A food blog dedicated to whole, local and seasonal foods, sweet treats, indulgent eats and minimal living.

Amanda Reynolds is a wife, cook, baker, pretend picture taker and lover of all things fall. Up until 2016, she was also the owner of a small bakery/cafe in Southern Ontario. She then sold her little dream for a less stressful life with more time for family and friends.

Food Blog, Recipes, Sweet Treats, Indulgent Desserts

There is something magical about taking simple ingredients and creating a comforting, cozy meal or delicious, homey baked good. There is little else that can ease my stress or lift my spirits more than the act of creating something with my own, small hands. It’s my version of therapy.

Amanda cooks on a very tight budget mostly out of necessity but also because she is determined to be able to eat well without spending hundreds of dollars a month doing so. Right now She’s managing to spend less than $5 a day per person on food and there’s somehow usually money left at the end of the month from that budget. She tries to live a fairly minimalistic lifestyle which usually means more time with her family, reading, writing and spending hours outside in between working. It also means less computer time (oddly), less phone time, buying less things and being more compassionate.

Her diet is ever changing based on how she’s currently feeling, the season and what her body requires at the time. It’s never the same but it’s usually healthy. More recently She has been experimenting with cutting out sugar, white flour, coffee and alcohol (like 95% of the time) to help tame her migraines and help her sleep better (it’s working). She eats meat two or three times a week, milk is not her friend most of the time but for some reason butter and cheese are aaaalways fine. The rest is usually a combination of different grains, beans and some lentils, seeds, nuts, fruits and vegetables, local if possible, imported if necessary.

She has spent about 8 years of her life overcoming body image issues, disordered eating, severe anxiety and depression and really just fumbling her way through life trying to figure everything out. She’s not 100% there yet but she get closer and closer each day. Her only true goal right now is to figure out how to live an absurdly happy, joy and love filled life, to heal her body and feel incredible again. A bit of a lofty goal, admittedly, but a determined one nonetheless.

We hope you’ll follow along as she figures it all out, cook delicious, healthy food, try to live a more compassionate life and hopefully start each day a little better than we were yesterday.