Life & Work with Shelly Maynard

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shelly Maynard.

Hi Shelly, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
As a young girl, I often stood on a chair next to the stove as my grandpa cooked. He was a cook in the US Navy and introduced me to cast iron, seasonings, and the meaning of comfort food. My mom helped reinforced and added to those lessons by also giving me a love for learning new techniques to cook in the kitchen, as well as developing a love for baking!

When I met my husband, our kitchen had salt and pepper. Today, we have at least three dozen different seasonings in our cabinet. Over our (nearly) 17 years together, we have made eating together at the dinner table a priority for our family. It’s our chance to openly communicate and become a stronger family.

It’s been common for people to share pictures of their food via social media for years, but when my extended family and friends started requesting the recipes, I decided to start a blog. I previously operated under a different name, switching to Meat and Three Meals at the start of 2022. For me, the meat and three is an essential option for lunch or dinner at any southern establishment. Through my recipes, I hope to give food lovers a piece of the comfort that comes along with meat and three.

I love creating food that is comforting, tasty, and easy to make for any level of cook. I frequently use cast iron, the Instant Pot, and an Air Fryer, and love sheet pan meals. Most of my readers are like me – busy! Creating recipes that are quick and easy to get on the table is important to my readers. I love that I can help them eat good food and avoid the drive-thru lines before heading out to practices, games, etc.

As cooking trends often change, I try to include the new with the old. One of my favorite aspects about cooking and creating recipes is that they can all easily be changed to suit your personal preference of taste. Through Meat and Three Meals, you’ll easily see that I love creating desserts and using Lynchburg’s own Jack Daniel’s Whiskey in my recipes.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I’m not sure any business owner could say they’ve traveled a smooth road to where they are today and where they still have to travel in their journey. My story isn’t much different than others. There have been a lot of struggles over the years, but the worst I have experienced is when I was a website host company deleted my site files – including my backup. It taught me a valuable lesson in doing frequent backups that are stored elsewhere!

Keeping up with all of the changes to social media, algorithms, and trends is a full-time job itself! If you’ve never looked behind the scenes, you don’t realize how much time, money, and effort go into creating recipes and blogging.

Before I learned about strategically placing copyright aspects to my photographs, I had to deal with a few websites stealing them to use as their own. There was also a time when people were maliciously marking social media posts as “spam”. As a result, I lost a lot of the traffic that my website was receiving.

But I like to look at these challenges as a crucial part of the process. Each challenge has given me new tools to work with and the endurance to rise above them!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Even though I’m based out of Lynchburg, Tennessee, the great thing about food is that it can be enjoyed everywhere!

A few of my most popular recipes include my Sun Drop cake, Whiskey Pecan Pie Ice Cream, and Jalapeno Popper Chicken Skillet.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I’m a one-lady show behind Meat and Three Meals! By day, I work full-time, so all of my work is done in the evenings, on weekends, and on vacations.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://meatandthreemeals.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meatandthreemeals/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meatandthreemeals
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/meatthreemeals
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@meatandthreemeals