From Pen to Plate: Creating an Imaginative Children's Cookbook with Chanel Miller

You don't need a lot, you just need an idea and just start. And three be patient. Like I said, this is a two-year journey for me. Just because you say I have this idea and start doesn't mean it's going to happen right away. But if it's something you're passionate about, if you put in the work and if you be patient, I just feel great things can happen.

Welcome to the Moms who Create podcast. I'm your host, kelly Hile, and I am thrilled to share a podcast that celebrates the incredible moms who are pursuing their creative passions. Are you a mom who feels like you just can't balance your creative pursuits with the demands of motherhood? Each week, I'm bringing you interviews with accomplished and talented moms who have made their creative dreams a reality. I talk to writers, artists, musicians and entrepreneurs who have successfully found a way to do what they love while raising the ones they love. Some of the writers I talk to are New York Times bestselling authors, while some are self-published first-time authors. I also share my own insights and resources to help you navigate the unique challenges of being a mom who creates. So, whether you're an early bird or a night owl, a seasoned pro or just starting out, I want you to know that you can pursue your creative passions and be an amazing mom at the same time. Grab a cup of coffee, a notebook and get ready to join our community of like-minded moms who are on a mission to live intentionally and create with purpose. This is the Moms who Create podcast, and I can't wait to share this journey with you. Hi everyone, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Moms who Create podcast. So are your kids starting school this week? I'm both so sad that they'll be gone all day, but I'm also really excited that I'll get like five hours a day in the silence to work on all the things. But I'm gonna like fiercely miss them. Isn't motherhood weird? Because it's weird. It's every emotion at once, happening 24-7. It doesn't make sense. Well, but here we are. Today's guest is author of an amazing children's cookbook and kit, chanel Miller. Chanel's writing passion ignited in Detroit at a young age, driving her to excel in contests and creative programs. Graduating from the University of Michigan-Dearborn with a double major in psychology and criminal justice, alongside a minor in communications, she took an unexpected path into social services, aiding underprivileged youth in group homes. This experience fueled her desire to make an earlier impact on children's lives, leading her to the Georgia Institute of Technology's Child Study Lab as a research assistant. In this role, chanel contributed to groundbreaking research in early autism detection, co-authoring articles in prestigious journals. Simultaneously, she became a co-instructor at the University and pursued a master's in public policy from Georgia State. Chanel's journey took personal turns as she married and became a stay-at-home mom, launching the blog them Three and Me, which blossomed into self-publishing endeavors, including Kit Day Cuisine and From Sand to See and Back Again. She talks about her unique self-publishing journey from not just wanting to do a book but an actual kit, including not just a cookbook but an apron measuring cups, and you know there is a lot to that I learned. So I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I hope you learned from Chanel and I also hope that she inspires you. Enjoy today's episode, chanel. Thank you for joining me today. I got your email about a children's cookbook and I was like what? And I was talking to my husband. I said have you ever seen like a children's cookbook, like one for them, that like talks to them in their language, they can cook things or make whatever? And he was like because I talked to him about all the moms. I talked to him and he was like that is brilliant.

That is brilliant.

I've never heard of that and I was like I know right, I'm excited to talk to her and hear about it and her thought process and just the whole journey, yes, so thank you, yeah, thank you for joining me today, because this is really, really cool. Thank you. First, just introduce yourself to everybody.

