My mother, Darlene Porter, loved cooking and was always using food to connect with people. She shared that love of food with her family and beyond.

When I was in Grade 3 she came to my school and taught my class about vegetarianism, cooking a dish for everyone to try. I’m sure it was the first time most kids had ever tried tofu. She also taught my sisters and I to cook at a young age. Starting at 12 years old, we each had a night of the week when we had to make dinner for the family. At the time it felt like a chore, but I’m so grateful for those lessons. My mom also taught plant-based cooking classes in Manitoba and ran a food blog for many years.

Emily had the great idea of collecting her best recipes and creating a printed cookbook to share with family for Christmas.

So back in October, we started reading through my mom’s blog, going through the hundreds of recipes she collected on her thumb drive, deciding which recipes we should feature in the cookbook, and testing some of them to make sure they made sense.

You can see (and download) the final product below. I’m really happy with how it turned out. There are 49 excellent plant-based recipes – everything from Kelsey’s Fluffy Pancakes to Best Chili Ever. We used my mother’s words throughout, so even though she isn’t with us today it’s her voice speaking throughout the cookbook. I think she would be happy to have us cooking in her memory. Hopefully she isn’t upset with the aggressive edits I made to get her words to fit on the pages.

We still have a few printed copies left, so if you really want one reach out. I hope her love of food inspires more people to cook healthy and delicious meals.