About

Welcome to Feasting at Home

Where healthy meets delicious!

Hi, my name is Sylvia Fountaine, and I am a professional chef, former restaurant owner, and wedding caterer. I have been in the food industry for over 30 years!

The Feasting at Home blog was launched in 2011 as a way to share my catering recipes, and since then, it has grown into a global food site with over 1,300 restaurant-quality recipes and millions of visitors each month! My friend Tonia Schemmel, chef and co-owner of our former restaurant, is back with me now, sharing her expertise and recipes as well! So when I say restaurant quality, I mean this literally! Most of the recipes came from our restaurant and catering business. It feels so good to work together again… we’ve been friends since the 10th grade!

I hope that through these recipes, you’ll learn simple techniques to elevate your cooking and develop (or rekindle) a love of cooking! Because cooking your meals from scratch is the one thing you can do today to elevate your health.

Over half of our recipes are vegan or vegetarian, with many fish, chicken, and meat dishes, as well. Don’t worry, omnivores; we have something for you, too!

I realize food, like politics, can be very polarizing. My goal here is to highlight and celebrate what we have in common. Whether you are vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, paleo, keto, flexitarian or omnivore – we can all agree on one thing: cooking meals from scratch using fresh, wholesome ingredients is one of the most nourishing gifts we can give ourselves and our families.

Food Philosophy

I try to eat organic, locally grown, whole foods that are high in nutrition. Even though I had a vegetarian restaurant for 10 years and often eat plant-based during the week, as a chef I want to taste and experience everything! I love fish and grew up eating lamb.

Overly processed foods are kept to a minimum, while quality and nutrition are paramount to me. If I am going to consume fish or seafood, I look for wild. I realize this is cost-prohibitive for many, but I rationalize this by only having it occasionally.

I don’t judge or label food groups as “good” or “bad,” and I don’t believe that our diet needs to be black and white, political, or become a religion or an identity.

My best advice is to buy the highest quality ingredients (nutritious, organic, homegrown, or farmers market) you can afford, starting with what you eat the most. Then, as you use things up, trade them up for organic.

Cook with the seasons. As a chef, what inspires me most is seasonal, local, organic produce. This is because local produce, grown in its true season, as close to us as possible, always has the best flavor and the highest nutrient density.  Cooking seasonally is a beautiful way to stay grounded in the seasons and the earth’s natural cycles. It is the one thing you can begin doing immediately that will elevate your cooking. No joke!

There are many paths to health. I will never try to convince you to eat one way or another… what you eat is your business! We are all so different genetically, and our bodies have different needs. My husband does better with a plant-rich, higher-protein diet,  but I do better with a lower-fat Mediterranean Diet. I do love sharing things I stumble upon, but there is never any pressure! I have no agenda here. I just want your food to taste good!  Haha! 😉 

Many recipes are globally inspired. I was raised in Los Angeles by immigrant partents: a Finnish mother and Egyptian father, both right “off the boat.” We traveled extensively and they both loved to cook and entertain. They were also very frugal- every single thing was made from scratch, nothing was wasted, yet somehow they created the most amazing meals. They showed me how the humblest of ingredients could be turned into a feast, utilizing a wide array of vegetables and herbs and spices. When my husband Brian and I travel, it always revolves around food. We love experiencing different cultures and cuisines and learning local flavors and techniques.

Cooking is Comforting. YES, occasionally, we cook comfort food recipes that may not seem very “healthy” on the surface because I’ve found there are times in one’s life when “comfort food” is actually comforting, on a soul level. When my sweet old mom passed away several years ago, my dear friend Sonna brought over her Four-Cheese Macaroni and Cheese. It was the only thing that would go down after days of not eating. To this day, I believe that was the most healing, nurturing thing I could have put into my body at that time – and I’ve never forgotten it. ✨

Cook simple and smart

Adaptable Recipes: With so many mixed households – vegans and meat-eaters – both living under the same roof,  cooking can get so complicated. So I’ve started creating “adaptable” recipes to help make cooking easier (one meal, two ways) and hopefully enjoyable again.  For more of these kinds of recipes – visit our “Adaptable” category.

Easy Healthy Dinners: Most of you have shared how short on time you are. I get it. Most of the recipes here in the last few years are geared towards you! Time-saving, healthy recipes that can be on the table in 30 minutes or need very little hands-on time.  I created a category just for you “Easy Weeknight Dinners”.

Cooking is Nurturing

There are days like Sundays when some of us truly enjoy spending time in the kitchen while something slow roasts in the oven for hours – and you’ll find those recipes here too because they are nourishing on a soul level. Cooking, if we allow it, can center and ground us, and bring us back to ourselves. In this day and age, we need this. 

Back when I was catering big stressful weddings, on my days off, even when I felt totally exhausted, I would often find myself back in my home kitchen simply making a pot of soup or baking a loaf of bread. Cooking can be incredibly restorative and healing when we allow ourselves the time to be present.

And for some, cooking is the one creative thing we get to do during the day. Soul-satisfying!  My hope is that you experience this incredible joy for yourself. I like to think what we put into our bodies becomes a part of us. Not just the food itself, but the energy we put into the food. Cooking can be such a loving act. A grounding place to be when the world feels as if it is crumbling around us.