Okay, yeah, my name is Chanel Miller. I am a wife of, mom and author and just an all around creative. I'm on here because of the cookbook, but I love all things creative. I love crafting. My husband actually started a like a family furniture business where we repurpose and resell home and office furniture, and so my little division of that is making old things look glam again. We really specialize in office furniture so I'll do a customized desk with, you know, funky tops and, you know, for homeschool furniture, chalkboard tops so kids can write on them just all types of really cool, fun things. So my favorite store is actually Home Depot is strange enough, but it is. I love to walk in and just smell the wood and if I have a paintbrush I am just ecstatic. So that is creatively like paintbrush, computer pen writing. I am in a cup of ice matcha. I am absolutely I love it Happy. I started off well. I now have kids, right, but I always kind of had this passion, I guess, for kids. I really didn't look at it like that way until I had kids of my own. So before becoming a mom my last area of profession, really before becoming a mom I worked at Georgia Tech and they have a child study lab. Shout out to them. I don't know if I can do that, but they was amazing. It was an amazing place to kind of work. So I worked there in the child study lab at Georgia Tech and I worked on a great NSF grant to look at early development and autism and we did research to kind of help detect developmental delays in children and autism and we did a whole big research study. I got to work with kiddos. I got to actually feel like I was doing something that was really, really helpful. And the lab manager over there, audrey Sutherland, under the direction of Agatha Rosga over there, they're just great people and it was there that I learned that I just loved feeling fulfilled about what I'm doing. Before then I worked in a group home and helping kids that were in the system and then kids that were aging out the system. So I was working in the independent living site to kind of help them get re-accommodated into life, and so I always had even before then I mean, it was just always working with kids. I don't know I got ran a basketball camp in college, like I always had this. Well, I shouldn't say I ran it, but I ended up being the director over at basketball camp for the women's basketball team. I played college basketball so I always just had it was just this ongoing game in my life. I got my BA in psychology and double majored with criminal justice, with the minor communications, with the hopes of going to law school and that kind of changed. But I wanted to really work with children advocacy. So I kind of just had this throughout my life, this ongoing theme of working with kiddos. And so when I became a mom and kind of just really tapping more into this creative side and writing, I did writing with making books for their homeschool, just writing little stories for them. We tell these bedtime stories that are elaborate. Well, sometimes they make up a scene. I make up a scene. It just keeps going and going and going. So it just yeah.

So that's kind of me really, and I do play college basketball. That's really cool too. Yes, when I was younger, I was like I'm going to grow up and be in the WMA. That was like my goal when I was like 10. I was like I'm going to be in the WMA because I was always taller than everybody and basketball was like my life. My mom would take me to the Nike outlet store and I would get all the things.

Yes, when did you play? So I played at the University of Michigan, but their campus in Dearborn. So University of Michigan has multiple campus. Everyone is familiar with the Big 10 and Arbor campus, but they also have two other ones. So I played at the Dearborn campus. So it was D2 in AIA but loved it. I had got a scholarship from high school and actually I'm originally from Detroit, so our high school basketball team in Detroit had a long history of winning state championships and winning. So yeah, I started early on in life, third grade, and I just played and it took me through college. My plan was to play professionally, go overseas and different things like that, but after college I just took a different direction in life and wanted to do something different. But for what it did it was amazing, that's awesome.

I know about the Big 10 because I live in Indiana.

So basketball.

And Bloomington IU so yeah big college town. So, yeah, no, that's cool. Sorry, I wanted just to touch on that too, because that's the only way that you did that.

Yeah, it was fun times.

Tell me about the journey that you took to decide to make this cookbook and to start this creative path in your life. Tell me about that.

