 Whether you’re a new mom or a seasoned mama, your birth story is definitely one that’s unique to you. A lot of times our stories get lost in the cuteness and newness of our babies. Everyone loves to see pics and videos of William myself included. But sometimes it’s good to take some time to reflect upon who they got here to really acknowledge the mom journey whether it’s through birth, adoption, or otherwise. Being a mom in general is hard regardless of how your child got to you. Doing it in a pandemic with some baby blues and postpartum anxiety sprinkled in is even harder. Thankfully, a year later, I’ve been able to channel that experience into
 So today I want to share one way to commemorate the journey to motherhood with my recent feature on the Birth Stories in Color Podcast. Birth Stories in Color is a podcast for Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latino, and Multiracial individuals to share their birthing experiences - a space that specifically celebrates, mourns with and supports them and their transformation through birth. The hosts are giving the safe space that mamas need to share all of the feels.
In the interview, I talk about
So whether you’re a mom, or know someone who is, be sure to take a listen on your favorite podcast app (like Apple Podcasts) or click the link here to find it. Mother’s Day is coming up soon. Take some time to honor you and the journey of how you became a mom (regardless of how your kids became yours). If you’re not a mom, consider asking yours about how you came to be. If your kids aren’t earthside, know that your journey is still worth acknowledging as well. I’ll be celebrating moms in the month of May, and there’s a place for everyone. (Yes, even the internet aunties). Click here to listen to my my story or find it on your favorite podcast app like Apple Podcasts.
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Some people ask me how I “do it all”. And at that I laugh internally and think about
And then I remember, that if nothing else is done, dinner will be, because I have a plan and you can too. If you need help with yours then click here to pick a time to chat and get a little help. Then I also remind them that I try to be intentional about the spaces I show up in and spend my time. Two of those spaces are ones that I’m very excited to share with you. They include other boss ladies like myself who don’t “have it all together” either, but sure do try. Tomorrow, I’ll be one of the moms on a panel small business owners for the Boss Chat where we’ll discuss The Importance of Building a Community Around Your Brand. Many of you are members of the amazing Food Fam with Chef Ashley Shep, so I’ll be talking about how we’ve built such a tight knit community of almost 600 strong!  If you’re a mom in business, then this is definitely one you should check out. You can register here. On Saturday, I’ll also be featured on another panel, but this time, it’s exclusively for members of The South Atlantic Region of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. My beloved sorority is hosting their inaugural Author Showcase where I’ll share creative marketing tips with the future authors in attendance to help them reach success with their books. New Mom Thoughts will be the featured publication for this chat.  Remember, having it all together isn’t really the goal. Being intentional about our time, and having a plan for things that suck up our time is. If you need more of your time back, then hop on a call with me to reclaim your time.
The top of the year is a great time to set intentions and refocus on our health as well as who we are in Christ. That's the reason why I thought it was the perfect time to release The Daniel Fast 21 Day Food and Faith Journal. Now like everything unknown in life, it did come with some moments where I wasn't sure if it was going to be published in time, BUT God knew.
Not only has the anointing laid upon the book publishing process, but it's also extended to the shipping. During the time of writing this, the mail in all forms is experiencing extreme delays. I mean like...weeks and months behind schedule. Thankfully that hasn't been the case with the Daniel Fast journals which are arriving on average 2-3 days after ordering. Either way, if you're someone who is waiting on your book to arrive or having gotten your copy yet, I wanted to share with you the Daniel Fast Extras book bonus website! As an extra thank you to those who purchased, I created a resource center for you to have everything you need to be able to focus on getting spiritually fed as well as physically fed. On the bonus site, you'll find:
 Fall is finally here and that means that it’s soup season! For me it’s soup season all year round, but for some folks they like to wait until the temps drop just a bit before enjoying some of their favorite comfort foods. I say if you can drink hot coffee everyday, then you can eat soup everyday, but that’s just me. And honestly, when’s the last time you had a cup of hot coffee.
