THE DIET
I have been vegetarian all my life, mainly because my family only cooked vegetarian food. Growing up with such home-cooked meals, I took nutrition and sustainability for granted…at least until I moved away from home. Like many college students, I struggled to balance healthy eating with convenience and cost. I actually found that my vegetarian diet was facilitating my consumption of junk/processed foods. And so, I challenged myself to become “flexi-vegan” in 2014, such that most or all of the food I had at home was vegan. This challenge allowed me to spend more time in the produce section at the grocery store, and less time in the processed sections. However I remained “flexible” to vegetarian options when eating out, when people were cooking for me, or when I just wanted to indulge. So, whether you call me vegetarian, flexi-vegan or vegan-ish, bottom line is that I try to experiment and enjoy the food I consume, without making life too much of a struggle.
– Anvita
I grew up on a melange of breakfast pastries and milk, wholesome Chinese dinners, and sad school lunches consisting of a piece of salami stuck between two pieces of dry Wonder bread. In a sense, it was the quintessential immigrant diet: retaining culinary roots at home while “feeling out” North American staples in public. All was going fine and dandy, until the end of my high school career, when I had health problems due to dehydration and lack of fibre. Since then, my water bottle has become my best friend, and I don’t go a day without fresh fruits and veg. It wasn’t until second year in university though, that I committed myself to a plant-based diet. It was my first apartment experience with roommates, both of whom were vegetarian (Vita being one of them). Coupled with my environmental studies, I became steeped in a plant-based lifestyle, for both health and political reasons. I even dabbled in raw veganism while living in Lyon, France, and fully vegan + gluten-free for a while. Moving back home this year, I’ve come full circle. I am no longer fully plant-based for social, cultural, and health reasons, but whole plant foods still make up the bulk of my diet. At the end of the day, making and enjoying food allows you to reflect on your own body and connect with the people around you, but it shouldn’t become an obsession. Veganish is about life, not labels.
– Jane
THE BLOG
The idea for a shared food blog has been percolating for a while. Both of us have tried our hand at individual blogging over the years, with Tumblrs, Blogspots and more ancestral platforms (shoutout to Xanga!). After sharing a kitchen for 3 years, we decided that sharing a blog was the natural next step for roommate-bffs now living on opposite ends of the continent.
The name and format of Veganish was officialized in spring of 2014 (it’s one year old already!) but we didn’t get around to launching the site till 2015, because of so many life changes. But we did it. Moving forward, we are excited to fill this blog with tips, tricks, and occasional nuggets of wisdom from our Veganish journeys – and we hope that you’ll join us.
The Veganish Blog 