So, like I said, my last profession was, you know, working at the university. From there I actually got a chance to and stroke at a college level, working with kids there, and I co-authored a couple of scholarly articles that were actually published in some journals. And so I was basically I was having a great time. I went to start my masters and about a year in with my masters I got married, had kids, moved to a house. On a very short time time span I had a year left in my master's program. The last semester was over Before the next semester happened. I'm pregnant giant and I end up having my daughter, and so I was talking to my husband. He was like, yeah, you know, finish out school if you want, that's something that you want to do. But I think I became a point in my life where I am responsible for this little human life, and in the beginning it was my first kid. You know we had a couple things that made me really nervous, like when she was first born, but it really wasn't a big deal. Like some jaundice she had to be hospitalized. Just you know some little things, but my focus kind of really shifted. You know, like my previous profession was very focused on, like me and these goals that I had, right, and now I'm responsible for this little bitty human and it's kind of like I don't know. I wanted to be present for everything. And you know, like I said, I'm a wife too and I have this home and this kid. So I just kind of wanted that area to be my focus. So that really started my motherhood journey and from there I just ended up being a stay-at-home mom and working. You know, doing things I do things at home sometimes, but really focusing in on that. So we started to homeschool and from there I started to kind of retap into this writing thing. My first love for writing started in the third grade. You know I did writing contests or rhetorical contests, all things, and then kind of tapered off a little bit, but it just kind of re-ignited this fire I had to write. Once I started writing things for the girls. So so, continuing to fast forward, when my daughter turned about for something like that, she wanted to. She loved to cook Like she. Mommy, I want to help cook, I want to cook. She's always cooking in the kitchen. So I wanted to. So I was like, okay, you know, I want to get her something. So I went on Amazon and I researched, like cookbooks for kids. But I already had this vision, because we're already very hands-on in our homeschools so we do a lot of activities, a lot of things that I kind of like to allow them to kind of like, create and kind of do their own things as well. So I wanted the same thing to kind of do in the kitchen at that time. So I had this idea in my head. So I went to Amazon, of course, because if it doesn't exist on Amazon, it doesn't exist, doesn't exist right, because Amazon is just where I find everything right. And so I researched it and I literally could not find not one thing even remotely close to what I wanted. And this was two years ago. So that's really where the journey started, two years ago. And so this it's been like this two-year path trying to kind of get where I am today. It's been a doozy. So first, starting off, I'll just decided I was going to go the regular route, right? You know, everyone uses KDP or Ingram Spars to kind of self-publish. But I had this grand idea at the time I didn't realize it was that grand, but like actually making it come, come into play or come into like, conceptualizing the idea was more difficult than I dreamed of in my head. So KDP and Ingram Sparks, like well, we only publish a certain type of book, it has to be paperback or hard copy. We don't do everything that you really want. So my idea is kiddos are messy, right, so you have them in the kitchen, they're just going to, they're going to spill something, they're going to do something, especially when this book is, a child as young as three can use it. So I wanted it to be dry, erase or can be easily wipe, wipe, wipeable. I wanted it to be spiral binding so it can just be easy for their hands to flip. I wanted these big, bright pictures to be bold and kind of like glossy, catch their attention. So I had all these things. I wanted it to be and I also I wanted to come into, come in a kid so that a parent can basically have the child, can have everything they wanted. So all these things and Ingram Sparks and KDP and along with some other publishers, was like um, a lot, we don't do all of that. So that started my journey like okay, so how do I do this? So I kid you not, I came up with like a 30 point like self publishing plan that I just kind of jotted down and wrote and I and I started from there and I contacted publishers. I use Alibaba a lot. I did upwork, write, contacted like editors and illustrators and designers. I end up using a illustrator that is a really good friend of mine who is awesome and I just started from there and it was a journey like just learning all the ins and outs of child children toys. For example. The book and everything in the kit is CSPC certified, which is it's lead free. It's tested with an independent, independent testing agency that's approved by the, by the government, that that tests for every all types of chemicals to make sure it's safe for consumption. And, honestly, a lot of places are supposed to do that but no one checks the certificates guys. So if you ever have like a toy that you're wondering and you want to contact the company, you can do that. You know a lot of things and I learn from learning. A lot of times agencies or people don't check unless something happens that's bad, but really to have these things in place, so really I wanted to do that regardless, because I'm a mom and I wanted to make sure. I like to make sure that the things that I have for my children are safe. So when I put out a product, I wanted to make sure it's safe and not hazardous. So we got all the correct certifications certifications, which was a whole, an entire process in itself. And then I wanted to make sure I went through like to make sure the regulations and trade commissions for some sending it from China was it was up to par. It was just so many ins and outs that I just did not see from when I first started two years ago. So for any mom out there that wants to do it, you can do it, but it can be. It's a process, like it really is a process, but you're able to. Like I didn't think when I first started to have this idea like, oh yeah, let's do this. And then I got into it. I'm like, oh yeah, let's do this.

But self publishing, like just as I thought, just even a regular children's picture book was like difficult to put out and self publishing. But now, after hearing your story, I'm like, okay, kelly, get it together, this is not as hard as you think. Yeah, that's a lot to figure out because it's. Yeah, the whole self publishing process is just rigorous anyway. But like you took it above and beyond, doing all of this and then all of these testings, I don't even know anything about that, to be completely honest.

