Me as a young one

Ever since I was a young girl, I have had far too many creative and productive interests. One of my earliest passions was writing. I wrote about everything. I was a very imaginative girl and would create stories about people, animals, and even sometimes inanimate objects.

Later as I grew up, and computers and internet technology became more accessible, I would write online e-mail based zines, design simple websites about fashion, culture, and my other interests and also used livejournal a lot as a place to dump my feelings and ideas.

Around the same time that was all happening, starting in middle school, I became passionate about animal rights and became as close to a vegetarian as I could with parents that were extremely worried about my supposed “lack of protein” if I were to go fully vegetarian, and who are still to this day stubborn about changing their meat-eating ways. Unfortunately, I started back eating meat in some of my early college years, but that would not be the end of my veggie eating ways.

Me as a banana

I first decided to go vegan around 2008, when I watched a documentary on TV called The Human Footprint  that showed how many animal products (and other things that cause environmental problems) we waste every year in this country…one particularly moving graphic they used to portray the waste with was when they showed how many eggs get thrown out unused per year on average…I don’t remember exactly how they did it but I think they took a barn and filled it up with that amount of eggs. It was disgusting. Since I had already sort of been thinking  a bit about veganism already, this was basically enough to get me to want to change. I saw how careless I was being and many other people were with wasting animal products.  And not only that, but my empathy made me think of the chickens whose eggs we were wasting. Not only were we wasting eggs, the chickens are wasting their lives away, for our food.

So pretty quickly I went from eating meat to being a vegan, which may have contributed to me being off and on for several years because of the big plunge I took.  However, even when I stopped being a vegan I felt very guilty, and like I was not being true to myself and philosophies. Right now I am a vegan, and I don’t plan to quit ever.

I love vegan frosting!

Non-vegans talk about how veganism is a restricted diet (I know some vegans that describe their diet that way too…which is weird but oh well), that a vegan cannot eat so many delicious kinds of foods, and I say, poo on them! It’s simply not true, and I have gained so much from being vegan. Here’s a little list:

• I learned how to cook for myself, from having not known how to cook at all, to making amazingly delicious looking and tasting dishes. I can cook almost any recipe I find without issue. Am I craving a vegan version of a French Canadian Meat pie? I can find a recipe for that, and cook it. Am I craving vegan brisket and rugelach for dessert? Done. What about Stroganoff? Yup. Or Brioche bread? Indeed! Fermented cashew cheese? Yes please! Bagels from scratch? Mmmhmm. Ice cream? I SCREAM for it! You get the picture…I even once created my own vegan version of tootsie rolls, although I haven’t made them since because, well, there are more delicious candies I could be making. Check out the recipe here, if you are curious!
• I’ve lost 50 lbs and counting. I had problems with food and my health, and I’m slowly reversing them by becoming a vegan and someone who does not always eat junk food (definitely possible with veganism, unfortunately).
• I’ve made new friends. Online and off.
• Veganism makes me happy–and I feel like my conscience is finally okay with my ethical choices regarding what I eat.
• I feel like spreading veganism and educating about all the reasons to be a vegan (the delicious food, the personal health benefits, the well-being of animals, the improvement of the earth, etc) is a big reason why I’m around living and experiencing my life…it’s something I feel I need to do and am going to make a big impact with.
  • In the past few years since going vegan and since starting my blog, I have had lots of amazing opportunities, such as becoming a contributor for Definition Magazine, an online vegan fitness mag! Check it out!

So, with all that said, my girlhood passions of being a writer and a website maker/blogger/designer have all come together with my love of vegan cooking, education, lifestyle, and this blog is where I shall share it all with the world!

Me eating vegan soft serve at the Like No Udder truck in Rhode Island!