Back to the soup! There’s lots of reasons to love soups and chilis. I love them as a quick and easy lunch that I don’t have to think about. Working from home gives a false sense that you have all this extra time to do stuff. The only thing extra I have time to do is to toss some food in the Crockpot/Instant Pot and then it’s on to the next thing. Am I right? So to help you out, I’ve included one of my favorite soup recipes that you’ll be sure to love. It doesn’t have a ton of ingredients in it, and it’s easy to make. Plus it’s healthy for you with tons of fiber and other nutrients that you need to feel your best. It’s my Salsa Verde Soup. Normally I say that you can make whatever changes to the recipe that you like, but in this case, there’s one thing you MUST keep the same: only use ROASTED salsa verde. The regular stuff just isn’t the same! Everything else is optional and you can make changes to your liking. Salsa Verde Soup by Chef Ashley Shep Ingredients 1 jar ROASTED salsa verde 3 Boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs 4 cups Chicken Broth 1 Yellow Onion, sliced 1 green bell pepper, sliced 2 TB Cumin 3 cans Cannellini Beans, or Navy Beans-drained 1 TSP Chipotle Chili Powder (or regular chili powder) 2 TSP Ancho Chili Powder (or regular chili powder) 1 Poblano Pepper, roasted 1 TSP salt 4 cloves garlic 1 bunch cilantro avocado tortilla chips Directions: 1. (Optional) Using a gas stove, place the Poblano pepper on top of the aisle on LOW heat. Watch it closely, and turn as necessary. The skin will blacken. Rotate until all sides are a little charred . Set aside and let cool. 2. Using a slow cooker or pressure cooker, combine chicken, broth, beans, seasonings, salsa, bell peppers, onions, and garlic in slow cooker. Gently peel the charred skin off the poblano pepper, chop, and add to pot. Leave the seeds in for an extra kick. 3. Add cilantro and shred the chicken during the last 30 minutes. 4. Enjoy with avocado, more cilantro, tortilla chips. Make It Vegan: Swap the broth for the veggie kind and add an extra can of beans in place of the chicken Want some crunch: Add bell pepper and onions in the last 30 minutes instead of the beginning. What’s your favorite soup to enjoy in the fall? Let us know below! Thanks to those of you who have purchased a preorder book bundle for the New Mom Thoughts Book! Thanks to the genius of one of my sorority sisters, the book will be available in two cover versions that I like to call Colorful Coral and then Purple and Gold. During this process of writing the book, I wanted to give you more of a behind the scenes looks at the books and how everything gets from idea to print. So check out this unboxing video and learn more about that and the inspiration behind New Mom Thoughts.
If you aren't familiar with the book, here's a bit of a background: I wrote this journal to help new moms explore their thoughts and feelings during their baby's first year. I wish I had something like this during my first few weeks and months with my newborn. This is a safe space to store all the thoughts that cross your mind when worry, lack of sleep, and unmet expectations are all swirling in your head. Whether you feel like you're doing this whole mom thing wrong or you're the perfect example of motherhood, this journal is for you. Processing those thoughts or at least getting them out of your head helps you enjoy the mommy experience and celebrate this new adventure. This journal helps capture all of your new mom feelings during this messy, crazy, and exciting time. Some days are perfectly blissful, while others are filled with constant chaos. Either way, embrace your new normal. Follow this quick and easy recipe to have homemade pizza ready in no time. Use whatever veggies you have on hand to help decrease food waste. #newlyvegan
Not only is this recipe available as part of the Daniel Fast 21 Day Food And Faith Challenge, but they’re also part of the Vegan, What?’s Dope Meal Planner for #newlyvegan friends or those who are experts - - - - - -
Start your $1 trial here to have access to my delicious recipes and all the other yummy creations to feel like a boss in the kitchen 👉🏾 www.dopemealplanner.com/chefashleyshep plus get a special discount when you add ChefAshleyShep in at checkout Join the Daniel Fast 21 Day Food and Faith Challenge to her recipes, faith based devotionals, and encouragement 👉🏾 Bit.Ly/danielfast2019  Recently while looking for folks to partner with for my new mom journal, I met a really dope lady named Donna who’s the owner of Rise and Shine Mommy, a blog that focuses on family, love, motherhood, and dream chasing for the women that she supports. Each month, I’ll be a guest blogger on Rise and Shine Mommy, and today, I wanted to share the first blog feature with you! 
