Help Me Shape What's Next 💜

I'm reimagining one of your paid membership benefits, and I'd love your feedback before making any changes.

Hi friends,

First, thank you.

Whether you’ve been here since the beginning or recently joined, your paid subscription allows me to continue creating recipes, educational content, and resources for our IBD community. I truly couldn’t do this without you, and I’m so grateful you’ve chosen to support my work.💜

Over the past year or so, I’ve shared a weekly meal plan PDF as part of your membership. It’s a once a month PDF shopping list with a week’s worth of meals to follow. While I genuinely enjoy creating them, I’ve been reflecting on whether they’re the most valuable resource I can provide.

My goal has never been to create content just for the sake of posting something. I want every paid post to be something you’ll save, come back to, and feel excited to open each month.

As both a professionally trained chef and someone living with ulcerative colitis, I have a unique opportunity to share more than recipes. I can teach the techniques, food science, substitutions, kitchen confidence, and practical tips that have helped me navigate cooking with IBD; and I’d love to lean into that even more.

One idea I’ve been considering is replacing the weekly meal plan with a monthly Chef with IBD Kitchen Companion. This would be a resource filled with seasonal inspiration, chef tips, ingredient substitutions, food science, and curated recipe collections that you can use all month long (and even save for future seasons).

Or perhaps you’d find something else even more valuable, like a monthly subscriber Q&A where I answer your cooking and IBD-related questions. Or maybe a featured chef tip or kitchen technique each month, or a seasonal recipe collection centered around themes like easy weeknight dinners, freezer-friendly meals, or holiday favorites.

Rather than guessing what you’d enjoy most, I’d love to hear directly from you so I can create something you’ll want to open every month.

But before I make any changes...

I’d love your input.

What would you be most excited to receive each month?

• 📖 The Chef with IBD Kitchen Companion (seasonal cooking guides/recipe collections, with occasional chef tips, substitutions, and food science)

• 🍽️ Seasonal recipe collections (weeknight dinners, freezer meals, holiday favorites, etc.)

• 👩‍🍳 Culinary techniques & cooking school

• ❓ Monthly subscriber Q&A

• 📝 Keep the weekly meal plans

And if you have another idea that isn’t listed, I’d genuinely love to hear it in the comments. This community has always been about learning from one another, and your feedback truly helps shape what I create.

I’d also love to know:

When you open a paid email from me, what are you hoping to get?

Is it inspiration? Practical cooking tips? Confidence in the kitchen? More recipes? Something else entirely?

There are no wrong answers.

My goal is simple: to make your subscription as helpful, practical, and worthwhile as possible.

Thank you again for being here, for trusting me, and for allowing me to continue building this community. I’m so excited to hear your thoughts and to create something that serves you even better.

With gratitude,

Abigail 💜
The Chef with IBD