So yes, yes it was, and I learned just from Google, YouTube, listening to other people, podcast, just really just taking a deep dive and kind of figuring things out. But we came on, we came out on top. You know, towards the end I developed a really good team that kind of helped with different things, even with, like the advertising and just for moms out there too, like they do have. They have whole companies that take care of this for you. But those whole companies come with a whole invoice and a whole bill and sometimes, you know, for different people have different situations. It may not be practical but it's possible. If you have the patients, if you have the time you develop. I have like the best support system I could ask for that I couldn't even pay for it. If I paid for a company to do this, they wouldn't be as great as my support. I mean, they're absolutely amazing. So it's possible. If you want to do something, go out there, read about it, research it, take your time, be patient. Everything doesn't have to happen immediately. Like I said, this has been a two year process for me, when I had a lot of ups and downs and learning. You know, when the there was a strike with the, with the shipping shippers union, Porter's Union, out in California, which held up more shipping. So there was constant bumps and a rose. Like I said, I'm doing shipping all this myself from China, so that was just multiple that happened. However, if it's something that you're passionate about, if it's something that you want to do, I'm here to tell you that it is absolutely possible if you just be patient and you know, keep going.

That's so inspirational.

It really is.

It really is to hear that there's some dreams like what you had, that you are accomplishing that seemed just too hard or too expensive or I don't know how, where to start. That's the big thing for people. I think that's the biggest hurdle for a lot of people that they don't start a dream. And your quotations like dream passion, anything is because you don't know where to start, and that can be just really like daunting, like I don't know, I'm not a professional, or I'm not a professional writer, I'm not a professional artist, but I really want to do this. I don't know how. It'll never happen. Like, like you said, google, YouTube, I've literally learned Okay, I went to school for art, but I've learned everything about self publishing just writing everything from Google and YouTube, other podcasts, other people. That's done it. You know writing communities online. Just because you don't know how to do something doesn't mean you can't figure it out. If you want it badly enough, you can absolutely figure out and do it like you. Like you did this and this is just. It just blows my mind and is it release now? Is your cookbook and is the kit out now?

So no, right now we're doing pre orders. It will be released is coming up in October. So you have little time and I actually have here is I know it's out for pre order right now, so we're collecting pre orders. It will be out soon. It comes in this kid with wonderful like you get color coded measuring cups. Oh my goodness.

I'm sorry, like this is legit, I'm not like one of those like kid friendly.

You know it's classic, so you don't have to worry about kiddos hurting themselves. You get a dry erase marker. Like I said, it is dry erase so it has activities in there checklist so a kid can just write in a race. Whenever they're Like you can read, redo recipes over and over again. It also has an apron and a hat that it comes with. So it comes with a lot of fun things. And what makes the book truly unique, you know I think, is the color cutting coded measuring cups. So a child doesn't have to read. They can see a picture of a bag of flour and the one cup measuring spoon. But our one cup measuring spoon is green. So if they know that, so it teaches them colors, you can see it. If it's anything with two teaspoons, it's a picture of our two teaspoons that come in the kit. So they know that's count one, two, so you need two of the purple teaspoons, and so they're able to take the lead in the kitchen and they can probably say I don't cook with mom, mom cooks with me, like they can actually take the lead. And so on top of that, there are 10 short stories in there that you can read with your kiddo. That directly relates to the recipe. So, on the blueberry muffin recipe, there's a fun short story about my daughter, one of her best friends, going blueberry picking and having some fun at the end and ask do you want to move blueberry muffins as well? So it has the stories that parent that the parent and child can share together, has activity pages. It has fun, fun facts, that to learn about different food facts. It's just a lot of fun things in the kit, in the cookbook. So it's a cookbook and activity book so you and your kid can have hours of play. So it's, it's, I don't know. It's really close to my heart. Like you know, I said is it was made for my daughter Most high willing. It will be the first in a three book series. So the first that my oldest, the second to my middle and the last one to my youngest, each with a specific genre cooking. So the first is all breakfast recipes. So the second lunch, the third maybe dinner or, you know, maybe even dessert. She can be, he wants to be. So so yeah.

So that's incredible. What you created is so amazing and it's so well thought out, Like you put. You can tell you put your your heart into it too.

And then also, you know, at the end it also asks questions about critical thinking, like in the stories. Like one story, I think hadasso was sad and it's like can you think of a time where you were sad? Or can you think of a time and just kind of trying to? You know, overall you know you can't tackle everything in like one book but just to kind of have parents that learning to, like you do, homeschool or if you just want to interact with your kid, or more issues I really wanted to really facilitate that, that parent child interaction, which I feel that in these days and these times, spending time with your child doesn't have to be this elaborate thing. It can be just something fun and cool and just to kind of, you know, facilitate that positive growth. And that was my goal.

