They say that you should never go a day without doing what you love. For me, a big passion of mine is health. I care about taking care of my body as the temple of my spirit. I care about where my food comes from and what is in it. I care about what we take from the earth and how much we pollute it. I care about the animals and do not like to have to take anything from them if I don’t have to. And GMO’s anger me and make me feel even more passionate about standing up for what I believe in and what is right.

So, after venting a little in one of my last posts, complaining about how I feel lonely in my passion about healthy food and healthy, organic, eating and living these days since we are all not 100% vegan around here any more, I decided that I am not going to let that get me down and stop me from caring, creating recipes and sharing them. I can’t stop. I care a lot and I just love to spend time in the kitchen being productive and creative and knowing that I am giving my family the best foods that I can.

I have a lot of new recipes that I haven’t shared yet because I wasn’t quite sure what to do with this space Keep it? Change it up? Move on to somewhere new? So, I still have some things to figure out, but I am leaning towards staying here and maybe sprucing things up a bit. I am ready to share some of the goodness that I have kept all for myself and hopefully get some more energy and inspiration flowing between me and you, my readers and recipe fans again. That is one of my favorite things about blogging and sharing, the real life, down-to-earth connections and friends that I have made (and hopefully will continue to make) through it.

The truth is, I am also not very confident in myself and my writing or my recipes. I still wonder if they are actually good, or if I am the only one that likes them, but then I do have some very close friends that I have made through this blog who are always so very supportive and encouraging about my recipes, women who actually enjoy and look forward to new recipe posts to make for their family. That really touches me and leads me to believe that maybe I do have some kind of talent to share and I am not the only one who thinks that my recipes are delicious.

I have a few friends who are really encouraging me these days to create another cookbook, which I have really been wanting to do. Cooking and baking (as well as eating the finished products), are so fun and therapeutic for me. They are stress-relieving and give me a real sense of purpose. If I go a day, or a few days without being creative in my kitchen, it really gets me down. It is just something I love to do. And since I love to do it and am doing it anyway just for me, I thought I really ought to get back on here sharing with you all too. It feels so much better to have someone to share my passion with.

Although cooking and baking are not my only passions (I am also passionate about yoga and exercise, my spirituality, writing, my family, and homeschooling), I feel like not sharing this part of me is inauthentic. I sometimes feel weird about having a blog about so many different things (one post about spirituality, one about a day with autism, another about cupcakes), but this is just me, that is my life.

So I hope to get some new recipes up soon, although I don’t want to share them all if I am going to set to work to create another cookbook! I hope that you will enjoy hearing about my new kitchen creations and give them a try. My new approach to cooking and baking will, as always, be using ingredients that are as natural, affordable, and accessible as possible because I believe that healthy cooking and baking should be something we can all both afford to do and find the time to do. Also, the recipes have to be as delicious as they are nutritious and not too strange.

Although we are not all on the same page around here when it comes to food any more, my girls are still willing to create along with me and try new things, which I am grateful for. And although Craig likes to have some meat, eggs, milk, and cheese to ground him, he still will eat (and enjoy) my veggie-loaded, whole grain creations too (even if he adds some meat with it) and he always prefers my naturally-sweetened, whole grain, healthy baking to any baking with refined flour or sugars. Plus, he 100% supports whatever I choose to do, especially in regards to my creative projects, such as writing and creating a new cookbook, so I guess that I am very lucky.

This time around, I am wanting to focus more on real whole foods, instead of how I did in my first book, using some vegan cheese, tofu, and meat substitutes. Although I only used those ingredients in a handful of recipes, for my next book, I want to keep things as clean and natural as possible. The aim of the first book was to showcase recipes that were similar to everyday family favorite foods, made vegan, so there were pizza recipes and casseroles and such with some processed vegan imitation foods.

Truthfully, we rarely (if ever), eat vegan cheese, or other processed foods any more, but I had thrown those recipes in for those who are new to vegan and just wanting to make the switch gradually, while still enjoying junkier vegan foods like hot dogs, pizza, tofu, etc, without wanting to harm animals. I, personally prefer foods made from scratch with whole foods, meaning ingredients that contain one ingredient and are in their natural, organic state.

I feel good processing this all and taking steps toward using my passion for this new project. Please join along and feel free to leave me a comment when you do try a recipe. I am also always open to recipe suggestions if you want to leave a comment or send me an email at tiffanypidruchny@gmail.com. I appreciate inspiration and welcome a challenge!

Much love!

What are you passionate about?

What kind of recipes would you like to see in a new vegan/whole food cookbook?