*This article includes mentions of merchants or brands who are partners of DoorDash, and DoorDash may receive a commission if you choose to make a purchase from these merchants or brands.
Before becoming a full-time content creator, Brooke Stepp of Meals and Munchies worked as a therapist. Often, her husband would travel from their Charlotte, NC, home for his work in sales. She’d use her solo downtime to make magic in the kitchen.
“I’ve always loved cooking and experimenting with recipes,” says Stepp. “It’s my creative outlet. I’d come home and have the house to myself, so I started filming what I was doing.” Her friends recommended she post her kitchen endeavors on TikTok, and she gave it a try — at first, without showing her face.
Stepp started off with the tagline “Meals, munchies and mental health,” sharing as she navigated supporting clients going through all sorts of life challenges. Then a few years ago, she had her own deeply sad experience — a pregnancy loss. Her therapy work started to feel more taxing and less fulfilling. “It was stressful carrying other people’s trauma,” she says, on top of her own.
When Stepp eventually gave birth to a baby girl last year, she pivoted to a full-time career sharing recipes via social media and rebranded as “Meals, munchies and motherhood.” Stepp explains, “the third ‘m’ changed in a 3 a.m. lightbulb moment.” She started showing her face, too, along with more of her story.
The Gift of Family Dinner
Stepp grew up outside of Detroit in a big family — she was one of four siblings. Her parents “weren’t foodies, but every night we sat down together for dinner. My mom always cooked. I didn’t realize it was special, but it was something I always valued.”
Stepp’s mom didn’t have the time or inclination for in-depth cooking lessons, but Stepp picked up on the importance of meals — they were the centerpiece of her family life, and she observed her mom’s efficiency. Stepp learned that a healthy, satisfying dinner needn’t require all day, lots of ingredients, or fussy techniques.
The recipe that blew up Stepp’s TikTok was — drumroll— a super simple tortellini bake, with 122 million views and counting. She now has three million followers between TikTok and Instagram. Stepp also launched a cookbook version of her most viral recipes, which she sells at mealsandmunchies.com.
Stepp pays close attention to her metrics, taking note of which recipes perform the best and phasing out the kinds of content that don’t receive as much love. These days, she’s leaning into the very quickest dinners, which tend to be audience favorites. Her hits include dump-and-bake taco rice, tater tot casserole, and chili cheese baked potato. Scroll on her account for a few minutes and a theme will quickly emerge — dishes with three to five ingredients, one-dish dinners, sheet pan dinners… plus some adorable snaps of her toddler daughter.
Stepp says, “I listen to my audience and give them what they want.”
Learning, Growing, and Helping
Not every recipe is a win. “I will sometimes share my fail videos,” Stepp says. “These perform really well.”
For example, “I used regular rice instead of sticky rice for sushi and it was horrible, but I turned it into a sushi bowl instead of a sushi roll.” It didn’t look pretty, but it tasted great. According to Stepp, “Failures happen often — that’s part of the process.”
In fact, Stepp learned to cook using trial and error as her guides. She’s not a big cookbook reader or food TV viewer, but she follows her taste buds, creating dishes she’s craving. Or she’ll brainstorm how to make a simpler take on a favorite restaurant dish. Stepp never seems to run out of delicious ideas.
“With therapy, I was directly helping people, but I am also helping people through mysimple recipes,” Stepp says. “One mom shared that she stopped cooking for two years after she lost her daughter. I helped her return to the kitchen.”
Stepp gives newbie cooks and exhausted parents the confidence to make dinner, and it gives her “a sense of purpose,” she explains. “Feeding your family can be stressful, and I’m taking the stress away.”
Below, Stepp shares a quintessentially Meals and Munchies cheesy buffalo chicken dip recipe that’s perfect for fall.
Cheesy Buffalo Chicken Dip… in a Pumpkin!
Ingredients
1 small to medium sized pumpkin
1 rotisserie chicken, shredded
1 cup buffalo sauce
⅓ cup ranch dressing
1 packet ranch seasoning
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1⁄2 chopped white onion
1 1⁄2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
Green onion for garnish
Chips and celery to taste
Preparation
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Cut the top off your pumpkin and set aside. Using a spoon, scoop out the insides of your pumpkin the best you can.
In a large mixing bowl, mix together your shredded rotisserie chicken, buffalo sauce, ranch, ranch seasoning, softened cream cheese, chopped onion, and shredded cheese. Reserve a handful of shredded cheese for later. Mix until well combined.
Add the mixture to your pumpkin and bake uncovered for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, take it out, mix it, and top with remaining shredded cheddar cheese. Bake for an additional 20 minutes.
Once done, garnish with green onion and serve with chips and celery.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Meals and Munchies
