Life, Love, Adventures

Happy Summer, Everyone!

It has been a very long time since I have written. I have missed hearing from you all and am sorry for being out of touch for so very long. My life has been so full of amazing things and I have been extremely busy for months, but I am finally slowing down.

A couple of weeks ago on the summer solstice with some friends, I sacrificed a wooden spoon in the fire. We all came together to let something go and invite something in. Burning my wooden spoon was symbolic of officially letting go of cooking for a living. I have been cooking professionally for 17 years and have really struggled to continue with this path the last several years. I have grown increasingly more tired, weary and burnt out of cooking for a living. To say the least, I have become over-cooked!

The cooking profession is all about giving. Giving physically, emotionally, spiritually – I have loved it and lived and breathed cooking for so long, but now need to create more balance and give in other ways that don’t deplete me. I no longer feel my time is best spent standing behind a hot stove and chopping veggies for hours on end. Despite cooking for some of the most wonderful clients, conferences, retreats, dinner parties and more the past many years, I simply don’t have the energy for it and I know better than to push something that is not meant to be. From now on I will only cook for retreats or dinner parties if I feel really excited about it. I will no longer work just for the money. If I don’t feel aligned or have the energy for it, I will say no.

I have prayed to spirit and asked for another path to open before me so I could release cooking and, fortunately, my prayers have been answered…

First and foremost, I am most excited to share with you my newly launched website. Jen and I (and my awesome web guy, David) have spent months recreating my website on a more user friendly format. It has a lot of the old recipe favorites and some new ones as well. I will continue to post new great seasonal recipes. Check out my new site: The Barefoot Cook

The upgraded Nourishing Cleanse is another of the projects that is now available along with 7 free cooking videos to boot. Stay tuned for the Gut Upgrade supplement line coming out later this year that will help support you in going deeper with the cleanse.

I will also soon be releasing two supplements that I just created – Total Mind and Body Upgrade and Brain Upgrade. These are very powerful and will help people in taking their health to the next level. More details coming soon about these powerful supplements.

Some other projects in the works…My long awaited Seasonal Menu Planning Service, In-Home Kitchen Detox E-Course, Real Food E-Cooking Course, and my long awaited Cookbook!

My Soothin’ Infusion Organic Herbal Iced Tea is also making a comeback and will soon have new packaging. You can buy it now on my tea site.

And now, for some more news about me….

I got engaged! Yes, my amazing acupuncturist, healer man proposed marriage atop Enchanted Rock last fall. And, drum roll, please….I said YES!! Wedding plans, in the works. If you want to check out one of the best acupuncturists in Austin, click here.

I also adopted a sweet kitty, an orange Tabby named Ziggy Butters. Yes, he got his name because we discovered anytime we would leave butter out on the counter, it would be gone the next morning. He is definitely my cat.

After owning my beloved truck for 7 years, I finally decided it was time for an upgrade and bought the car of my dreams, a white VW Jetta Sportwagon TDI Diesel. It gets about 800 miles to the tank and I LOVE it. And I have done some major work on my garden and things are growing! Cucumber dishes, here we come! Overall, many life upgrades have taken place for me and I am so happy!

I have also taken some amazing trips in the last few months – to Tulum, Mexico – my favorite winter vacay spot, to St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, where I cooked for a women’s retreat for Sexy, Younger, You and to Portland, Oregon, the most super groovy place in the country with the most happening food scene ever. I attended Heather Strang’s Bring on the Magic Retreat and loved every minute of it.

Thanks for sticking with me on this journey. I look forward to sharing more magic with you.

Much love,

Amanda