Welcome!

I'm not a vegan. I don't pretend to be vegan. Three years ago I was at a standstill for family meals. At that point, we never ate lamb or pork (unless it was canadian bacon on a pizza), rarely ate beef and I was bored with chicken. After all, how many ways can you cook chicken?

Back then I was taking nutrition 101 for my nursing prereqs and I could not have had a better instructor. He was a Naturopathic Physician who passed on his holistic view when it comes to food onto his students. He wasn't a strict vegan, ate fish occasionally, but really advocated thinking about what you eat and how it effects your body. It was around this time I started experimenting with vegan/vegetarian foods. I say experiment as one thing I've learned is not two vegan cookbooks are created the same. It may have a snazzy cover, look good, but the recipes could be absolute crap.

Although my family continued to eat meat, my oldest daughter made the change to vegetarian almost two years ago. As a result at dinner there is always a vegetarian or vegan meal. Yes, I still eat meat but I'm slowly making the switch to give it up almost completely. There are many health benefits that come from eating a diet low in meat, such benefits are even greater if a balanced vegetarian or vegan diet is observed.

One thing I've discovered is that vegan/veggie cooking is that it doesn't have to be complicated and you don't have to eat tofu at every meal. I hope to share tasty recipes I come across in different cookbooks as well as any positive nutrition tidbits that come my way. Any changes that I make in recipes I will put in parenthesis.

On the side bar, I'll list cookbooks that I've tried at least 10 recipes in and loved as well as books relevant to nutrition and food. "What To Eat" by Marion Nestle is an excellent book going into detail how not only our meat but dairy products are made, how to make the best produce choices and even reveals how the make up of supermarkets have an effect on what food we buy. "New Vegetarian Baby" is good even if you don't have children as it is very detailed on nutrition, how much our body, needs of what, and how to get them if you are vegan or vegetarian.