I am back, to posting here on the blog, as well as to Instagram, and I couldn’t be more excited about it! Over the last weeks, a Dreaming Foodie fire has been ignited in me and I am more passionate than ever about creating and sharing content on this site. My vision and intention has never been more clear for what I want to share and why I want to share it, and I can’t wait to be bringing more recipes to all of you in 2021 and beyond.

I’m also excited about bringing back Nourishment Lately posts! I started these posts years ago, as a way to share things the that bring me nourishment – both food and non-food releated. I believe that there’s always room for a little more nourishment in our lives, so I’m super excited to be bringing these posts back. I thought that today’s Nourishment Lately post could just be a little life update and re-introduction of The Dreaming Foodie!

Over the last year or so, I have been doing a lot of work around thinking about what it is that I want to do, how I want to spend my time, what is important to me, why I do the things I do, etc. All the life things.

There are a lot of things that interest me, but one thing that has been a constant in my life, something that I come back to again and again and again is my love for food. I’ve thought a lot about that in the last year and have asked myself a lot of questions like:
– Why do I like cooking so much?
– What does it really mean to me?
– I spend so much time cooking and thinking about cooking – is that what I really want to do with my time?
– Is sharing recipes what I really want to do with my time?
– And if so, why?
– What’s my intention?

Not that I have it all figured out, but I’ve come to realize that for me, food is about more than just survival. It’s an opportunity every single day to express gratitude and love for all of life. That may sound a bit crazy to some, but for me, it’s so true. Cooking is definitely a ritual for me in my every day life, and one that I have come to associate with gratitude. It’s the act of starting with whole foods – fruits, vegetable, seeds, nuts, legumes – and taking the time to prepare and turn them into a meal that not only tastes good, but makes me feel good and nourishes my mind, body, and soul. It’s one of the biggest acts of love that I can show myself and those who I can cook for. It’s a way to express gratitude to everything and everybody that helped bring that food to my plate. Cooking and eating gives me an opportunity every single day to pause and be grateful.

Additionally, I just love to cook! I’ve been helping out in the kitchen my entire life, and started taking it seriously in my early teens. I was sprinkling flax seed on my yogurt and spreading hummus on my sandwiches before I was even in high school. I was trying to master the perfect cheesecake from scratch at 16. My love of cooking has only expanded and grown every day since, and now, I’m more confident than ever about how I eat and nourish myself. Cooking and working with food is just fun for me, it makes me feel alive, and it’s a way in which I can express creativity. There’s a quote that I love from Howard Thurman:
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

The Dreaming Foodie is my attempt to share that love, gratitude, nourishment, aliveness and creativity that I feel with the world. It’s my way to share the recipes and ideas that inspire and nourish me, so that maybe they will inspire and nourish you as well. That’s my intention here, and going forward, I hope that you are able to feel some of that love and gratitude that goes into each recipe and post on The Dreaming Foodie. 🙂

Last, but certainly not least, I care about food and what I consume because I truly believe that what we eat is a huge factor in how we feel, or as Dr. Mark Hyman, a physician and leader in Functional Medicine, says, “Food is our number one tool for creating the vibrant health we deserve.” He also says, “We often don’t connect the dots between what’s on our plate and our mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.” Those two things inspire me greatly and are core beliefs behind everything you will see on The Dreaming Foodie.

I do not believe in calling food good or bad, and I don’t believe there is a right or wrong way to eat. But I do believe in creating a consciousness around the food that we eat. Rather than calling food good or bad, I think the focus should be on questions like:
– How does the food that we’re eating make us feel?
– What is it doing to and for our body, mind and spirit?
– Why are we eating it?
– Does it taste good? Does it bring us joy?

The recipes that I share here will be created with those questions in mind. I will share recipes using ingredients that I consider health supportive, ingredients that have purpose, and I will give the how and why I use the ingredients that I do. The recipes that I share will be ones that support my mental, physical, emotional and spiritual well-being, so that maybe they can support yours, too.

I also want to note that I have noticed that when I do consciously consume in a way that supports the health of my mind, body and soul, the gratitude and love that I talk about above flows more easily and abundantly. It’s all connected and I’ll do anything I can to (literally and figuratively) feed that flow of gratitude.

And as far as a life update, I’m currently living, cooking and nourishing out of a tiny motor home. That’s a photo of my kitchen at the start of this post. If you’d like, you can follow along on that adventure here. 🙂

In love, gratitude and nourishment//
The Dreaming Foodie