What can you tell us about your new book Vegan Pressure Cooking?
Vegan Pressure Cooking
There are many pressure cooker books on the market and the emphasis is on meat. This is one of the few pressure cooking cookbooks devoted to plant-based cooking.
Why should everyone have a pressure cooker in their kitchen?
I'm a vegan lifestyle coach and most of my clients feel they don't have enough time to cook. Pressure cooking is fast! Vegan diets are filled with beans and grains - both have long cooking times unless you pressure cooker!
What is your favourite recipe from the book?
Umami Anasazi Beans! In this recipe I used ingredients that bring out a "meaty" flavour and aroma as a way to please omnivores as well as vegans. The miso, liquid smoke and caramelized onions add a rich element to the dish. Pinto and cranberry beans are easy to substitute if you can't find Anasazi beans.
You speak on plant based food and vegan activism, so why is important for vegans to pass on their message?
I believe that a vegan diet is good for people, the planet, and obviously for animals. A plant-based diet is nutritiously solid and viable so if we don't need to eat animals, why would we?
You have also co-authored Vegan for Her, can you tell us a little bit about this book please?
Ginny Messina, a registered dietitian and nutritionist. invited me to co-author Vegan for Her as a follow-up to her book Vegan for Life, which she co-authored with Jack Norris. Women have very unique health and wellness issues and she wanted to provide an easy to understand go-to book for them. My role was primarily writing the cookbook section (50 recipes) because I'm a "home cook" - nothing super fancy, just easy and delicious. I also wrote the chapter "Veganism Beyond the Plate," which focuses the other aspects of veganism: clothing, health and beauty, activism, etc.
What is your best advice to other for keeping fit and healthy on a vegan diet?
Keep it simple - whether food or fitness - as you get started. I think it's really easy to overthink and over-complicate this. A vegan diet is simply made up of five food groups: vegetables, fruit, legumes/beans, grains, and nuts/seeds. Anyone can eat this way and find all of these foods at any grocery store. Same with exercise. Lots of people try to go from their coach to running a long race. Start with walking, yoga, hiking, riding a bike, whatever you enjoy and is easy to do.
How can veganism affect a person's body image?
This will different for everyone. For me, after years of "chasing skinny" through fad diets and excessive exercise, I found a sense of peace around food after going vegan. There's something about a food choice - an intentional decision to not eat an animal - that resonates with me. Food used to seem like something I needed to restrict to look a certain way. Now I'm pleasantly round, deliriously happy, and feel at peace with my body and my ethical choices.
You visit many different events to talk about being vegan, so can you tell us which one has been your most memorable so far and why?
I travelled to over 40 communities, reaching over 1,200 people in my cooking classes, during the first six months of my Vegan Pressure Cooking book tour. I found all of the events special but teaching classes in small towns in Montana, where cattle ranching is huge, was humbling and rewarding. Not everyone wanted to be vegan, but they did have a genuine interest in eating more healthfully with plants.
What is next for you?
I just launched a radio show - Easy Vegan - which I produce and host. Though located in my hometown, Colorado Springs, anyone can listen on KCMJ.org. I know that many vegans feel isolated and this show is designed to bring vegan voices and ideas to everyone, anywhere.