How it all began...

    For most of my life, just like many, many others, I lived having it ingrained into me that we need meat and dairy in our diet. As I got older I started to realize the more meat and dairy I was eating the worse I was feeling. I slowly started cutting down on how much animal products I was consuming, opting for meatless meals now and then, the more I did this and increased my plant consumption the better I started to feel. I still loved the tastes and textures though and for a long time could not imagine my life without at least a little bit of meat and dairy (cheese mostly). Eventually I started watching all the documentaries: Earthlings, What the Health, Cowspiracy, Forks Over Knives, Food Inc.... I've always called myself a huge animal lover, it hurt actually seeing everything animals go through just to end up on a plate for us, often taken for granted, so much ending up wasted and thrown in the trash. The negative environmental aspects also killed me to learn. Somehow, even though I was feeling guilty about my choices, I still felt like "well we need to eat meat and dairy for optimal health, right?"

​

    Then my husband and I watched The Game Changers. Having all the negative health aspects laid out in front of me, seeing all the amazing success stories and how beneficial a plant based diet is, was the final tipping point. Immediately after, my husband and I looked at each other and said "we need to try this". We started showing the documentary to others, like my mom, Connie, she also decided to give it a try with us. We decided to take it slow and start doing research. We didn't want to do it wrong, miss out on any of our favourite dishes, flavours, textures or important nutrients. So we took the time to learn and test recipes, to veganize all of our favourite meals. Jan 1st 2020 was the first day my husband, mom and I decided to try a plant based diet. We thought we might do this as more of a cleanse, temporarily, and then drastically reduce our meat and cheese consumption: just eating it on special occasions or maybe when we have a really bad craving. After about 3 weeks we felt more amazing then we ever have and all the cravings for any dairy or meat were totally gone, we felt absolutely no desire to go back. My mom was able to get off all her medications for her rheumatoid arthritis as well! Now we are proudly vegan! My love for animals feels so much less hypocritical, so pure, all my beliefs have aligned and it feels AMAZING! 

 

    After the birth of my daughter, our 3rd and final child, I realized I couldn't imagine going back to my job and needed to find a career, something I love and am passionate about. I did a lot of soul searching to try and figure out what I wanted to do with my life. For a long time I thought I wanted to have a career working with animals but after trying a few different directions, nothing felt totally right to me, I knew I needed to look at other avenues. My passions have changed so much over the years but one thing has always remained constant, my love of cooking, feeding and nourishing people! If I could also help people learn that eating plants can actually be EVEN MORE DELICIOUS AND HEALTHY then eating animals and their secretions, and help people see its not actually such a scary change: you don't have to sacrifice or miss out on anything! Then I think that is the perfect form of vegan activism for me. I found my Ikigai (life purpose, life worth, motivation, or finding joy through purpose)! I also realized there is no one I would rather cook and start this business with than my mom! We make an amazing team in the kitchen and have always loved working together to pull off some mouthwatering, fancy family dinners and events. So with the constant support and love of: Connie, my mom, my amazing supportive husband and all my other fantastic family members, plus A LOT of hard work, our small mother/daughter business, Hearty Vegan, was born.

​

    Here at Hearty Vegan, we want to bring Hearty, Healthy, Healing, Nourishing foods to you: the busy people and families, so you can have some homemade/traditional style foods, just like mom would make, but vegan, at your fingertips, in the freezer, ready to just thaw, heat and serve. Many of our recipes are whole food plant based, without added oils or processed foods, and we have many gluten free options, as well as some soy free and nut free options. One day we would love to make our own vegetable stock from scratch and become fully organic! When you choose our products you will never have to sacrifice nutrition, flavour or textures for a convenient meal. You will feel great about feeding our food to your family. We care about the Earth, animals, and the members of our community. We try to source our produce locally when possible and love supporting other small businesses in our community. We will always do our best to reduce our carbon footprint and stay as green as possible, and everything will ALWAYS be Vegan!

 

    Thank you so much for your interest and support in our woman owned, small business, it means the world to our little family!