‘I Was Raised by Women Who Measured With Their Heart!’: Hannah Taylor’s Recipe for Joy (EXCLUSIVE)

Hannah Taylor’s warm Southern charm and tasty recipes (shared as @LilyLouTay on Instagram, Tiktok and Facebook) have struck a chord with people from all walks of life, yet she’s surprised that she’s amassed almost 4 million followers online. “I’m still blown away by all of it because honestly, this is just our life,” Hannah tells Woman’s World as our cover girl (get your copy here!) 

Hannah’s videos give us a peek into her day-to-day with her adoring husband James Taylor (not that James Taylor), their three kids and a menagerie of pets—including seven rescue cats, four dogs and 70 chickens. “This is what we do every day after work—we’re in the kitchen, cooking, talking. The kids are screaming and the dogs are under our feet.” Hannah’s rise to online stardom began with one video: She shared a simple recipe for bread on TikTok. “Being recognized is wild. I didn’t expect it, but it’s such a blessing.”

Now, Hannah is preparing for the release of her first cookbook, Measure with Your Heart: Southern Home Cooking to Feed Your Family & Soul, out on October 21. “I was raised around women that measured with their heart and too much tequila,” she says of the inspiration for her new cookbook. “They would get in the kitchen, and it was like a celebratory thing. They would get in there, turn on their music, drink tequila and dance around, and the amount of seasoning that would fly everywhere! I never saw a measuring spoon, never.” 

When Hannah got older and married, she remembers the women measured everything. “It seemed really stressful,” she says with a laugh. “And so this was my way of giving this big salute to the women who shaped my early years. Their attitude was, ‘If it turns out, it turns out.’ And if it didn’t, we ate it and enjoyed it anyway, because it’s really about the feeling.”

Hannah Taylor’s Halloween drama

Leading up to Halloween this year, she admits there has been a little friction in her Georgia household. “We are all going as Star Wars characters, even me and my husband James. I’m so excited, but me and my daughter Lily are at a tiff about who’s going to be Princess Leia. She’s like, ‘There can’t be two Leias.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, there’s going to have to be because I’m not being Chewbacca,’” Hannah says with a hearty laugh.

Halloween is a big deal in the Taylor household. “Lily, my oldest, is the Halloween queen and that’s the holiday that I let her lead,” Hannah says. “There are decorations everywhere. Our tradition is candied apples. We always candy apples and then eat sweets all day, including marshmallows, bags and bags of marshmallows. They really like my homemade Oreos and my homemade Reese’s Cups. Those are really good. We just get junked out all day and then, we get dressed up and trick-or-treat together.”

Hannah Taylor talks overcoming fear

Hannah admits she’s embracing this season of life with a confidence and bravery she didn’t possess when she was younger. “What held me back a lot was fear,” Hannah shares. “What I say to my girlfriends now is, ‘Do what you want to do. Go and do and be free and live your life.’ The more you do that, the more you’re really going to feel life and everyone around you is going to want to feel that too and learn from it. It is such a beautiful thing when you live life to the fullest and just strip away that fear.”

Hannah has also learned to accept herself and encourages other women to feel more confident in their bodies. “I was married before and he was very fit, and I tried to live up to the standard of a six-pack, but I found the more I dove into eating certain foods and staying fit, I just lost this whole connection with food,” says Hannah, who confesses that her current husband, James’, favorite thing about her is her love handles. “I make a routine out of getting in front of the mirror and just applauding my body for every stage of life it’s went through. It’s had three babies, and so when I see the stretch marks, I think of them. I find little things about my body that I can compliment. Look in the mirror and compliment yourself every day.”

Hannah’s favorite recipes in her new book

Hannah is excited about the 100 recipes in her book and says there is something in Measure with Your Heart for everyone. “The peach cheesecake is probably my favorite recipe in the book,” she says. “I’ve been making that for four or five years. My mother-in-law’s specialty is cheesecakes, and so she taught me how to make them.”

She’s also a big fan of sheet pan meals and says they are her go to on busy nights when she’s trying to put a meal together fast. “I’ll just throw squash and green beans on a baking pan with some chicken thighs, and then just season it up from there. I use Dijon mustard and a lot of seasoning. You pop it in the oven, 30 minutes and it’s ready.”

Hannah is grateful for her busy life filled with food and family and anchored by her faith. “I get my strength from God. I get my strength from James, my children, my animals, my life. I couldn’t do what I do without them. They are literally my life force. When I’m having a really tough day where I’m feeling defeated, I’ll seek out a hug from my children or James. Those hugs make everything instantly better.”