The Joy Of Eating
Discover the joy of eating in a more connected, mindful and delicious way
Watch PromoWelcome to The Joy Of Eating. From September the programme is only available as one-to-one supported journey (rather than self study) - but let's have a chat first about whether The Joy Of Eating is right for you!
Drop me a note at meredith@foodatheart and we can book a time to speak. Just let me know a bit about you and where you'd like help.
Are you ready to get your taste buds tingling with joy? Yes, it's time to find your kitchen happy and fall in love with eating well!
Eating well is a combination what you eat and how you eat. Join me to explore mindful tasting and creative cooking practices - and enhance your eating pleasure one bite at a time.
It's time to slow down, cook and taste with ALL your senses, and explore the many layers of flavour that make real food delicious.
Through The Joy Of Eating you’ll:
- discover the deliciousness of involving all your senses in tasting (rather than just eating!)
- experience the pleasure and power of slowing down - and adding a sprinkle of mindfulness to your kitchen
- explore and experiment with lots of delicious whole foods and flavours
- build and flex your creative cooking muscles (using your understanding of the senses to support this)
- develop a greater awareness of food that helps you feel and do good
Understanding how the senses affect taste is a great foundation for creating delicious food - and slowing down gives you the chance to enjoy (and digest) it!
Even if you're an experienced cook, there are whole new layers of flavour to discover and explore by pausing and paying attention a little more often.
But it's not just about slowing down... Maybe you're stuck in a rut of same old, same old mid-week meals? Or you need a bit of inspiration to help youfeel more creative in the kitchen? Perhaps you want to create healthy and tasty meals, but need a few tips for making vegetables taste great.
The Joy Of Eating explores the how and what of eating well.
What can you expect from The Joy Of Eating?
Over the course of The Joy Of Eating, you'll plot your own flavour adventure.
We'll start with the basics of taste and move through to how you can use this knowledge to invent your own delicious dishes - and eat them in a more connected way.
The Joy Of Eating contains small daily practices and lots of manageable cooking tips for busy people. And it may contain nuts! Oh, and a little spattering of dark chocolate. Actually, there is definitely chocolate involved...
At the centre of The Joy Of Eating are whole, unprocessed, seasonal everyday ingredients.
I won't tell you what you should and shouldn't eat, or provide nutritional advice (I'm a passionate cook, eater and chocolate maker, not a nutritionist!) - but I will give you a range of beautiful whole foods and tempting flavours to explore in a more conscious - and delicious - way.
This is a naturally healthy and joyful way of eating, focussing on real food, rather than a dietary plan framed in guilt, calories and restriction. It's a celebration of abundance, not about eating with a mindset of missing out.
It's also not about being 'perfect', but about the pleasure of paying just a little more attention and seeing what you discover. And having a little (or lots of!) fun while doing it.
We're so often rushing around and 'multi-tasking' that we forget to actually taste what we're eating. This is a chance to pause and truly taste your food.
What's In Your Joyful Programme...
Week 1 - Take a breath
Sets foundations for the 10 weeks, including some short daily practices and reflections. There is particular focus on the importance and power of the breath.
Mini-meditation: A Comforting Cuppa
Week 2 - Taste & the senses
An overview of all the senses and why they are important to tasting and cooking.
Connected Challenge: One Sense Wonder
Expert Interview: Natasha Blok, Squiggle Of Senses
Week 3 - The joy of colour
Explore the importance of sight and colour, taking a playful approach to using it in the kitchen.
Creative Challenge: Build A Rainbowl
Week 4 - The joy of texture & aroma
Delve into the pleasure of touch and smell in food, and start to experiment with incorporating more of both in dishes. This is also where we'll get into the fun of flavour combinations.
Mini-meditation: A Taste Of Chocolate
Expert Interview: Dorothy and Stephanie, Fig & Bloom
Week 5 - Refresh yourself
A chance to pause and catch up on anything you've missed or would like to repeat from the first 4 weeks. This is also an opportunity to reflect on your progress so far.
Week 6 - The joy of taste
Go deeper into the basic tastes and explore how to use them in cooking and balancing dishes. I'll also give you my list of store cupboard essentials to ensure you always have a well stocked kitchen.
Mini-meditation: Compare The Carrot
Week 7 - The joy of being a curious cook
We'll start to get a little more experimental and I'll share some of my favourite flavour boosts. Now that you've got to grips with taste, it's your chance to try something new!
Creative Challenge: Something New
Week 8 - The joy of conscious eating
Our food choices have both a personal and wider impact. This week covers some different elements of more sustainable eating. Eating in a more connected way includes considering where your food comes from - and where it goes!
Mini-meditation: The Stirring Spoon
Expert Interview: Lorna Hall, Eat Myyy Thoughts
Week 9 - The connected meal
During our penultimate week, we'll explore the basics of a more mindful meal. This brings together elements from the earlier weeks and includes small actions you can incorporate in your everyday eating.
