Happy Heart Kona

06/11/2025

It’s cookbook launch day! 🎉
“Recipes That Make Your Heart Happy” is officially out in the world! 🥹 💜 This e-book contains 38 original, dairy-free recipes from the café — including our famous vegan pop tarts, Mexican Indian Burrito, and all of our “perfect for a beach day” sandwiches and wraps! 🥪🌱
Whether you’re plant-based or just food-curious, this book is all about making meals that feel good and taste even better. 🥰 Link in bio to download your copy and spread the happy heart vibes in your home kitchen! 👩🏽‍🍳🍪

04/06/2025

The recipe book is coming together! 🥹 Makes me a lil emotional looking back through all the recipes, many of which started in my lil apartment kitchen and some that grew over time into what became some of the most popular items in the cafe! It’s so funny to think back on the journey and how much time I spent recipe testing. But it was all worth it in the end! One of the things I’m most proud of actually was figuring out the correct butter ratio for the gluten free pop tats. Being able to serve a good vegan, gluten free pop tart to someone who was maybe a lil skeptical about it - man that made me so happy to hear how much they loved it! 🥰 Getting so excited to put these recipes out there and teach you all how to make them in your own home and share with friends. 💜 If you want to pre-order the recipe book, you can Venmo $10 to me at -kona or PayPal/Zelle to [email protected] 🍓 Please just make sure you include your email so that I know where to send the book to! ✨

03/30/2025

Aloha! I’m so excited to share this new podcast with you all! Neil and I recorded a chat a few weeks ago in which we reminisce about the cafe and discuss our experience opening and close the cafe. ☺️

We both miss you all so much and are excited to start sharing our recipes with you all! In May we will be releasing a recipe book to teach you how to make all the food from the cafe! 😄 I’m excited to finally teach you all how to make the pop tarts! 🥭

You can pre-order the recipe book at a discount by sending $10 via Venmo to -kona or you can send via Paylpal or Zelle to [email protected].

Until that gets released, I’ll be sharing videos and photos from the whole journey, and other interviews with people who were involved in making Happy Heart Kona a reality! ☺️

Mahalo to you all for being so sweet and supportive - I truly have enjoyed hearing from all of you here and there over the last couple of years checking in and asking for the recipes. I heard you…and now I’m finally ready to share it all with you. 🥰

Podcast · Isabel Thottam · A podcast about chasing your dreams and doing what makes your heart happy! Host Isabel Thottam shares her experience running a health food cafe on Hawaii Island and interviews others who have chased or lived a dream.

03/30/2025

💜Aloha! I’m so excited to share this new podcast with you all! The link is in our page bio to listen to the first episode. 👀 Neil and I recorded a chat a few weeks ago in which we reminisce about the cafe and discuss our experience opening and close the cafe. ☺️ We both miss you all so much and are excited to start sharing our recipes with you all! In May we will be released a recipe book to teach you how to make all the food from the cafe! 😄 I’m excited to finally teach you all how to make the pop tarts! 🥭You can pre-order the recipe book at a discount by sending $10 via Venmo to -kona or you can send via Paylpal or Zelle to [email protected]. Until that gets released, I’ll be sharing videos and photos from the whole journey, and other interviews with people who were involved in making Happy Heart Kona a reality! ☺️ Mahalo to you all for being so sweet and supportive - I truly have enjoyed hearing from all of you here and there over the last couple of years checking in and asking for the recipes. I heard you…and now I’m finally ready to share it all with you. 🥰

03/28/2025

Aloha Big Island family! In case you missed my recent stories post, I shared that I’ve decided to come back to this page and start sharing memories and stories from my time operating the cafe in Kealakekua.

Over the next few months I’ll be releasing podcast interviews with people involved in the cafe, photos, videos, and of course…my recipes! I know a lot of you keep asking for the pop tart recipe and it’s finally time! 🤪

It’s crazy to think we’re coming up on 3 years since we closed the cafe and left Hawaii. I knowingly took on a lot of debt when I did so and despite making all the payments on time, I’m still barely chipping away at it. I decided to get creative to find a way to help me pay off the debt faster and since people do still reach out asking for my pop tart recipe and how to make other items from the cafe…like the masala chai and the daal…I figured, what better way than to make a lil recipe book?! 😄

I’m planning to release it online in May but if you want to pre-order for a discount you can do so today! Simply Venmo happyheart-kona $10 or whatever you want to throw my way to help with the debt, and please include your email in the comment section so that I can send you the recipe book directly! 💜

I have loved staying in touch with you all on here and was so happy that I got to see some of you last year! Hawaii still feels like home to me and I feel so blessed to have had all the experiences I did there. Thank you all for believing in me, enjoying my food, and sharing in my love of fruit and healthy eating! I’m really, really excited to start sharing about how I created all these recipes and teach you how to make them! 😄

03/27/2025

A little update to share with you all!

I decided to put together a recipe book from the cafe that will be available for digital download! If you want to PRE-ORDER the recipe book at a discount, you can Venmo $10 to -kona

Please include your e-mail in the comment so that I can e-mail the book to you directly when it's ready! I plan to have the recipe book available by the end of May!

I know most people want the pop tart recipe, but I am also including all of the recipes from the food we served in the cafe (sandwiches, daal, the Mexican-Indian burrito, granola, cookies, smoothies, etc.,!) as I wanted to offer something that would continue the spirit of the cafe and help give you all some healthier food options! 🙂

Mahalo for all the continued support and kind messages, I love hearing from you all and look forward to teaching you how to make the items at home! 💜

Get more from Happy Heart Kona on Patreon

08/19/2022

Reminder: our garage sale is tomorrow!
Friday & Saturday
Aug 19th & 20th, 9am-4pm!

See photos for some of what is available! We will take cash, Venmo or PayPal payments.

We also have lots of free stuff that will be set aside and marked as so! ☺️

See ya here: 75-627 N Mea Lanakila Pl in pualani estates🏝

08/15/2022

Hi everyone! We hope you’ve all been doing well. The time has come for us to move off island. We are having a garage sale this Friday & Saturday, Aug 19th & 20th from 9am-4pm at our home in Pualani Estates. We are selling a lot of items and have a few things left from the cafe - food containers, cups, bake ware, etc., plus stuff from our home! We have lots of storage items, men and women’s clothing, sporting goods, kitchen and cook ware, art, books, camping gear, plants and vases, furniture…and more! We will take cash, Venmo or PayPal payments. We will also have a box of free stuff if you just wanna come by and look through that!

See ya here: 75-627 N Mea Lanakila Pl in pualani estates 💜

06/27/2022

Alright today is the last day to come shop! We are here until 4pm and have tons of stuff marked down or for free! We have some cups left, some small appliances (toast oven, micro wave, nutri bulletin and instant pot, etc.,) plus lots of free foods like gluten free bread, lettuce and more! See ya here!

06/27/2022

Ah, this morning was crazy!! We’ve sold a lot of stuff but still have things left! Lots of packaging supplies, some smal appliances, some dry goods, spices, chairs, plants, pots, trays, stainless steel flatware, cups, mugs….and more! 😄 We will be here from 8am-4pm again so stop in whenever to take a look!

06/26/2022

Come on by the cafe for our garage sale of lots of good stuff! We have kitchen and baking supplies, packaging materials, potted plants, wooden chairs, wooden plates, cups, mugs, utensils and more! We are here until 4pm and can take payment via Venmo, PayPal or cash! See ya here! 🤙🏾