The Cooking Staples, Meal Hacks + Comfort Food Secrets Everyone Needs | Erin O’Brien

Be Well by Kelly Leveque

Kelly Leveque

Nutrition, Education, Health & Fitness, Alternative Health, Self-improvement

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I’m sitting down with Erin O’Brien: home cook, recipe developer, content creator, and author of the new cookbook Dig In. We talk about the recipes she makes on repeat, the kitchen staples she swears by, what it really takes to build a brand online, and how she went from working in real estate to growing a community of over a million followers. This episode is full of comforting food inspiration, easy cooking tips, and an honest conversation about creativity, burnout, and building a business doing what you love.→ Leave Us A Voice Message! Topics Discussed: → How do you make easy dinners? → What meals are best for families? → How do food creators avoid burnout? → What ingredients improve home cooking? → How do you build a food brand? Sponsored By: → OGEE | Thanks to today’s sponsor, OGEE: A higher standard for beauty. Go to https://ogee.com/BEWELL and use code BEWELL to get 15% off certified organic makeup that performs like luxury. → Be Well By Kelly Protein Powder & Essentials | Get $10 off your order with PODCAST10 at https://bewellbykelly.com. → Timeline | Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now more accessible. Mitopure starts at $99, and listeners can get 20% off at: https://timeline.com/KELLY → Function | Check your health the way I do — 160+ lab tests a year for $365, plus the ability to dive deeper into your results with Function's trusted connections to platforms like ChatGPT and Claude. Join at https://functionhealth.com/bewellbykelly and use code BEWELL25 for a $25 credit toward your membership. → Kosterina | You can shop all my favorites at https://www.kosterina.com/bewell and use code KELLY for 15% off your first order. → Hiya | Get 50% off your first order at https://hiyahealth.com/KELLY Timestamps: → 00:00:00 - Introduction → 00:03:03 - Erin’s Family History → 00:06:43 - Measuring + Recipe Creation → 00:09:01 - Inspiring Food → 00:13:24 - Easy Meal Planning → 00:16:05 - Quick Family Dinners → 00:19:09 - Hands Off Dishes → 00:21:13 - Planning Dinner → 00:25:39 - Content Creation → 00:29:31 - Day In The Life → 00:32:36 - Staying Connected To Your Audience → 00:39:07 - Staying Inspired → 00:45:43 - Underrated Ingredients + Techniques → 00:50:41 - What I Eat In A Day → 00:53:05 - Recipe Nonnegetiables Further Listening: → Giada’s Wellness Rules You Need to Know | Giada De Laurentiis Check Out Erin: → DIG IN (Book) → Instagram → Website Check Out Kelly: → Instagram → Youtube → Facebook

Transcript

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0:00.0	comfort food. There's a way to make comfort food really nourishing. If you're going to have a bowl of pasta,
0:04.9	add some protein, add some veggies in there, and it's delicious. I want time in the kitchen to be
0:10.2	somewhat therapeutic and it's a creative outlet for me, at least, and I think it should be joyful.
0:15.9	My husband and I love Italy. We went back in 2023 and we were like, oh my gosh, we need to move here one day.
0:21.9	One of the biggest things that inspires me, the community, listening to their feedback, what
0:26.7	recipes are you looking for? And I think that's really what drives my style of cooking.
0:31.3	My grandma taught my mom everything she knew in the kitchen. My mom worked at the restaurant
0:35.3	while she was in high school. And the one thing
0:37.8	about them, though, they don't measure a thing. So measuring exactly what they do was quite
0:42.8	challenging because they just don't. You're listening to Be Well by Kelly Leveck.
0:55.4	All right, you guys, welcome back to the Be Well by Kelly podcast.
0:58.6	Today's guest is Aaron O'Brien.
1:00.7	She's a home cook, a recipe developer, a content creator, and she basically blew up
1:05.5	her online community from zero followers to over a million in six years. And now she has her first debut cookbook
1:13.5	coming out. It's called Dig In. And I'm excited to dig in with you today. Thanks for being here,
1:19.1	Erin. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited and I can't wait for you to see it.
1:24.6	I mean, just like mouth watering recipes as I scrolled through your feed. And
1:29.8	I felt like I was living under a rock. I told you before our podcast started, I'm like, I hadn't
1:36.0	followed you. And I was so excited to see your book come through my, you know, like the pitch come
1:41.5	through my email. I was like, wait, who is this girl? And then I was like, wait, she's SoCal. La Jolla born and raised, living in Pasadena. Like, we have all these overlaps. Like, I'm going to be in La Jolla for my son's baseball tournament in like two weeks. Chris and I lived in L.A. for so long, almost 20 years, like through college and until Sebastian was really little. But yeah,
2:01.7	we're like, we're like two ships. So it's fun to connect. Well, you've been a little busy
2:07.0	building an entire empire. So I totally, totally understand. And I'm so grateful to connect now.
	...

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