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

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.

I’m Going to Stop Using the Word “Diet”

by Diane Rose-Solomon | Nov 2, 2022 | My Story, Whole Food Plant Based

I’m going to stop using the word “diet”.

Why? Because our society has primarily coupled the word diet with the sole purpose of weight loss.

Let’s look at the Oxford online definition of the word diet:

1. the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.

“a vegetarian diet”

2. a special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons.

“I’m going on a diet”

3. restrict oneself to small amounts or special kinds of food in order to lose weight.

“it’s difficult to diet”

While the top definition is the actual connotation meant when I refer to a plant-based diet, much of our society perceives diets as restrictive.

Look at the second and third definitions. The examples they use even suggest that dieting is restrictive or hard.

Instead, I’m shifting to the word lifestyle.

Lifestyle defined by Oxford:

The way in which a person or group lives.

“the benefits of a healthy lifestyle”

How do I use it in a sentence? I live a healthy plant-based lifestyle.

A plant-based lifestyle is about a healthy way of living that is NOT restrictive but actually grants us our best possible health with more variety than ever.

Now, I don’t swear that I’m going to completely stop using the word diet because I could slip up.

But the word has bothered me for years. I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s and dieting was (and still is) a toxic topic because it was associated with the ideal of being thin.

My mom, who will likely read this post, tried almost every diet trend there was. Most worked in the moment but as soon as she stopped whatever restrictive diet she was on, well, you can guess what happened.

Fun Fact: Do you remember The Scarsdale Diet? It was originally published in 1978. Well, my mom was a nurse and worked for the doctor who wrote the book. (She even got a thank you in the acknowledgments!) You can be sure that there was a lot of grapefruit and melba toast eating going on in my house back then.

While I LOVE grapefruit and do eat them when in season, that is no way to exist.

Thus, we will delve deeper in future posts as to what a healthy plant-based lifestyle means. and how by adopting a healthy plant-based lifestyle, you can enjoy its benefits.

For now, I just want to move away from the restrictiveness of the word diet. Eating plant-based is actually rather freeing. There are so many options, especially these days. From foods you can find in your supermarket, to the gazillion recipes available online from wonderful bloggers and chefs. Would you join me in switching to a plant-based lifestyle?

What is Vegan Toastmasters?

by Diane Rose-Solomon | Sep 28, 2022 | My Story

Years ago (decades actually), I heard of Toastmasters and all I knew was that it is a forum to practice public speaking. I was curious and decided to check out a meeting. The meeting took place in an office building nearby, and it was just a general Toastmasters meeting (no theme to it).

The basic format of a Toastmasters meeting is as follows:

There are some formalities as the meeting begins including an introduction of functionaries which are performed by members. These functionaries include:

🌿 A timer: each segment has guidelines for how long the speaking lasts. The timer tracks this. The biggest reason to stay within the timing guidelines is if you ever participate in a speaking competition, you must stay within the timed parameters. Thus, these same parameters are practiced during the regular meetings.

🌿 An “ah” counter: This person listens for filler words like um, ah, like, you know, etc.

🌿 A grammarian. This person offers a “word of the day” which people get to try and work into their speaking. The grammarian also listens for egregious grammatical errors but also for interesting or clever word or phrase usage.

The rest of the meeting is broken up into three parts:

First — there’s a section called Table Topics during which a member (the Table Topics Master) suggests a few topics and then members and guests have an opportunity to speak extemporaneously for 1-2 minutes on the subject.

Second — there are prepared speeches which are generally delivered by members and last around 5 minutes.

Third — there are formal evaluations of the speeches. Following the speech evaluations, the functionaries give their reports.

This, of course, is a very rough overview of a Toastmasters meeting, and each club runs a little differently.

Anyway, I think I joined and gave a speech back then, but wasn’t inspired to stick around.

Fast forward to sometime around 2014 when I was vegetarian. I was poking around online — maybe looking for a Toastmasters meeting. I can’t remember. But I noticed that there was a Vegan Toastmasters meeting near me. Even though I was not yet vegan, I was curious and attended as a guest.

The topics and speeches, as you may have guessed, are generally (though not solely) vegan or plant-based themed, or a combination of both.

I really enjoyed Vegan Toastmasters, joined, and (oopsie) once again, didn’t last too long in the club because the meeting times conflicted with my kids’ activities.

Once my kids were no longer playing soccer on the weekends and needing me to drive them everywhere, I found the club and joined (again) in 2019. Lest I forget, our meetings also included a small potluck with shared vegan snacks during the break. Yum… Snacks.

By 2019 I was already vegan and even more passionate about spreading the word.

The Vegan Toastmasters club is a wonderful compassionate group of people who wish to speak more cogently and vociferously for the animals. (Thanks, Vegan Jyoti for that.).

Of course, the pandemic hit in 2020 and we quickly shifted our meeting from in-person in Los Angeles to Zoom.

The bad news: No more potluck snacks.

The good news: We are able to reach people all around the world.

And, when you’ve been hanging out with people twice a month for a couple of hours, they really do become friends- even if you’ve never met in person.

If you would like to attend one of our meetings, please join us. There’s no pressure to speak (other than introducing yourself at the beginning of the meeting) or join. You may simply observe. Guests are welcome to attend as many times as you’d like at no charge. And membership costs are reasonable.

We have a wide range of people who join as guests and potentially become members. Some are curious about going plant-based, others are moving toward a vegan lifestyle, and some are already completely plant-based or vegan and looking to spend more time with people who speak about these subjects.

You can learn more by visiting our little website (or look for Vegan Toastmasters on Meetup or Facebook). Or if you want to learn about Toastmasters in general, you can visit their website here.

Vegan Toastmasters meets the 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month at 3 pm PT/ 6 pm ET for 1 hour and 45 minutes. (And yes, we still do have a short break, though it’s no longer a potluck.)

Please join us. We’d love to meet you there!

p.s- a big shoutout to Toastmaster Dave for forming this club a gazillion years ago and keeping it running for this whole time. We are all grateful.