Homemade Recipes & Handcrafted Joy

Welcome to a modern foodie blog devoted to approachable, family-friendly comfort foods and desserts made from scratch. Our homemade recipes are meant to fit real life and real families — all in the pursuit of handcrafted joy! Along the way, you’ll also find hospitality tips, thoughtful takes on healthy eating, food fun for the whole family, and the occasional review or recommendation – all served with a healthy dose of reality and seasoned with just a pinch of sass.

Homemade Recipes

At its heart, From Foodie with Love was made to support real families cooking real food in real life. Around here, homemade recipes aren’t about elaborate presentations or chasing perfection. Instead, they’re about meals that are feasible, nourishing, and worth repeating. As a family, we prioritize eating together as often as we can, even when schedules are full and energy is low. Because sharing a meal together is often at the heart of everyday joy and memory-making.

Because of our family’s food allergies and dietary restrictions, dining out isn’t something we often do. That reality has shaped how we cook at home. We focus on practical, flexible meals that can easily be adapted, simplified, and prepared with confidence. As you might imagine, we are not alone in this endeavor! So, you’ll find recipes that lean towards healthy meals, are comforting rather than fancy, and are approachable rather than intimidating. Because food should be both fun and functional, wholesome and delicious, necessary and joyous.

Explore our Recipe Index for more ideas on how to balance food and family.

Home for Dinner

Many dishes here are designed for ordinary days. Therefore, you will find crockpot meals, weeknight dinners, simple desserts, and familiar flavors with room for curiosity. These recipes are meant to fit into busy lives, stretch grocery budgets, and still leave space at the table for conversation, connection, and enjoyment.

Homemade cooking here is less about showcasing skill and more about supporting family rhythms. If a recipe helps you feed your people well and brings a little calm or joy into your kitchen, then it’s doing exactly what it was meant to.

Basic Ingredients

I got my start in the blogging world after the birth of our first child. For over a decade, I ran a successful financial stewardship blog and managed several social media sites. Over time, my work expanded to include recipe development, content creation, and digital storytelling. When I’m not in the kitchen, you can find me creating content for Culture Redeemed, editing my latest novel, teaching high school literature, and dabbling in marketing/communications where needed.

My husband and I have been married for over 20 years. We are raising three precious people who (still) proudly claim us as parents. Family life shapes how and why I cook, and it continues to influence the recipes and rhythms you will find here.

Our family, like yours most likely, is always on the hunt for deliciousness. But we are pursuing so much more than just good food. We chase after joy anywhere we can find it and delight in making memories. In addition, we desperately desire to make a positive impact on the world around us. From this standpoint, I’m excited to open my kitchen to you by sharing the cooking tips and tricks we’ve discovered, our favorite food combinations, and which homemade recipes are occupying our table. Plus, our passion for living an intentional life.

Food for Thought

Some of my earliest memories in the kitchen involve homemade French toast and my mom’s cut-out cookies. Like many people, my journey in the kitchen is layered and nostalgic. I pray that you’ll find echoes of your own childhood experiences reflected in these recipes.

I also pray that you’ll find inspiration for modern, homemade meals that meet the needs of your whole family, whether those be memory-making experiences, food allergy adaptations, or a desire for experimentation (that won’t blow the budget or burn down the house).

Handcrafted Joy

Handcrafted joy, as we practice it here, is less about doing everything perfectly from scratch and more about being intentional with what we make and how we gather. While I love cooking and baking at home, I’ve learned that joy in the kitchen doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t need to involve days of prep or specialty ingredients. Neither does it call for a spotless house, and it definitely doesn’t require polishing the silver. All that is required is presence, flexibility, and a willingness to meet people where they are — including ourselves.

Good food should start with joy. Joy found in time spent together, in creating something by hand, and in opening your heart (and sometimes your home) to new people and new experiences.

Food can be a starting point for many virtues: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and even self-control (!!). It can also be a catalyst for hospitality and creativity. In the modern age, it matters to find ways of doing these things that are manageable for your family. That balance is what I hope to reflect in the homemade recipes you’ll find here.

Sift & Whisk

In practice, this philosophy shapes how we cook, host, and gather. Homemade dinners might mean prepping meals ahead of time for busy weeknights. Or using pre-packaged sauces or dinner kits in order to experiment with new flavors. Or simplifying a recipe so it fits into an ordinary Taco Tuesday. From-scratch cooking here is about care and intention, not perfection or pressure. Likewise, handcrafted joy might mean choosing ease over exhaustion when hosting. Or inviting friends to dinner at a restaurant instead of in your home.

At the end of the day, the food and experiences we share should really be defined by the people present and the atmosphere in which they are enjoyed. Focusing on those two things really does make the homemade and handcrafted part of each meal much easier — and worthwhile.

The Table of the King

Like many others, the Lord has taken my plans and established my steps in ways I could have never predicted (Ps. 16:9). He has led me through seasons of inner-city missions work, event planning, life as a stay-at-home mom with creative side jobs, blogging and social media management, teaching, and writing. Through it all, He has been shaping a path of growth and purpose. One that I pray will leave His name in bright lights, even if mine quietly fades in a few years. Or a few clicks.

One thing has always been certain: the Lord is concerned with me (1 Peter 5:7). And in response, I am striving to always be about the desires of His heart and His kingdom. Friends, if you do not yet know the God I do, I invite you to investigate Him. Search Him out. Test what He calls good, and hold fast to it (1 Thess 5:21). From tear-filled nights to mountain-top experiences, He has never failed to meet me where I am, even in my brokenness (Ps 139:8). I’d bet my life on the fact that He will do the same for you. Chances are, He already has, even if you have not yet recognized Him there.

An Invitation to Dine

In this online space, I hope to share my kitchen, my family, and my heart with you. (And maybe a bit of my cheeky personality, too.) I hope these homemade recipes become part of your everyday rhythms and find a place at your table. Whether you are cooking for a crowd, feeding your family on a busy weeknight, or simply trying something new, I pray you find handcrafted joy there with you.

May these recipes reflect my kitchen: warm, honest, and approachable. And may they encourage you to cook with confidence, gather with intention, and leave room for joy. Friend, I’m so glad you’re here to break (virtual) bread with. Pull up a chair, stay awhile, and let’s keep cooking together.