat at every single night. She loves high-end gourmet meals where you have 14-tiny, fun-shaped courses just as much as delicious street food that immerses you into the culture of where you are visiting. One of the best meals she ever ate while traveling was buffalo wings at an old saloon outside of Yosemite Park in California.

“I can’t remember an instance when too much fun is a bad thing.”
Maria Carras on @thehappypodcast
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Interestingly enough, Maria does not like cooking food. (She’s too much of a perfectionist and not creative in that way!) She’s really grateful to her husband loves to cook and finds it relaxing. Otherwise Maria’s mother, who is an awesome cook and caterer by trade, makes meals for Maria and her family. The best thing Maria’s mom makes, according to Maria, is roasted chicken and potatoes. This was a dish she looked forward to when she came home from school. It feels like home.

Maria’s husband makes her happy. She wants to travel to Bali next.Some of her happiest memories come from barbecuing as a kid in Long Island. Her happy word is sunshine and, to her, happiness means being free.

Wanna catch up with Maria? You can go to her website or on Instagram! Feel free to choose between her two accounts: @carrascreative or @thedonutfeed, completely dedicated to colorful pictures of amazing donuts.