Serve this fresh and flavorful low-carb chicken skillet casserole with a garden salad for dinner. This recipe is a great way to use up leftover cooked chicken. You can quickly cook up some chicken thighs or chicken breasts in your Instant Pot if you don't have and pre-cooked chicken on hand.
This soup is a great way to use up your summer garden zucchini! Use a good homemade chicken bone broth if you have it, otherwise water can be used instead. Sliced Thai chili peppers can be used as a garnish, or they can be simmered in the soup during a nightshade/pepper challenge for those of you on an Elimination Diet. The extra spice balances out the creamy coconut flavors perfectly.
Serve this grain-free chocolate cake for a birthday celebration! It is also a great way to make use of overripe bananas. I like to top it with Hu Baking Gems, which are organic dark chocolate chips sweetened with coconut sugar. You can bake this cake in a 9-inch cake pan or 8x8-inch square baking dish. This recipe is a variation of the sugar-free Carob Banana Bars I posted to my blog about 10 years ago.
Serve this easy roasted vegetable dish with grilled steak or chicken and a light green salad for a balanced, nourishing meal. I like to top the vegetables with fresh herbs after roasting. Try parsley, rosemary, thyme, oregano, or basil!
This fresh and flavorful cabbage salad is quite addictive! Napa cabbage is much lighter with a milder flavor compared to green or red cabbage. If you are wanting to consume more raw vegetables, try adding napa cabbage into your diet. Serve this salad with sautéed tempeh, grilled chicken, or grilled steak. If you can't find Thai basil, use sweet basil, holy basil, lemon basil, or purple basil.
Tempura vegetables are made from cut raw vegetables that are dipped in a gluten-free and egg-free garbanzo bean flour batter and then lightly fried in oil. They are a fun appetizer to serve to a gathering of friends and family, and also a wonderful way to use up your garden produce! Serve them with an Indian-themed meal and a spicy cilantro dipping sauce. Use my vegetable combination below or use your own.
Sirloin tip steak is lower in fat and less tender than other cuts of beef, therefore marinating it in something acidic (like vinegar or citrus) before cooking will begin to tenderize the meat fibers. You can cook the steaks on a grill, or use a cast iron grill pan on your stove to sear it on both sides and then broil for a few minutes on high in the oven. The trick to keeping it tender is to cook it only to medium-rare or medium doneness.
Matcha powder is an antioxidant-rich green tea powder that can be added to smoothies, ice cream, or made into a delicious hot drink with hot water and dairy-free milk. There are many different grades of matcha powder available, and I have tried them all. The cheaper varieties will be bitter and a darker greenish-brown color, while the higher quality grades will be bright green and sweeter. Look for ceremonial grade matcha or latte grade; it should say "1st harvest" somewhere on the package. This is the brand I use.
Soaking buckwheat groats overnight in cultured buttermilk not only yields a light and fluffy pancake, but it also breaks down the phytic acid in the buckwheat, allowing for better nutrient absorption. Buckwheat actually contains some of the lowest levels of phytic acid compared to other grains and pseudo-grains, and it also contains high levels of phytase, the enzyme that breaks down phytic acid. Phytase "wakes up" when a grain is soaked. Serve these nutrient-dense pancakes with extra blueberries and a cup of herbal tea for an energizing breakfast.
Nourishing Meals® combines whole-foods recipes, personalized meal planning, and functional nutrition education to turn your dietary needs into meals you love. Whether you're navigating food sensitivities, following a therapeutic diet, or feeding a family with different needs, we make deciding what to cook easier so you can bring food to the table with confidence.
Memberships include over 2,000 recipes, filters for more than 70 therapeutic diets and food allergens, customizable meal plans, automatic grocery lists, a community forum, and a whole-food ingredient library.
Nourishing Meals® makes eating for your unique dietary needs simpler, more nourishing, and more enjoyable—through whole-foods recipes, practical nutrition education, and personalized meal-planning tools.
A family business, built around the table.
Nourishing Meals® is a family business rooted in a shared love of cooking and health. Founder Alissa Segersten works alongside her daughters, Grace and Lily Malterre, whose upbringing with whole foods and home-cooked meals inspired their own love of everyday cooking and an appreciation for how food supports health.
As a business led by women, we bring our different strengths to helping you nourish yourself and the people you love—creating recipes, resources, and practical tools that make cooking for your unique dietary needs feel more approachable.
I created Nourishing Meals® to help people turn their unique dietary needs into nourishing, everyday meals. What began with a love of cooking grew into decades of studying nutrition, writing cookbooks, and helping families discover that eating for their health can be both practical and enjoyable.
