about me

Hello and welcome to my plant-based kitchen adventures!

My background …

My name is Nora, born and raised in Varna, Bulgaria, but my family immigrated to the U.S., which is where I spent the last 25 years of my life. In June of 2021 I made the decision to relocate back to my native city of Varna and start anew. So here I am in Varna, enjoying every moment of it - from {almost daily} visits to the farmer’s market and making a mess in the kitchen, to picking herbs in the garden and enjoying daily walks by the beautiful Black Sea. My dream is to one day have a physical space (a combination between a café, bakery and a deli) where I can cook and share my creations with people, but until that day comes, this is where I get to share with you my urban kitchen adventures! 

my path to whole food plant-based lifestyle …

It all started in hopes to lower my hereditary high cholesterol after I was tired (and mostly annoyed) of hearing doctors tell me I need to start taking statins (cholesterol-lowering medication) if I did not want to have the same faith as my father - he passed away suddenly in 2000 from a massive heart attack, he was 60 years old. It was only after his passing that I learned the meaning of the word ‘cholesterol’ as I was tested only to discover that I had, in fact, inherited his high cholesterol.

Discovering I had high cholesterol did not mean that I made any lifestyle changes right away. It took me time to realize what that meant in terms of eating, drinking, smoking habits - 14 years to be exact! After all, I was only twenty years old at the time of my father’s passing, so naturally I thought I had all the time in the world before I had to get serious about my health. Then somehow in January 2014 I came to my senses and realized that I needed to make some sort of change if I wanted to live a longer and happier life, so I decided to become a pescatarian-vegetarian (this is the one where you can eat fish, eggs, dairy). I was on that path for seven years and felt good overall, but it did not affect my cholesterol levels the way I had hoped, mostly because I was consuming insane amounts of cheese and yogurt. I felt that as a native Bulgarian, yogurt was part of my DNA (you know, the whole Lactobacillus bulgaricus comes from Bulgaria, etc.) and it was essential for my survival. As for the cheese, that was a love affair on a whole different level - I could have cheese for breakfast, lunch and dinner and never get sick of it. With time though I was starting to feel the negative effects of the overconsumption - heartburn, skin irritation, joint aches etc. And even though I realized it was not good for me, I just felt like I did not have the will power to quit it. Something really major had to happen in order for me to be able to kick the habit of eating dairy for good.

And then 2020 happened! The year when the world came to a halt, things got flipped upside-down for a lot of us, which is when I ended up living under the same roof with my family again. It was then that a significant culinary shift happened in our household - we all went plant-based! This was by no means an overnight change, it was a very slow and natural transition until one day we realized that we had actually become fully plant-based. There were a few reasons behind it, but all were health-related - my mom had started taking blood-pressure-lowering medication and my sister’s blood pressure was spiking as well, which made it obvious that something was off-balance and we needed to change our eating habits to combat that. The pandemic and all of the unknowns  that came with it also helped steer us in the direction of consuming healthier food with loads of fruits and vegetables to boost our immune system.

I honestly think that what made us realize that we can survive eating whole food plant-based meals was the fact that I had ordered couple of cookbooks and started experimenting with recipes for dinner, which were all well-received by the family. I do not think I would have succeeded in convincing my family with some boring little salad, which is why I think is important to cook veggies in the most exciting way you can! I also completed the Plant-Based Nutrition certificate through the online platform at Cornell University, which gave me an enormous amount of knowledge, reaffirmed my gut feeling that this is the right nutritional path, motivated me to continue on this great new culinary adventure and bring my family {and hopefully you as well} along with me. 

my results …

After less than a year following a whole food plant-based lifestyle, my total cholesterol levels have dropped by nearly 50 points (my doctor told me the most I could hope for is a 10 point drop), my mom is no longer on blood-pressure-lowering medication and my sister’s blood pressure has stabilized. Additionally, each one of us lost some unwanted weight (without even trying), feel energized throughout the whole day and we laugh way more than we ever have before (our serotonin levels must be way up there :)).

my mission …

It is my intent to use this platform to share my kitchen adventures and whatever scientifically proven knowledge I have on the wonders of eating seasonal plant-based meals with you. I do not wish for everyone to be plant-based and I do not think that you need to give up meat entirely to be able to enjoy a healthy well-balanced life. What I do know is that we (as a society) are consuming way more highly processed foods than our poor bodies can process, which is why I wish to inspire people to cook more at home and incorporate more fruits and veggies in their daily menu!

Feel free to leave a comment, make a request for a recipe or follow me on social media.

Thank you for stopping by!

p.s. If you are not sure where to start, you can check out this post - Essential Ingredients for the Plant-Based Pantry and also browse around here for some seasonal inspiration - Seasonal Produce. Hope you find it helpful!