Small Business Saturday: Abbie’s Plant-Based Cuisine

We are so excited to feature this mama-owned business today. One we also featured in our Health & Wellness Guide and that we cannot wait to try ourselves, Abbie’s Plant-Based Cuisine. Abbie Huckleby is chef and owner, and all meals are home-cooked, 100% plant-based, non-GMO, using only the freshest ingredients. We’ve heard all the benefits of plant based diets and one look at Abbie’s food and reviews from customers, we are sure to be customers for life!

Abbie became an empty nester in 2014, and it was then she decided it was time for a serious lifestyle change. She spent the last 18 years of her life raising my two beautiful daughters and when they left for college, she knew it was finally time to focus on her! She joined a weight loss program and started her journey to a healthy lifestyle, eventually becoming solely plant-based.

Abbie joined Vegan Facebook sites and started following and chatting with other Vegetarians, Vegans and Alkaline Vegans. Gradually, Abbie and her husband began giving up meat, starting with beef and finally gave up all meats except for seafood occasionally on birthdays and anniversaries. She said she started noticing how much better they all felt, how much better they slept, how much energy they had and the clarity of thinking and the alert consciousness they had since giving up meat. And of course, they lost weight!

Abbie and her husband decided to go totally plant-based right after Hurricane Harvey. While she was cleaning up after the flood, she cleaned the fridge and pantry of all items that were not plant-based and started over from scratch restocking the entire kitchen. That was the beginning of their plant based life style.

Abbie is so passionate about cooking and loves turning some of our favorite foods into plant-based meals that people just can’t believe have no meat! She’s so talented and beloved by many and it’s so clear to see why – she puts so much love into what she does!

Our full interview with Abbie is below and you can check her out and order HERE. Weekly menus are posted on Monday and deliveries and pickups are on Sunday. We hope you give them a try!

Start off by telling us who you are and what your business is!

I am Abbie Huckleby better known as Chef Abbie. I am married to my best friend, Stacy of 27 years and a mother of two adult daughters. I am the chef and owner of a plant based meal prep service. We prepare weekly meals for clients that consist of breakfast, lunch and dinner options. We also have family size portions on some items as well. We sale plant based bottled salad dressings and soup/stews/chowders by the quart and gallon.

Where are you from originally and how long have you lived in the Katy area?

I am from Mississippi, moved to Houston in 1985 and moved to Katy in 2003.

Are you a mama, too? If so, how many kiddos and how old are they?

Proud mother of two beautiful daughters, Alayna, in grad school completing her PhD in Material Science Engineering in Tallahassee and Laura an accountant with Price Waterhouse Cooper Accounting Firm in Virginia.

What did you do before opening your business?

I recently retired from ConocoPhillips after 31 years as an Exec Admin Asst.

When did you launch your business and what was the inspiration behind it?

2018 is when I took a leap of faith to start Abbie’s Plant Based Cuisine.

When I became an empty nester in 2014, I decided it was time for a serious lifestyle change. I joined a weight loss program and started my journey to a healthy whole food diet and living my best life. The program taught me proper portion control, how to combat cravings and healthier ways of cooking my favorite foods. Over a two-year period, I lost 67 pounds and loved the new me!

I joined Vegan Facebook sites and started following and chatting with Vegetarians, Vegans and Alkaline Vegans to gain more knowledge on plant based eating. Once I convinced my husband to come on board, we both started noticing how much better we felt, how much better we slept, how much energy we had and the clarity of thinking and the alert consciousness we had since giving up meat, and not to mention the weight my husband started losing, over 27 pounds!

We decided to go totally plant-based right after Hurricane Harvey. While I was cleaning up after the flood, I cleaned my fridge and pantry of all items that were not plant-based and started over from scratch restocking my kitchen. That was the beginning of our plant-based lifestyle. I don’t like to use the word Vegan, Vegetarian of Alkaline Vegan because I don’t totally follow their regime, we choose to use the word plant based or whole foods. I’m a Facebook fanatic so I started posting about my journey and posting pics of the meals that prepared. A dear friend of mine reached out and asked if I could help her with meal planning since she had given birth to twin boys and had her hands full. I was ecstatic to say the least that someone wanted me to prepare their meals, so I agreed to help her. One thing led to another, she told a friend, that told a friend, that told a friend and before I knew it, I had clients that I was preparing meals for not to mention a fan club on Facebook and from that, Abbie’s Plant Based Cuisine was birth.

What’s the journey been like of opening and owning your own business?

Scary, exhausting, fulfilling, exciting, challenging but I would not change it for the world!! I found my true calling and I’m passionate about it!!! I can spend hours, days or weeks in my kitchen and would not be one bit tired or bored. I am in my haven, my good place, my peaceful place, my sanctuary when I’m in my kitchen. I can cook from sunup to sundown. I have a serving spirit and preparing and serving plant-based cuisine to my clients is a way that feeds my spirit and feeds the bellies of my clients.

Why plant based? Tell us why you are so passionate about it.

As I stated earlier it was a much-needed change for me that I desperately needed to do. I was once on 5 medications and now I’m on 1.5 meds!!!! After losing 67 pounds I refused to be a yoyo dieter and going plant based helped me maintain by weight and literally gave me my life back. I’m healthier, I sleep better, I think better and am a more peaceful being after giving up meat and dairy.

Can you tell us some of the success your customers have seen since receiving your meals?

Weight loss is a big one and a few of my clients are not longer diabetic. Most of them tell me that they are happier and sleep like a baby now.

Do you deliver only in Katy? Do you have plans to expand?

We deliver within 40 miles of Katy.

Have you always had a heart for entrepreneurship and for cooking?

Love, love, love cooking and love to see people enjoy my meals.

What originally got you interested in plant based options?

Not wanting to gain back the weight that I loss and to reduce the meds I was taking. Also, the challenge of turning our favorite meals into plant based meals.

Tell us about some of your most popular meals that people wouldn’t even know were plant based?

The Veggie filled Lasagna is one that blows people away when I tell them that is all plant based. My Mac & Cheese is another one that people can’t believe that the cheese is plant based. Most of my breakfast meals surprise people as well especially the Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls.

Future plans and dreams for your business?

I would love to open and a “Grab and Go” location and host cooking classes and well as special events.

Best advice for anyone wanting to open their own business?

Love what you are doing, really have a passion for it because if not when the hard times hit you will quit.

Favorite thing about being a business owner? Hardest thing?

I am my own boss, and I am in charge and can do what I please lol! I’m still in awe that I have a business that is doing well from something that I love to do and am passionate about it.

Doing it by yourself sometimes, everything falls on you because you are the boss, it’s your business and you can’t blame anyone if things don’t go as planned.