Cheryl Felder-Brannon
Food-as-Medicine Recipe Developer & Wellness Writer
New to Contra
Cheryl is ready for their next project!
I fell in love with barramundi at first bite. Then I forgot about it. Then it showed up on Weee and I dove in head first.
Barramundi is sweet, mild, and buttery without being too rich or too heavy. Silky and flaky — somewhere between sea bass and snapper. If you have never tried it, this recipe is your entry point.
I wanted smoky and tropical. Bold but not heavy. So I built a marinade around coconut aminos, smoked paprika, fresh ginger, and harissa — and then added a tiny pinch of cinnamon. Just enough to whisper, not sing. That pinch ties everything together without anyone being able to identify it. If you can taste the cinnamon, you used too much.
The coconut milk powder was a deliberate choice. Coconut cream adds moisture — exactly what you do not want in an air fryer. Powder delivers the coconut flavor without the liquid. The marinade clings. The edges char. That is the ember in Coconut Ember.
Ten to fourteen minutes in the air fryer. A squeeze of fresh lime the moment it comes out. Done.
This is the kind of recipe development I do — every ingredient has a reason, every technique has a purpose, and the story behind the dish is just as intentional as the dish itself.
📩 Available for recipe development and food writing projects.
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“Collards are everything — so I wanted them to BE everything.” That’s a whole philosophy in one sentence. Let me rewrite it.
Collard greens have always been everything to me.
Not a side dish. Not an afterthought. Sometimes the only thing on my plate and completely enough. I have never needed convincing to eat collard greens — I have always needed more of them.
So when I sat down to create something new with them, that word kept showing up. Everything. If collards are everything to me, what else could they BE? What other forms could they take beyond the southern pot or the salad bowl?
The answer was noodles. Long, silky strands that collapse in the pan and absorb whatever sauce you put near them. And the sauce that showed up in my imagination was Velvet Fire — cashew-based, smoky, creamy, with harissa bringing the heat. Two words that told me exactly what to build.
I wrote the recipe. Made it two days later. Improved it in the kitchen — more garlic, more onion, harissa getting a proper seat at the table. The result made me stop and say yes, this is it.
This is what happens when a recipe comes from love rather than a formula. A vegetable that was already everything — becoming even more.
📩 Available for recipe development and food writing projects.
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Butter beans were never supposed to be this good.
This was not a twist on a classic. This was a complete turnaround — a full reversal of everything a plain butter bean was quietly resigned to being.
Harissa brings the heat. Coconut milk brings the silk. And a handful of butter beans mashed directly in the pot? That is your creamy sauce. No cream. No thickener. Just the bean doing what the bean does best.
This dish came to me the way many of my best recipes do — somewhere between sleep and waking, in that soft place where your mind is still dreaming but your stomach already knows what it wants.
It is one pot. It is 25 minutes. It is deeply satisfying and quietly, unapologetically good for you.
This is what food-as-medicine actually looks like — not restriction, not deprivation, not a consolation prize. Just real food that works as hard as you do.
📩 Available for recipe development, food writing, and wellness content projects.
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What do you do with a pineapple that has two days left to live?
You save it. And you make something this good in the process.
This Pineapple Pepper Salad was born from a refrigerator rescue mission — bell peppers, a pineapple on borrowed time, and the kind of cooking that happens when you refuse to waste good food. No oil. No dressing. Just lime juice meeting pineapple juice meeting fresh cilantro and a jalapeño that showed up because it brings personality.
The result is bright, fresh, a little spicy, and done in five minutes flat.
This is the kind of recipe I develop — real food, real stories, zero pretense. Diabetes-friendly without announcing itself. Plant-forward without being precious about it.
If you need recipes that taste like they came from someone's actual kitchen — because they did — let's talk.
📩 Available for recipe development and food writing projects.
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