I've been cooking and creating recipes since I was ten years old. That early love of food grew into a lifelong passion for nutrition as my own experiences deepened my understanding of how food supports our health.
In college in the late 1990s, I struggled with severe digestive issues and IBS. Searching for answers drew me into nutrition and gut health, beginning a path that would shape both my education and my life's work.
“I know how draining symptoms can become, and how much it matters to have support as you figure out what works for your body.”
After earning my Bachelor of Science in Nutrition from Bastyr University in 2003, I began working as a personal chef in Seattle, Washington, in 2004. Preparing nourishing meals for others helped me bring nutrition into everyday practice. The following year, I began writing The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook, bringing together my love of whole foods cooking and the practical knowledge I wanted to share.
When my second daughter, Grace, reacted to gluten as a young toddler, it deepened my inspiration to develop gluten-free recipes and my understanding of what it takes to create a gluten-free household. I wanted meals made with whole food ingredients and satisfying flavors that everyone at the table could enjoy. Cooking for my own family taught me how much the small, practical details matter when making dietary changes part of everyday life.
“Developing recipes has always been about helping people enjoy the foods and traditions they love while honoring their dietary needs.”
My writing eventually expanded to include Nourishing Meals and, as co-author, The Elimination Diet. Together with The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook, these books brought nutrition education into the daily practice of preparing food. Building on my bachelor's degree in nutrition, I later earned a master's in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine, deepening the science behind the recipes and education I share.
Alongside the books, an online community was taking shape. In 2008, I began sharing recipes and nutrition education through Nourishing Meals®. As the community grew, readers began asking a question that recipes alone left open. How could they find meals that worked for all their dietary needs at once?
Someone might need meals without gluten, eggs, almonds, or tomatoes while also considering a partner's preferences or a child's food sensitivities. I understood how much time could go into finding a recipe before the cooking even began.
Those conversations inspired us to begin developing the membership platform in 2018. We brought our recipes together with detailed dietary filters so you could find meals that fit your needs, then organize them into meal plans with automatic grocery lists. The goal was to make the space between knowing what to eat and getting dinner on the table easier to navigate.
We designed that flexibility to support you as your needs change, too. During elimination diet reintroductions, for example, you can search for recipes that include the food you're adding back while continuing to exclude the foods you're avoiding.
Cooking with whole foods often begins before it's time to make dinner. Beans may need soaking, broth needs time to simmer, and preparing a few staples can make the rest of the week easier. Meal prep reminders grew from those everyday needs, helping you remember the steps that make a planned meal possible.
We also wanted meal planning to reflect how people actually cook. Some weeks, you want to choose every recipe yourself. Other weeks, you need help putting a plan together or finding a meal that uses what's already in your refrigerator. Bringing your own family recipes together with ours, saving plans you want to use again, and organizing ingredients into a shopping list all help you build a routine that works for your life.
Understanding your food is part of that confidence. Our ingredient library connects nutrition education with practical guidance on choosing, storing, and cooking whole foods. Our nutrient library explores how nutrients work in your body, while detailed recipe nutrition information helps you see what your meals provide. Together, these resources help you make informed choices about the foods you prepare.
Having people to learn alongside matters, too. Our community forum offers a place to ask questions, share what you're cooking, and celebrate the changes taking shape in your kitchen and your life.
The family kitchen that inspired so much of this work also helped shape my daughters' love of food. Today, Grace and Lily bring their own creativity, experiences, and perspectives to Nourishing Meals®, continuing the work that began around our family table.
Together, we share a belief that nourishing food should be accessible, enjoyable, and adaptable to the needs of each person and family.
Our hope is that you find more than recipes here. We want you to feel supported as you learn what works for your body, build confidence in your kitchen, and make nourishing meals a lasting part of your life.
Alissa Segersten, MS, CN, is the Founder and CEO of Nourishing Meals®, leading the company’s vision, nutrition education, and development of personalized meal-planning tools. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition from Bastyr University and a Master of Science in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine from the University of Western States. A functional nutritionist, whole foods cooking instructor, professional recipe developer, food photographer, and mother of five, she brings scientific expertise and decades of practical experience to helping individuals and families eat well. Alissa is the author of The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook and Nourishing Meals, and co-author of The Elimination Diet. She translates nutrition science into practical guidance, helping individuals and families confidently prepare meals for their unique dietary needs.
