Practical Plate
My recipe site. Simple low-carb meals with tested steps, total carbs, and breakdowns of what they cost me, so you have a starting point for your own budget.
Hi, I'm Autumn. I cook, write, and build websites.
I share budget-friendly low-carb recipes at Practical Plate, and I help small businesses and nonprofits make their websites easier for everyone to use. Both come from the same place: making things clear and usable for real people.
Food
Low-carb food that fits a real grocery budget
I've eaten low-carb for years, and I know how expensive it can get. So I shop prices: I build meals around ingredients that are almost always affordable, watch for deals and sales, and share what each recipe cost me to make.
The $50 Low-Carb Week
My cookbook. A 7-day low-carb meal plan built from a real $50 grocery haul. I ate from it for a full week before I wrote it, and kept the layout simple and easy to follow.
Brand partnerships
I work with food and kitchen brands that fit how my audience cooks: on a budget, without fuss. I make short recipe videos, blog features, and product content as an Amazon Influencer.
Where the two meet
Accessibility is part of my own work, too
Practical Plate is a recipe website I designed and built with accessibility in mind. Likewise, the cookbook's layout is designed and written to be highly accessible in all formats, including print (hardcover and paperback) and digital (PDF and Kindle). A few of the practices that go into both:
- Clear headingsScreen reader users often move through a page by its headings, the way sighted readers skim. Clear, well-ordered headings let them jump straight to the ingredients or the steps.
- Photo descriptionsRecipe photos have alt text, a short written description that screen readers read aloud, so people who can't see the image still know what's in it.
- Labeled tablesPrice breakdowns are built as real tables with labeled rows and columns, so a screen reader can say which ingredient each price belongs to instead of reading a jumble of numbers.
- A readable book in every formatThe same terms are used the same way throughout, so instructions never leave you guessing. In print, the layout stays clean and uncluttered. The ebook reflows, so readers can enlarge the text without scrolling sideways, and it includes accessibility details that tell screen readers how the book is structured.
This site follows the same practices. See them on a real recipe (opens in a new tab) or see how I can help with your site.
Web & accessibility
Making websites easier for everyone to use
I help small businesses and nonprofits build websites that are fast, easy to use, and accessible to people using screen readers, keyboards, or older phones.
- Accessibility reviewsI check your site against WCAG guidelines and give you a plain-language list of what to fix first.
- Site cleanups and upgradesFaster pages, clearer navigation, and content people can actually find.
- New small sitesSimple sites built on WordPress or plain HTML, set up so you can keep them updated.
Practical Plate
- The goal
- A recipe site that's quick to scan while you cook, easy to follow with a screen reader, and simple for one person to keep running.
- How it's designed
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- Recipes follow a similar layout, so readers can easily find the ingredients, the steps, and the cost
- Total carbs and labeled cost tables are included on recipes so the numbers people care about are easy to find
- Recipes are sorted into categories like Mains, Soups & Comfort Food, and Breakfast, so readers can quickly find the kind of dish they want to make
- Videos are embedded from YouTube instead of stored on the site, which keeps pages fast
- One consistent set of colors and fonts across every page, so the site feels familiar from page to page, links and buttons are easy to recognize, and readers spend less effort figuring out where things are
- Reusable blocks for the newsletter sign-up and the cookbook, so they update in one place (ideal for easy site maintenance)
- A homepage section for seasonal recipes that updates automatically with a simple tag, so keeping the homepage fresh takes seconds and no technical skills
- Affiliate disclosures are placed before every affiliate link, ensuring compliance with regulations such as the FTC's endorsement guidelines
- A built-in shop for the PDF cookbook, with links to Amazon for print and Kindle, so readers can buy the format they prefer
- See it in action
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- A recipe post (opens in a new tab) with headings, a video, and a labeled cost table
- The Five and Dine category (opens in a new tab), budget recipes with price breakdowns
- The homepage (opens in a new tab), including the seasonal section
- The cookbook shop page (opens in a new tab)
Burrito Brigade
- Where it started
- Important information was hidden in accordions, and the navigation made events, volunteering, and donating hard to find. There were two competing donation paths and accessibility gaps like low color contrast and inconsistent headings. As a small nonprofit, a full site rebuild wasn't feasible, so I worked within their budget and their existing WordPress and Divi setup, keeping the site easy for their team to maintain.
- What I improved
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- Moved key information out of accordions into sections people can scan
- Simplified the navigation and built one events page for volunteer sign-ups
- Combined the donation options into a single, clear path
- Improved color contrast, fixed the heading order, and added visible keyboard focus
- Sped up pages by compressing images and trimming unneeded code
- Set up analytics to track donations and volunteer sign-ups
- Ran their Facebook and Instagram with 3–4 posts a week, including short videos and branded graphics
- Results
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- Real-world mobile data shows the main content loading in about 1.2 seconds, well within Google's “good” range
- Facebook reached up to 43,500 people in a month, with no paid ads
- What's next
- More speed improvements, including trimming unused code and switching to modern image formats.
Background
- BAS in Internet & Web Development
- MS in Graphic Information Technology, focused on accessible design
- Taught graduate-level research methods
- Led workplace trainings
That teaching background shapes how I work with clients. You'll always know what's changing on your site and why, explained in plain language.
Projects are quoted individually. Tell me what you need.
About me
I live in Oregon and volunteer with a local food rescue organization. Cooking full-time and building websites might look unrelated, but I approach both the same way: figure out what someone actually needs, then make it simple to use.
A good recipe and a good website have the same job. Someone should be able to follow it the first time, without guessing.
Get in touch
For brand partnerships, web projects, or anything else, email me and tell me a little about what you have in mind.