Transforming slow cooking to provide less stress, connection and great meals

Yogini’s the zen of slow cooking spice blends makes slow cooking both easy, meditative…and delicious!

Lake Forest, IL (June 9, 2018)  Research shows that meditation may improve anxiety and depression and may also decrease stress.[1] What does this have to do with slow cooking?“ Taking 20 minutes a day to disconnect from work, your phone, and the chaos of the day to retreat to the kitchen to prepare a delicious meal, can be an incredibly meditative process”, shares Meg Barnhart Founder/Co-Creator of Yogini’s the zen of slow cooking spice blends. With the rise of slow cookers, multi-cookers, and pressure cookers (according to recent research presented by the Wall Street Journal, the Instant Pot’s popularity has led to a rush on multi-cookers, a category that grew 68% in the past year)[2], there is growing demand for resources to make home cooking easy. the zen of slow cooking does just that and much more.

Yogini LLC was founded by Meg Barnhart, a mom of three who was committed to creating delicious meals for her own family while also short on time. But more than just feeding her family nutritious meals, Meg knew innately that a home needs a spiritual foundation that cultivates a sense of comfort, trust, and strength so often created through sharing meals. Rooted in this commitment to making the comfort of home-cooked meals more convenient in increasingly busy lives, Meg, with her business partner, Jane McKay, developed the zen of slow cooking spice blends. These spice blends were designed to make it easy to use slow cookers to create delicious meals conveniently.

“The home cook truly brings the life force into the home,” Meg Barnhart, Co-founder says. “Bringing together our families through home-cooked meals provides time to connect and truly savor our meals. We created the zen of slow cooking spice blends to make it easier for busy families to make delicious meals using the tools of slow cookers and pressure cookers.”

Many people think that they just don’t have time to gather in the kitchen and cook a delicious meal, but it’s actually fairly simple. In just 20 minutes of prep time, one can infuse their home with calm, joy, and delicious food. Additionally, there are proven benefits to gathering one’s family to eat a delicious home cooked meal. Research has shown that eating together as a family can elicit benefits that range from neurological to nutritional to behavioral.[3]

What started as a food blog celebrating the Slow Cooker and later its millennial cousin, the Instant Pot, has now turned into an award-winning spice blend business that makes good slow cooking easy. the zen of slow cooking offers 9 spice blends to excite any palette: Coq Au Vin, Indian Dal, Mediterranean, Moroccan Tagine, Mulling Spices (seasonal blend), Provençale, Sichuan Spice, Southwest Fiesta and Smoky BBQ. A wealth of recipes that will take just 20 minutes or less to prep for each blend can be found at thezenofslowcooking.com. New blends are developed by Meg’s business partner Jane McKay, also a mom with her degree in Agricultural Economics & Food Marketing and a passion for food provenance and global flavors that she weaves into her recipe development.


Each packet is made with premium non-irradiated spices designed to be used in combination with whole fresh foods. All of the spice blends are gluten-free, and most are salt free. (There is a small amount of salt in the Smoky BBQ blend and Indian Dal) and are designed to create a meal for 4-6 people).  

Yogini’s the zen of slow cooking spice blends are also socially conscious, a certified B Corp, giving job opportunities with Planet Access Company to people with developmental disabilities through Yogini’s transformative employment opportunities and impact initiatives. In 2017 the zen of slow cooking Sichuan Spice Blend won an internationally recognized Sofi Award and in 2018, Ms. Barnhart received the Specialty Food Association’s Leadership Award.   

Enjoy these two recipe selections with Pressure Cooker and Multi Cooker such as “Instant Pot” from the zen of slow cooking website:

Prep Time: 20m, Cook Time: 7-8 hours LOW / 3-4 HIGH Servings: 4-6

Sichuan Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup
Prep Time: 10m, Cook Time: LOW for 6-7 hours, HIGH for 3-3 1/2 hours, Servings 4-6


About Yogini and the zen of slow cooking spice blends

Yogini, LLC was created by Meg Barnhart, to create a new business model that incorporated branches of product development together with media, not-for-profit, meal guidance, and future kitchen-ware, all infused with mindfulness, comfort and care. In 2012 Ms. Barnhart and her business partner, recipe developer, Jane McKay, launched their food blog that celebrated the pleasures of slow cooking. Seeing the need to provide convenient solutions for nourishing meals, they developed and launched the zen of slow cooking spice blends that offer 9 spice blends: Coq Au Vin, Indian Dal, Mediterranean, Moroccan Tagine, Mulling Spices (seasonal blend), Provençale, Southwest Fiesta, Smoky BBQ and award-winning Sichuan Spice.

the zen of slow cooking spice blends are available for purchase at thezenofslowcooking.com , Amazon, Whole Foods throughout the Chicago area and in select natural foods stores.

A wealth of recipes that will take just 20 minutes or less to prep for each blend can be found at thezenofslowcooking.com.

For more information about Yogini, LLC, and the zen of slow cooking spice blends, please visit www.thezenofslowcooking.com. For media inquiries, requests for product samples, high res images, or to set up an interview with the zen of slow cooking founders Meg Barnhart and Jane McKay, please contact Margaret Marchuk at mmarchuk@christieand.co or at 805-969-3744.

Join the zen of slow cooking community on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@zencooks)

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[1]  Goyal, M. (2014, March 01). Meditation for Psychological Stress and Well-being. Retrieved from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1809754
[2] Schrodt, P. (2018, April 11). Does the Instant Pot Actually Live Up to the Hype? Retrieved April 18, 2018, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/does-the-instant-pot-actually-live-up-to-the-hype-1523462580
[3]Fishel, A. (2015, January 12). The most important thing you can do with your kids? Eat dinner with them. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/12/the-most-important-thing-you-can-do-with-your-kids-eat-dinner-with-them/?utm_term=.062a68b2c38d

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