Jessie James Decker can officially add cookbook author to her resume! The singer, TV personality, entrepreneur and New York Times best-selling author of the book Just Jessie, will release her first cookbook, Just Feed Me, on Tuesday, September 22. Although already busy with numerous business ventures, for Jessie, doing a cookbook was a natural response to what her fans seem to be clamoring for the most from her.
“I think it is partially because I cook so much on my Instagram and on my Stories all the time,” Jessie told Everything Nash. “I would get flooded with people asking me what I’m making in my recipe and how I did it. I thought to myself, ‘Well, you know, people ask and I want to provide. I want to do it.’ When I made my first book, Just Jessie, I asked my publisher if I could incorporate a handful of recipes, and they said yes. When I did that, I think they did some analytics and they realized that a lot of people bought my book to get the recipes, and it wasn’t a cookbook. So it seems like an easy transition to do the next book and make it a cookbook. It just made sense.”
Jessie is married to retired pro football player, Eric Decker, and the proud mother of three children, ranging in age from two to six, taking into account all of their own favorite dishes in deciding what to include in Just Feed Me.
“These are all recipes I’ve been making for years,” Jessie shared. “I had this little notebook I kept in the kitchen on the shelf that I would jot down recipes that I would create myself or throw together; things that I just remembered the family liking. And so whenever it was time to put this book together, I popped open that notebook and I decided to put them all in this book.”
Jessie’s children might be young, but their favorite recipes are surprisingly complex.
“I know it sounds crazy, but they ask for gumbo all the time,” the proud mom boasted. “My two-year-old keeps asking for gumbo, my oldest loves gumbo. It’s really bizarre for such young ones to like seafood gumbo. My middle child loves chicken noodle soup. That’s his favorite thing. And I have chicken noodle soup in the book.”
The 32-year-old included plenty of healthy recipes in Just Feed Me, along with some indulgent ones, in keeping with her philosophy that moderation is the key to success, especially when trying to maintain a healthy diet.
“I just don’t limit myself,” Jessie maintained. “I feel like that creates more of a problem. When you limit yourself, you just want it more and then you get in trouble later, and you overdo it. I think everything in moderation; I truly believe that. I’m not going to cut out wheat and things that I really enjoy. Food is one of the many pleasures in life, in my opinion. I’m such a foodie at heart. I grew up eating well, and if I want to the cake, I’m going to have it.
“But if you’re trying to watch your fitness, and you’re wanting to tone up, there’s little things you can do,” she continued. “Instead of having a big slice of cake, have a sliver and don’t eat past 6:00 PM at night. There’s little tricks and tips you can do that make a difference.”
While the multi-talented star won’t rule out other food endeavors in her future, including a cooking show someday, for now she’s eager to share her Just Feed Me recipes, and hints there might be another cookbook in her future as well.
“People loved Just Jessie, and it did really well for me,” Jessie said. “But the feedback we got was, people really loved the food. That was one of their favorite elements of my book, and so it felt like a natural transition to go to a cookbook next. But I think for my next book, I could really see focusing even more on maybe a healthy cookbook, a fitness cookbook with different tools that you can eat when you’re on a specific diet or you’re trying to tone up or build muscle, with different tips and tricks.
“Those are the kinds of things that we’ve been playing around with it,” she added. “I think I might stick to the food route. The possibilities are endless.”
Just Feed Me will be released on Tuesday, September 22. It is available for pre-order here.