Healthy eating has never been easier thanks to Love 2 Nourish.

An increasingly popular practice in healthy lifestyles is meal prepping. Being able to plan and create a week’s worth of meals with purposeful and controlled ingredients is an easy and efficient way to feed you and your family well. This seems to be the biggest draw – time management. However, for the busiest of us (or those who don’t trust their cooking abilities), this practice isn’t always the best answer. Fortunately, there is a solution rising in availability.

Restaurants are popping up across the country providing preplanned meals in-house or online. For over two years, Laurel Dunwoody has provided mid-Missouri with wholesome preplanned meals online through her business, Love 2 Nourish. In April of 2017, she, in collaboration with Cori Busby (MO Juice), opened a storefront in Downtown Jefferson City.
“This is really popular on the coasts,” says Dunwoody. “My daughter lives in Philadelphia, she’s a registered dietician, and she’s helped me with menus and different things like that. She’s the reason I did this. She gave me the idea, and honestly, I didn’t get it at first until I went out there to visit her. I saw it in action and thought, ‘oh my gosh, yes!’”

With the support of Busby and their regular customers, the storefront became a reality. The “grab and go” aspect of meal prepping seemed like the next logical step (don’t worry, you can still order online!). “I wanted to do what I call ‘live lunches.’ With this beautiful space, I wanted to utilize it and have people come in and eat.”

This past summer, Dunwoody implemented “Real Plate Thursdays” for customers to build their own healthy lunches. This went over so well, customers would show up on other days of the week hoping to grab lunch. In September, Love 2 Nourish extended their “live lunches” to Tuesday through Thursday with a varying menu with natural, gluten free choices. “I wanted to make a place for lunch that didn’t make people feel heavy and lethargic afterward, was healthy and affordable, and introduced them to lunches made with real ingredients,” says Dunwoody. “Nothing is processed.”

Dunwoody is fighting the good fight against the idea that healthy food is bland and “a necessary evil.” “I want to let people know that you can eat real food that tastes good, that you want more of. I want to get rid of the stigma that healthy food is gross. Healthy food is delicious.”

Thanks to Laurel and Cori, it’s never been easier to find lighter, better-for-you options on the go. Visit love2nourish.com or call 573-635-5475 to order natural, gluten free meals to go, or stop by 202 E. High St. for a delicious breakfast or lunch in a beautiful location.

Check out Laurel’s recipes for her Korean Turkey and “Rice” Bowl and Open Faced Breakfast Sandwich.