Bringing more presence and ease into the process of feeding ourselves (and becoming better cooks along the way)
Mind, Body, Spirit, FOOD is a community that explores the rituals, traditions, and cultural influences around food—and how they connect us to our minds, bodies, spirits, the earth, and one another. This is a space dedicated to bringing more presence, ease, and joy into the process of feeding ourselves.
Whether you’re looking for foolproof recipes (that just happen to be gluten-free), inspiration and tools to help you connect more deeply to your body and the foods you eat, or guidance on becoming a more intuitive and creative cook, you’re in the right place. No matter what brings you, I’m so glad you’re here.
About Nicki Sizemore
I’m a trained chef, professional recipe developer, and the author of four cookbooks, including my latest, Mind, Body, Spirit, Food, released in January 2026. With more than two decades in the food world—across past lives as a food stylist, culinary educator, video producer, and blogger—I’ve come to believe that cooking can be both deeply nourishing and grounding.
I speak and teach nationwide about mindful cooking and am an instructor at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, sharing simple, practical ways to bring more presence, ease, and joy into the kitchen. My work has appeared in The Washington Post, Goop, Parents, Better Homes & Gardens, Real Simple, EatingWell, Fine Cooking, and others.
At the heart of my work is a curiosity about the ways we’re conditioned around food—and a desire to help people rediscover their sovereignty as eaters. When we loosen the rules and reconnect with pleasure and intuition, the kitchen can become a place of freedom rather than stress. You can learn more about my journey in this podcast episode.
We all need to eat to live, but food is far more than just an element of our survival. Food is a representation of cultural norms and power structures, it’s a source of pleasure and comfort, it’s a source of fear and stress, it’s how we connect with our bodies (and also how we often shame or deprive our bodies), it’s fuel, it’s a driver for connection.
In other words, food is insanely nuanced. My mission is to step out of all of those webs so that we can examine them, with an open, curious mind. In doing so, my hope is that we can:
transform cooking into an act of self care
use food as a way to connect to and respect our bodies
bask in the pleasure of eating, no matter what’s on our plates
gain presence and joy in the kitchen
and finally, become better cooks along the way
When we cook and eat from a place of intention and mindfulness, we shift our relationship with food from one of obligation, mundanity, or stress, to one of rich self care and nourishment.
The recipes
I share brand new recipes and/or menus every week along with cooking tips and mindfulness techniques. All of my recipes are thoroughly tested (and re-tested!) and are naturally gluten-free since I can’t eat gluten (you can learn why in this video). I also include substitutions and variations whenever possible to accommodate other food restrictions. I’m committed to developing easy-to-follow recipes that are both delicious and foolproof, no matter your skill set or experience in the kitchen.
The podcast
In the Mind, Body, Spirit, FOOD podcast I speak with chefs, food writers, spiritual thinkers, scientists, and more to unpack how culture, identity, and conditioning shape our relationship to what we eat and how we care for ourselves. These are conversations about nourishment in every sense of the word—not just how we feed our bodies, but how we tend to our emotional and spiritual well-being. You’ll find recipe ideas and kitchen inspiration, but also deeper explorations of how to bring more freedom, presence, and ease to the kitchen—and to life.
Guests have included Julia Turshen, Zaynab Issa, Jenny Rosenstrach, Elise Loehnen, Liz Prueitt, Hetty McKinnon, Hillary McBride, Jasmine Nnenna, and more.
You can listen to the episodes right here on Substack, or wherever you stream podcasts.
Why reader-supported content (from a burnt out blogger)
I’m immensely grateful for those of you who can support this mission and the work behind it. This is my full-time job, and reader subscriptions fund this work and the time spent developing, testing and photographing recipes, as well as creating and publishing the podcast. Each recipe is tested numerous times so that when it hits your in-box it’s foolproof.
I had a successful food blog for 8 years. While the recipes were “free,” they were flooded with ads to fund the content. In relying upon ad dollars, however, I had to make sure that viewership was high (you only make money off of ads that people see), which in turn meant that search engines such as Google had to like my content. My posts eventually lost their heart and soul. It became a game of strategy, and it worked (I left the blog the same month it had the highest revenue ever). While FromScratchFast.com continues to live on the web, my mission here is to create something for you that’s deeper, more authentic, honest, meaningful and fun. Mind, Body, Spirit, FOOD is an ad-free space where I can connect directly with you, talk about topics far and wide concerning food, and create content that’s driven from my heart. I’m committed to serving you, not Google.
Paid subscribers get access to all of the recipes, the full archive (featuring 100+ recipes), Q&A’s, bonus posts, and other fun perks. If this sounds good to you, I hope you’ll join us!! If it’s within your budget to do so, just a few dollars a month has a massive impact and makes this work possible. However, if you’re struggling financially for any reason but still want paid subscriber benefits, please email me at nickisizemore@substack.com for a comp subscription, no questions asked.
No matter how you choose to engage, I’m so glad you’re here. 💚
xo, Nicki
