Hi! I'm Kim!
My plant based/vegan cooking evolution
My cooking style has evolved and changed so much over my years in the kitchen and in life. I have recently evolved my cooking into a plant based diet. My family and I have made the change for many reasons.
Reason number one: We learned when our little man was about 2 that he could no longer have eggs or dairy. Yes, he has an allergy but its a behavior allergy. When he has eggs or dairy (which is in EVERYTHING) he has a hard time controlling his emotions. He has unprovoked tantrums. He loses control of his anger and hits, kicks. He loses his temper at bedtime and has a meltdown. He will usually cry for an hour and strip his bed of everything! We learned this by someone letting us know his son was going through the same with his emotions and informed us of cutting eggs and maybe dairy. I couldn't believe it, I knew food allergies effected us physically but never had I heard of such a thing. I did a little online research and turns out this is a thing. Its new, but its out there. So we cut eggs and dairy out of his diet and the result was amazing. He turned into a completely new little toddler. He was happy and life slowly became easier with him. It was life changing for sure. I now read every ingredients list on everything we buy. Luckily for us I actually really don't like eggs so I just stopped buying those so that was easy for me. I also don't process dairy very well so I hardly buy diary products. So its wasn't too hard, just needed to change my shopping habits, now I know more and its become easier. I also buy organic as much as I can.
Reason number two: Living in a town that basically our whole industry is weather based as well as my husband and my careers are in the ski industry, climate change is talked about and the effects are being seen. I also watch the news on climate change and I want to do our part. I sometimes feel helpless in our battle and this is one way our family can make a difference.
Reason number three: My own health benefits. I have recently watched a documentary on Netflix and it just lit a fire in me to try harder with food. I want our family to live a long and HEALTHY life and if I can do this with food, then hell yes, count me in! The documentary is called "What the Health" directed by Kip Anderson and Keegan Kuhn. It talked about the connection with food and our health. It re-inspired me to do more for my family. I want me family to live our greatest potential and I can help do that, then count me in.
You guessed it I'm a mom and I live in the mountains. To be more specific I live in my happy place in the mountains in a small town called Truckee, California which is in North Lake Tahoe. I have 4 year old twins and they run wild and free with our mutt rescue pup, Hank. We live in a humble log cabin on 1.25 acres with my mountain husband (beard, flannels, chainsaw and all).
I seriously love to cook, and some might say have some control issues in the kitchen so it's usually me cooking all our family meals, including all big family holidays (which are my favorite cause I have lots of hands to help keep the kiddos happy!). You will always find me rocking out to music while in the kitchen, helps bring out even more joy and smiles.
When I'm not cooking I keep busy being mom, usually loosing the battle to laundry or the never ending battle with toy clean up. We also find happiness in our mountain life, hanging at Tahoe or Donner Lake or in winter spending our free time skiing at Sugar Bowl (which is where my husband and I work).