Hi, I'm Amanda... cook, author, photographer, time-poor (are you feeling me?) mum, wife, and animal advocate. I am also completely food obsessed. So, if you love your food, you're in the right pace.
When I'm not cooking, I'm learning about cooking.
I take classic and much-loved dishes and create plant-based versions. Oh, I'm also a vegan - the only vegan in my family. Creating great plant-based recipes that vegans and non-vegans can enjoy is one of my drivers.
I try to take the "v-word" out of my kitchen and just make delicious food.
Being time poor I also try and create dishes that are simple, reasonably quick and fuss-free. But, we never skimp on flavour. Not Ever! I may be vegan but I didn't lose my tastebuds in the transition.
Transitioning to a Vegan Diet
I wasn't raised vegan. We all have a food story and my story is that I was raised in a traditional meat-loving family. My mother cooked dishes like Irish stew, stroganoff, and pea and ham soup. When I first told her I wanted to go vegetarian in my teens, she gave her blessing as long as I ate lamb's fry once a week for iron. I still shudder at the memory of that stuff.
After being vegetarian most of my adult life I became vegan around 7 or 8 years ago. I can't tell you exactly the time, it was a gradual process.
If you're just transitioning to a plant-based lifestyle, my 10 Tips to Going Vegan - and Staying Vegan might help.
Turn Classic Dishes in to Classic Vegan
Cooking vegan food for non-vegans can be tricky and for a while there, it was. Peanut butter sandwiches featured heavily in my diet when I first began transitioning to a vegan diet. But over the years I've learned to adapt traditional meat and dairy-based recipes into delicious vegan dishes my family love and you can too.
If you're anything like me, your life is hectic. I hear you.
I have a 9 year-old, an always busy husband and 3 enthusiastically untrained rescue dogs so time is precious. My recipes are generally super quick - hello, kimchi salad with noodles - or something I can walk away from.
My food processor is my best friend but I am having an affair with my blender.
Here at My Goodness Kitchen you'll find recipes that are
I like to experiment with gluten-free cooking too and you can find a stack of recipes in my recipe index. I am also a slave to chocolate so you'll find plenty of that here too; even for breakfast. Seriously, my Mexican chocolate chia pudding is deee-licious.
About Me...The Quick Version
Location: Victoria, Australia
Age: 40s
Family: The best! Open-minded husband, awesome kid and 3 rescue pups
Education: Bachelor of Business, Communication: Queensland University of Technology
Years Blogging: 6 years
Why are you a food blogger? Well, I've always been a writer and I am food obsessed so it seems a good fit. I've owned a cafe, a doggy bakery (true story) and now I'm a cookbook author and magazine contributor.
Sharing what I've learned along the way - ugly bits and all - makes sense. If I can be helpful to new cooks or new vegans, I want to be.
Zodiac Sign: Libra. So, so Libran.
Favorite Charity: Edgar's Mission
Food Philosophy: Plant-based cooking doesn't have to be complicated. Keep it Simple.
Food Heroes: Yotam Ottolenghi, Roy Choi, David Chang, Anna Jones, Hetty McKinnon, Nigella - nope they're not vegan but I love to try and create vegan versions of their recipes!
Favourite Food Blogs: A shout out to my ladies at The Last Food Blog, Quite Good Food and The Full Helping. Full disclosure, these beautiful bloggers have become friends over the years but that's because I loved their style in the first place and stalked them 🙂 I also am a big fan of Olives for Dinner, Vegan Yack Attack and Mississippi Vegan
My Books: Great Vegan Meals for the Carnivorous Family
Publications: I am a regular contributor to a completely beautiful magazine called Nourish here in Australia and I've featured in Thrive magazine. My recipes have appeared in Vegan Food and Living, Huffington Post, The Zoe Report, Brit & Co, MSN and more. Pretty cool for a home cook.
Contact Me
So, that's me. I am so happy you popped by to visit and hope you'll make yourself known. Drop me a message and say g'day. There are no strangers here, just people I haven't met yet.
Except spammers. Spammers are not my friends. Welcome to My Goodness Kitchen x
