Brittany Mullins didn’t realize she was planting the seed for a career by vowing not to gain the traditional “freshman fifteen” when she started George Mason University.
“I got into healthy food and lost fifteen to twenty pounds. I realized you can lose weight and get healthy in a successful way,” she says.
As a way to keep track of her progress after graduating, she launched her website in 2008 as a food journal to track her eating. “I got into creating healthy recipes for myself, which turned into creating recipes for others,” she says. “I wanted to show people that healthy eating doesn’t have to be hard and boring.”
Fifteen years later, Mullins is a holistic nutritionist and the woman behind Eating Bird Food, a food blog/website that helps people focus on making and eating a wholesome diet made from real foods.
Mullins came up with the name for her website from something her college roommate always said to her. “I ate a lot of trail mix in college and my roommate said you are always eating bird food,” she says. “It’s a healthy connotation.”
Mullins, whose social media followers total over 1.5 million, has just released her first cookbook, Mostly Veggies, featuringeasy make-ahead meals for healthy living.
Evolution of Food Lover to Food Professional
Mullins traces her love of food back to her childhood in Orange, where she spent hours playing restaurant and cooking with her mom. “I loved to eat,” she says. “I’ve always loved food.”
Growing up, she ate a lot of Southern food – meat, potatoes, and lots of carbs. But, thanks to a salad bar in the college dining hall, her habits changed dramatically.
“I started eating less processed food. I got more steps in every day and started to exercise more in the gym,” says Mullins, who graduated from George Mason with a degree in marketing.
Starting her own business has been a learning curve. As she began discovering her own eating habits – she was a pescatarian (fish but no meat) for six years, but now eats a variety of foods – she started sharing her recipes and plant-forward eating habits with others.
“I realized the health benefits of nutrient-dense foods and whole vegetables,” Mullins says. “I was drawn more toward plant-based foods, more colorful foods. I am not a vegan. I still love seafood.”
Recipe for a Healthy Family Life
A plant-forward diet can also be more earth-friendly and cost effective, a benefit that is appreciated in today’s economic times.
“The recipes are easy to prepare, and it’s better for the environment,” she says.
She also enjoys taking traditional favorites and making them in a healthy but tasty way. For instance she uses oatmeal, banana, chocolate chips, and chia seeds for her chocolate chip cookies.
“I love making fun flavors and creating healthy versions of what I grew up with,” she says. “My mom had a good pasta salad and I make a healthy version of that without mayonnaise.”
One of her favorite snack recipes is a healthy take on a Snickers bar – chocolate covered snickers-stuffed dates.
While she has a small, part-time team to help with everything from graphic design to recipe testing, she also tries out her recipes on her family: husband Isaac, her three-year-old daughter Olivia, and her nine-month-old son Tucker.
When she started her website, social media wasn’t as prevalent as it is now. Now, she has a presence on a variety of social media channels, including Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, and YouTube.
“I’m doing a lot more video now,” she says, adding that many people find her through Google search. “People search for recipes and find the site. I think most people are just trying to eat healthier.”
Her new cookbook, now at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Target, Bookshop and Books-a-Million as well as some local bookstores, took more than two years to put together. The cookbook contains 100-plus recipes, everything from breakfast, smoothies, and meal-size salads to full meals, one-pan meals, and snacks and treats.
It also contains contains advice on kitchen tools for meal prep, pantry/fridge essentials, produce storage tips, meal plans, shopping lists and more.
That Work-from-Home Lifestyle
Working from home as an entrepreneur isn’t as easy as some people might assume. Mullins is usually on the computer or in the kitchen from nine to five. On nights and weekends, she handles her social media.
“This is not a forty-hour-a-week job,” she says.
Thankfully she has help in the form of her mother-in-law for her children.
“That helps,” she says. “Sometimes it can be chaotic and there would be no way. It’s a lot.”
And Mullins’ daughter Olivia is a chef in the making.
“She already loves helping me in the kitchen and gives a little chef’s kiss when she eats something she enjoys, but my goal is to teach both kids that cooking and eating together is not just about nourishing our bodies, but also about connecting, creating special memories, and celebrating the joys of life through food,” Mullins says. “Through watching me work, I hope to inspire my children to pursue their own passions and dreams, whatever they might be, and show them that it’s possible to have a fulfilling career while also growing a family.”
