Recipes for an Aching Heart - Healthy & Easy Meals to Help You Heal from Grief, Loss, or the Stress of Everyday Life

Have you ever been in a period of life where normal, everyday responsibilities feel overwhelming? Where even getting out of bed in the morning is a feat, let alone making a meal for yourself and your family? If so, this book is for you.
This might be a time of break-up, loss, when you’re caring for a sick loved one, or simply when a confluence of life factors that make you feel like you’re paddling to stay above water. For Chef Laura Lea, this debilitating season showed up unwelcomely after going through divorce.
Five years into her business as a holistic chef, she was under daily pressure to display healthy routines and keep up appearances. But reality left her with no appetite and lacking the motivation to even step into the kitchen.
In attempt to cope she found herself relying on fast-food, junky snacks, and lots of wine. Ultimately these choices hindered the process of healing from divorce. Instead, they contributed to her overall feelings of sadness, self-loathing, and exhaustion. She needed a way out.
Drawing upon her decade in the wellness industry and exploration into the science of grief, Laura Lea began cooking her way through the fog. In Recipes for an Aching Heart, Laura Lea presents the recipes she created, as well as the lifestyle and fitness choices that aided her on her journey out of heartache. By following Laura Lea's story, simple recipes, and advice, you can navigate your own way out of heartache and into a healthier place than ever before.

List of contents

1-2 Servings (Breakfast/lunch/dinner)

1. 3-Minute Nutella Oats
   
2. Raspberry Sorbet Bowl
   
3. High School Yogurt Bowl
   
4. Apple Pie Zoats
   
5. Best Grilled Cheese
   
6. 5-Ingredient Miso Drop Soup
   
7. Avocado, Egg & Feta Bowl
   
8.  Microwave Birthday Cake Sweet Potato
   
9. Chick-fil-A Air Fryer Bowl
   
10. Asian Tuna Salad Boats
    
11. Creamy Lemony Carbonara
    
12. Crispy Broccoli Cheddar Tacos
    
13. Air Fryer Salmon & Greek Salad
    
14. Chicken Caesar Wrap
    
15. Personal Pan Pizza
    
16. 1-Minute Nutella Mug Cake
    
17. Bananas Foster Split
    
18. Chocolate Chip Cookie
    
19. Blueberry Crumble
    
20. Strawberry Milkshake
    

Beverages:

PB Banana (& Cauli!) Smoothie

Berry Good Smoothie Bowl

Mocha Banana Milk 

Orange Julius

2-Ingredient Green Smoothie 

Mint Ginger Latte

Speckled Lemonade

Multi-Serving Breakfast:

Blueberry Oat Waffles

Lazy Hollandaise Breakfast

Pre-portioned Freezer Steel Cut Oats

Strawberry Almond Oat Cookies

Italian Egg Cups 

Chocolate Chip & Walnut Zucchini Muffins

Sausage, Mushroom & Swiss Frittata 

3-Ingredient Honey Biscuits

Poultry:

Rotisserie Chicken Brunswick Stew 

Sweet & Sour Chicken 

Southwestern Chicken Salad 

Air Fryer Spicy Chicken Sammies

Turkey Enchiladas with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce 

Sesame Crusted Chicken & Wilted Spinach Salads 

Instant Pot/Crockpot BBQ Chicken Thighs

Greek Lemony Chicken & Rice Soup 

Red Meat:

Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie 

Instant Pot/Crockpot Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Couscous 

Sausage, Pepper & Kale Skillet 

Green Onion Pesto, Ham & Cheese Muffin Melts 

Hidden Zucchini Lasagna Helper

Instant Pot/Crockpot Ribs

Pumpkin & Chorizo Stuffed Shells

Seafood:

Tuscan Butter Salmon 

Quick Tuna & Air-Fried Artichoke Salad

Blackened Mahi Mahi Sandwiches with Creamy Cilantro Sauce

20-Minute Shrimp Fried Rice 

Dairy-Free Chesapeake Crab Dip

Dairy-Free Shrimp & Spaghetti Squash Alfredo

Veggie:

Tempeh Sloppy Joe Bell Peppers

Fiesta Salad Kits with BBQ Ranch

Sesame Tofu, Eggplant & Coconut Rice Bowls 

Charred Gazpacho with Garlic Bread

Carrot, Ginger & Turmeric Soup

Sweet Potato Tomato Soup

Mediterranean Hummus Casserole

4 Cheese Baked Mac

Plantain Nachos with Pineapple Salsa 

Avocado Rice Comfort Bowl

Sides:

Spinach & Fontina Orzo

Cinnamon Butter-Nut Roasted Squash                                        

Air Fryer Buffalo Cauliflower Bites

Avocado Caprese Boats      

Sweet Chili Roasted Green Beans

Strawberry Cucumber & Goat Cheese Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

 Air Fryer Worcestershire Parmesan Broccoli

Asian Caesar Salad

Bacon Jalapeno Creamed Corn

Smoky Roasted Potatoes

Dessert:

