Welcome!
Hi, I'm Chef Cindy Siegenfeld!
Founder of The Mindful Fork
I am a certified Vegan Chef with over 15 years of experience as a food educator. My career began as a Personal Chef, and soon after founded Turning Point Culinary as a Holistic Health & Culinary Consultant.
While consulting, I went on to develop a Sustainable Food Course. I am also a published Wellness Writer for a NY magazine.
These are just a few of my career highlights, but my recent and most exciting venture has been as a food blogger.
In 2019, I started my blog chefcindy.com where I share some of my plant-based recipes, a glimpse into my family life, travels around the world, and my everyday approach to life as a climate-conscious consumer.
Why The Mindful Fork?
Swipe through any social media platform, and it's clear we’ve become a generation of foodie lovers! There's an abundance of creative videos, reels, and pins to inspire us to cook meals at home. But how many get to the core of where our food comes from, its effect on the environment, and offer solutions? The Mindful Fork connects the dots from soil to plate for all climate-conscious foodies. Each recipe offers sustainable food solutions, tips to reduce your carbon footprint, and resources for purchasing planet-friendly products and ingredients.
Why? Because KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!
As an eco-food educator, I've learned that the majority of us care about doing the right thing, but it has to make sense to us first. Why incorporate dietary changes if you aren't aware of the impact that ingredient may have on you, and our planet? I've learned that this is usually the first hurdle to get over and can't be forced upon you. Just telling you, you need to eat less meat or omit it altogether does not work. That's why I created The Mindful Fork - where the choice is yours!
If you are on this website, you are aware that change is needed and you crave to do better! The Mindful Fork brings it together with eco-conscious recipes highlighting quick & easy tips, eco-friendly resources to implement planet-saving changes in your kitchen, and an eco-minded community that can inspire more environmentally conscious decisions.
Our growing synergistic team on The Mindful Fork will provide you with thought-provoking articles & recipes to guide you towards more mindful decisions from “the ground up” that will serve you and the planet well.
Learn how sustainable changes can make a difference for you and our planet!
Is The Mindful Fork For You?
The Mindful Fork is an inclusive website for varying palates all sharing the goal of being an active participant in an environmentally conscious generation. Whether you are a carnivore, pescatarian, vegetarian or vegan, you ultimately care about the fate of the planet. You are open to making changes because you want to do something that will make a difference.
The Mindful Fork shows how you can still enjoy food while being mindful of lowering your carbon footprint, decreasing food waste, eliminating cruelty towards animals, and more!
Getting Around
Navigating your way around The Mindful Fork is super easy knowing that these are the main hubs to focus on. CLICK on each LINK BELOW to EXPLORE.
Recipes
Eco-conscious recipes you search by season, diet, or meal category.
Resources
Eco-friendly resources for your kitchen and beyond.
Community
Eco-minded community you can connect with and support.
For a more detailed description, read below.
Recipes
The Mindful Fork features many plant-based recipes from my food blog chefcindy.com but enhanced with climate-conscious tips, step-by-step cooking instructions, and more!
Since many of you are making the transition to a more eco-conscious diet, I found it helpful to feature select recipes from guest food bloggers with varying dietary approaches. My team helps showcase these recipes highlighting the environmental impact of some ingredients where we offer sustainable alternatives when needed.
Lowering our carbon footprint is a key approach to fighting climate change. TMF shares the environmental impact with the carbon footprint calculation at the bottom for each recipe. All of us can make a difference by changing our dietary habits.
Making wiser food choices will lead to a brighter future for all living things on our planet!
TMF's Recipe Index will narrow your search for recipes based on:
- Meal. Deciding what recipe you want to make for any meal of the day is much easier with our recipe index. Some of our most popular recipes being searched for are Soups, Salads, and Dinners.
- Season. Choosing recipes based on the seasonal ingredients available is the eco-conscious approach to cooking in the Fall, Winter, Spring or Summer months. Learn why Eating Seasonal is Good For The Planet!
