About Us
Welcome to Nourishing Meals®
Hi, I’m Alissa Segersten, MS, CN—whole foods recipe creator, educator, and author. I hold both a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and a Master of Science in Clinical Nutrition and Functional Medicine, and for more than two decades I’ve been helping people reconnect with their health through deeply nourishing food.
Long before Nourishing Meals® existed, I was creating recipes in the kitchen as a child, drawn to the connection between food, healing, and how we feel in our bodies. That early passion eventually led to three books, including Nourishing Meals, The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook, and The Elimination Diet, along with thousands of nutrient-dense recipes designed to support real life, real healing, and lasting transformation.
What began in 2008 as a space to share nourishing whole foods recipes and functional nutrition education has grown into a trusted platform used by individuals, families, and functional medicine practitioners around the world. Every recipe and resource on this site is thoughtfully created to support therapeutic diets, food sensitivities, and whole-body wellness, without sacrificing flavor, joy, or the experience of gathering around food.
Many people arrive here feeling overwhelmed, inflamed, exhausted, or unsure of what to eat anymore. My goal is to help simplify the path forward—to offer practical tools, nourishing meals, and evidence-based guidance that help you feel more grounded, supported, and confident in your daily life.
Inside the platform, you’ll find over 2,000 recipes tagged for more than 70 therapeutic diets and food allergens, customizable meal plans, grocery lists, prep reminders, and educational resources designed to make healthy eating feel more sustainable and approachable in everyday life.
Healing rarely comes through perfection; it grows through the small, nourishing choices we return to each day.
From My Kitchen to Yours
Healing through food can feel deeply empowering—but it can also feel overwhelming at first.
Whether you are beginning an elimination diet, navigating food sensitivities, supporting an autoimmune condition, or simply trying to eat more nourishing meals each week, figuring out what to cook day after day can quickly become exhausting. Add multiple dietary needs within a family, limited time, or the desire to cook more whole foods from scratch, and it becomes clear why so many people feel stuck.
I created Nourishing Meals® to simplify that process.
What began in my own kitchen decades ago as a passion for creating nourishing recipes became a lifelong journey into understanding how food and daily choices shape our health. That journey eventually evolved into Nourishing Meals®—a meal planning platform designed to simplify therapeutic diets and help people create nourishing meals with greater ease and confidence.
Inside the membership platform, you can create personalized meal plans, automatically generate shopping lists, save favorite recipes, and filter over 2,000 recipes across more than 70 therapeutic diets and food allergens. Every tool is designed to reduce decision fatigue, support consistency, and make healthy eating feel more sustainable in everyday life.
For those cooking with whole foods ingredients—soaking grains or legumes, preparing broth, or planning ahead for nutrient-dense meals—the platform also includes meal prep reminders to help bring more ease and rhythm into your kitchen. These small supports can make a profound difference in turning healthy intentions into lasting habits.
My hope is that Nourishing Meals® helps you feel more grounded, more confident, and more nourished—not just through the recipes themselves, but through the daily experience of caring for yourself and the people you love.
Our Mission
Nourishing Meals makes eating for special diets easy and accessible, with meal planning tools and custom recipe searches that allow you to conveniently create healthy meals for your unique diet.
Family-Friendly Healthy Eating!
Just starting a Gluten-Free Diet?
Removing gluten from your diet and your kitchen can be a big step in reclaiming your health. Check out our Gluten-Free Diet page for more information and recipe inspiration. There are still so many foods you CAN eat!
Looking for Elimination Diet recipes?
Search this site for Elimination Diet recipes for Phase 1, 2, and 3! Use the Elimination Diet book to guide you on your journey through the diet, and this website to support you in creating meal plans and cooking new, healing foods!
In need of some meal inspiration?
Search through our Recipe Index for plenty of nourishing, family-friendly recipes! All recipes that are on the blog will be available for anyone to view, however, if you would like access to all of the recipes then consider becoming a member today!
Books
Award-Winning Books for Special Diets.
I am the author of the best-selling cookbooks, The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook: A Complete Nutritional and Cooking Guide for Healthy Living, and Nourishing Meals: 365 Whole Foods, Allergy-Free Recipes for Healing Your Family One Meal at a Time. I am also the co-author of The Elimination Diet, a guidebook with over 125 recipes for reclaiming your health using the power of food.
Services
Functional Nutrition Consultations
Functional Nutrition looks at the root causes of disease and addresses them through dietary changes and supplement protocols. What are your symptoms? How well is your digestive system functioning? What are your health goals? Are there any underlying nutritional deficiencies? Do you have a chronic disease that needs to be addressed? There is no one right diet. We take your symptoms, history, test results, and goals and factor everything into a personalized diet and supplement plan that will be manageable for you. Virtual appointments only right now.
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, and stress levels. If you have a specific health condition and need help figuring out which diet or combination of diets to implement, please set up an appointment and we can create a dietary protocol that is specific to your needs.
Virtual Cooking Classes
Do you have a group of people interested in learning how to cook several nourishing recipes for a specific diet? Utilizing Zoom, I teach classes right from my own kitchen. Participants can cook along with me and learn tips and tricks for creating nourishing, healing meals. We will go over foundational cooking techniques for the specific diet protocol you would like to cover, and give participants PDFs of several recipes. The cooking class involves brief email or phone communication prior to setting the class date to determine which recipes to demonstrate.
Get Nourished
Ready to Begin Creating Nourishing Meals?
Take the guesswork out of what’s for dinner. With Nourishing Meals®, you’ll get access to over 2000 nutrient-dense recipes and fully customizable meal planning tools that adapt to your unique dietary needs. Plan with ease, cook with confidence, and nourish your body—one meal at a time.