About the Blog

Hello, and welcome to 10,000 Ways!

I decided to start this blog after several of my friends expressed interest in learning more about environmentally-friendly lifestyle choices and specifically vegetarian cooking. I started eating a plant-based diet and transitioned into becoming a vegetarian so slowly that I cannot pinpoint an exact date. I do know that the last time I ate meat was a single bite of turkey on Canadian Thanksgiving Day last October. I had reduced (and eventually eliminated) my meat consumption to reduce my impact on the environment and to improve my health and figured that a little bit of meat now and again wouldn't be the end of the world. It turns out that it's true what they say and eventually, your tastes adjust to what they're used to. I've never been a picky eater but I definitely struggled to get that piece of turkey down my throat without gagging! I handed my plate to my little brother, picked up a salad bowl and have never looked back.

I named this blog 10,000 Ways after the Thomas Edison quote "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." because I love experimenting even though it frequently takes me a lot of tries to get something right. I've never been one to follow a pattern exactly, whether it's in a recipe or in life. Most of the recipes I'll post will be from cookbooks, so you don't need to worry about getting too many duds from me!

10,000 Ways also suits my style of cooking. Because I am not a trained chef and I tend to be in a rush, I like to make meals that have the same basic steps (practice makes perfect!) but can be made with a variety of ingredients. To further reduce my impact on the environment, I try to eat seasonally and locally as much as possible and I will often change the ingredients of a recipe to suit what's available to me depending on the time of year. Of course, living in Canada does reduce the amount of fresh local produce available to me and I handle this by eating a lot of "winter foods" as well as some imported fruit and vegetables. I would never be able to stick enjoy sticking to a strict diet and I think it is better to make as many good choices as you can instead of trying too hard to be perfect and then giving up completely. I hope this blog will appeal to a wide audience because my primary goal is to help people learn a bit about the small steps that they can take to incorporate more vegetarian meals into their diet and reduce their impact on the environment. If I can do it, I'm sure you can too!

This post is getting pretty word-y so I'm going to leave you with a picture of my dog, Gus. Check back for a Kidney Bean and Sweet Potato Curry Recipe coming Saturday!