About Me

Is that a way to hold a dog?

So…What happened?

In 2012, I watched a Speech on animal rights and veganism. It shocked me and made me look at meat with disgust, but I didn’t know how to process the information in my mind yet. Something in my awareness was awakened; my perspective on food, animals and life began to change. I was hungry for knowledge and devoured any information I could find.

The “no turning back” point was the day I watched the documentary film Earthlings, which shows humanity’s use of animals. It deeply affected me and I cried the whole time. Finally, I made the connection between the food on my plate and where it came from, I knew right then I would no longer consume any animal products. Even though it was hard to watch I did not close my eyes. I felt a sad and powerful awakening and to this day I want my eyes to stay open.

My compassion for animals came from internalizing and understanding the term Speciesism. What is Speciesism? It’s like racism or sexism. One group sees themselves as superior to another group, which let’s them disassociate from that group and treat them as property, exploit them, or kill them. In this case, the victims of discrimination are the animals.

It’s hard to comprehend that animals are sentient creatures that have emotions, families, and social interactions. Yes, they are different than human beings but they feel pain just like us, they experience motherhood, communication with each other and their life is valuable. We have no right to torture and use them for our food, clothing, and entertainment. Personally, I don’t think I’m superior to anyone­­—including animals­­—and for this reason I don’t want to control, exploit, eat them and I would not support the industries that do it. This is the least I could do for the animals, and I’m very thankful that my husband and daughter have come on board.

Being Vegan for me is being aware and awake, it is not about rules and regulations or belonging to a group. It is about minimizing the suffering of sentient living beings as much as I can.

Art was always part of my life. Being creative took me through painting and drawing, to jewelry-making and graphic design. So, to me, cooking comes naturally and making good food is my new art. Usually, I don’t follow recipes exactly. I get the general idea from it and give it a twist, making it my own. I love exploring ingredients and inventing new dishes. Even as a child, my family teased me for doing experiments in the kitchen. I didn’t like traditional food as it was and I needed to reinvent it.

I kept on educating my self about food and healthy lifestyle. Even before the change, I was conscious of what I ate and was mindful of the nutritional value of the food. I love to use quality ingredients- fresh, whole, natural and organic- which made for a smooth transition into the “health department” of the Vegan world.

When I started to experiment with Vegan cooking, there was an adjustment period and I had my share of kitchen “failures” and frustrations, I found myself looking for “glue” to replace eggs and searching for the perfect Tofu makeover. But it was well worth it, since now there is a happy vibe in the kitchen, my heart feels clean and my plates are smiling.