For Nicki Sizemore, cooking dinner didn’t always feel nourishing. Despite years of professional experience as a culinary educator and cookbook author, the Cold Spring resident found herself increasingly stressed at mealtime, especially while juggling work and family life. “Making dinner felt like a race and I was the out-of-shape jogger gasping to keep up,” Sizemore writes in Mind, Body, Spirit, Food: Adaptable Recipes and Grounding Meditations for Preparing Meals with Joy and Intention, her new cookbook from Storey Publishing. Over time, that pressure took a toll not only on her enjoyment of cooking but on her health as well.
Those experiences form the emotional backbone of Mind, Body, Spirit, Food, which goes on sale January 13. Rather than presenting cooking as a performance or a problem to be solved, the book reframes the kitchen as a place where ease, presence, and self-care are possible—even on busy weeknights.
At the heart of the book is what Sizemore calls “intentional cooking,” a practice rooted in mindfulness rather than rules. Drawing on her longtime meditation practice, she encourages home cooks to slow down, take a few grounding breaths, and engage their senses before and during the act of cooking. Each recipe is paired with a short intention—simple prompts that invite attention to texture, aroma, and feeling—without demanding perfection or calm at all times. Sizemore is clear that real life still happens in the kitchen: kids complain, food burns, evenings feel rushed. The practice is flexible by design.
That flexibility is also built into the recipes themselves. Every dish includes at least two variations, offering different flavor paths or ingredient swaps that encourage creativity and responsiveness rather than strict adherence. A one-pot whole chicken can take on French or Moroccan notes; granola clusters can skew peanut-chocolate or fruit-and-nut; a sheet-pan panzanella adapts easily to the season. All of the recipes are gluten-free, reflecting Sizemore’s own needs, but they’re written to appeal broadly, without signaling restriction or dietary dogma.
The food itself is comforting and contemporary, leaning toward streamlined techniques and bold, accessible flavors. Dishes like tahini chili crisp noodle bowls, crispy sushi rice bake, socca “pizza,” and wintery salads and stews emphasize practicality without feeling utilitarian. Sheet pans, single pots, and adaptable sauces appear throughout, reinforcing the book’s message that cooking well doesn’t require exhaustion.
Beyond the pages of the cookbook, Sizemore continues these conversations in her Substack newsletter, Mind Body Spirit Food, where she shares seasonal recipes, reflections on mindful eating, and insights into building a more intuitive relationship with food. The newsletter functions as an ongoing extension of the book’s ethos—a place where intention, adaptability, and everyday cooking intersect in real time.
Taken together, Mind, Body, Spirit, Food makes a case for changing how we approach the daily task of feeding ourselves. Sizemore invites readers to bring a little more awareness—and a little less pressure—into the kitchen, trusting that nourishment can come from both the food on the plate and the way it’s prepared.
