You can buy the book here!

I’m hoping to have all of the purchased books shipped out no later than Thursday!

The post My Cookbook is here! appeared first on Food with Feeling.

Vegan Pad Thai

Vegan Pad Thai has bold, wonderful flavors, and it tastes like a dish you’d find at a Thai restaurant, but made and enjoyed in the comfort of your home. A perfectly filling and satisfying meal, you’re sure to love!

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Strawberry Banana Smoothie

This FIVE Ingredient Strawberry Banana Smoothie is simple to make and so so good!

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Easy Sautéed Brussels Sprouts

These simple sautéed brussels sprouts are so easy to make and absolutely packed with flavor!

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Black Bean Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

These Black Bean Stuffed Sweet Potatoes come together with just a few simple ingredients and make for a filling and delicious Vegan dinner!!

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Bananas Foster

Bananas Foster is one of my very favorite desserts!! Not only is it rich, full of flavor and over-the-top delicious, it has to be one of the quickest and easiest dessert recipes. Banana slices are laced with a sweet, buttery rum sauce and sautéed until golden and caramelized. Serve with chopped walnuts and a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a simple dessert that looks impressive, yet is so easy to make! Instructions included to make with or without the flames!

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Easy Coconut Curry

Cozy and nourishing Coconut Lentil Curry with warming spices, creamy coconut milk and a boost of veggies from onion, tomatoes, bell pepper and peas. This flavorful recipe is packed with plant-based protein and fiber for the perfect, satisfying meal!

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The post A realistic WIEIAD appeared first on Food with Feeling.

What is the fresh air retreat?

The Fresh Air retreat is a retreat for food bloggers that is hosted about twice per year! It’s put on by Liz Della Croce, the creator of the Lemon Bowl and Lauren Grier from The Curious Plate. They were THE MOST amazing hosts and I’m so grateful that they selected me to attend the retreat this year!

The retreat is in a different city each time and this time, we were in Miami! It was my first time visiting Miami and I loved it! I have a link at the bottom of the post if you’re a food blogger and interested in applying to attend future retreats.

We spend 3 days just chatting, getting to know each other, and swapping business tips. I learned SO MUCH from the attendees and walked away with lots of ideas to elevate my business. We also work with some sponsors who help put on the retreat (more about those later).

The retreat attendees:

• Crowded Kitchen- Lexi and her mom run their food blog called Crowded Kitchen. They have some truly amazing recipes and she shared SO MUCH with us about strategy for growing on Instagram and Facebook.
• Cooking with Cocktail Rings. this was my first time meeting Kylie and she was such a delight! Ireally love the aesthetic of her whole blog and I learned so much from her.
• Aleka’s Get Together. I’ve known Aleka for a while and it was so great to officially meet her in person at the retreat! her blog is ALL about hosting and she has so many amazing resources.
• Fit Slow Cooker Queen. This was my first time meeting Shannon and I REALLY loved getting to know her. She runs a blog filled with amazing slow cooker recipes that you should definitely try out.

• Unbound Wellness. I met Michelle earlier this year at the Tastmaker’s Conference and it was so great to get to know her better and learn so many things from her. She referred me to her creative coach that I started working with this month and I’m so excited about that.
• Grilled Cheese Social. MacKenzie and I are in a blogger mastermind together this year but this was out first time meeting in person. She is SUCH a delight and I learned so much from her. She introduced me to several new blogging tips that I’ve already dove into.
• Kims Cravings. Last but not least, I’ve known Kim for a WHILE and she’s so incredibly sweet. She used to do some writing for me and she’s so good at SEO + writing. I really enjoyed spending time with her.

The Hosts of the retreat:

• Liz at The Lemon Bowl. If you don’t already follow Liz, you NEED TO! She is the sweetest and posts AMAZING traditional Lebanese recipe that are all so good (she made several of them for us while at the retreat!).
• Lauren at The Curious Plate. I’ve followed Lauren online for a while and it was so great to spend time with her! She did an amazing job organizing this retreat and I’m so grateful to her and Liz for all of their hard work!
• Chef Trimell. Chef made us SO many amazing meals while we were in Miami. Every meal felt gourmet and I am very grateful that he was there to feed us so much amazing food.

The sponsors of the retreat:

Grocer’s List: Grocer’s List is a toold for food bloggers that allows us to use the “comment for recipe” feature on social media. I had actually singed up already before the retreat and I REALLY LOVE IT! It helps me connect with my audience on a deeper level and I love getting he opportunity to meet the founder and learn more about the new features that they have coming up.

Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau: I am SO grateful to the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau for hosting us! They showed us a TRULY amazing time in Miami and took us to some of the best restaurants in the area. I really loved it!

Minutes Rice: hopefully y’all know by now how much I LOVE a good quick rice option. I grew up eating Minute Rice and I really love their microwavable options! I have a ton of them in my pantry right now and have been eating them nearly DAILY!

Flor de Cana: I was unfortunately late on the first day (thanks to the longest cross country flight) but I still got to try it and it’s SO GOOD! I can’t wait to make some delicious summer cocktails with it too!

Current: this is one of THE cutest grills that I have ever seen. We got the opportunity to play around with the grill and cook on it one night during the retreat. I’m hoping to get one at my house and I’m excited!

Interested in attending the next Fresh Air Retreat?

If you’re a food blogger, I cannot recommend this retreat enough. The next retreat is this October in Palm Springs (!!!) and you can apply for the experience of a lifetime here!

PHOTOS BY AMANDA KAMPPIEN– Amanda was amazing to get to know and she takes truly BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS! All of the ones that you see in this post are ALL from her.

The post Fresh Air Retreat Blogger Recap appeared first on Food with Feeling.

Hiiii! How the heck are you?If you’re just here for the giveaway, that’s totally cool :) Scroll down to the bottom of the post to enter. No strings attached (really!).

I recently hit 20k followers on my Facebook page and today I’m celebrating with a giveaway! Also, it’s (very roughly) my blogs FOUR YEAR anniversary. SO, we needed to celebrate.

Because I’m completely obsessed with my Vitamix blender (THIS is the one that I have) and think that everyone should have one, I’m giving one away today (the same one I have)! Absolutely no strings attached. You don’t have to follow all (or any) of my social media accounts or jump through any hoops. I wanted this to be a pure “thank you”. I even created this little video to show you how much I love this little, powerful machine!

HERE is the recipe for the Acai Smoothie in the video!

Actually, I lied….you have to answer one question down below (or HERE on facebook). What IS your favorite ice cream flavor? I’m dying to know. I recently had some sea salt caramel ice cream that was pretty spectacular! ????????????

Some thoughts on 4 years:

I started my blog as a side project to keep me from being BORED OUT OF MY MIND at the lame desk job that I had at the time. I needed a creative outlet to focus some of my attention and thus was born B. Britnell. I started it with the intention of eventually coming up with a more clever name than…my name, but clearly, that never happened :D That’s okay, B. Britnell has really grown on me.

Fast forward past a lot of frustrating food shoots trying to learn how to use my camera, three years later I found myself quitting my boring desk job to go full time with this little blog and with my food videography business.

I ask myself daily “how is this my life!?” I love all of the work that I do, so much, and wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I’m SO very thankful to those that have supported me along this journey of mine and I look forward to posting many more recipes and getting to know more of you!

Okay, okay. Here’s the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Vitamix Giveaway + a Thank YOU! appeared first on Food with Feeling.

Now that it’s been almost 2 weeks, I figure it’s time that I introduce the internet to the newest member of the Britnell clan. Internet, meet Jemma Jacqueline!

I’m going to warn you now that this post is basically just a GIANT photo dump. I’m not sorry about that at all. ????????????

Jemma was born at 1:48AM on August 12th. Technically, she was a little over a day past her due date. But really, she was exactly on time according to my projections of when she would be born based on the last day of my last period. So, I go with my projected due date over what the doctor told me because it’s fun to say that she came exactly when she was supposed to :)

I went through my whole pregnancy determined that I would have a natural birth. Long story short: back labor sucks, the epidural was AWESOME, and when it was time to push, the baby was out in less than 10 minutes. Overall, I had a very positive birth experience and I’m so grateful to Mr. Britnell and to my doula for making it such a good experience.

She’s got my thick dark hair, Mr. Britnell’s blue eyes, and she’s just perfect in every way. (more…)

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Hi Friends. It’s been a while. I almost don’t feel like I went anywhere because I’ve been SO incredibly immersed in the world of food blogging through the hundreds of recipe videos that I’ve filmed so far this summer. But, most of those are client videos and, as you know, I’ve slightly neglected this little blog here.