I want to announce that (you want to announce with me ,you want to share to) that I will actually be releasing a book in a few weeks and this is something I've been working on probably for about almost a year and I know that you all have been asking for a cookbook. It’s not cookbook just yet but it is for the Daniel Fast!
If you are in my other group the Daniel Fast with Chef Ashley Shep it's a challenge that I do every year in January for folks who are doing the Daniel Fast and if you're not familiar with the Daniel Fast it's basically like a vegan diet but um it's like a vegan diet but with no processed foods and with that you were also spending time prayer and prayer and believing in something in faith and God and so I had done it as a challenge virtually and it just was laid upon my heart to do it in printed form because I know some people are not digital people some people would like to have something tangible in their hands and it also will have spaces for you to journal your thoughts to record your things that are just downloaded into your spirit during prayer time as well and so I'm excited about that I was going to show you a little bit of a sneak preview of it but I'm on my phone on my computer so I'll have to come back and do that later. But, I thought this was also relevant even if you're not Christian or you don't you don't believe in faith just to say that for me this is kind of getting a little trans, little moment of transparency (um flip you around Again, sleepy um) for me it was it was something that it kind of took a lot of time in terms of getting myself to believe that it would be something I could do and I know some people might think, oh I mean they kind of think that I just am confident about a lot of things which I am but not everything a lot of times I have a lot of self-doubt. I have a lot of questioning, I'm an over-thinker some of y'all probably also over-thinker as I see it when you're talking about recipe and you're like I don't should I put this in there does that go in there and and it really is something that can be debilitating and so if there's something that during this time in your life that either gods placed on your heart or you have an inner voice that's telling you hey like maybe this is something you should pursue or maybe this is something you should stop doing. This is an excellent time to follow that and listen to that voice because because it's kind of like ah, it's kind of like a moment where we're paused in time and for those of us that are blessed enough to be able to work from home. Even though sometimes it seems not like a blessing when the baby screaming or kids are running around crazy or you're on another zoom meeting and you're like I'm done with this. It really is an opportunity to just give us a time to pause and to think about what's really important and so for me with writing the book I felt like it was something that was laid on my heart that I had been ignoring and a lot of times we do that we brush things off to the side because we don't feel like it's that were worthy of it or we don't feel like it's something that we're really supposed to do when it reality it is what we're supposed to be doing so that's my challenge to you. If there's something that you want to share that you are either going to take the plunge into or stop doing because that's another equally powerful notion is that there are certain things that I just am NOT gonna do anymore because they're not as important to me because the the current state of the world is can be kind of scary and it can be something that makes you reflective and think okay what should I really be focusing on during this time so um for me my focuses are gonna be on family of course (he's gonna take a nap in a little bit um) and also helping people like you guys so helping you to be able to navigate this time without added stress because dinner was already a stressor for a lot of people and now we're adding on lunch and breakfast and so those are things that I'm gonna focus on providing content to you so you have options so it's not just piling up and piling up because it can be overwhelming so that's the announcement um the book should be out between this month and next month. I'm in the final editing process once it does it once it is released I definitely will share it here with you all and if you have any questions about the topic if you heard of the Daniel Fast before you might want to check out my other group the Daniel Fast with Chef Ashley Shep because there's a lot of information in there or if you just want to ask me in general I'm totally fine answering those questions with you and like I said it's something that a lot of people do in January but at the same time generally fasting can be like a reset for you and it's it's different from other fast because when you hear the word fast you think oh I can't eat it's like intermittent fasting you're not supposed to eat during certain hour with the Daniel Fast you can eat whatever hours of the day it's just restricting on what you're eating so you would be eating whole grains, fruits,vegetables and that's anything that's not processed from any angle so you wouldn't be able to do things like honey or meat or seafood but anything that's not an animal product is fair game so that's just kind of a snippet about it and I wanted to share with you all first. |
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AuthorAs a self taught culinary creator, Chef Ashley decided to take her love of food to the masses by launching her brand that focuses on ways to be "healthyish", simplifying meal time, and dispelling the rumor that delicious food has to have tons of salt and fat. She believes that meal prep isn't just for the super health conscious and that it can help us all to take back the hours stolen by our kitchens. She began her meal prep journey as a way to save time and energy, but ended up finding a calling. |
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