When we first started this blog, admittedly, I don’t think either one of us had an exact vision of where it would lead, what it would become, how it would evolve. Sure, we knew we wanted it to be more than just “another” food blog. More than just “another” (mostly) vegan cooking, plant-based recipe-sharing, blog I mean you’ve already got a recipe for vegetarian lasagna so why post yet another one? Am I right? 

The internet is already over-saturated with lasagna recipes … vegan or otherwise? Oh wait, you want it gluten-free and dairy-free too … well just stroll down the grocery aisle and pick up a box of gluten-free lasagna noodles and then hit the cold case for plant-based mozzarella and you’re pretty much there …

Anyway, we wanted this blog to showcase a lifestyle, but not necessarily be a token “lifestyle” blog. And so we identified the areas we wanted to highlight:

• Cooking (obviously, in a mostly plant-based kitchen)
• Mind and Body (fitness for both, because both matter)
• Conscious Living (surviving and thriving in a way that’s sustainable and thoughtful for both the environment and mankind)
• Eco Travel (we love traveling and believe in doing so with as small of a footprint as possible) and,
• Passion (because a life without passion isn’t really a life at all)

And while the majority of what we share here is based in the kitchen, a great deal of our life takes place outside the kitchen and sometimes it’s lovely. Sometimes it’s amusing … fascinating … thought provoking … and sometimes, it just plain hurts.

A few days ago, I got on a plane and had to leave what, at the time, felt like my very breath behind. And it really sucked. Because I don’t want to be without him. Ever. Except maybe when I have to poop. That I’d like to do on my own … yet I got on the plane anyway. And I cried. And I felt an overwhelming urge to crawl into a hole where no one could see me. Of course I didn’t. I mean I have yet to find a hole with internet access and clearly I had to have access in order to post this. But why? Why post this at all … honestly, I’m not sure. I only know that once again I find myself wondering if the highs are worth the lows. And inevitably a mountain’s worth of doubt and uncertainty flood the airwaves and truthfully, I just don’t know … but, I do this … a glass of chardonnay and a giant piece of lemon chiffon cake sure would help ; )

“Relationships are like cooking … you start with the ingredients you’re supposed to have, and then you add and take away until what you create becomes exactly what you’ve always wanted—the taste, the look, the everything—always willing to reexamine and rework the recipe every damn day … because sometimes, you need a little more salt, sometimes you don’t—but the trick, I think, is being able to recognize when enough is enough and when it’s really more sugar you need, and less salt.” 

BTW, shout out to the woman behind me who found my left earbud … music (check) and suddenly all was right with the world again. Well, not everything … I still didn’t have any lemon chiffon cake, but at least I had music.

To learn more about the “Almost Vegan, Plan-Based Diet and Lifestyle Boot Camp,” we’ve launched, download the media kit as a PDF or open the “About” page from the menu and select “Media Kit” to view it in its entirety. Questions? Press@ShaunaNosler.com  |  Press@Gastro-Licious.com