Welcome to Anya’s Cookbook!
I am so glad you’re here, and I’m so excited to tell you a little about myself, my journey, and this blog!
I’m Anya – the recipe developer, writer, and photographer behind Anya’s Cookbook. This is a place where I hope to inspire you with easy to make and delicious recipes, meal planning ideas, and cooking tips and resources that will help you put a delicious and wholesome meal on the table stress-free! All the recipes that I share are our favorites, and I know you’ll love them, too!
I live in Eastern North Carolina with my husband, Caleb, and our sweet baby girl, Svetlana. When I’m not cooking, I love being a homemaker, spending time with my family, going on walks, painting, reading, singing, and doing outdoorsy activities (like snowboarding) when I get the chance.
Life gets extremely busy, and cooking a healthy meal can be a real challenge. With so much going on, it’s so easy to eat out last minute, spend extra money on unhealthy foods, and not get enough nutrients in our diets. With long hours at work, a tiny baby, and endless errands, I completely understand. After plenty of trial and error, I’ve learned so much that I want to share with you to make your meal time easy, enjoyable, and nourishing for your family!
More about me
I’d love to tell you a little more about my journey and what I’ve done up until now.
I grew up in Russia, where I watched my mom cook every day. She made yummy Russian foods like blini, grechka, torte napoleon, and pelmeni. I knew I wanted to learn and master these recipes someday and I was inspired from a young age!
We moved to North Carolina right around the time I turned 10, and I quickly grew to love it here. I started dating my (now) husband during my senior year of high school when I was 17. We are high school sweethearts and it has been such an incredible blessing to find my soulmate so early in life!
My husband and I both went to NC State, where I studied economics and he studied aerospace engineering. When I graduated NC State, I began working as a financial analyst at an investment bank. As much as I enjoyed my work there, the kitchen was where I could pour all my creativity and passion. Cooking a delicious meal for family and friends, creating new recipes from scratch, and sharing what I’ve learned with others brings me so much joy!
About a year and a half after me any my husband got married, our sweet little daughter was born. Her name is Svetlana, which means light or pure in Russian. She just turned a year old and we have been loving watching the world through her eyes, learning alongside her, and enjoying every new milestone.
I discovered the challenges of meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking when you don’t have any time after I got married, and even more so when our daughter was born. At that point the struggle was real: everything seems SO expensive, the cooking takes hours upon hours, the dishes and clean up are endless, and we seem to run out of food faster than I can make it! After much trial and error, I figured out tons of grocery shopping money saving strategies, tons of fast and healthy meal ideas, life saving tricks to keeping daily clean up at a minimum, and how to ensure we are always stocked up with healthy snacks and emergency freezer meals. I will be sharing ALL of these things – and more – with you here.
Keeping in touch
It’s so easy to keep in touch! Start by subscribing to my email list, where I send out blog recipes, cooking tips, news and lots of fun stuff – free and straight to your inbox! Just fill out the form below:
I am also on Instagram , Pinterest, and Facebook regularly, so click the links above to connect with me there 🙂 As always, feel free to email me with any questions at anya@anyascookbook.com, or post a comment on the blog.
Thank you so much for visiting. I hope you come by again soon ♥️