Grace Malterre brings experience in business management and event coordination to her role as Operations and Member Support Manager at Nourishing Meals®. She oversees daily operations, supports members, manages social media, moderates the community forum, and develops recipes. Her natural ability to connect with people is supported by strong organization, attentive listening, and thoughtful follow-through. Grace grew up in a family where cooking from scratch and sharing a wide variety of nourishing whole foods were part of daily life. She draws inspiration for her recipes from the meals she prepares for herself every day. She is passionate about helping others make simple, satisfying meals a realistic part of their daily routine and creating a welcoming community where members feel heard, connected, and supported.
Lily Malterre is a recipe developer at Nourishing Meals®, bringing immense creativity and an intuitive understanding of flavor to whole foods cooking. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a minor in Environmental Studies from Western Washington University. Through her work preparing farm-to-table meals for large catered events, she combines fresh ingredients into deeply flavorful dishes. She also works in social services, managing support for adults with developmental disabilities and teaching cooking, meal planning, and grocery shopping. Lily began creating recipes at eight and wrote and photographed her first digital cookbook at fourteen. Her recipe, Lily’s Lemongrass Soup, appears in The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook. She is passionate about making nourishing meals approachable for busy lives.
Alissa is the author of the best-selling cookbooks Nourishing Meals and The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook, and co-author of The Elimination Diet.
Nourishing Meals® was founded on the premise that food is medicine. We understand that food is the foundation of vitality, and our recipes are crafted to help you crave the nourishing foods that keep you feeling your best.
Our meal planning system is designed to support you on your health journey. Find a diet that will nourish you. Choose recipes to support yourself in the process. Plan your meals so you stay on track. Shop for only what you need to save money.
“Consistency creates change—real healing comes from showing up for yourself, one nourishing choice at a time.”
Whether you’re cooking for yourself, feeding a family with different dietary needs, or following a therapeutic diet, you deserve meals that nourish you and bring enjoyment to your table. Our recipes span a wide range of diets, from vegan to paleo, with flexible tools to help you find what works for your household.
You don’t have to figure it all out at once. We’re here to help you build confidence in your kitchen, find meals you love, and make eating for your health feel both manageable and deeply nourishing.
Discover the variety of whole foods you can enjoy while eating gluten-free. Explore our Gluten-Free Diet page for practical guidance and flavorful recipes that help you adapt familiar favorites, plan everyday meals, and feel confident in your kitchen.
Finding the right approach begins with understanding your options. Explore our guide to elimination diets to learn how different plans address different dietary needs and health goals, with nourishing recipes and practical tools to help you put your plan into practice.
Find fresh ideas for nourishing breakfasts, simple lunches, and satisfying family dinners. Explore the free recipes on our blog, or become a member for access to our full recipe collection and personalized meal planning tools that support your unique dietary needs.
Join Nourishing Meals® today to get access to over 2000 nutrient-dense member-only recipes and our easy-to-use meal planning tools. Get inspired to cook again and take control of your health using the power of real food! Add meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, or use our system to only plan your evening meals. It is completely customizable to your unique needs!
Although this recipe may look complicated with its long list of ingredients, it is actually very easy to throw together for lunch or dinner. If you don't have millet, use quinoa or brown rice instead. I have many different varieties of basil growing in my gardens, so today I added fresh lemon basil to brighten the flavors even more! My children love this millet salad; it is perfect for school lunches or packed in a cooler for a trip to the beach.
Serve this easy and flavorful elimination diet meal with sliced avocados and a green salad! Other vegetables can be used, but they need to be able to cook thoroughly in the short cooking time.
Soaking raw pumpkin seeds for a few hours can create a delicious and nutrient-dense creamy salad dressing that pairs well with a fresh lettuce and vegetable salad. Use whatever varieties of fresh basil you have growing in your garden. Holy basil, lemon basil, sweet basil, and purple basil all work well!
Chicken cacciatore is a classic Italian dish that can be made with whatever vegetables you have on hand. It is typically made with either chicken or rabbit. The long simmering and acid from the tomatoes and wine produces extremely tender meat. It can be serve with cooked rice, polenta, or pasta. It is also delicious served with roasted cauliflower for a low-carb, grain-free option.
This comforting vegan chickpea curry is both grounding and detox-supportive—perfect for a fall or winter meal. Chickpeas provide prebiotic fiber to nourish beneficial gut bacteria and support healthy elimination, while sweet potatoes offer beta-carotene to strengthen gut lining integrity and immune function. Warming spices like ginger, turmeric, and cumin enhance digestion, circulation, and liver detoxification, and the coconut milk provides healthy fats to boost nutrient absorption. Add zucchini, cauliflower, or broccoli for extra fiber and nutrients.
