It’s hard to believe we are coming up on the ten-year anniversary of Slender Kitchen. During that time, so much has changed in my personal life and professional life. I’ve left a job I loved in education to pursue blogging full time, I got married and had two beautiful little girls, I’ve moved four times, accomplished a dream of publishing a cookbook, and so much more. I feel proud of what we’ve accomplished here and I couldn’t be more excited about what the future holds.
My personal outlook on health, wellness, and cooking has also evolved and honestly changed dramatically during that time as well. When I first launched Slender Kitchen, it was a place for me to share recipes and tips to support people trying to lose weight. After struggling with my own weight, I wanted to help people going through the same thing.
Almost ten years later, my personal philosophy about food, dieting, diet culture, and feeding my family is simply different. Instead of being focused on a number on the scale, I try to focus on how I feel. Am I energized to be there for my children? Am I eating foods that make me feel good? Am I listening to my body? Am I enjoying dinner out instead of worrying about every bite? Do I have a healthy relationship with food?
If I am honest, for a long time these things weren’t true for me. Whether I counted points, tracked macros, or eliminated entire food groups, I made choices that took the joy away from food - and I love food! Cooking and feeding others is one of my great joys and it stopped feeling that way. This isn't true for everyone tracking, but it was true for me.
I also started to feel very limited in terms of the recipes I shared on the website. Even if I had a great recipe to share that was packed with healthy, nutritious ingredients, I felt like I shouldn’t share if it had too many points, or fat grams, or calories.
It felt like a time to make a change.
Moving forward, everything will feel the same, and yet it will be different too. You will continue to see the same healthy, real food recipes we have always shared. Quick and easy recipes your family will love, weekly stress-free meal plans, and healthier spins on your favorite classic and takeout recipes.
You’ll also start to see new recipes! We’ll share more recipes with healthy fats like avocados, nuts, and seeds. You’ll see recipes with full-fat cheeses and dairy. There will be more recipes for desserts, healthy snacks, and fun holiday dishes.
At the core, Slender Kitchen is focused on bringing you the best healthy and delicious recipes we can! All the recipes on Slender Kitchen will continue to use lots of fresh produce, lean proteins, healthy fats, natural sweeteners, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. A focus on real food over-processed. But you will also find some pasta and cheese and chocolate chips. It’s all about balance and moderation.
We couldn’t be more excited about this change and hope you are too! Including this amazing recipe for Bistec Ranchero we'll be sharing soon!
What does this mean for Weight Watchers?
Since the beginning of Slender Kitchen, I have been a huge supporter of WW and still am. I think there are so many great things about their approach and I think it works for a lot of people. At the same time, as a business owner - it is hard to keep up with a program that changes its system every two years.
Moving forward, I will continue to share recipes that work for people on WW. Given the new focus on real food ingredients with PersonalPoints, this is more true than ever. However, I will no longer share points for all of my recipes.
To get your PersonalPoints, you will have to enter the recipes in the WW recipe calculator. This was a very difficult decision, but it feels like the right one since WW isn’t a part of my daily life any more and I see Slender Kitchen as so much more than a WW site.
With that said, we will continue to support WW members in our weekly meal plans. Each recipe within the meal plan will include a link to the recipe on WW so you can retrieve your PersonalPoints. Meal plans will still be conscious of points and daily points allowances just like they always have been.
We know that we may lose some followers with this change - but we hope you stick around! The recipes we share on Slender Kitchen will continue to be easy to make, delicious, focused on real food, and WW friendly.
What's Next!
We have lots of exciting new features coming over the next few months! Not only will there be lots of new recipes, but we will also be launching lots of new features on Slender Kitchen to help you in the kitchen. Think new meal plans, a better recipe search and index, kitchen tips, pantry guides, and more! Plus an amazing tool to help you make dinner with what's in your fridge and pantry. We can't wait!