Vegan MoFo 2019: Introduction

Hey you guys! Happy MoFo! I'm really excited to be participating this year. I've participated in the past but completely missed the boat for the past couple of years but I'm definitely back in the MoFo game. I think that this is exactly the boost I need to re-ignite my inspiration and creativity in the kitchen. I decided that for today it would be best to go by the prompts and start with a little introduction to me, my veganism and my blog.

I'll tell you a little about myself for anyone that is new here. My name is Sarah and as I'm sure you can guess by the name of this blog I live on Long Island. I am passionate about cooking, baking, creating mixed media art, true crime, podcasts and mental health awareness. I love using my creativity in any way that I can and I am looking forward to sharing my meals and projects with you throughout the month. I am dedicating all of my posts this month to a man named Doug that I lost about two months ago. He was very special and important to me and was an inspiration to me in terms of trying new things and getting out and enjoying life.

When I was 19 and a sophomore in college (this was 2002 I believe) I made the decision to become vegetarian. I've always loved animals, never really liked meat and never really understood why I continued to eat it (in very limited quantities). I had already given up red meat years before but decided to drop meat completely from my diet right before Thanksgiving of that year. I had always toyed with the idea of becoming vegan but always questioned my ability to do so because it just seemed really hard to be honest. I debated for many years and then finally in 2010 I decided to stop being ridiculous and just do it. I started the very first version of my blog immediately (on Tumblr 😳) to document my journey. It became clear to me very quickly that being vegan wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought and I decided that my form of vegan activism would be to show how easy, accessible and delicious vegan food is. I also like to share that you can be a vegan on a tight budget as well as that is something that can be daunting to new vegans as well.

I really love cooking simple vegan meals with accessible ingredients. Of course I like convenience items and fun splurgy items as well but I've found that focusing on ingredients you can get anywhere is a great way to go so you are never stuck. I enjoy recreating my favorite meals from my pre-vegan days and find those meals are really great to share with omni friends and family as well. I love baking as well and try to be creative with my baked goods (although to be fair, I haven't baked in quite a while 😩). I also struggle with several mental health issues as well as fibromyalgia which is another reason I focus on simple, delicious meals. Sometimes it is really difficult to motivate yourself to get into the kitchen to cook a meal at all, never mind an elaborate one with 30 ingredients.

So, what will MoFo look like here? Well, I couldn't decide on a single theme so I'll be cycling through a bunch of different themes that I've decided on. First, I really want to start getting to and supporting some more vegan restaurants (and restaurants with vegan options) here on Long Island so I am hoping to share some food from local vegan places. As I mentioned previously, eating vegan food on a budget is also something that is close to my heart so I'll be doing some posts on eating vegan food on a budget. I also plan on recreating some restaurant meals and old favorites of mine as well as finally trying some bookmarked recipes that I've had saved for SO LONG but never got the chance to make. Finally, I'll be staying true to some of my usual content and sharing lots of food I'm eating as well as some grocery hauls (I mean who doesn't love a good grocery haul?!). I plan on posting Monday-Friday every week and taking the weekends off.

Although this is the Vegan Month Of Food I do also intend to share some artwork with you guys! Julie  suggested doing some food inspired art which is a genius idea and if I can work that in somehow I will definitely do so! I definitely will be sharing the projects that I do make and I'm really excited to do that. I figured I'd share four of my favorite pieces for now 😊

Thank you all so much for stopping by and checking out my space here! I am really excited to share some awesome vegan food and some art with you this month. I hope to see you back here soon and I can't wait to see the amazing content you will all be sharing too! 💚