Diane Rose-Solomon, Author at What's Plant-Based Cooking Good Looking?

Is Anything Holding You Back?

by Diane Rose-Solomon | Jan 4, 2023 | Whole Food Plant Based

Where are you in your plant-based eating journey? Do you need ideas of what to eat? Recipes? Variety? Just to make the decision to go for it? What is your reason for even making the switch? The animals? The planet? Your health?

For me, it was a long slow process. I knew in my heart I didn’t want to eat animals, but it was so hard eliminating certain foods. It was also the societal stuff- like friends and family teasing, or asking questions that I did not have the answers to. Plus, there wasn’t a lot of good food to choose from way back when.

But then I decided to go for it and I began discovering new plant-based foods. Once I learned how to cook with some of the ingredients that intimidated me, I felt much more comfortable.

Then I attended the Cornell plant-based nutrition online program and with a bit of fine tuning to the vegan choices, now live a lifestyle that is also best for my health. I even look forward to all the plant-based foods I eat and don’t miss any of the animal-based foods I used to eat.

I want to share something from Charity Morgan’s cookbook, Unbelievably Vegan. I just got it and haven’t cooked anything yet though I have tagged a few recipes to try. She’s very cool and here are some excerpts from her introduction:

“I found myself always trying to explain my decisions and felt the frustration from my clients too. They wanted to try something new but didn’t want to tell people they were vegan or plant-based because with that statement comes judgment (which is why many people go vegan quietly).

…So the rebel that I am, I created a new category. I called it Plegan [plant-based and vegan]. It’s a term for people growing in their awareness and consciousness, making an effort to discover the healthiest and most sustainable way of eating.

… I don’t blame anyone for feeling overwhelmed or for not being a ‘perfect vegan.’ In the meantime, it’s nice to know you can keep the animal products off your plate and continue to grow in a loving, inclusive environment where you can make your own conscious decisions about your impact on animals, the environment and yourself.”

I share this with you because I like the sentiment. It’s how I feel too. Do what’s best for you and let us know how we can help make it simpler and more enjoyable!

Veganuary is Coming!

by Diane Rose-Solomon | Dec 21, 2022 | Whole Food Plant Based

Veganuary is Coming and I wanted to let you know we will be celebrating and giving away a few prizes at the end of the month.*

I never thought much about Veganuary since I already eat plant-based year-round. Upon further reflection, however, it’s a great way to introduce plant-based eating.

What is Veganuary? Veganuary is an organization that encourages people to try vegan for January and beyond. Learn more here. Their website has a ton of information and recipes galore.

For more tasty recipes, lots of support and a fun month, hang out with us at What’s Plant-Based Cooking Good Looking?!

If the idea of eating plant-based for a whole month is foreign to you, here’s a reframe:

Don’t think of it as what you are giving up. Rather, think of it as what you are gaining:

🌿 A whole new repertoire of foods to try,

🌿 Recipes to cook if you are interested in cooking,

🌿 An exploration into how living a healthy plant-based lifestyle can do wonders for your health,

🌿 Feeling empowered that you are contributing to healing, not harming, the earth by the foods you consume.

🌿 And of course, the ability to sleep at night knowing you didn’t harm an animal for your food.

There’s more, but that’s a good place to start.

Plus, it’s only one month and if at the end you decide it’s not for you, then you can go back to eating whatever animal products you were eating before.

BUT, you might also decide that it’s not as hard as you thought. Or, you might see some improvements in your health and want to stick with team plant-based. Or you might learn about the atrocities of the animal food industry and decide you no longer wish to participate. Or, or, or…

Yes, there is a lot of wacky information out there about what is healthy. And yes, there is a lot of misinformation about the animal agriculture industry (such as how we are lead to believe that it’s humane).

Yet, what I hear over and over from people who are now 100% plant-based or vegan is that their biggest regret is that they didn’t do it sooner. I’m one of those people.

Join us here for the month. We’ll be posting something every day on social and that same post will go out to our newsletter recipients.

Plus- we are offering prizes for anyone who wishes to eat plant-based for the month. All you have to do is take photos of your plant-based meal and email to me. *We will be posting the rules for the raffle at the end of the month. Details below.

Raffle eligibility:

🌱 Take a photo of your vegan meal and email it me, with the name of the dish in the subject line.

🌱 Be sure your first name (not just your email address) is apparent in the email (so we know who is entering.)

🌱 If you send a photo in every day, you will automatically win a small prize, be entered to win the grand prize, and receive discounts on future offerings.

🌱 The top 10 people with the most entries will be entered to win the grand prize. (Something yummy.)

