About Me

When I was about 8 years old, my mom let me melt the butter and cheese for boxed macaroni without supervision. I failed. The cheese was burnt because I didn't turn off the stove burner, and we had to steal a packet from another box and redo it.
From this point on, I put a stronger focus on actually reading recipes and following instructions. Not long after this event, I found a biscuit recipe in our elementary textbook and made a delicious batch of biscuits, and the tips that I learned from that recipe page are still with me today.

My family has got to be my biggest motivation, and while that may sound like a cliche, it's true. I've got two kids constantly asking me if I made recipes today or if I plan on making recipes soon.
I also have an incredibly supportive husband who will literally drop everything to be there for me, whether it's being a hand model for my photos, running to the store for an ingredient I need, being the shoulder to cry on when I'm stressed, or telling me to put the computer down and take a break. My family is my biggest support team and motivates me to try harder and do better.

I knew for 2 years that I wanted to start a food blog, before actually doing it, and during that time, I couldn't think of any names, logos, color schemes, etc. Then, literally overnight, I had a dream where it all came to me.
Someone had posted online the night before saying how they were so broke they could only afford to eat cereal for dinner, and that really stuck with me. I wanted to share cheap recipes with everyone so that nobody felt as though they needed to eat cereal for dinner (unless they wanted to because cereal is delicious).
Within hours, I had everything planned from the site name to the logo, color scheme etc. I had even drafted an example logo on the computer for reference too! I wanted to share affordable recipes beyond just cereal, or rather, Beeyond Cereal.

My inspiration comes from everywhere. I can see a keyword somewhere and instantly envision what it'd look like when done. I can try a food or see something and think, "Wow, you know what could make that better?"
Or sometimes (and most often) I create a recipe out of thin air because we have limited ingredients or time before dinner, and something needs to get on the table. I find that this comes to me naturally because I can mix flavors and textures in my mind before putting them together in real life, so my "creative recipes" are often the best received by my family.
When these recipes are truly good enough, I recreate them from memory, measuring and taking notes as I go, until they're finally re-creatable and blog-worthy.

We eat it, of course! Every meal or recipe I share on this site is something that my family has eaten (multiple times). Dinners, desserts, and everything in between. Leftover meals are either repurposed into new meals or warmed up and eaten as-is.
Sometimes I gift cookies and banana bread to relatives to help save us from eating them all.

I am always open to the possibility and opportunity to work with brands that would be a good fit.

Some of my favorite hobbies include watching TV with my husband. I love watching One Piece, Doctor Who, Friends, Gilmore Girls, Indiana Jones, Stardust, and The Princess Bride. When I'm not working on this blog, I might be busy doing technical stuff on my sister's crochet blog (TheCaffeinatedSnail.com).
When I take a break from technology, you'll likely find me engaged in activities like crocheting, reading novels, baking sourdough bread, or updating our family's financial spreadsheet. I love to stay organized and busy.