Kathy Patalsky is a prolific blogger who you may know from her blog Happy. Healthy. Life. She is also the woman behind the scenes at FindingVegan, the best place on the web for finding drool-worthy vegan food photos. And if that weren’t enough to keep her busy, she’s also the author of 365 Vegan Smoothies. I recently had a chance to talk to Kathy, and we chatted about veganism, smoothies, and of course, food!
Chic Vegan – What motivated you to become vegan? Was it an overnight switch or more gradual shift?
Kathy Patalsky – I have been vegetarian on and off since I was a teenager. It was my intense love of animals that propelled me to reconsider the standard american diet. I picked pepperoni off my pizza slices at birthday parties and packed my own vegetarian lunches in high school. Then it was Marilu Henner’s book Total Health Makeover that made me ditch dairy. And finally my first internship in college, surround by vegan coworkers, where I finally saw what vegan meant for the first time. I made an overnight switch to vegan, though it took me a few years to be a truly healthy vegan!
CV – When people learn that you are vegan, what is the #1 question they ask and what is your response?
KP – They always ask how long I’ve been vegan. As if to gauge whether or not I am just hopping on a latest trend or truly in it for the long haul. When I say 13 years they always look a bit shocked.
CV – Tell me a little bit about your website FindingVegan and what inspired you to create it.
KP – I have long been a fan of food porn sites (though I hate that term!) like foodgawker and tastespotting. So I decided that I wanted to create a similar site that only featured vegan recipes. My computer savvy husband helped me make it happen and it took a good year for people to catch on, but now we have over 350,000 likes on Facebook, fans and submitters from all over the world and close to 50,000 registered users. And an app will be coming out in the next few months too! The amazing bloggers who submit vegan recipes are not all vegan, but the recipes are, and I live that. I like to think it encourages non veg bloggers to experiment with amazing vegan recipes. The feedback from bloggers has been wonderful, FV brings them great traffic! Some of our submitters include Minimalist Baker, VeganRicha, VegamMiam, Bittersweet, NamelyMarly, Vega, and SO SO many more. Even Isa Chandra had some kind words to say about FindingVegan!
CV – I love your book 365 Vegan Smoothies! What motivated you to write it?
KP – I have always been a smoothie obsessed girl. Growing up in California I would blend smoothie after school or we would all drive to Jamba Juice after varsity tennis practice. (It was called Juice Club back then!) I posted a lot of vegan smoothie recipes on my blog and my agent actually found me when she was looking for a vegan smoothie authority! I was thrilled. Perfect match.
CV – Do you have a favorite smoothie?
KP – My secret ingredient matcha shake, also known as my Trinity Shake. It’s all about the frozen watermelon, frozen banana and almond milk base! I then add a superfood like turmeric or matcha and some protein powder too. It’s heaven.
CV – What inspires you to create a new recipe?
KP – Food ad life! Every trip to the grocery store or farmers market brings something new and life’s experiences are always changing, so my meals and recipes are always evolving as well!
CV – What tips would you give to people who might be new to vegan cooking?
KP – Buy a nice armful of vegan cookbooks, browse a few vegan blogs and findingvegan.com, and keep your eyes peeled for recipes that you know you will love! Don’t start out making tofu just because you think you are supposed to! Veganize your favorites and try appealing new favorites. Have fun. Then once you have a few favorites, explore brand new flavors and ingredients.
CV – What is your favorite vegan indulgence?
KP – Cookies. And cake. I love layer cake, aka birthday cake. And a cookie or a nibble of a cookie after dinner if perfection to me! I am also a huge bread fan, despite the gluten free bread-free trend. Give me a crusty loaf of baguette and a matcha latte or some vegan cocoa, and I am happily indulged.
CV – What vegan product could you not live without?
KP – I would normally say Vegenaise. But seriously this is TOO hard nowadays because there are amazing vegan products for everything! Vegan butter, vegan cheese, the list is endless. Oh and nutritional yeast is pretty rad too.
CV – What can we expect from you in the future? Is there another cookbook in the works?
KP – Yes! Healthy Happy Vegan Kitchen comes out in 2015! I wrote the recipes and did the photos for the book. It’s all done, just going through lots of edits and passes at this point. And the FindingVegan app will be out soon too!
This is great- I love reading people’s stories of transitions and I love seeing so many wonderful people spreading the word about how joyful, and delicious, it is to be vegan! Also the walnut cream pie on her site looks fantabulous!