First Post

I'm finally doing it. I decided to take the plunge and begin a food blog. Friends have been telling me for a while now that I should document my cooking escapades in a blog, but I've been hesitant. I'm not a chef—far from it I'm afraid—but I love to cook for my wonderful (and hungry) husband and I love to spread the word that vegan food is delicious, fun and easy. My friends are probably right, and now I'm thinking I would like to blog about my adventures.

The objective of this blog is to talk about cooking and eating delicious food and I won't be devoting a lot of time to vegan politics. However, in this very first post, I figure I've got to at least address quickly how I came to be a vegan. And the story is really pretty simple. The initial reason I started eating vegan was for health reasons. I had abnormally high cholesterol in my early 20's, despite eating a relatively healthy, low fat diet. My husband J and I learned about veganism from a friend in Charleston, SC (as unlikely a place as can be for one to become vegan), and decided to give it a try, figuring it would be a fun change of pace. After about a week of eating vegan, the question ceased being "why?" and became "why not?" We were so engrossed in trying new foods we'd never had before (kale, tempeh, and my absolute favorite food on the planet—quinoa, among them) that we didn't even miss the things we had eliminated from our diet. After reading some moving and informative books (Everyone should read The Food Revolution by John Robbins), the reasons to be vegan kept adding up. I'm not saying that my vegan diet will save the world, but I simply thought to myself that if being vegan was so easy and if it could make a difference to my health and future, to the environment and the world, and to the lives of people and animals around the globe, then I just couldn't see why I wouldn't want to do it for life. Eating vegan is easy. It's very easy. God created an unbelievable variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, nuts and seeds to nourish us and bring us joy through unique tastes, colors, textures and flavors. I don't expect I'll be getting bored any time soon.

Some of my posts will be about new recipes I'm trying from my extensive cookbook collection, some will show recipes I've created or am in the process of creating, and some will dust off old favorites that have stood the test of time. Some weeks I cook every day while others I get too busy to spend the time I'd like in the kitchen. Overall I'll try to update this blog as often as I can. I hope you enjoy reading the recipes and adventures ahead as much as I do. And of course they will all be, invariably, vegan.