Who knew you could create your own cookbook? I had no idea! I thought this was something only for the famous cooks on the Food Channel. When I heard Mel, today’s guest was releasing a cookbook, I was blown away. I knew I had to see if she would share her story with the Wallet Squirrel community. Thankfully for us, she is excited to tell us how she wrote a cookbook.
I know Mel through her husband, Jesse, who I worked with about five years ago. Lately, Jesse and I have started talking again because of our common interest in fitness and wellness. Mel and Jesse are truly an inspiring couple. Their journey to a healthy and full life is something my wife and I really aspire to be like.
Though the eating healthy piece can be challenging for me because I like food a little too much. 🙂
1. Tell us a little about yourself. What do you do for your primary job? What is your side hustle?
I have been working as an office manager for an integrative health facility, but was able to leave about two weeks ago to finally pursue my side hustle full-time now (Congrats Mel)! My side hustle is managing a health and wellness blog called Peace of Mel. I publish health articles, create healthy recipes, and just released my very first cookbook as in Ebook!
2. What motivated you to start this venture?
I started my blog just over 2 years ago as a way to share my health journey and hopefully help a few people along the way. When I was in college, I moved across the country to participate in an internship program at Disney World. During my time there I began struggling with health issues. I felt lost and ended up turning to women who were blogging about living healthier and it changed my life. During this journey, I discovered that a lot of what I had been struggling with was due to food sensitivities. I quickly learned how frustrating it can be to try and navigate through normal cookbooks and restaurant menus when you have a list of foods that don’t agree with your body so I began creating recipes that were allergy-friendly and delicious. After years of creating my own recipes and falling in love with the process, I decided I wanted to share them with others and so I launched my blog which led me to release my cookbook.
3. What did you do to get started with writing your cookbook?
Part of why I decided to release my cookbook digitally is so that I wouldn’t have to invest as much money or worry about inventory. All I needed to purchase was a membership to Food Blogger Pro, some props for my photoshoots, and of course, food. The moment I decided to start a blog two years ago, I signed up for Food Blogger Pro and have never looked back. They have courses, training, and group chats that answer any question you could possibly have about starting a blog involving food. They are the ones that walked me step-by-step through how to set up my blog, how to put together a recipe page, and they had an entire training on how to produce your own ebook. The props that I have in my photos are usually from the dollar store or Michael’s – it’s amazing how inexpensive it is to make a beautiful set. Put all of that together, add in some hard work, and you have yourself a cookbook!
4. What platform did you decide to use to write your cookbook? Why did you choose this platform?
In order to create my cookbook, I was able to design all of the page layouts using Canva. Canva is a design website that allows you to create just about everything from Instagram posts
to Postcards, to ebooks. There is a professional version of Canva that you pay a monthly fee for, but I was able to get everything that I needed using the free version. From there, I simply exported the entire book as a PDF and uploaded it to an ebook selling platform called Gum Road. There are a variety of different platforms that allow you to sell your ebook, I chose Gum Road because it was rated highly by the members of Food Blogger Pro. It was extremely user-friendly, has a nice layout, allows you to set up discount codes, and doesn’t have an outrageous fee to utilize their services.
5. How long did it take to create the cookbook? What’s the most time-consuming part?
This cookbook took me about two months to put together. It has 20 recipes and they were all recipes I had not given a try before so there were quite a few trial and error recipe testing days in there! That being said, the most time-consuming part is definitely the recipe testing phase. The recipes that I create are all gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free, and sometimes vegan so it can be a challenge to change so many elements of a recipe while keeping it close to the original.
6. What is your favorite part of the creation process?
I think my husband, Jesse, would agree with me and say the recipe testing phase. I love it because I really enjoy cooking and trying to make a recipe come together just right is like a puzzle and when you get it the way that you want it, it is so rewarding. Jesse loves it because it means that he gets to test out all of the recipes I’m working on; it is definitely a win-win for both of us!
7. What challenges did you run into?
Making so many substitutions in each recipe means there is no guarantee that it will work out and it can take a few rounds. I had a few batches of test recipes end up in the trash or that didn’t make it into the book at all. I also have had to teach myself a ton about designing a book, running a business, and maintaining a blog. The knowledge is out there, it is just a challenge sometimes to weed through everything to get what is going to be most useful.
8. Where did you get your inspiration for all of your recipes?
This cookbook is all about Fall so a lot of my inspiration came from my favorite Fall flavors or spins on foods that I had growing up that I can no longer have due to food allergies. A lot of the recipes that I end up putting together are versions of foods that I miss that I make allergy-friendly and a little healthier.
9. What is your favorite recipe in the book? (If you have a photo of this one, could I use it in the article?)
Oh my goodness, there are these caramel apple blondies with homemade caramel sauce in my cookbook and they are so good! It is honestly the ultimate comfort dessert if you eat them after they come out of the oven with warm caramel drizzled on top of them – they are perfection!
10. Do you have any advice for anyone looking to get into writing a cookbook?
I would say to find your niche and start cooking! The most time-consuming piece is putting together recipes and yet it is the one thing that anyone can be doing at any time. We all need to eat, we all need to buy groceries, so why not take advantage of that? I have turned my grocery list into a list of recipes I need to give a try so I am using the same time I would be using to cook us meals anyway to get work done.
11. Shameless plug. Tell us where we can buy your cookbook and where we can follow you. Feel free to brag why you are the best!
My cookbook is currently being offered through Gum Road, you can also find more recipes, updates, and fun giveaways at my blog website.
All 20 of the recipes in this book are delicious, packed with Fall flavor, and are great for just about anyone with or without food allergies. I had such a great time putting this cookbook together and cannot wait to hear what people think and see all of the delicious meals they make with it!
Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!
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Digital production is a great option for first-time authors – whether cookbook or any other genre – as it gives you so much control and keeps expenses down. I used Canva, too for my e-book of travel misadventures – perfect tool! Love your enthusiasm and photos, btw!
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Digital production is a great option for first-time authors – whether cookbook or any other genre – as it gives you so much control and keeps expenses down. I used Canva, too for my e-book of travel misadventures – perfect tool! Love your enthusiasm and photos, btw!