I cook. A lot. My obsession began with a few basic recipes and spun off into everything from collecting useful tools and gadgets to proper storage and presentation.
I didn't grow up cooking. In fact, I remember growing up fairly hungry. Though my mother was a wonderful cook, our low income household and her busy full time schedule kept our cupboards a bit bare. I remember eating pasta several nights out of the week and endless peanut butter sandwiches in my school lunches.
In high school I would spend much of my time at friends houses raiding their snacks. Hummus, chips, nuts, boca burgers, I always wished my house could be full of delicious things the way theirs were.
Now that I have my own apartment, I am determined to always have a perfectly stocked kitchen ready for anything! Healthy snacks, fresh veggies, a bowl of fruit, wonderful dried goods, and a back up stock in the freezer. I will never go hungry again!
I'd like to think of cooking as my secret power. It's a bit of a party trick for me. Once people find out about my cooking skills they pick my brain for recipe ideas, and general tips.
After daydreaming about it for longer than I intended, I decided it was time to create fooding: a (vegan friendly) guide to a healthy diet and a happy kitchen.
Why is vegan in parentheses? I don't want the focus of this blog to be a vegan diet. I think non vegans shy away from vegan blogs based on the idea that vegan food is often perceived as unrecognizable piles of vegetable matter. The problem is, in many cases this is true. I can't count how many times I've been "vegan" recipe hunting and found instructions for banana based sugarless mush cookies, or how about a recipe that involves 4 packaged imitation products and some bizarre oil you've never heard of?
I like, instead, to think simply about food. I often enjoy creating my own sandwich fillings, flavoring vegetables with no more than lemon juice and pepper, and when I want cookies I don't hold back from sugar, margarine, and other tasty awful things!
The result is friendly, happy, healthy, colorful, and familiar cuisine that I think everybody can enjoy. As far as vegan blogs go, I've listed a couple top notch ones along the side bar. I've yet to try anything that wasn't absolutely fantastic from them.
Recipes will only be a small part of fooding. I am looking forward to sharing useful techniques, tips on organization, ideas on saving money, and more. I think most people will be able to take something away from this.
I'd like to dedicate this blog to my broke-ass friends, anyone wanting to eat healthier, and everyone who has ever asked me for cooking advice!
I would also like to dedicate it to my mom for her determination to make as many things as possible from scratch, even in the driest of financial states.
And also to my Grandma, the most skilled cook and hostess I know.