If you are following a keto diet, having high-fat and low-carb snacks already made really helps curb cravings and stick with the diet. These tasty fat bombs can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months!
Enjoy this tropical green smoothie recipe from Hawaii! The local flavors really come through. Our kids love this recipe!
This easy and kid-friendly meal can easily be prepared on busy weeknights when you don't have a lot of time to cook. I like to use extra lean grass-fed ground beef here because there isn't a chance to drain the fat off after cooking the beef. Leave the cheese off if you are dairy-free! Serve with a simple cabbage and cilantro salad with sliced avocados on the side.
I grow a large variety of hot chili peppers in my garden every year. Poblano peppers are easy to grow and they're mildly spicy. They are delicious roasted, added to soups, stews, egg-vegetable scrambles, and stuffed! Serve these paleo stuffed peppers with my dairy-free avocado crema sauce and an arugula salad.
Could the toast you ate for breakfast bring on your afternoon headache? Could the milk in your coffee cause joint pain and brain fog? Could your healthy tofu stir-fry slow your metabolism? Yes—there is an age-old, powerful connection between what you eat and how you feel. Just as no two bodies are the same, no two diets work for everyone. The only way to discover your ideal diet is to follow an Elimination Diet that will help you link foods to symptoms and customize a diet that works for you.
An Elimination Diet is a powerful tool to get to the root of most diseases and disorders. Why? Because most disease begins in the gut. The gut has the highest concentration of immune cells, and the most common thing that the immune cells will react to is food.
If you are experiencing these symptoms then it’s time for an Elimination Diet:
Recipes
Over a typical lifetime, the average person will consume 25 tons of foreign matter through their mouths. This food will pass down their “inner tube of life” otherwise known as the gastrointestinal tract. The cells that line this tube are specifically designed to keep out potentially dangerous food particles and bacteria. Just in case this barrier fails, our body puts over 70% of our entire immune cells directly on the other side of the barrier to neutralize any harmful food proteins or bacteria that make it through. But this system is rarely without its problems. Stress, toxins, bacterial overgrowth, medications, and even the foods themselves can easily damage the cells of the intestinal wall allowing for food particles to come in contact with the multitude of immune cells that reside there. The result is inflammation.
Odds are that foods you are eating every day are leaving you sick and tired. How do you find out which ones? The Elimination Diet. This foundational tool of Functional Medicine has been used for centuries to discover which foods are making you ill and which ones can make you feel incredible.
An elimination diet is a simple experiment that helps you to discover which foods may be causing problems and which foods are not. An elimination diet is a simple process of removing all potentially problematic foods from your diet until your symptoms subside—usually a few weeks. Then you slowly reintroduce foods back into your diet, one by one, to see which ones bring your symptoms back. By finding the foods that are behind your suffering, you can completely turn your health around and elevate your quality of life.
Nutrition & Special Diet Meal Planning Consultations
Are you confused about what the perfect diet is? Paleo? Vegan? Mediterranean? Vegetarian? Gluten-Free?
There is no perfect diet! We each have our own unique dietary needs based upon many factors. Our diets need to be fluid and flexible, and able to evolve with our changing lifestyle needs such as pregnancy, breastfeeding, environmental exposures, health conditions, stress levels, and the seasons.
I can help you create a healing diet that will work for you. I coach clients via phone consultations, online video Zoom meetings, and in person.
Private Cooking Instruction
I am available for local private cooking instruction in your kitchen. Did you recently get prescribed a certain diet by your health care provider and don't know how to implement it? Let me help you learn how to cook new recipes and shop for new ingredients. I can help you come up with a meal plan that you feel good about.
Virtual Cooking Coaching
Do you need help learning how to cook some staple, nourishing recipes specific to your dietary requirements but live 1000 miles away? I can still help you with my virtual cooking coaching using Skype or Zoom right from my kitchen!
This crunchy chocolate grain-free and egg-free cut-out cookie recipe is fun to make for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Valentine's Day! Use my Cashew-Honey Icing to frost them, or drizzle with melted dark chocolate chips!
Cobb salads are typically made with crumbled blue cheese, but my dairy-free version is just as good! Serve this flavorful salad for lunch or a weekend brunch. Hard boiled eggs can be prepped ahead of time and stored in the fridge until you are ready to serve the salad.
These gluten-free and vegan apple pie bars make a great nutritious after-school snack for your children or a delicious kid-friendly holiday dessert! Walnuts and oats are rich in antioxidants, and oats are an excellent source of beta-glucans (a soluble fiber that feeds beneficial bacteria in the gut)! It is important to use a soft baking apple in these bars so they cook properly during the baking time!