- Diet. Gather ideas based on Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-Free, and even Eco-flexitarian recipes. Are you not ready to give up meat, seafood, or dairy? Then learn how to be a conscious consumer and Eat the Eco-Flexitarian Way!
- Ingredient. Do you have a specific ingredient in mind? You can use the 🔍 , our ingredient finder, which will give you some recipe options.
Join TMF's mailing list to keep on top of our latest posts and recipes!
Resources
Learning how to grow, select and prepare foods can be overwhelming. The Mindful Fork Resources is your guide to implementing planet-saving changes in your kitchen and beyond.
Work your way through each resource section, incorporating changes that connect with you while you shift towards an eco-conscious diet. You will learn where being mindful matters the most!
A great start to being mindful is keeping a well-stocked pantry, reducing kitchen throwaways, and using eco-friendly food storage containers.
The Mindful Fork is your gentle guide to mindful choices in the kitchen and beyond!
Community
At The Mindful Fork, my goal is to showcase our world's eco-minded community and ways you can connect and support them.
Learn about Regenerative Farming and why we should support it. Get in on the latest way to obtain local, organic vegetables and Join a CSA. Discover movies/books such as "Kiss The Ground" that will open your eyes to the importance of rebuilding and protecting our most precious resource - the soil that feeds us!
Support can come in many ways. You can donate money or your time as a volunteer. Or you can simply learn how to shop smarter. Your purchases have the greatest impact on people, animals, and the planet!
We can all make a difference in climate change with the power of our purchases.
Get In Touch
Please share your feedback for each of our recipes and posts, food bloggers love that! There are sections within each recipe where you can let us know what you like/dislike about the recipe - don't be shy, drop a line or two, and please don't leave until you give our recipes a star rating! It gives us an extra boost when we hear from you. If you have a specific question or concern about a recipe, then feel free to email us at [email protected].
Connect With Us On Social Media
We love sharing different approaches to getting content to you. Follow us on whatever platforms you enjoy, and please engage with us. Your positive feedback gives us the energy to keep doing what we do!
Partnerships
I will only partner with trusted brands I know and products I use daily to be considered for sponsored posts, social media, and affiliate marketing. With so many innovative products on the market, I'm open to hearing about new ones! If you have something great to be featured on TMF, please get in touch with me via email at [email protected].
Work With TMF
We welcome you to join our family of creative chefs and food bloggers. If you think your recipe would be a great fit for our website, submit your idea to [email protected]. One of my team members will evaluate it and get back to you with a link to submit your recipe. You will then be featured on our website and social media platforms with added sustainability tips!
Many of TMF's featured articles are also written by guest contributors. If you have a product/company you feel should be highlighted here, don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected]. We welcome your suggestions if it benefits our readers to be featured with our TMF community.
A Few Fun Facts about Me:
I’ll keep it short & sweet with a touch of spice:
- I have loved cooking since I was a kid, but I didn’t pursue my passion professionally until I was 40 and became a vegan chef. However, my cooking skills were always a great plus for impressing dates in my twenties. Never underestimate the benefits of learning how to cook.
- I love to cook and entertain, but not always at the same time. It’s much more fun being the "party girl" at my party! Therefore, I share some of my make-ahead cooking tips for entertaining at home.
- I have three grown kids that enjoy my company (and getting my home-cooked meals!). Although I sometimes embarrass them with my humor, they enjoy my love of life and youthful energy!
- Though somewhat wild, I almost lost a friendship over organic milk! I believe every bite/drink matters - especially regarding my kids, animals, and the planet.
- I have fluctuated a bit between being a vegan & vegetarian, but I consider myself an eco-conscious flexitarian - you got it, an Eco-Flexitarian! No judgment and only respect for the die-hard vegans & vegetarians.
xo chef cindy
the mindful fork
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