Connected Challenge: The Mindful Meal
BONUS The Joy Of Eating Mini-Cookery e-Book
Expert Interview: Stephanie Seege, Helpings
Week 10 - The joy of reflection
We'll finish with some reflection exercises so you can take stock of the last couple of months and see how far you've travelled. This is also an opportunity to set any post-programme goals. This is really the beginning of a lifelong journey - not the end!
Want a little taste of The Joy Of Eating? Check out the special preview of Week 2...
What's included in the programme?
From late August, The Joy Of Eating will only be available with one-to-one support. This includes the core programme plus one-to-one calls. I have a limited number of places available to help you taste your way through the programme in a more bespoke way.
Core Programme
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10 weeks of video training (1 x 10-15 minutes modules per week) to watch at your own pace, plus:
- workbook with daily and weekly activities
- recipe suggestions
- equipment & ingredient lists
- suggested reading lists
- Mini-meditations
- Creative and conscious challenge activities
- Expert interviews
ADDITIONAL BONUSES...
- Monthly live webinar/Q&A sessions - plus recordings if you can't make it live
- Access to The Joy Of Eating Facebook group
- A special The Joy Of Eating mini-cookbook collection
- I'm also available to answer any questions you have at any point during the programme!
Plus one-to-one support...
This package includes:
- 1 x initial 30 minute chat to talk through your personal requirements and so we can get to know each other
- 8 x 45 minute Skype/Google Hangout chats (weekly with a break during week 5 for reflection) to talk through your progress and go into greater detail on any areas you'd like to explore further.
- 1 x 30 minute roundup chat during Week 10 to talk through any next steps.
The core programme is the starting point for our conversations, but we'll shape the direction of our chats depending on your personal needs. This additional support is a great way to boost your accountability and help you stay on course.
The calls are also an opportunity to pick my brains on flavours and suggestions for dishes that you might enjoy, and how you can stock your cupboards in a way that helps boost your kitchen happy.
Your Instructor
Hi, I'm Meredith and I'm a big food and flavour lover (especially if it involves dark chocolate). I want to help as many people as possible fall in love with cooking and eating well.
I set up my business, Food At Heart, for people like me who also love food and flavour - but also want to pursue a more conscious way of living and eating.
Some of my earliest memories are of leaning over a mixing bowl with my mum. Since then, food and cooking has been such an important part of life. But it wasn’t all mixing bowls and cookery books. My career spans market research, marketing, music and e-commerce. And I learned a lot about selling toothpaste.
What kept me going over the years in my 'normal' work was my love of flavour and cooking; it was an important creative outlet and a way of relieving stress.
A couple of years ago, some digestive issues made me realise I needed to press the pause button. I had to pay attention to my eating and life in a whole new way.
An opportunity came to take a leap out of corporate life and from this, Food At Heart was born. I now support people through programmes and events that give them some time out to taste with a bit more attention. I blend reflection, tasting and cooking to help people create delicious and nourishing food (including a healthy spattering of dark chocolate!).
Some lovely feedback on The Joy Of Eating...
"I love food, but had found myself in a rut and bored with my usual recipes. The Joy Of Eating was so much fun and has totally revitalised my approach to cooking and eating. Meredith has created an easy-to-follow and encouraging course that inspired me to experiment with flavour combinations without expensive shopping list or elaborate sessions in my kitchen.
Highlights included the expert interviews with great insights into staying well and conscious eating. The best part? Meredith's soothing mini-meditations which were easy to fit into my daily routine; one even required me to eat chocolate!"
Clare Barry, founder Urban Curiosity
Plus nice things people have said about my Food At Heart cooking workshops...
"You reminded me to pay more attention to the experience I was having, through being mindful.
It’s too easy to rush, and forget how much there is to enjoy from experiencing good food.”
“I loved it. It has made me feel inspired to cook (I don’t usually cook!!).
I found it to be a calming and very satisfying experience.”
“The evening really brought my team together in a whole new way.
It was a great combination of reflection and fun; we’ve even used some of the principles back in the office.”
This course is for you if:
- you're a busy person who needs manageable tips for eating (and living!) in a more pleasurable and calm way
- you want to eat better (maybe less meat or even more vegetables), but are not sure how to make this type of food taste good so you actually enjoy it
- you inhale your food without taking a breath and would like to start breaking a cycle of mindless eating
- you think creating delicious meals means buying faddy and expensive ingredients (it doesn’t need to!)
- you want to get more confident with how you can use interesting flavours to spice up your dishes and get you out of cooking humdrum
- you'd like to explore foods and flavours that you truly enjoy and make you feel good
- you’ve always dreamed of becoming a chocolate fairy – okay maybe this one is my secret dream, but all other wannabe chocolate fairies are welcome!