Cinnamon Vanilla Rice Pudding

Chocolate Blender Mousse 

Iced Cashew Cookie & Raisin Bites  

Camp Cookies

Raspberry and Cream Bars

Edible Cookie Dough

Cool Whip Dips

Mini Coffee Cakes

Graham Cracker Sammies

4-Ingredient Snickers Bars 

Peanut Butter Banana Bread Pudding

Canadian Blondies

About the author

Laura Lea is a certified holistic chef, with a decade of experience in the wellness industry living in Nashville, Tennessee. She is the author of two previous cookbooks, The Laura Lea Balanced Cookbook and Simply Laura Lea, and she has taught cooking classes in-person and virtually to hundreds of students. Recently, Laura Lea has shifted her business to reflect the direction of this third book, Recipes for an Aching Heart. She has combined her years of health knowledge with theories of grief, romantic rejection and love addiction to create a revolutionary process for healing from breakups. If you’d like to learn more about Laura Lea’s courses, ebooks and private consulting, you can head to her website, llbalanced.com.

Summary

Have you ever been in a period of life where normal, everyday responsibilities feel overwhelming? Where even getting out of bed in the morning is a feat, let alone making a meal for yourself and your family? If so, this book is for you.
This might be a time of break-up, loss, when you’re caring for a sick loved one, or simply when a confluence of life factors that make you feel like you’re paddling to stay above water. For Chef Laura Lea, this debilitating season showed up unwelcomely after going through divorce.
Five years into her business as a holistic chef, she was under daily pressure to display healthy routines and keep up appearances. But reality left her with no appetite and lacking the motivation to even step into the kitchen.
In attempt to cope she found herself relying on fast-food, junky snacks, and lots of wine. Ultimately these choices hindered the process of healing from divorce. Instead, they contributed to her overall feelings of sadness, self-loathing, and exhaustion. She needed a way out.
Drawing upon her decade in the wellness industry and exploration into the science of grief, Laura Lea began cooking her way through the fog. In Recipes for an Aching Heart, Laura Lea presents the recipes she created, as well as the lifestyle and fitness choices that aided her on her journey out of heartache. By following Laura Lea's story, simple recipes, and advice, you can navigate your own way out of heartache and into a healthier place than ever before.

Foreword

The author has rebranded her own web and social media presence to promote cooking and healthy eating as a path toward healing during times of grief. 

Book tour events across 5+ cities including New York, Nashville, Charlottesville, Birmingham & Atlanta.

The author is working with her own marketing team to promote this book across all platforms and especially via social media, where it will be pushed by key influencers in the health, wellness, and cooking communities, as well as new markets in dating and relationships. 

Targeted review copy mailing and pitching to national epicurean magazines, including Bon Appetit (circ. 1,520,000), Cooking Light (circ. 1,800,000), Food & Wine (circ. 800,000) Fine Cooking (circ. 250,000), Vegetarian Times (circ. 155,000), Saveur (circ. 150,000), Food Network Magazine (circ. 1,750,000), and Every Day with Rachel Ray (circ. 1,720,000)

Targeted review copy mailing to national lifestyle magazines, including Organic Life, Naturally, Eating Well , Real Simple, (circ. 2,000,000), Martha Stewart Living (circ. 2,100,000 ), Country Living  (circ. 1,620,000), Southern Living (circ. 2,800,000), and Garden & Gun (circ. 250,000).

Targeted review copy mailing to Healthy Living magazines, including Health (circ. 1,368,000), Paleo (circ. 100,000), Better Nutrition (circ. 200,000), Oxygen (circ. 300,000), Naturally Savvy (circ. 100,000), Clean Eating (circ. 225,000), and VegNews (circ. 240,000)

Targeted review copy mailing and pitching to Women’s magazines, including Self (circ. 1,495,000), Women?s Health (circ.1,540,000), Shape (circ. 1,630,000), Redbook (circ. 2,200,000 ), Marie Claire  (circ.), Good Housekeeping (circ.4,300,000), Better Homes & Gardens  (circ. 7,600,000), Woman's Day (circ. 3,300,000) Family Circle (circ. 4,100,000), Glamour (circ. 2,300,000), and Cosmopolitan (circ. 3,000,000).

Large pre-sales and ongoing promotion to the author’s 106,000 Instagram followers

Social media promotion through LLBalanced Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest accounts.

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Product details

• Authors: Laura Lea
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 25.07.2023
• EAN: 9781951217464
• ISBN: 978-1-951217-46-4
• No. of pages: 204
• Dimensions: 203 mm x 254 mm x 16 mm
• Illustrations: 4-color photography
• Series: Laura Lea Balanced
• Subjects: Guides > Food & drink > Theme cookery books; Humanities, art, music > History; COOKING / Methods / Quick & Easy, COOKING / Specific Ingredients / Natural Foods, COOKING / Comfort Food, Comfort food and food nostalgia, COOKING / Methods / Cooking for One