There are SO many amazing, awesome, wonderful things about owning my own business and being my own boss. But one of the few down sides is that I get ZERO days off. I mean, I can take off whenever I want but then I don’t get paid and that work still needs to get done at some point (which typically ends up being late at night or on the weekends). I’m not complaining though because I’m LOVING all that I’m doing right now and wouldn’t change it for the world.

I mean, well, it IS all about to change. Because, HELLO Baby Britnell is due in LESS THAN 2 WEEKS! Yea, I know. How is this real!? So, all of that to say: I’ve been working my ASS OFF to make up for the 2 month maternity leave that I plan to take during August and September. It was important to me that all of my clients had some videos to be posting while I was gone so I basically crammed 4 months worth of videography work into 2.5 months. Needless to say, I’m ready for a bit of a break.

The nursery is about 95% finished and I totally love how it turned out! It’s nothing like what I would have imagined a year ago, quite honestly. But, it’s a good mix of me and Mr. Britnell and for that, it’s perfect. We started with a space theme in mind but really the room turned into whatever cute baby things we saw and liked.  (more…)

The post 3rd Trimester Pregnancy Update appeared first on Food with Feeling.

I originally started to include this in the pregnancy announcement post (oh hey, did you see that I’m pregnant!!?) but figured it was better left as its own little separate post.

So, here goes.

As we’ve started telling family and friends our good news over the past few weeks, there’s been a recurring theme that, if I’m being honest, has kind of unnerved me. At first I thought that I was over-reacting to what is most certainly just good intentions. Then I expressed my concern to several close friends who confirmed that my feelings were warranted and worth expressing. (more…)

The post Working from Home with a Baby appeared first on Food with Feeling.

But, that’s not the only announcement I’m here to make.

It’s safe to say that my thirties are going to be some of the best years of my life ???? In case the ultrasound didn’t solidify it for you: WE’RE HAVING A BABY!

Mr. Britnell and I are very excited and still letting it all settle in.

I’ve been simultaneously excited to announce this to the world while also loving that the secret was kept just between us and our closest friends and family. I probably could have kept it that way for a bit longer but my mother, who is on cloud nine about finally having a grandchild, might have gone crazy if I made her wait any longer. Also, it’s her actual birthday week so, Happy Birthday Mommy!

Because of the naturally paranoid personality that I have and the early miscarriage that I had last year, I spent the first ~12 weeks completely terrified that something would go wrong. Once I got into my second trimester, heard the strong heart beat, and saw the little kid jumping around on the ultrasound, my paranoia went from level 10 down to about a 3. Even I am surprised (and confused?) about how relaxed I’ve been over the past 5 weeks. (more…)

The post The announcement I’ve been waiting to make! appeared first on Food with Feeling.

What do steel cut oats have to do with this post? Absolutely nothing- but, it’s what I ate for breakfast today. So. Here’s a picture of it :)

Yep. I quit my job ???????????????????????????? You know what you can do when you work from home?? Dye your hair PURPLE and get a tattoo. Since I couldn’t get a tattoo appointment until March, I’ll have to settle for the purple hair for now. It’s not even really close to the shade of purple that I originally wanted BUT I learned that what I wanted is very difficult to achieve with my dark hair. So, I opted for a deeper purple color and I love it! It’s weird and it’s different and it’s fun which is ALL I was going for. Picture coming soon, promise!

If you’ve had a conversation with me over the past couple years lasting more 20 minutes, then you’ve probably heard about my dream/ ultimate goal of being able to quit my day job and work on my food blog/ photography/ videography full time. And I still kind of can’t believe that it’s a reality. BUT IT IS! BAM.

So, what exactly WILL I be doing for a job now that I quit my day job? I’ve learned that most people think my new full time job will be food photography. However, that’s actually only a very small part of it. Here are the main components of what I will be spending my time on (and what will be paying my bills!). This is based on a ~50-55 hour work week:

1. Freelance Food Videography (about 50% of my job)
2. THIS blog that you’re reading (about 30-40% of my job)
3. Freelance writing and photography (the rest of it)

Let’s talk about each of those a bit more, shall we? :)

Freelance Videography:

As I assume you know, I started creating videos about 8 months ago. I saw that it was becoming a vital part of the online food space and I saw many bloggers having great success with it. The bug was first planted in my ear last October when I attended a small food blogging conference in Cancun. Eric and Diana Johnson, from Eating Richly,  gave a talk about video and I KNEW that in the coming year (2016), video was at the very top of my to-do list.

