User

For

the past 25 years, I have been a vegetarian culinary instructor teaching

cooking classes at gourmet food stores, supermarkets, kitchen supply stores,

community colleges, and health food stores throughout Ontario, Canada.

I am the author of 5 cookbooks: Flex Appeal, Everyday Flexitarian: Recipes for Vegetarians & Meat Lovers

Alike, New Vegetarian Basics , The Complete Idiot's Guide to Being

Vegetarian in Canada and Nettie's Vegetarian Kitchen. My upcoming new cookbook is all about cooking with heritage beans and superstar seeds. I also teach corporate cooking classes, with dieticians, develop & test recipes for companies and have written articles for magazines, newspapers and online publications. I became vegetarian as a teenager, causing my mother a lot of extra work

and in typical teenage fashion was rather rude and self righteous. My

ethical reasons for becoming vegetarian remain the same today. I could

not understand why people ate meat when there were so many other plant

forms of protein available. All I saw was a lot of waste around me and I

know now just how hard my mother tried to be the best she could. Along

the way I educated myself about a healthy, nutritious , delicious

vegetarian lifestyle.