Little Sunny Kitchen

Diana Alshakhanbeh, Founder

London, UK

Little Sunny Kitchen's porcupine meatballs

2025

Little Sunny Kitchen is bringing easy weeknight dinners to home cooks around the world

Diana Alshakhanbeh launched Little Sunny Kitchen in 2013, combining her love of cooking with her background in marketing and entrepreneurship. What began as a passion project has become a leading site for approachable recipes like Marry Me Chicken and Garlic Shrimp Pasta. Today, it reaches millions each year while keeping every recipe free with the support of ads.

Building a Trusted Resource

Diana began sharing recipes online in 2013, pairing them with her own photography and styling. At first, she simply wanted a place to save her recipes and share them with family and friends, but her site quickly began reaching a wider audience.

Pinterest fanned these flames. She’d pin a few things and then started to see strangers arriving, and not just clicking, but actually cooking!

"I began to see traffic… people coming to my site and leaving comments and I was like, ‘oh my gosh,'" she remembers. And it was that small chorus of voices that ended up changing her whole perspective on what she had been doing.

Diana wasn't writing just for herself anymore; she was writing for busy people standing in their kitchen, wanting to get dinner on the table, quick and easy.

Diana’s north star grew from that realization: she was going to help those folks with time-tested recipes that feel doable, especially on a work night.

Or as she sums it up: “my mission is to make cooking approachable… recipes that are never confusing.” That’s why she tests, rewrites, and tests again, tweaking when to salt, what pan to grab, how the sauce should look — all so that readers can just relax and follow along.

Diana’s knack for recipe optimization stems from her background in marketing and entrepreneurship. The lessons learned in the business arena also happen to apply in the kitchen, like how she plans content and how she incorporates user feedback, to name a couple.

Naturally, Diana’s audience appreciated this about her as well. So much so that in 2016, after watching traffic to the site climb and climb, with so many folks returning for more and leaving meaningful positive feedback, she finally made the leap to running Little Sunny Kitchen full-time.

The goals didn’t shift when she left her full-time job either, but the pace definitely did. There was more posting, more retesting, rinse, and repeat.

And the diligence started to pay off: a run of easy recipes, followed by comments from readers who tried a dish, and felt proud. That’s the sort of feedback loop that kept Diana focused on inspiring more dinners that taste special, minus all the fuss.

Little Sunny Kitchen's strawberry oatmeal bars

Finding What Works

At first, Diana tested the waters with partnerships when brands began approaching her. Sure, the validation and money were nice, but in her own words, “sponsorships can be very unpredictable.”

There’s the timing, which didn’t always line up with what her audience wanted. And then there’s the branding, since the briefs sometimes nudged her in directions that just didn’t feel quite right.

“I felt like I didn’t have the freedom to really create content that fully aligns with my readers,” she adds. So she made a decision that would reshape the business completely: ads would fund her work from now on.

That decision was as much about her own values as it was about revenue: “the best way to monetize is through ads, in my opinion,” she says, because ads let the recipes stay free. And free means anyone can land on her site without hitting a paywall.

Of course, ad-supported doesn’t mean ad-heavy. “I try to balance the number of ads I have on every page, so as not to make it intrusive,” she says.

“All the while, folks seem to understand that it’s all part of the bargain: they’re getting my recipes for free, and Little Sunny Kitchen keeps the lights on.”

This philosophy of respecting the reader’s attention (and savings), along with the mutual understanding of why ads exist, goes a long way. Plus, it matches her signature approach to making recipes: practical and un-fussy.

As the business grew, she eventually joined forces with Raptive, a Google Certified Publishing Partner, who would manage the ads for her. They do all the grunt work (setup, optimization, reporting), so that she can spend more time on the recipes themselves.

That way, Diana can plan for grilling in summer, cozy soups in the fall, and sweets over the holidays, all without having to rearrange her editorial calendar around someone else’s product launches.

“The best way to monetize is through ads, in my opinion.”

The Next Chapter

Just look at where this approach has gotten her: millions of readers every year, many returning for dependable, easy weeknight dinners, from Diana’s Marry Me Chicken to her creamy garlic shrimp pasta.

Take a peek behind the scenes, and you’ll likely find Diana retesting and refreshing her recipes (over 1000 of them and counting!) so that whether you’re a first-time reader or a loyal fan, you can count on having a great cooking experience every time. “I never want to waste anyone’s ingredients or time and I want them to trust me,” she promises.

As Little Sunny Kitchen continued to grow, Diana gradually expanded her team to include support with editing, tech, and more. This allows her to focus her time on what she loves most: developing, testing, and perfecting recipes for her readers.

Her audience can also look forward to more video content and a cookbook project that has been long awaited by her readers, who often ask for it.

Through it all, Diana’s philosophy remains the same: to create approachable, reliable recipes that anyone can make at home, and to keep them free for everyone to enjoy. Supported by an ad-based model and a small but talented team, she continues to nurture Little Sunny Kitchen with care and intention, staying true to the same spirit that inspired her to start it in the first place.

It’s a full-circle moment: the very place that sparked Little Sunny Kitchen still shows up in the work, only now the light shines a little brighter.

About the Publisher

Diana Alshakhanbeh is the founder of Little Sunny Kitchen, a site known for its no-fuss recipes that fit into everyday busy lives. Since launching in 2013, she’s focused on making cooking approachable and enjoyable at the same time. Committed to keeping her archive free for readers, Diana runs her business on an ad-supported model while dedicating her time to fine tuning each recipe (with space left to be with her family).

Founder of Little Sunny Kitchen Diana Alshakhanbeh