Jody

Jody compiled the many stories, recipes and tips our club has generated into a wonderful book that is available for purchase: “The Vegan Cookbook Club.” Our club’s founder, Bonnie Ambrosi, has profiled Jody in two articles in the Duluth News Tribune titled, Save money with thrifty vegan recipes and Homegrown home fries about growing and making potato dishes.

Why do you attend the Vegan Cookbook Club?

Bonnie Ambrosi and the Mt. Royal Library in Duluth set up this group to talk about plant-based eating.  I have always been focused on healthy eating and for many years my husband and I have preferred a plant-based diet, though we are flexatarians. One thing I was impressed about with the group when I first started going to meetings was that everyone was open, accepting and non-judgmental. There were no hints of disgust when I would say we do tend to eat some animal protein at home. More importantly, I’ve learned an awful lot from the group. I have found out great information about books and research and health. Great cooking tips. And there’s a camraderie. Every member is there for a different reason. Some of us have health issues. In my case, it is because I have food sensitivities. So I can’t eat dairy and eggs and yeast, for example. Thus, that’s the vegan part of me.

And we’re all people from different walks of life, whether its age or race or education, career, financial, whatever. We’re a slice of true community because we are not all the same. And that was important to me because I have joined groups in the past and everybody was the same, and that’s no fun. I love that we are all on our own journey, coming from different paths, but going toward our same well. 

How did you come to plant-based eating?

When my husband was in one of his graduate programs, we were on a tight budget. Of course, this was BC (before children), and I found that by decreasing animal products in our monthly food budget, the money stretched more. And over the years we’ve been faced with different health issues. My husband comes from a family with heart disease so we’ve always been mindful of a healthy heart diet. And then we had children, and children as with their mother developed some allergies. And the kids had to stop doing dairy products and a few other things, and so did I. And also, I have some G.I. issues. And I knew that by eating a higher fiber diet that would be better for my GI track.

Any favorite books?

Laurel’s Kitchen, Diet for a Small Planet and More-with-Less Cookbook. These cookbooks motivated my husband and I to decrease our meat consumption. I am still bothered by the way mass-produced farm animals live and are treated as was described and pictured in John Robbin’s Diet For A New America.