Cookbooks.
I do have a small obsession… and a growing collection.
Naturally, when I heard Christy Morgan, AKA The Blissful Chef had a cookbook out I was pretty excited and eager to start making some delicious, vegan and raw food. Christy is an amazing cook and a compassionate person. I have been a huge fan of her blog for a while now. Her recipes are outstanding! And why is that I always end up reading food blogs on an empty stomach…
1. Thank you again for being able to answe a few questions! I have read your book from cover to cover and cannot wait to get cooking! When you first started to create your cookbook, were you overwhelmed with recipe creating? Or did you have recipes that were staples already in your kitchen.
I had been a personal chef and cooking instructor for 4 years before I started working on the book, so I had many recipes already created. Even so the whole process of writing a book can be overwhelming at times! It’s definitely not for the weary. You have to put your heart and soul into it and then when it arrives in the hands of others you hope it helps them in some way.
2. Was creating a cookbook a dream that you always had?
Ever since I went to culinary school at The Natural Epicurean I wanted to have a cookbook. For my final project I wrote a mini-cookbook of kid-approved recipes for parents. I was a nanny at the time and tested the recipes out on the two girls I watched in the summer. I had them fill out surveys on each recipe. It was so much fun! Some of those recipes ended up in Blissful Bites. I have a special place in my heart for kids and for parents, so I include as many kid-friendly recipes in the book as possible. Kids are the future so we need to feed them well. I’d love to write a book someday dedicated to kid-approved recipes.
3. When I transitioned to eating mainly vegan I was amazed by the amount of fresh food I was eating. So many flavors and colors – my meals were never dull! What is your favorite food, or one that you are currently loving that you can’t get enough of?
Isn’t it exciting?! My diet has so much more variety than it ever did before I went vegan and starting cooking. I get asked what my favorite food or dish is all the time and I really don’t have an answer. I love food too much (except olives and okra)! But right now I’m really loving fresh fruit. Since it’s almost 100 degrees here in Austin fresh fruit not only is a pick-me-up it helps cool me off. So watermelon, grapes, berries, peaches, and my favorite is pineapple.
4. The one thing that I absolutely love about your cook book is all of the photos. It is very difficult for me to use a recipe without a corresponding photo to reference to. Was it hard for you to choose which dishes to make and photograph?
I’m the same way. I really love a cookbook that has lots of photos. It’s especially good for novice cooks so they know how the dish is suppose to look and it gives anyone that looks at the book an understanding of how delicious vegan food can be. When people look through Blissful Bites the first thing they notice is all the vibrant colors in the photos. It immediately dispels the myth that vegan food is dull and boring.
Thankfully my recipes are beautiful by design so it wasn’t difficult choosing which ones to photograph. I wanted to have them scattered throughout the book, if there was an ingredient that people might not be familiar with I chose those recipes, and chose all the chef and fan favorites (because I got to eat them after the shoot!) 🙂
5. And lastly… any plans for another cookbook in the future?
I hope to produce many more cookbooks in the future! Also I will be starting online classes soon so everyone across the globe can take part in my popular cooking classes. If you sign-up for my email list you will get exclusive content, tips, recipes, and cooking videos and updates on classes and events.
You can find Christy on her personal website, face book or twitter. Thanks again Christy for taking to the time to answer some of my questions.
And for those that like giveaways, I am giving away a copy of her book to one lucky reader! Head on over to my facebook page to learn more! It’s super simple! I will announce the winner on Friday, July 6th – good luck!
The Clean Eating Mama 