Welcome to Real Food Sanity! I’m Christi - mom of 2 grown boys, wife, Holistic Nutritionist, Former Whole30 Coach, Cooking Coach and Private Chef to numerous clients in Napa Valley and Dallas.

While I have enjoyed cooking for people over the years, I found helping people find the joy in cooking through my easy cooking method was even more fulfilling. That’s what brought me to Substack. Without the noise of ads on blogs or algorithms on social media, I can “talk” to you, my new friend and hopefully inspire you to cook for yourself and other, after all cooking is caring. (And cooking for yourself is the ultimate self-care!)

So, but imagine we are friends in real life. We could go to farmers markets and I would show you how to pick out the perfect pepper, the juiciest tomato and then we would talk over coffee or brunch about how to prepare them with the least amount of effort. (Learn more about my Food Philosophy.)

You could text me when you’re standing at the wall of cheeses trying to figure out how to create a charcuterie board or ask for a recipe for almost anything like when your neighbor sets a basket of zucchini on your porch and you have ZERO idea what to do with it.

Or my favorite…ask for ideas for dinner when your fridge seems empty but you need to work dinnertime magic anyway.

Well, friend. Though we may never meet in person, that’s what you’re getting with Real Food Sanity. A new friend who also happens to love helping people catch the wonder and joy of cooking when all the mystique is removed and it becomes a whole lot less than rocket science.

All of my recipes are gluten-free, soy-free, and dairy-free, because that’s how I eat most of the time, but they are easily changeable for those not adhering to these diets and I include notes for subs in every recipe.

Your support makes Real Food Sanity possible and I'm so thankful you found me. I have two versions of my newsletter. One free, one paid.

Paid Version

I’ve recently combined my popular weekly meal plans with my Substack so some of the features below will be rolled out in the near future but the pricing will not change once I do.

• Everything in Free plus:

• Weekly Meal Plans - a full organized PDF with 4 meal plans using two inexpensive proteins, recipes, shopping list and an optional meal prep guide to help you get dinner on the table in 20 minutes each weeknight.

• Cooking Videos COMING SOON - Technique driven videos as well as occasional full recipe videos.

• Cook Along Cooking Classes COMING SOON - Shopping List sent ahead of time so we can cook together and you can ask questions along the way. (Normally $35 per class)

• Q&As - because I genuinely love answering all of your cooking questions. Or any other topics you might want to ask.

• Private Community - Substack chat is like a private Facebook community without the ads and Meta snooping. A place we can talk about whatever we please in a fun safe space; you can start threads about anything such as “I’m going to NYC and want restaurant recs” plus you can direct message me.

• Archive Access - Unlimited access to all my posts (Index coming soon!)

• Good Vibes - The satisfaction of supporting me financially, a full-time food writer and recipe developer and the opportunity to join me in giving 10% each month to farms growing food in food deserts such as Opals Farm

All of this is ad-free (you know, none of those pop-up ads and videos like on blog posts 🙄) and exclusive to you. You can read via email or download the app and never have to worry about missing a post in your clogged inbox.

Free Version

The free version each Monday is my curated newsletter called “Life at the Table” orbiting around all things Real Food could include any or all:

• Cookbook reviews

• My favorite tools, foods and other resources to make cooking enjoyable

• A recipe from the archives

• Essays exploring the human connection that happens around food

• One brand new exclusive recipe a month

• Preview of each weekly paid newsletter so there’s no FOMO and you can switch to paid right on the spot if something moves you.

Regardless of which subscription you choose, I can’t wait for you to come along this path with me.

Real Food Sanity is supported by you, my readers. By subscribing, you're helping to make this work sustainable so I can continue creating for you. By joining me you will also be gaining a good community, good conversation, and of course, good food. Let’s get this party started.

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