Serve this easy plant-based meal on a busy weeknight! Tempeh is a naturally fermented soybean product that can be found in the refrigerated section of your local health food store. It is high in plant-based protein and easy to digest. I like to serve Thai food with extra fresh red Thai chili peppers, fresh cilantro, and Thai basil or purple mountain basil.
A galette is a freeform French pastry made from a single pie crust and filled with fruit, sugar, and butter. I am using a small amount of maple sugar here to allow the sweetness and flavors of the plums to shine through. It is important to roll your gluten-free and egg-free pastry crust on parchment paper and then transfer it to a cookie sheet before adding the filling ingredients.
Serve this easy and nourishing ground beef stew on a busy weeknight. If your diet allows for white rice, then try serving each bowl with a scoop of either cooked jasmine or basmati rice. Homemade Beef Bone Broth works best here, but if you don't have any on hand try chicken stock instead.
Steamed vegetables make a great side dish to a weeknight meal. Serve steamed vegetables with roasted chicken or baked salmon and winter squash for a nourishing meal.
This easy pasta salad makes a great meal prep recipe for school lunches! Other ingredients can also be added, such as sliced kalamata or black olives, cherry tomatoes, and cooked navy beans. If you have fresh basil on hand, try adding a large handful of that as well!
This flavorful North Indian style curry is very easy to make, and if you make it in your Instant Pot you can cut the cooking time down tremendously! Serve with basmati rice, or riced cauliflower if you are on a grain-free diet, and a raw chutney for an easy, nourishing weeknight meal. For faster meal prep, use an 18-ounce glass jar of organic diced tomatoes! Jovial is the brand I use.
Serve these nutrient-dense breakfast sausages on a busy morning. The patties can be made ahead of time and stored on a covered plate in your fridge for a few days. Serve on a bed of greens with some sliced oranges or concord grapes.
When you have hungry teenagers who need calorically dense meals, try this recipe! It can be made on a weekend and then reheated throughout the week for breakfast on school mornings. Look for uncooked, ground pork breakfast sausage from your local health food store. Regular ground pork can also be used, but you'll need to add some extra salt, pepper, and seasonings.
This antioxidant-rich, anti-inflammatory soup makes a great lunch. Stir in cooked shredded chicken for extra protein. Fresh turmeric can be found in the produce section of your local health food store, usually near the fresh ginger.
Though this recipe requires some time for the chicken to marinate, it is very easy to put together for a weeknight meal. Leftovers are delicious the next day tossed with some baby arugula, along with a squeeze of lemon and a drizzle of olive oil. Serve this low-FODMAP recipe with steamed green beans or kale for a balanced fall meal.
Shepherd’s Pie is traditionally made with ground lamb, vegetables, and a mashed potato topping. My version works well for the Elimination Diet, as well as other diets such as a Nightshade-Free Diet (no potatoes or tomatoes in this recipe) and the Low-Histamine Diet. Use a Homemade Chicken Stock for best results!
Enjoy these nutrient-dense muffins in Autumn when pumpkins and other squash are in season. Feel free to use canned pumpkin or your own Homemade Pumpkin Purée. These gluten-free and dairy-free muffins make a fun treat for a Halloween gathering!
Here is an easy and nourishing anti-inflammatory soup to enjoy when the weather begins to get cooler. You can add some cooked garbanzo beans or leftover cooked chicken to increase the protein content if you would like. This soup makes a wonderful lunch or light dinner!
Serve this flavorful stew over cooked brown jasmine rice with a dollop of plain yogurt on top. Replace the squash with potatoes or yams if desired! You can also omit the chickpeas and serve this stew as a Thanksgiving side dish!
This easy Instant Pot black bean soup can be made in minutes! You just need to be sure to soak your dry beans the day before!
Noodle and vegetable stir-fries are easy to prepare for busy weeknight dinners. Many different vegetables can be added, such as thinly sliced green cabbage, chopped bok choy, chopped celery, and chopped zucchini. I have added cooked mung beans to this stir-fry for a source of easily digested soy-free plant-based protein. The sauce here is soy-free as well, however, if you are fine with soy products then replace the coconut aminos with an equal amount of wheat-free tamari.
Roasting a whole chicken for dinner is one of the easiest meals you can make. Leftover roasted chicken can then be used the following days for salads, soups, or grain bowls. The leftover bones and skin can be used to make a delicious bone broth. Serve roasted chicken and potatoes with steamed kale or green beans for an easy, nourishing family meal.