🌱 The top 10 people will also receive a discount on our new offerings in February.

🌱 There will be two runner-up prizes. (One of my favorite ingredients.)

🌱 Raffle will be held on January 30^th and announced January 31^st.

🌱 By sending in your recipe via email, you agree to receive emails from What’s Plant-Based Cooking Good Looking?.

🌱 Physical Prizes mailed early February to US addresses only. (The discounts are available to everyone.)

Prizes:

🎁 A gift basket of some of my favorite vegan ingredients and prepared foods. (Nothing that will spoil in the mail.)

🎁 Daily entry winners: A favorite cooking ingredient plus discounts on any courses we launch in 2023

My Top 7 Favorite Kitchen Gadgets

by Diane Rose-Solomon | Dec 14, 2022 | Whole Food Plant Based

I’m pretty sure you can get everything cooked that you need with just a few pots and pans, a stove top and an oven. It’s the way people have been cooking for decades and if that’s what works best for you, by all means, stick with it.

However, since I cook more these days, I’ve found these kitchen gadgets to be helpful time savers in preparing healthy plant-based meals. Bonus: these items come in at various price points and could make excellent gifts!

1) I love my food processor. I have a Cuisinart because that’s what my mom has always used so it’s a brand I’m familiar with. I’m sure there are other wonderful food processors out there. My old model was kind of a hassle though. It was heavy, and getting the bowl on and off and positioned correction was often a headache. When I visited my mom last summer, she had a new model and it worked much better. I purchased one when I got home and LOVE it!

I use it for: gazpacho, homemade hummus, shredding potatoes for potato pancakes (latkes- which is only once a year, but it’s a big job), and chocolate pudding made with avocado among other recipes.

2) We’ve had a Ninja blender for a few years, and it works well. My understanding is that food processors are used for solid foods and blenders are used for more liquidy foods though sometimes either will do the job. My son makes smoothies in it when he’s home and I use it for cheesy sauces and Caesar dressing.

This model is great becasue it comes with the individual smoothie size blending cups as well as the full size pitcher.

3) Until a couple of years ago, I had never heard of an Air Fryer. My husband gifted me one and I had no idea what to do with it. Some people use them all the time and they are great in the summer when you don’t want to use your oven. I most often use it to pre-cook the tofu pieces that go into the tofu teriyaki recipe (that we shared in the group).

We also make really good French fries in it that come out crispy with just a teensy weensy bit of oil. If I ever get another one, I’d get an all in one that includes a toaster as a counter top space saver.

4) If you saw my video a while ago, you heard me wax poetic about my Instant Pot. My love for it has grown even deeper. I cook brown rice at least once a week and it is a game changer for me. Rice never used to come out right when I made it on the stove-top and it always boiled over and made a mess. Now I just set the instant pot, forget about it, and when it’s done I have perfect rice.

I’ve only made a couple other recipes in it, but my intention is to do way more.

5) I love my tofu press. Do you need one? Absolutely not. A couple of plates and some towels work too. But since I cook tofu every week, it does come in handy. And it’s an inexpensive gadget.

The old one I had didn’t work well with 14 ounce tofu blocks and required me to press down really hard to get it to engage. I just invested in a Tofuture press and it is super easy to use.

6) This is my absolute new favorite gadget. I’ve been making a big pot of hot cereal a couple of mornings each week and it always bubbles over, making a mess on the stove. I just learned of this silicone spill stopper thingie that works amazing at preventing the spillover.

It will be good for pastas too (and if I ever cook rice on the stovetop again, it would be good for that).

7) When I started cooking more, I realized that my measuring cups and measuring spoons would get used during a recipe and I always seemed to need a clean one ‘right now’.

An inexpensive solution is an extra set of either or both!

That’s it!

Do you have a favorite gadget? I’d love to know!

This post contains affiliate links.

How You Can Feel Empowered During Crazy Times

by Diane Rose-Solomon | Nov 30, 2022 | My Story, Whole Food Plant Based

There are so many big issues out of our control such as war, senseless shootings, pandemics, etc. and we often feel helpless.

And while we don’t have direct power to impact everything, like politics and wars and epidemics, we have more power than we think.

We can vote. We can demonstrate. We can wear masks.

But there’s more.

We are also empowered by our food choices.

Eating plant-based or being totally vegan has inherent merits. The most commonly discussed merits are: Our health, the health of our planet, and of course the innocent animals that we aren’t eating. (There are equally important social and spiritual merits but those are topics for another day.)

It may not seem like such a big deal, but most of us do have control over what we choose to eat. (Granted, many people in the US and around the world do not have many food options. But for much of western society, we do have choice.)

