In order for my book to be more appealing, the publisher recommended I add recipes to my journal on plant-based dishes. A lot of the recipes were from recipes I gathered from the internet, cookbooks, and apps.

In my book, I added recipes to intrigue readers but throughout my journal, I talk about having a recipe book at my fingertips all the time. One of the takeaways of the book is that we are without excuse. I’m surprised not a lot of people seem to use what is available at any time.

I see people online requesting the recipe, complain that they don’t have the recipe, or fall short of eating these healthy dishes because they don’t have the recipe. Really?

The truth is, we have plant-based, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, or any other diet recipe at our disposal all the time. During my journey, I researched recipes in my kitchen with my smartphone. I would type in the google search bar "sweet potato breakfast” if I needed ideas on how to eat a sweet potato for breakfast. I’d find tons of variations and then figure out what ingredients I had and just cook it.

With so much technology at our fingertips, I’m amazed at how much people buy these books. Don’t get me wrong, I love cookbooks. I can sit on the couch and read them like I would a book. But who has time to do that? If you hardly have the time too, then you and I are alike.

Sure, cookbooks are nice to have on your kitchen counter for looks and are great gifts to give as I learned how to make sauces from an old 80’s cookbook my mother-in-law gave me when we got married.

I like using the Forks Over Knives app because they make it so simple to use and it’s a great resource for ideas. I also find myself getting ideas from influencer websites with plant-based recipes if I need a recipe to transform a dish using plant-based ingredients.

I find it hard to follow one influencer because the matzo ball soup recipe might be better with someone who is more familiar with Kosher dishes. Also, the plant-based lasagna might be fantastic with someone who primarily cooks plant-based Italian dishes by incorporating plant-based ingredients to their recipes.

I had to be clever on adding plant-based ingredients without my husband knowing the difference. Not sure if this is your challenge. Turns out, making plant-based dishes with what we’re already eating is key. Who’s going to love eating foods they’re not used to?

If you think the majority of us are going to try something foreign right from the get-go, then you’ve already lost the battle before getting started. One of our favorite dishes is lamb with a full-bodied cab for example.

How could I follow an influencer, a cookbook or an expert that wasn’t an expert with what my husband and I like? I like to get ideas from recipes but do I follow them exactly? Rarely.

Take for example, Potato Pancakes. This is how I learned how to do them for us.

• Leftover mashed potatoes (I think you can figure out how much you would need. Are you eating for 1 or 6? If you’re eating for one, maybe you just want 1 potato, if you’re cooking for 6, maybe 6 large russet potatoes.)

• Egg white or egg replacer (I’ve found there are many different variations of egg replacer - I bought the Ener-G Foods Replacer where the box looked right out of the 70’s. Now, there are many different ways to replace eggs)

• Chives

• Salt and pepper

• Coconut oil - I would now either use a non-stick pan lightly greased with plant-based butter (like Earth Balance) or just bake whatever I’m cooking.

• Gluten Free flour (if you are not gluten free, you can probably use wheat flour, just not bleached flour) And yes - i wrote “flower” in my book.

• Arugula, sprouts, or other “micro-greens,” (not just “greens” like how I wrote in my book).

• Mushrooms (any kind that you like)

Heat a skillet or non-stick pan on medium heat. Take the leftover mashed potatoes and mash chives and salt and pepper. Make balls out of them at whatever size you choose. Flatten and brush them with egg replacer and then coat them with flour. Pour coconut oil into the pan and place pancakes into the pan. Heat for about 2-3 minutes each side. Remove from heat and top with arugula or other micro-greens and serve. Can be served with grilled tomatoes, mushrooms and avocado if desired.

This isn’t an earth-shattering recipe but one I hope inspires to show how simple it is to replace the egg. Maybe today you’ll just use egg whites but later you will try an egg replacer. And now there are so many variations of egg replacers.

Above are variations of vegetarian pizza we’ve had which for some of you, may not be that big of a deal but for my husband and I, it was. We like to stick with pepperoni and mushroom if we’re going to have pizza but I prepared pizzas using roasted vegetables and one evening, my husband came home with flowers and a vegetarian pizza. He would never eat this before but he did it as a sweet gesture and it was well received.

I’ve sure come a long way from my first 26 Days of trying to incorporate more plant-based dishes to our diet. This can be the way for you too.

I used to use coconut oil a lot in the beginning but now I only use coconut oil when trying to add more coconut flavor to my dish. Changing the ingredients in the beginning such as with coconut seemed like a good substitute. However, I hardly use oil to cook anymore.

Other than that, and publishing “flower” rather than “flour” in my book, a lot of the recipes I got were from cookbooks, restaurants, and our favorite dishes that I had to substitute ingredients for.

My husband and I love wine, meats, and cheeses so much that trying a whole new dish with egg substitutes and no oil from the beginning would be like pouring new wine into new wineskins which, biblically referencing, would just make it tear. (In the bible, Christians were taught how to ease into their religion instead of performing religious rituals right-off-the-bat which could turn them off of religion before even getting started.)

And the same goes for us trying to eat more healthy. I’ve heard people say they’ve tried going vegetarian or plant-based and it just wasn’t for them. I get it.

However, science and research tell us that plant-based foods are now medicine. In my book, I wrote about recipes that weren’t 100% plant-based but after cooking more plant-based dishes now and learning more about the plant-based diet, I’m not surprised at how much I didn’t know. I explained my findings in the book.

If you’re trying to eat more fruits and vegetables though, what helped us was incorporating plant-based ingredients in our everyday dishes. This turned out helpful. How can you take ownership of your diet if it’s not yours?

Here are the rest of the recipes I have in my book that I tried to incorporate plant-based ingredients. However, instead of omitting ingredients, I just replaced them.

• Pineapple, peanut butter almost milk smoothie

• Dairy-free, Gluten-free French Toast

• Potato Tacos

• Lentil Soup

• Homemade Pico de Gallo

• Corn Salsa

• Garlic Spread with Orange, Lemon, and Ginger

• Beet Salad

• Roasted Corn with Garlic Spread and Chili Lime Spice

• Marinated Mushrooms

• Homemade Salad Dressing

• Cauliflower Soup

• Butternut Squash Soup

• Bean Chili

• Eggplant Sans Parmesan

• Portabella Mushroom Spaghetti

• Portabella Mushroom Tacos

• Plant-Based Taco

• Curry Potatoes

• Stir Fry

• Pad Thai with Tofu

• Fried Rice

• Sauteed Spinach with Garlic and Shiitake Mushrooms (which I didn’t even know how to spell)

• Cauliflower sauteed in lemon and garlic
  

A lot of these dishes I didn’t know how to spell, how to truly cook, or even know how to give instructions for them. A lot of them are from what I gathered from Food52, a crowdsourced Cookbook that was actually a gift and not even plant-based. I found vegetarian dishes that gave me inspiration. (Food52 now has a vegan cookbook.)

My husband and I love epicurean dishes and found our inspiration. Although we love amazing meat dishes, I look for plant-based recipes that are similarly bon vivant.

And it worked. It’s whatever works for you…

Just learn it.

What is working for you?