ABOUT JOANNA:
Hi! Nice to meet you and thanks for stopping by my blog! I’m Joanna Smith and I’m a thirty-something foodie, born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. I have a passion for cooking, baking, hospitality, art, and Jesus. I’m also a newbie food photographer, so I’m hoping you’ll see improvements in my food photos as I go. Time will tell! I have always been obsessed with food blogs, but never dreamed I had what it took to start my own. Little did I know that in 2012, things would be put in motion that would ultimately lead me to my blog. 
That year, I was diagnosed with celiac disease. As hard as it was to give up breads and pastries (I LOVED carbs), it was seriously the best thing that ever happened to me. Going gluten-free not only improved my overall health, but it led me to the Integrative Institute for Nutrition, where I became a certified Health Coach and learned a ton about different diets, where I would eventually settle on a primarily paleo lifestyle. During my health transition, I also was introduced to a holisitic doctor who has since helped me discover other health issues, like hypothyroid and MTHFR mutations. Little did I know, that was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to my health.
After marrying my husband in 2013 and getting pregnant with our first child in 2015, what seemed like the best season of my life quickly turned into the worst. We lost our baby at 11 weeks and a few months after my miscarriage, my health hit an all-time low. For three years, we put time, money, and effort into various functional doctors, testing, and treatments, but couldn’t figure out what was causing my health crash. After process of elimination and the recommendation of a close friend, I was tested for Lyme disease and mold toxicity – both of which were positive. To date, we’re still in trial and error mode in treating my Lyme disease, since there is no standard treatment that works for everyone. I’ve experimented with many supplements, therapies, and diets like the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP). We’re currently on the hunt for a home free of toxic mold, which is proving to be quite a challenge. Life has been crazy and painful for the past few years, but all the while, I’ve had this blog as a creative, safe space and outlet through my struggles.
Looking back, I can see how my past experiences of cooking, baking, scouring food blogs, attending nutrition classes, and living through health challenges led me to create Fed and Fulfilled. What began as a 2016 New Year’s resolution to try something new has lasted much longer than my New Year’s resolutions usually do! I started this as a basic food blog, but it has turned into so much more than that for me. It’s become a second home for my heart, as I’ve been able to share so much of my story of life, health, and faith right here, as things have unfolded. I hope to continue to feed both body and soul through my journey and that this blog will inspire and encourage anyone who stumbles upon it.
A few of my favorite things:
- Morning Bible and prayer time with God
- Cooking and baking for others (stating the obvious)
- My cats, Cosmo and Leo
- Reading in my Infrared Sauna
- Reality cooking shows, like Top Chef
- Shopping at Target
- The Office
- Kombucha
- Shereadstruth.com
- Middle Eastern Food
- Seeing Broadway musicals
- All things FALL – food, activities, weather, clothes!
- Just about any PBS Masterpiece Drama series
- Planning and hosting dinner parties
ABOUT THE SMITHS:
I’m married to Mark, my best friend and biggest fan, who encouraged me to dive in to the exciting (and intimidating!) world of blogging. Mark also loves Jesus and is into sports, the outdoors, and eating. He works as a financial analyst and is great with numbers and budgets (my weakness). He is always more than willing to test my recipes (even the fails)! On paper, our personalities and interests are so different, but I guess it’s as they say- opposites attract!
I’m a detail person, extrovert, perfectionist, and I cry at the drop of a hat. I’m artsy and totally not coordinated when it comes to athletics. Mark is a talented basketball player, an introvert, a big-picture person, extremely patient, and has a huge heart, even though he doesn’t wear it on his sleeve like I do!
Together, we balance each other out and make a great pair! We both went to a small school called Grove City College in Pennyslvania, but didn’t meet until after graduation through a mutual friend, and realized we had been going to the same church for years without ever running into each other! (Mark also has a crazy and cool story of his own, which influenced how we met. Read more about that in this post.) Anyway, we became friends and after a few months, we started dating, and I knew that he was “the one.”
(Wedding Photos by Joanna Fassinger Photography)
After two years of marriage, we found out that we were going to be parents! Our baby was due in April 2016, and we nicknamed our baby-to-be, “Blue,” though we never got far enough to learn the gender. Tragically, baby “Blue” only lived to 11 weeks in the womb until my miscarriage in September of 2015. It was the hardest time of our married lives and not a day passes that we don’t think about the child that is waiting for us in heaven. We still long for a family, but my health issues have prevented us from pursuing that dream. While my heart aches to grow our family and I feel frustrated that we can’t right now, I know we’re still incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful marriage.
Mark is the sweetest guy I’ve ever known and has been the biggest blessing and source of strength for me, especially through the loss of our baby, my autoimmune issues, my battle with Lyme disease, and our fight with mold toxicity and moving multiple times in the same year. On my most painful days when I feel like giving up, Mark points me to the faithfulness of God and helps to spur me on. Though recent years have been full of struggle and hardship, we still have so much to be thankful for – laughter, date nights, and fun activities among them. In our free time, you’ll find us cooking with and for each other, reading the Bible together, seeing beautiful skies and starry nights, watching movies and documentaries, going for walks, being involved at church, and hosting dinners with family, and games nights with friends.
ABOUT THE BLOG:
Fed and Fulfilled is a gluten-free, mostly Paleo and AIP (autoimmune protocol) food blog that features recipes, health and wellness tips, and personal stories about life and faith. Why the name Fed and Fulfilled? Because I feel that nourishing our bodies with wholesome food helps us to be well-fed, while being fulfilled happens on a soul-level. My reference to the phrase “man shall not live on bread alone” comes from Matthew 4:4 in the Bible, and it goes on to say that we are to live “on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
While things in this world, like delicious food, can be great in feeding us and our passions, they can only go so far when it comes to really fulfilling us and our need for purpose and significance. True fulfillment comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ and desire to follow in his footsteps. So, I believe that being fed AND fulfilled requires both physical and spiritual food. I know that my own faith and love for the Lord has led me to serve Him through this blog, by sharing my story, recipes, health revelations, and faith lessons that I’ve discovered along the way.
My hope is that Fed and Fulfilled will become a staple food blog for you and your family and that it will be satisfying to both body and soul.
