A New Path for Beautiful Ingredient
I hear you. I hope this helps. It's starting next Saturday!
I’ve listened, dear food-loving friends, and I feel your pain. There is no shortage of recipes out there these days, but recipes can feel like overwhelming tasks when the kitchen doesn’t always feel like an easy place to be in. It can be difficult to see how it can fit into our busy lives. How to actually get real, high-quality food on the table every day within budget and without feeling overwhelmed, bored, unsatisfied, or exhausted - that is the real question for a lot of people just trying to do the best they can.
I’m so excited to now introduce you to what I’ve been working on to help. I agree, this is a much longer email than I normally send! My hope is that you grab that cup of coffee or tea and find a comfy spot - whatever you need to help you take a moment to read this through and consider how it might help you.
What’s new
The Delicious 5 is evolving into the Beautiful Ingredient Food Journal! This is where I’ll be sharing more than recipes. This will be an actual food journal, where I share what I’m really eating over a week and how I’m doing it. It will be simple food that my family and I find satisfying, made with small steps that you can follow as much (or as little) as you’d like. You do what works for you. Instead of having decision fatigue trying to come up with a meal plan each week and feeling overwhelmed by a handful of recipes, you’ll be able to cook along with the Journal that can get you through the week step by step. I generally am using humble, relatively inexpensive ingredients that can be found at most grocery stores.
The focus is primarily on the five weeknight main meals (maybe your schedule is different and that’s ok - five busy-day main meals is another way of thinking about it). The style is casual here - beyond recipes, this is more about getting into a kitchen flow. Hopefully, it will inspire you to become besties with your kitchen as you discover ways to fit it into your life better.
The first issue is scheduled to come out Saturday, the 28th.
The Food Journal is based on my own little system that’s been working well for me, even though I’m often feeding myself (currently trying to lose a few pounds - the Food Journal is helping!) as well as the rest of my family (all athletes who require more fuel than the average bear). It’s centered around seasonal ingredients, taking small efficient steps, and finding more calm in the kitchen. You’re encouraged to modify anything you’d like and choose how many meals you want to make to best meet your unique needs along the way.
There is also a new hub where you can go find past issues of the Journal through a full season and, in the near future, communicate with me through chat sessions to help work through any issues you’re having in the kitchen.
It’s about connecting on our shared desire to eat more veggies and/or other whole foods. I will simply be sharing what I’m doing in case it helps you discover new paths that benefit you. We each have our own reasons for wanting to eat more plants. Whether it’s to take good care of yourself, the natural world, other beings, your family, your community, or other reasons - that’s up to you. This is a judgement-free zone. No matter what that is and how far you want to go with it, I am so glad you’re here.
While a portion of the newsletter will remain free, there will now be an opportunity for you to get the complete Beautiful Ingredient Food Journal throughout each season for a small monthly fee. It is much like a printable digital magazine or ebook, with each issue covering a week of food - shopping list and all.
Providing ways for you to eat more plants has always been a joy. Feeling pressured to make my living by appeasing advertisers, search engine optimization, and social media algorithms over my readers, however, has not. The Food Journal is finally a way for me to actually be paid for my services without being at the whim of these outside sources. This feels like leaning toward a better way, one that is more connected to and celebrates our shared humanity (even while still being online).
If you’ve been wondering how you can support what I’m doing here at Beautiful Ingredient, the opportunity has arrived through the Food Journal.
If you choose to remain a free subscriber, you will continue to receive helpful info about cooking and eating well on a regular basis.
Free subscribers will continue to receive general newsletters about Beautiful Ingredient and eating plant-based whole foods.
If the Beautiful Ingredient Food Journal issues sounds like exactly what you need but affording it is difficult, please reach out and let me know so we can work something out. I am charging a fee to be paid for my work, yet I don’t want financial hardship to be a barrier for you if you are seeking help in consistently eating more whole plant-based foods.
Cook along with me!