This is why I share quotes on the blog, little nudges to go within and simply listen because the deepest truths can be found inside ourselves.  Cooking has become a gentle practice for me to still my thoughts, become present, and reconnect with the peace within. When I do this, not only does it help restore me, it inevitably affects those around me, without even saying a word. People, especially those who live with us, can feel our energy. This simple act affects those around us and carries into the rest of the evening.

Cook with Us!

I’m so excited to have you be a part of our community! Subscribe to the blog below, and receive a free gift (a Plant-Based Recipe Guide). Our latest recipes will be sent out each Saturday morning.  Be sure to check your spam folder or promotions tab, if you don’t see them. That is it! There is no cost, it is totally FREE to everyone. (Wondering how this is free? Scroll down.)

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Comments from our community members:

It’s become a fun joke in my family that Feasting at Home saved my parents’ marriage.  When my dad decided to buckle down and commit to being a wonderful husband, one of his first steps was regularly cooking delicious meals for my mom.  For over a year now he has been cooking multiple times a week exclusively from Feasting at Home recipes.  While my Dad has done all the hard work, I think my whole family is grateful and glad for the role your website has played.  Now the whole family has started using your website and sharing pictures of the results.   

Nicholas

I LOVE your recipes sooooo much that I don’t even use my cookbooks anymore! 😉  

Kerry D.

I have been following your blog and emails for many months now. Your pictures are inspiring, your recipes are DELICIOUS, and I don’t know what I’d do without you! I have two small kids, a crazy busy work schedule, and I rely on your recipes to feed my family – literally! I have used many different sites to inspire my cooking, but yours has been consistently the BEST. I just wanted to thank you – you keep me going!!

Christina

Sylvia!  I have to tell you that my husband was just referred to a cardiologist who is starting him on a cholesterol-lowering med, so I am now even more diligent about menu planning for us. Your veggie-leaning recipes are absolutely the way I want to eat – and he has recently embraced tofu and the extra veggies in our meal rotation – many of them from your delicious recipes. I will be leaning heavily on you for interesting, tasty, healthy recipes to feed my protein-, spice-, and flavor-loving man. 🙂 I know I’ve thanked you many times, but thanks again for your talent, creativity, beautiful photos, and generosity in sharing it all with us!

Lori Decker

My biggest challenge in the kitchen is diversity.  I eat clean 90% of the time but tend to prepare the same meals and get into a rut.  Like you, I tried all the different diets and found that a mostly plant-based diet with certain proteins (fish and some poultry) work best for me.  I LOVE your healthy Bowls and the recipes included in the Plant-Based Guide.  I already love to make fresh healthy meals and am excited to find another source for very interesting and not too complicated recipes that are exactly what I prefer to eat.  Last night I made the sheet pan salmon with baby bok choy and mushrooms.  Loved it!!!  Keep up the good work, you are appreciated!

Elizabeth

Your recipes have helped change the way I cook, shop, and eat. I used to love overly complicated French cooking—expensive, time-consuming, and a little risky when guests are coming. Now life is simpler, healthier, and far tastier! It’s a thrill to prepare really healthy dishes and watch people I care for scrape their plates clean and marvel at flavors and combinations they never expected to like, let alone crave. That’s thanks to you!

Your blog has been most helpful in the following ways: Sheet pan meals are a revelation. The sauces make all the difference in the world. The versatility and adaptability of your recipes are a dream. The new flavors are exciting, like Indian and Asian. You make it so easy to use tofu, which I love but used to have difficulty preparing in a way that tasted as good as at restaurants. Your turmeric broth is a staple. I make it at least once a month.

Susanna

I found you online 18 months ago and I love, love, love all the recipes I have tried so far and my husband can’t be happier.  My husband and our guests thank you over and over. Who thought I would get goosebumps from reading your recipes!  P.S.  I’m 71 years old and never enjoyed cooking until I found you! Love at the first recipe❤

Thank you for giving your recipes life and bringing your creations out into the world! They bring back a new-found joy for cooking and I feel extremely inspired to try out many more and come up with new ideas myself.  May you keep on inspiring others along with you. You surely did with me.

Caroline

How is our content free?

• In order for us to provide FREE content, we generate income through advertising on the site.  Thank you for understanding, I know the ads can be annoying.  To avoid the ads, feel free to use the “skip to recipe” button at the top of each post. If the ads ever get too invasive, or inappropriate, just drop me an email with a screenshot (very helpful). I don’t advocate political ads- so if they are in here they have “slipped in” without my consent. Again, please let me know. Sylvia@feastingathome.com
• We also generate income through affiliate links to various sponsors and sites like Amazon. Feel no obligation here- it is mainly to show you what I am using.
• We also have an online store called Bowl and Pitcher.

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Questions Or Feedback?

I always love hearing from you.  So feel free to email me at sylvia@feastingathome.com, or simply hit “reply” when you get your Saturday morning emails and tell me your thoughts on how to better serve you! Seriously!

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