And this is a big project like this. This has taken a while and you have three kids at home, so, even though it's for them and it's inspired by them, it's a lot to do. So how many about your balance of your mom life and your creative life?

So what I came to realize and being a mom, is that I think you know you hear this thing about, you know balancing and you know when do I have time for me, versus my children and versus being a wife and doing a home and at some point and this just works for me. You know, everything works for different people, but I think it's a mindset thing, you know. I think sometimes even early on, when being a mom, you have this thing to where you talk about, you know self care and make sure you have time for me and balancing everything right. And for at least for me, it changed when I think it affected me, because I kind of think of me as these different things, like I'm a mom, I'm a wife, I'm a sister, I'm a. You know, I'm all these different things right, and I kind of shifted my thinking and thinking. Instead of thinking myself as pieces, I thought of myself more as one whole, if that makes sense. So balancing for me, just because I'm only one person, it's only 24 hours and these things make up me, but not one thing is me, and so to to for me, balance is I just bring. My children are a part of me. My job is trying to be your author is a part of me, my, my, me being a wife is a part of me, so I include them, like I include my children and my creative process. So if I'm writing, you know, I know that, hey, I'll give them a pencil. Sometimes it's just scribble scribble wheel may sit down and they write why I write. Or if I'm painting, I say I know they're going to make a mess, let me leave this one thing over there for them to paint. And I try to include them as much as I can. I work my creativity into my schedule, so everything I add to my life has to fit within my life. I know that's probably. I don't know if that is kind of like two, just like whoo, but it's kind of. It's so. That's kind of how I look at things now. And so I feel like sometimes, with being a mom, life can be overwhelming and things can happen. But I really think sometimes a mindset shift, knowing that you know you only can do what you can do in the time that you have and and create, in treating ourselves as just this one individual and not trying to stretch, saying like, okay, well, if I'm a mom, I have to do this. And if I'm a wife, I have to do this. And if I'm a sister and a best friend, I have to make time for them and I have to do this. And so each, each of these different aspects of my life has a different, you know, behavior. I guess you can say with it. But if I just say, whoa, I am one person who acts, who acts in like these different avenues, but I'm still the person. So I kind of think of my balanced life as that, and I don't know if that makes any sense. No, I think so there is, but that's kind of what helped me, yeah.

Sometimes we just spend. We spend so much time like compartmentalizing our whole life and let's just, let's try to make it more whole, Whereas you do so many roles and so many things. Oh, this is your child, but, like you know, you can think of it as more of a whole. Combine it all. Not everything has to be separate. I think that's kind of what you were, you were saying too, and I like that mindset. Oh, hello, little one.

And actually sometimes life happens and so we do this so cute.

There was like one piece of advice that you could give to moms listening on how they can, just something that's like you can do it, go get it, you know, start it. Do you have like a singular piece of advice that you would give them on?

I would say, if you want to do it, if it's something that you have a passion for, just start. And I think a lot of times we don't do the things we want to do because it's kind of like, well, in order to be a writer, I have to have a laptop. I have to have, you know, make a vision board. I have to do all these things. No, you just need a pencil and a notebook and jot down. I have to have everything that I have Now. I have a laptop. I have to have everything that I have, and because of that, you have to have my ideas. You know, the funny thing is, when it was, when it came for this book, I wasn't going to do it. I did what everyone else says. Like you know, maybe one day I was on the phone and I was talking to one of my good friends and I said I was telling her my idea and she goes you should do it and keep in mind, this friend is a freaking rock star, a faith, I mean. She is a real estate agent, she is a mom, she has autistic children, she is a blogger, and I'm like you know, when she told me, yeah, just do it. And I'm like, yeah, I think so Maybe one day. She goes, no, no, just do it, just start. I'm like, yeah, that's a good idea, I'm gonna look into it. She goes, no, just start. So I'm like, okay, and literally it just started from me going to the bookstore and looking at books that were similar to my idea. Then it came to. You know, I the girls just went to sleep, I had 30 minutes. Let me Google, you know how to do this and let me YouTube this. And it just really started as 20, 30 minutes every day, just not I wouldn't say every day, but when I had time to look into things, and so just, just, just, you can just do a get a. Your first thing is you need a good support system, you need a good team around you. Lean on your. If you have, like that, one friend or family member, lean on them to. You don't need a lot, you just need an idea and just just start. And three, be patient. Like I said, this was a two year journey from me. Just because you say I have this idea and start doesn't mean it's going to happen right away. But if it's something you're passionate about, if you put in the work and if you be patient, I just feel great things can happen.

