Hi! I’m Meleyna. I cook a lot. I went to school for nutrition, but am mostly just interested in eating food that makes me feel good, in every sense of the word.

I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. Salad makes me swoon. I am solidly here for the occasional Jack in the Box egg roll and always linguine with clams, but it’s a hard no on anything nacho cheese. I used to think produce snobs were obnoxious, but then I moved to California and like wow, sorry guys I get it now.

I am a Taurus sun AND moon, Cap rising. I don’t necessarily believe in all of that, which makes me skeptical and stubborn or some something and that extremely checks out so who even knows. Mostly, I’m just a 90’s kid who mom never bought her Dunkaroos, and it shows.

My kids are 12 and eight. They don’t get cookies and frosting as a school snack either. But it’s ok because I can pack them nori and that’s a totally ok thing these days. (Not so much in 1994 when it was the default snack my obachan threw it into my backpack as I headed out the door. Definitely was not traumatized by it at all.)

This site is a collection of what I love to cook and eat. Sometimes what I love is minimal chopping on a Tuesday night, sometimes it’s an elaborate composed salad for dinner with girlfriends. But mostly it’s make-ahead grain bowl components for frenzied work-at-home days, dinner I can pack up for the ball field (heyyyyy #baseballmom), and a lot of beans because I really just love them.

Did you know kids can be as unpredictable as the success rate of those random recipes you are finally tackling after eight months of sitting on your “healthy family food” Pinterest board? Did you know that even if you meal plan, stock the fridge, and meal prep the week ahead, something will still probably go awry? Did you know that it will still be ok in the end?

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you’ll stick around. I heard there’ll be cookies.