Our choices can impact how we feel as well as the situation, and that is empowering.

The Power of a Plant-Based Lifestyle to Take Charge of Our Health

Choosing plant-based products over animal-based products gives us much more power over our health than we ever realized. After studying plant-based nutrition at Cornell, and from the books and films I’ve read and watched, I’m more than convinced that eating plant-based is the healthiest option. And eating whole food plant-based takes it all up a big notch. (If you want some suggested books and films to learn more, email me and I will give you a few to get started.)

I feel empowered knowing that I’m energizing my body with nutritious fuel.

The Power of Choosing Plant-Based for Our Earth

We’ve been hearing about climate change for years. Animal agriculture is one of the largest contributors to global warming and yet it’s not even part of the Paris Agreement. (The Plant-Based Treaty, created as a companion to the Paris Agreement has been endorsed by dozens of cities, businesses, organizations and politicians around the world.) Doesn’t it feel like dealing with climate change is all up to big corporations and government to do something about it? For the most part it is. But that makes us feel powerless.

We are interdependent beings. We rely on a healthy earth, all of her plants and trees, each other, the animals and creatures that walk the earth, the ones that fly above it, swim in our oceans and more.

Many people are choosing cars with better gas mileage, or even electric cars. We turn off lights in our home and turn off the water while brushing our teeth. When we do this collectively, it has impact.

As we each awaken to the importance of choosing a plant-based lifestyle that does not harm our environment, we awaken to our individual and collective power. Knowing how powerful these changes can be, how can we not?

The Power of Compassion from Choosing a Plant-Based Lifestyle

For a long time I declared myself an animal lover because I was a champion for companion animals. One day it clicked that as long as I was consuming animal products, I was only a companion animal lover. Since I would like to think of myself as aligned with my values, I knew it was time to stop eating animals.

Billions of animals are slaughtered each year and 25 million land animals are slaughtered in the United States EVERY DAY.

By choosing a plant-based lifestyle, we are not exploiting other souls. I can sleep at night knowing that I didn’t knowingly abuse an animal for my consumption. My heart continues to break for the animals that aren’t so lucky.

The more people that choose to eat plants instead of animals, the more we can make a difference. The plant-based sector is the fastest growing sector in the supermarket so there is no shortage of options.

Just like each vote matters, all of our choices matter. Our food choices and spending habits matter to our health the earth and the animals.

I also have a lot of compassion for people who are concerned about their health and the planet and who do love animals, but who aren’t yet ready to go fully plant-based. It was not that long ago that I was one of those people.

If that sounds like you, stick around What’s Plant-Based Cooking Good Looking? We want to make eating plant-based as easy as possible so that you too can feel empowered by your choices.

How About ThanksLiving Instead of Thanksgiving?

by Diane Rose-Solomon | Nov 16, 2022 | My Story, Whole Food Plant Based

Post Updated: November 8, 2024

How about we rename this holiday, “ThanksLiving”? This major holiday in the US is (very) slowly experiencing a makeover on a couple of levels.

First, there’s a burgeoning sensitivity to Native Americans and their plight amid centuries of oppression. For Native Americans, Thanksgiving Day is (understandably) a day of mourning. You can read more here.

Second, increasing numbers of people are choosing compassionate food choices on their celebration table. For my vegan friends and me, we call it ThanksLiving! Let’s celebrate being together and the sanctity of all lives, human and animal.

And there’s no shortage of plant-based food options either! Nutriciously has curated a massive list of options which you can find here. (I recommend subscribing to their newsletter too for good tips yearound.)

Sam Turnbull, the chef from It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken (where I get many of my recipes) has curated a suggested list of recipes.

One of my favorite plant-based bloggers is Shane and Simple. Here he offers 11 Easy Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes. Shane’s recipes are generally whole food plant-based, easy and healthy.

If you would like some ideas to have a more compassionate holiday this year (and every year in the future), this short post offers some tips.

And here’s Alicia Silverstone’s well-written take on the holiday including her favorite dishes.

I’m not sure if one or both of my kids will be here this year for the holiday. While my whole family enjoyed the complete ThanksLiving meal I made in 2022, there was some grumbling about it being vegan after the fact. Ha ha ha- they both enjoyed it while they were eating. Just giving me grief.

I told my kids if they come home, it’s a vegan meal and that’s non-negotiable. But, I’m also not married to the idea of a traditional holiday meal either, so we’ll see what everyone wants. And who knows, we might end up at a friend’s house and I’ll bring something wonderful. The most important part is being together, whatever we eat.

Enjoy a safe and compassionate holiday however you choose to celebrate.