Thank you so much for sharing your story and your journey, the inspiration and advice to moms listening, because this is a big, huge project that you've created and it's going to be so amazing. I am so excited for it to come out. I'm going to get it for my kids I have a three year old and she just turned six, and my, my three year old, loves to do things like she's very like high energy. I want to help you in the kitchen. I want to do all this. Like I said, I'm going to fast cook, but like I want a teacher and that teachers are, you know, like colors, numbers, all that so I'm excited to get it for her too.

So yeah, awesome. Thank you so much and I really appreciate you having me. It was so fun, I love it. Such a breath You're, such a breath of fresh air. I love it.

Thank you. So if people want to go and pre-order it right now, where can they pre-order your?

book. So they can go to our website, wwwthem3, the number three, enemycom. I'm also on Instagram. You can find all the links there. Them three and me were on Facebook. Them three and me, all of those are just the number three. Once it gets a little bit closer to the release date, they will also be available on Amazon as well. One thing about Amazon that you didn't know you can't do along pre-order if you don't do KDP, so you can't pre-order some things. But then there's a whole thing about pre-ordering books. So just keep that in mind. I know I said I didn't go through KDP. So if you are author, you want to self publish, there are restrictions on pre-orders through Amazon if you don't use KDP.

So later on. I know my second children's book comes out in like a month, september 5th and last for my first one. I just did Ingrid Spark and for this one I'm doing KDP and Ingrid Spark and I'm like they're so different. It's the same process but they're so different. So even this last month, as I'm getting proofs and everything I'm learning like, oh I can't do this, I have to do that. Ingrid Spark doesn't do this, kdp does that. Don't do this or they'll cancel each other out. Like you know, there's so much. So I get it, but it's worth it, because you know when you're, when you're kits out and when you see it on Amazon, when you see it online, you're just going to be like whoa, and all of that hard work in the past two years is totally going to be worth it. So I'm really excited for you, chanel.

Yes, thank you so much. And if you do, just to let you know those listening know, if you do order, you do. If you do pre-order, you do get a download, an instant download, of these cool, of these cool kitchen posters that you can use for your kid. That taught that that helps, helps encourage healthy eating. Then you get a grocery shopping list. You get learning about different foods, food safety and kitchen safety rules. So you get all of that only up to the release date and as a bonus you also get a visual grocery list. So you know the whole. The book is all about kids taking the lead and so with the pre-order you also get a get a grocery list that allows, that allows the kid to look at pictures of food, and so we. It comes with a printout of about 80 different common of common food items that the child can go in, look and say I want to get that. They can cut it out, they can put it on their list and so they can go grocery shopping with you. You can either laminate it or you can do printouts, but allow them to kind of go grocery shopping with the parent without having to write down things and you get entered into a drawing to win a personalized embroidered apron and chef hat. So so, yeah, you get all of that with your, with your, which is about a $40 value with your pre-order, for free up until book release if you pre-order.

So you've thought of everything, Every small detail. Like everything is so well thought out. This is going to be so cool.

Thank you, I really appreciate it.

We're really excited. Yeah, I'll link to everything in the show notes so people can go to your site and pre-order and and do everything and connect to you on Instagram and all the sites. I'm really excited, really excited. I can tell you've put so much into this in your heart and it's going to be. It's this really wonderful passion project that I think is going to do really well. Just a reminder that my second children's book, my Day the Pumpkin Patch, comes out in less than a month. Oh, I'm so excited. Follows my favorite time of year and I can't believe that I got to write a book about the best time of the year. It comes out September 5th. My illustrator, hailey McAndrews, is amazing and I can't wait for you guys to see the book and get it for your children. I really appreciate it If you if you did want to buy it. If not, it's fine, but if you do, that's more fine. Thank you again for listening. I really do appreciate you so much for your support, more than you know. I'll see you next week.