Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog!

This year for In-depth I chose to learn cooking -or more specifically- vegetarian cooking. I’ve been a vegetarian my whole life, not to be confused with being vegan. The definition of vegetarian I go by is “Ovo-lacto-vegetarian”. This means I eat dairy (mostly for the cheese 🙂 and I eat eggs, but no red meats, seafood, or poultry. I am the only vegetarian in my family, making it hard sometimes for my parents to make two meals every dinner. We’ve learned a few substitutions, for example instead of meat being my protein I often have eggs. I want to learn this skill so I can cook for myself and my family while also knowing good substitutions for meat-forward meals. I find that many restaurants think that vegetarian and vegan are the same thing and only offer substitutions for vegans, which takes away both flavor and proteins. Most restaurants have a “beyond meat” or fake meat option, but truly they are not healthy, not tasty, and over-processed. My goal by the end of this project is to make a cookbook with my own recipes, including tips and substitutions I find along the way for anyone in the same situation as I am.

 So, what have I done to begin this project? I started by making a plan as to what I wanted to accomplish and a thorough timeline for when I wanted to be done each part. So far, I am working on researching what makes up a healthy and balanced meal, and then making a list of nutrients I would get from non-vegetarian items, with substitutes I could use. I am going to be using this list to help me throughout this whole project. In the coming weeks, I will start using my newfound knowledge to follow a non-vegetarian recipe and substitute any ingredients to make it vegetarian. By practicing this skill, I will get a chance to adjust, use, and add to my list of substitutions. I will also hopefully pick up some new tips and tricks from my mentor along the way.

To successfully complete this project, I needed resources, experts, and mentors to help me. Ms. Lee has agreed to be my mentor as she has been a vegetarian for a long time. She also enjoys cooking and I’m excited to learn something new from her experience in the kitchen. One of my good family friends, Thelma Abhyankar is an expert in plant-based cooking and only cooks with local ingredients. She follows a book called In the Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto which I’m excited to read. Other resources include varying cookbooks, especially The No-Meat Athlete which gave me the inspiration to create a cookbook as a final product. I may also use tools like online videos to learn new techniques and my parents who know their way around the kitchen. 

Overall, I’m really excited to get this project started! 

-Rian