About

Welcome to Varying Veggies!

The inspiration for starting this blog came from working with our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share each week.  My family loves to experiment in the kitchen and the share we receive each week has succeeded in pushing us out of our comfort zone, providing us with some vegetables we wouldn’t otherwise select.  The more we learned what to do with these new (to us) vegetables, the more we thought I should share our ideas, after all, we can’t be the only ones challenged by some of these selections.  So, here I will share our box each week, our go-to recipes, and our experiments.  I will also share some money-saving tips, kid-friendly meals (i.e. let’s get your kids cooking), and more.

In addition, I have an interest in the effects of our food choices on our personal health as well as the health of our environment.  Growing up, my mom taught us about putting together a balanced meal and my dad had us helping in the family garden.  As an adult, I have always worked to put together healthy meals and we’ve always had a garden, even if it was just a container of tomato plants on our apartment balcony (back in the early days).

In 2006, my interest in cooking and need for new cookware and cutlery led me to becoming an Independent Consultant with The Pampered Chef.  I love each season when new products and recipes are introduced (and getting the new products at a discount or free definitely helps the budget).  I appreciate that Pampered Chef celebrates “the power that mealtimes have to become something more:  a way to transform relationships, the create traditions, and to build happier and richer lives.”  You can check out what Pampered Chef has to offer on my Pampered Chef website www.pamperedchef.biz/kathyfortner.

In 2007 I began learning about how our food choices effect our environment, reading Michael Pollan’s books and watching the documentary Food, Inc.  This led to an effort to eat as locally and organically as we could afford.  We joined a CSA and kicked up our gardening efforts (although I think we feed more wildlife than ourselves, hence the CSA share).  In 2012 we saw the documentary Forks Over Knives.  After evaluating the research, we decided to become a Whole Foods, Plant-Based Family.  In November 2015, I earned a Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and eCornell.

I hope that you enjoy Varying Veggies and that it provides some help in your kitchen. Feel free to send any comments, questions or posting suggestions. I may not be able to post everything, but I do appreciate the feedback.

–Kathy