When I was really ready to dive into video, I joined the Blog Village which took my videos to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL! Seriously, if you’re at all interested in creating recipe videos, joining the Blog Village is the best investment you will make (besides buying a camera and a good lens maybe ;)). I took what I learned and started practicing by creating recipe videos for my own blog. The first few videos had mild success but then THIS video went semi viral, bringing in about 1,000 new facebook likes in only a few days. From there on out, I was officially OBSESSED with video. I started making it my focus deciding to even post fewer recipes per week so that I could get at least one recipe video out per week.

Then I thought “hey, I wonder if I could turn this new passion project of mine into a bit of a side hustle??”. So, I emailed a blogger who I greatly admire, who has a large following, and who had recently just hired someone to do her videos. I was curious to find out if 1) she thought other larger bloggers would be interested in hiring someone to help with video (I knew it needed to be slightly larger bloggers who could afford paying a videographer regularly) and 2) maybe by chance she could give me a few references. She was SO encouraging AND within a few days, had sent 3 bloggers to me all of whom I worked with AND who sent me MORE references. I got about 6 clients from sending that 1 email.

Fast forward to today and I have more inquiries for video work than I have time to complete. I’ve been able to pick just a few bloggers to work with regularly and the past couple months it has been working marvelously (with the exception that I was having to cram ALL of the video work into just 2 days on the weekend while I wasn’t at work).

HUGE thanks to Sara from the wonderful blog Cake Over Steak for emailing me one day to let me know that a super cool blogger was looking to hire a part time video production manager. That super cool blog= Ambitious Kitchen and I’m SO happy to be working with her. We seem to have very similar styles and creating videos for her has been SO much fun so far. You can follow along with her blog and see our new videos as they’re posted by following her blog HERE.

Another one of the lovely bloggers that I’ll be working with regularly is Jessica from JessicaGavin.com. We’re in a blogger mastermind group together and I’ve LOVED watching her blog grow. If you enjoy reading income reports, you should DEFINITELY check out the income reports that Jason, her husband, puts together for their blog. With much hard work, they saw incredible growth in 2016 and I’m excited to be working with them more in the new year!

So, to sum all of that up: about 50% of my time each week will be spent creating super fun recipes videos for fellow bloggers and occasionally for some brands as well.

My Blog!!

Oh hi! That’s what you’re reading right now. If you read my income reports, then you know that in 2016, I worked hard to take my blog to the next level and to put it in a position to be a serious source of income for me. It was a particularly good month, but in December of this year, the income from my blog alone reached over $3300 (!!!!). (more…)

The post I QUIT MY DAY JOB!! (!!!) appeared first on Food with Feeling.

I’m writing this post from a ridiculously hipster coffee shop in Portland, Oregon. It’s a post I’ve thought about writing for some time now but also a post that I always hoped would never be necessary.

I also never intended to write this post today, but, there’s just something about traveling that always makes me take a big step back from my life and see it all in a slightly different way. I think it’s simply that when I’m at home, I’m busy doing things ALL of the time. However, now, in another city, I’m able to slow down a bit and…think.

I’m just going to come out and say it all so that the awkward part is over….and then maybe explain a bit more. We’ve been trying since last summer to get pregnant. The process has been one of the most exhausting and trying things that I have gone through. It was fun for the first 9 months but now, it kind of just sucks. Younger me never would have believed that I’d be almost thirty and still didn’t have kids.

In July of this year, I finally got a positive pregnancy test. We were cautiously excited. I told three good friends of mine (mostly because all three of them were also pregnant) and no one else (I mean, besides Stephen of course). I watched every day as the line on the pee stick got darker (yes, I KEPT taking pregnancy tests even after getting the initial positive test). I just so happened to have my yearly gyno appointment scheduled for the next week. They confirmed the pregnancy and set up my first ultrasound.

Unfortunately, the pregnancy wasn’t viable. It was a very early miscarriage which, if I’m looking at things positively, I’m very thankful for (the *early* part, not the miscarriage part).  Shortly after that, I found out how sick my father was and haven’t really had the mental or emotional capacity to even think about the whole baby thing much….until now. On many levels, this has been one of the MOST trying years of my entire life. I’ve dealt with a lot of things that make life what it is. Things that as a privileged, very lucky, and very sheltered person, I’ve never had to deal with.

My main goal here is simply to talk. Talk through this whole thing with myself, talk through it with you, talk through all of it with SO many women (and men too really) that I know have, are, or at some point will go through the same thing. Because it really fucking sucks. (more…)

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