If you decide to cook along with me through the paid subscription, here’s what you will receive:
6 complete issues of the Food Journal per season, each covering a week of what I’m eating. The style is casual and real, sharing challenges at times and how I handled them. It includes all of my weekend batch cooking for the week ahead (which usually can be accomplished in about an hour and can be done whenever it fits your schedule).
includes 5 simple weekday main meals I'm eating and how to efficiently make them, with suggestions on modifying them to suit your individual needs. I see these more as simple steps to making dinner rather than official recipes, similar to how we might make a dish we know well slightly differently each time. Make them all or make a big batch of one, modify them a bit - you choose how you participate. You might find they provide a helpful framework for your week while switching up ingredients - whatever you choose.
plus a brief share about my breakfast, lunch, snacks, drinks, & weekend mains of the week, with more details here and there.
plus 6 downloadable, printable pdf e-book issues of the Food Journal per season complete with grocery list, small step guides, and more. These can be reused as often as you’d like. It’s basically a weekly digital magazine that walks you through a week of food.
plus an opportunity to connect about what we’re eating and ask me questions through chats I’ll set up on occasion.
Yes, it’s a big newsletter upgrade! The first issue will come out next Saturday, October 28th. If you choose a month to month plan, it should start the day you sign up and go for a month, so it doesn’t matter if you sign up at the end of a calendar month.
Though there are rhythms to how this all goes down, no two weeks are exactly alike. Even if you choose to reuse a Food Journal issue on another week, there can easily be some variation.
How would this fit your life?
What I’m eating and what you’ll be eating
You may wonder what the parameters are of what I’ll be eating, and how that might fit in your life. The first thing I will say is that the Food Journal, while full of nutritious veggies and other whole foods, is not about eating “perfectly” - I find I do just fine when I eat small amounts of other types of foods on occasion. That allows me to go with the flow more easily when I’m outside my routine, or when I simply have a craving. I’m not telling you what to do. I’m just sharing what I’m doing to serve as a base for you to make your own decisions. Especially as you get more comfortable with the format, I want you to give yourself permission to modify it as much as you want to.
In general, to sum up: Eat what you want! There’s no food police here. I do ask you to consider this: What is it that you truly want?
The following gives you an idea of how I role as the author of the Beautiful Ingredient Food Journal:
While I was mostly vegetarian and occasional meat eater most of my life, I now eat 100% plant-based and vegan foods. I have absolutely no desire to eat animals anymore, though that wasn’t always the case. If you are in a different place, I get it. My hope is that you’ll use the Food Journal from wherever you’re starting from. If you have any desire to eat more plants, for even just one of the many reasons why, you will be able to do that with the Food Journal. Whether or not you eat 100% plant-based is up to you. Do you want to add meat to a dish? You choose. Do you want to try adding a smaller amount than you usually do? Would you consider that progress? You are the one to determine your own goals and I’m cheering you on to reach them.
I seek out simple ways of getting high quality food on the table. I know that if I don’t set myself up well to eat whole foods, I will tend to reach for more processed foods. So finding a flow that helps keep whole foods going in my life is so important. I can throw a salad together that’s a full meal in about 5 minutes with just a bit of chopping and something I made a big batch of a couple days ago. That’s often lunch. For me, a salad is not mere iceberg and thousand island dressing. It’s greens and other veggies on-hand, maybe some fruit and a grain or potatoes, one or two main proteins (some hummus and tofu or beans, for example), sprinkles, olives, a light dressing, and more if it’s easily accessible. My everyday eating isn’t typically restricted by recipes. I use what I have and I encourage you to do the same.
I prioritize the quality of my food over the quantity and convenience of it. I recognize that my choices matter to me, and that not all food systems available to me are benefiting me. If I have a choice to grab fast food that will help us eat exactly at the planned dinnertime or make something and have dinner be a bit late, it will be a bit late. We can snack on the energy bites I made on Batch Cook day if needed.
I consider myself in process, always learning. I will never have all the answers about everything. As new info that seems valuable and reasonable comes in, I take it seriously and consider it’s potential as fairly as I can. I expect the Food Journal to improve and evolve over time.
