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, our bodies, our spirits, the earth, and our communities. This is a space that’s dedicated to bringing more ease and joy into the process of cooking and eating. Whether you’re looking for foolproof recipes (that just happen to be gluten-free), for inspiration and tools to help you connect to your body and spirit, and/or for tips 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.
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 better love our bodies
bask in the pleasure of eating, no matter what’s on our plates
gain presence and joy in the kitchen, and 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 a place of stress, obligation or even mundanity, to a place of self care and nourishment. I’ll be sharing brand new recipes and/or menus every week along with cooking tips and mindfulness techniques to help us gain presence in the kitchen. We’ll talk with historians, chefs, anthropologists, spiritual thinkers and more to better understand our deep conditioning around food (and because talking about food is just plain fun). We will seek embodiment in the kitchen, which will not only connect us to our physical selves, but also help us become better cooks. For when we’re fully connected to our senses and to our intuition, cooking becomes looser, more instinctual, and more innovative.
The recipes
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 accomodate other food restrictions. I’m committed to developing easy-to-follow recipes that are freaking delicious, and that work, no matter your skill set or experience in the kitchen.
No dogma, no judgements
We’re constantly being bombarded with messages about food. The media, lifestyle gurus, nutritionists, influencers, and food corporations tell us what we should eat and when we should eat, asserting what’s “healthy” and “unhealthy” (and this changes often). Diet culture, which argues that our worth stems from our appearance, has profited enormously from this confusion and from our disconnect to our bodies, becoming a multi-billion dollar industry. But we are not homogeneous. We all have different needs, and while certain protocols can be helpful in resetting our systems or in teaching us about what foods feel good or bad in our bodies, the goal shouldn’t be to stick to the plan. The goal should be to ultimately discover our own specific needs, then trust them.
While I’m gluten-free due to health reasons, I believe there is no right or wrong way to eat, nor are there good or bad foods. This is a safe space of non-judgement. We’ll explore different foodways out of curiosity, and if we choose to apply certain principles or practices into our own kitchens, it’s completely optional. We will celebrate and defend our sovereignty as eaters.
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 (sometimes six or more!) so that when it hits your in-box it’s foolproof.
I had a successful food blog for 8 years, which was my primary business. 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. But search engines have become increasingly specific about what kind of content they rank. Each blog post took an immense amount of research into SEO (search engine optimization) strategy and keyword placement, and eventually it got to the point where my posts were written using a specific structure with specific words so that they would appear when you typed a search term into Google.
I started to feel like a robot. My posts lost all of their heart and soul, becoming devoid of creativity and expression. It was a game of strategy, and it worked (I left the blog the same month that I had the highest ad revenue ever). While FromScratchFast.com continues to live on the web, sitting happily unattended, 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 (who cares what search engines think!), 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, Q&A’s, and community threads, where we share our stories and recipes, as well as chat and connect. And I’m always brainstorming other subscriber perks, such as cooking demos and live classes.
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 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.
About me
I’m a trained chef, professional recipe developer and cookbook author with close to two decades of experience in the food industry. With a history of disordered eating in my late teens and early twenties, I’m passionate about uncovering the ways that we’re conditioned around food so that we can rediscover our sovereignty as eaters, finding more ease, presence and joy in the kitchen.
Thanks again for being here. May you feed yourself with intention and love.
xo, Nicki
Find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nickisizemore/
Find me on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mindbodyspiritfood
