About

Meet Lauren McDuffie

Hello, home cook! I’m Lauren, and I’m thrilled you’re here. In short, I’m a professional home cook, and I’ve worked in and around food for more than 15 years. I absolutely love crafting deliciously doable recipes for home cooks all over the world. My expertise stands at the crossroads of Southern cooking and crafting easy, delicious recipes for busy home cooks. I’m definitely happiest in the kitchen, with my camera. So, connecting with other passionate food lovers through a shared affection for cooking stands as the cornerstone of My Kitchen Little, which was established in 2019 as a helpful haven for home cooks.

I’m a Portland, OR-based food blogger, cookbook author, photographer and stylist, and writer and I spend much of my time working with food in as many ways as I can. Additionally, she is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir-style, Appalachian-ish cookbook, Smoke, Roots, Mountain, Harvest (May 2019), the healthier Southern cookbook, Southern Lights (June 2023), and the forthcoming cookbook, Homemade-ish (July 2024). I’m the creator of the Saveur Magazine-nominated cooking blog, Harvest and Honey. Harvest and Honey also won the IACP award for best culinary blog writing, as well.

I also write the newsletter, Talking With My Mouth Full, to which I’d just LOVE for you to subscribe.

Southern Lights Cookbook by Lauren McDuffie

Lauren’s work has amassed a global following and has been featured in:

My Kitchen Little

Making great food doesn’t have to be difficult, time-consuming or expensive. My Kitchen Little recipes are all designed with efficiency and practicality in mind for busy and cost-conscious cooks. We’re looking out for the small kitchen dwellers, too. In sum, this is easy food for the modern home cook.

Sometimes the very best recipes are the simplest. They’re the ones that let the quality and flavors of their ingredients speak for themselves. It is absolutely possible to prepare beautiful, fresh, and flavorful meals without breaking the bank. We don’t need to spend hours in the kitchen. Also, who wants to use (and wash) every pan in sight? My Kitchen Little explores ways to make cooking more accessible, and we’ll do it all without sacrificing flavor or quality. This is hassle-free cooking – and it’s all easy. Because there’s no reason not to be.

30 Minute recipes
Recipes with Minimal ingredient lists
Low-maintenance directions
One Pan Recipes
Budget-friendly food
Southern Cooking

Additionally, many of our recipes have very minimal ingredient lists. As such, we rely on fresh ingredients and classic pantry staples. For example, almost all of the My Kitchen Little recipes require only a few key players. This underscores my belief in the power of simplicity. Furthermore, this highlights the rewards that come when we allow quality ingredients to lead the way.

Basic and free from clutter or unnecessary extras, this blog reflects my day-to-day cooking philosophy. There are no videos (I have no idea how to make them). I won’t wax on about my day to day minutiae. This is a recipe space, pure and simple. I do, however, spend time in each post explaining things to help readers in their cooking pursuits. By offering reliable, highly doable recipes, I hope you’ll want to join me in the kitchen, whatever size it may be.

Brand Partnership Campaigns

The brand campaign arm of My Kitchen Little seeks to leverage the power of combined missions + stories to lift up our shared content. In short? We love working with other brands and organizations. We enjoy collaborating with others whose missions align with our own. Lastly, we’ve had the pleasure of working with many brands who strive to make home cooking simpler, faster, and more affordable for home cooks everywhere.

Lauren has an extensive background in copywriting, photography styling, social media management, and content strategy and this perfectly positions this space – My Kitchen Little – as a campaign vehicle for those skills and assets. Please reach out with any questions regarding potential collaborations, or to request our media kit. We look forward to connecting!

Lauren has partnered with many brands including:

Cane River Pecans, Limone Market, Nature’s Greens, Orrington Farms, Cento Tomatoes, Tillamook, The Botanist, Ancient Harvest, and many more.

Breadcrumbs

The most frequently asked question I receive, as a longtime food blogger is, “why do you do it?” This section of My Kitchen Little is, at its highest level, an attempt to answer that question. There are no recipes here, just words. Like an open-ended love story of personal discovery, food, and memories – this is my living and breathing food memoir.

So that’s it. That’s what My Kitchen Little is all about. Finding ways to make your life in food not only easier and more practical, but also more interesting – more compelling. I simply want you to want to cook, too. From my simple, affordable, and realistic recipes for your everyday lives, to our ever-growing bank of creative resources and our Little Library of bite-sized goodies, this is meant to be a truly helpful haven, with a little something for everyone.

Welcome to My Kitchen Little. I’m so thrilled you’re here.