I try to minimize processed foods in my life. With the Food Journal, I’m focusing on mostly whole foods that are plant-based. I try to use ingredients that are generally available in grocery stores so you can find them, or I provide a source or an alternative if that’s in question. Since focusing on the Food Journal, I’m noticing that my body just feels better, I think because I’m actually reaching for less processed food. That doesn’t mean I completely avoid it. You may see a dish in the Food Journal that has a small amount of Beyond Meat sausage in it, for example. I still feel pretty good when most of the dish is whole foods and there’s just a bit of that in there for flavor, and it can make all the difference in helping someone else enjoy eating the whole foods in a meal. It’s always your choise whether you use an ingredient or not; I try to offer alternatives along the way.
I mostly avoid added oil. There are different goals going on in my own household. My very athletic husband needs to make sure he’s getting enough calories and uses olive oil liberally. I feel like if I look at olive oil, I gain weight. I’m working on losing a few pounds and so strive to focus on smaller amounts of whole food fats like olives, avocado, nuts, and seeds instead of oil or high fat foods. Every once in awhile, I will have a little high quality olive oil on a piece of sourdough because it tastes amazing. Perfection is not my concern. When I cook for the two of us, I cook without oil and my husband will finish his dish with oil. Works for us, and that’s the kind of thing you can expect to see in the Food Journal.
For weight loss, I don’t count calories. Instead, I consider calorie density, the fact that oil has many many more calories per pound than a potato, for example. I try to eat more foods that are low calorie density, like veggies, than was typical when I was growing up. I generally fill my plate this way: 1/2 veggies, a 1/4 grains or starch like rice or potatoes, and a 1/4 main protein, like beans, tofu, or tempeh. Following this method seems to do the trick without needing to fixate on dieting. My athletic husband eats the same food, just more of it. He’ll add what he wants to it.
Mostly, I avoid gluten, except for sourdough (low gluten) and occasional whole grains like farro. I seem a bit sensitive to gluten but not allergic. I have a family member that needs to be more careful with gluten. Wherever you are with that, you should be able to find a path that works well for you here. If I refer to something containing gluten, I generally suggest a gluten-free alternative. If you can eat wheat, consider yourself lucky and use it when you like.
I mostly avoid refined sugar. Does that mean I never eat anything sweet? No - I do pretty much every day. Instead of white sugar I go for sweeteners that contain benefits like minerals because they are less processed, like maple syrup, dates, and coconut sugar. I can easily find chocolate chips without dairy but most contain white sugar - I still eat them, occasionally.
My hope is that the Food Journal will help your daily life in a significant way. I want it to be easily accessible, too. You might be surprised that I’m charging a very low fee per month for all this - and even less if you commit to a year. I don’t mean to undervalue my work. I may need to change the rates down the road. For now, it’s a number I feel good about starting with as I learn how to get this going for you. I’m not in this to become wealthy financially. I’m in this to live by my values, work with integrity, and hopefully help you create the food environment you really want.
Putting something new out there is scary. Claiming my worth is scary. Yet I do feel like it’s a good thing to do. I feel like this is a great opportunity to connect about something that is very real and directly affects our everyday life: food, and finding new paths that better fit the lives we want to have.
If you’re ready to become more intentional about the food in your life and cook along with me, you can subscribe now right here.
Questions you might have:
What is Substack?
You will probably notice references to Substack through the journal. Substack is the host for the newsletter. It’s an online platform that supports subscription newsletter services by sending the newsletters directly to your inbox, connecting payment processing, and allowing writers like me to create a site for you to view the newsletters as a paid subscriber (separate from your email). You can download the app on your phone and view it all there.
Is this taking the place of the Beautiful Ingredient website?
The website will still exist as usual. I will be putting more of my time and energy into the Food Journal from here on, contributing new content to the original website less frequently.
How can I ask you more questions about this?
You can respond to this email and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
I see a journal as a journey. It’s not about a destination as much as it’s about the choices we make along the way. I would love for you to join me on this food journey, wherever you’re starting from. We can do this, together.
The first issue of the season starts next Saturday, October 28th.
Whether you subscribe to the full journal or continue with the batch cooking portion, it means a lot to me that you’re here.
Happy cooking and happy eating,
Kari