Hi everyone! My name is Ana, I am 25 and I am a Vietnamese Australian currently living in New Zealand (just to confuse you a little bit). I recreate my favourite dishes into vegan options and post it on my instagram account @the.tinykitchen as a hobby, I am finishing my Bachelor of Science majoring in Psychology and Psychophysiology and I help out at my partner's parent's cafe the rest of the time. This is me now but only a year ago I was a completely different person.
I was a typical Melburnian girl a year ago. I worked 40-50 hours a week as a Travel agent in an office that stressed me out daily. On my time off I would drink excessively and party until the early hours of the morning. I would look after a hangover for the next day or two and then the cycle repeated again. I wasn't completely unhealthy; I did eat a lot of vegies, a lot of raw vegan breakfasts but I also ate heaps of meat, cheese, and dairy. I exercised regularly with boxing and high intensity training at the gym and saw some results but was too stubborn to change my diet even though I knew it was a big influence on my body. I was unhappy back then without even knowing it.
I always had my foot in the door when it came to living a more conscious and healthy lifestyle. I went to yoga classes, I went to Phuket to do a raw vegan fitness detox, I tried to incorporate more health foods into my diet, but it was always just testing the waters and was never a full blown commitment. I knew what was good for me, I just didn't do it and I think most people would be able to agree with me on this. Although I felt great during the time, I had no one there to make me feel accountable for my actions. When you only rely on yourself it is easy to drift and stray as much as I would love to think I was in complete control of myself. I wanted to be a better version of myself, but the people around me were happy to stay the same and that was where things were wrong.
And then I met Cody. An English boy from New Zealand who was working in Melbourne at the time. You don't realise how important it is to surround yourself with people who want the same things as you until you find one. I had someone who had the same values and life goals as me, saw the greatness in me, knew my potential and encouraged me to grow and to be open and with this major life changes came into place. Things I have always had on my to do list for years started getting ticked off really quickly. I quit my job that made me so unhappy, we went to Bali, we moved overseas to New Zealand (I know it's not far but it's still International haha) and I went back to finish my uni degree that I ditched. I stopped binge drinking and spending my nights at clubs. I went back to yoga and found a whole new level of inner peace through meditation. My biggest change though is something we both did together and it was becoming vegan.
Cody was Vegetarian when I met him and when I asked him why he said "If I can't justify killing the animal myself to eat it, then I shouldn't be eating it". That made sense to me and although I didn't turn Vegetarian straight away, I ate Vegetarian whenever I was with him. Of course we completely clicked and after spending almost every day with him and with him eventually moving into mine I became Vegetarian. The most important thing for me was making sure I did it on my own terms, not because he wanted me to. I know it can sound as though this wasn't the case but trust me it was. I realised in my own time that I didn't want to eat meat anymore and the only issue I really had with it (because I'm a typical Melburnian foodie) was how was I going to eat my favourite foods?
It is important to know that I live in a tiny town here in New Zealand where there isn't a lot of restaurants in general let alone heaps of vegan options like Melbourne. My mum is an amazing cook so I never tried to make anything too complicated in the kitchen because I knew she could whip it up in 2 seconds when it took me an hour. She always told me that one day I'll be curious and will want to learn but I never believed her. She also said one day I would like eating vegetables but I didn't believe her with that either. Listen to your mother people! She's not here with me in New Zealand so surprise surprise I had to turn to my tiny kitchen.
This is where the magic started to happen. Instead of being sad about all the things I couldn't eat anymore I took it as a challenge. Recreate everything you love to eat and make it just as tasty or even better! I had big shoes to fill but I was determined to make it happen. And guess what? Turns out I somehow passively inherited my mum's cooking genes! A whole new world opened up for me when it came to food and I loved it! My biggest realisation was that we crave the flavours related to meals that had meat but we didn't actually crave the meat itself. My cooking excelled quickly and I have reached a point where even my mum asks me for recipes and carnivore chefs say "WTF no way that's vegan?". Vegan foods can often be bland and boring but mine was packed full of flavour. Cody noticed this and encouraged me to share it on Instagram and although it scared me I took a leap of faith and did it.
Boy am I glad I listened to him! There are so many amazing content creators on instagram and I am constantly learning, motivated, inspired and creating because of it. I went from failing a basic stir fry to making my own homemade rainbow sushi, mayonnaise and cheeses. I have met amazing like minded people through this platform, have learnt so much more about what dairy and meat does to your body and even got gifted a pot and a huge supply of pasta from San Remo! The more I created, the easier it was for me to make Vegetarian food tasty so I went for the next big challenge: tasty Vegan food. Could I do it? I sure can! This made it so much easier for Cody and I to take the leap and completely cut out animal products.
Am I glad I did it? Of course! I naturally lost weight, my skin is clearer, my eyes are whiter, I have more energy and I am just plain happy and healthy as hell. Everyone that knew me back then can see and feel how much of a change I have gone through because the energy literally oozes out of me. And to think that this is only the beginning!
xx
Ana
Hello, @thetinykitchen, welcome to Steem!
Thank you! I'm still trying to figure it all out but hopefully I catch on quickly!
Great, I am hungry now ;)
Going to resteem you via @welcoming, my page for sharing promising new users - And then, I NEED food!
Greets, @theaustrianguy
Haha sorry for making you hungry! It was kind of intentional though ;) Thank you for sharing!
Welcome to Steemit, we can never get too many vegans in the community.
Thank you! There is never too many!
Hi @thetinykitchen! You have received 1.5 SBD @tipU upvote
from @pusteblume :)
tipvote! - tell @tipU to upvote any post with a comment :)
Awesome journey to being healthy and energetic. Upvoted, following and resteemed.
Thank you so much!
That's a great intro post @thetinykitchen! Those photos look super delicious! I hope you could post your recipes here for us to try :D
Thank you for reading it! I have posted one recipe so far and will be posting plenty more exclusive to Steemit from now on!
hey! my vegan story is similar, will definitely be following your posts! :D <3
Hello! I would love to hear your vegan story! Will be following you back! :)
Oh! I'm starving looking at your pictures oh no =)
But anyway welcome to steemit @thetinykitchen.
Haha that's a good thing for me! it means my pictures are good enough! :) Thank you!
Thank you! It did take some time but I wanted to make sure i started it off just right!
Your food photos are GORGEOUS! I have experience with veganism, raw veganism, vegetarianism, pescetarianism, PHEW and many more -isms with relationship to food. I loved experimenting with every single one and now have a healthy flexitarian vibe that includes a lot of Viet-Laos-Thai cuisine.
As a fellow Instagrammer, I may even be transitioning primarily to Steemit! This platform + community is incredible and the potential to make this a profitable endeavor is pretty exciting.
PS, I so enjoyed your love story. You have inspired me to share mine too. :)
Wow! That is a lot of relationships with food but it's amazing to see how open you are to trying out all of them! It's always best to work with what your body tells you and finding the right balance in between. Flexitarian is trending here in NZ too so yay! And Viet Laos Thai cuisine is my fav!
I have found myself focusing more now on Steemit too now that I have it because the reward from one meaningful post outweighs hundreds on IG which makes it feel worth your while! There is so much potential here!
Thanks for reading it all and I can't wait to read your love story! :) xx
Welcome on Steem!
I really enjoyed reading your post! I'm also vegan!
Hello fellow vegan! Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it!
Ana! your intro just made me go and eat a whole avacado!
My favorite quisine is Vietnamese food, great intro share, and you look very happy! Cheers to you and welcome aboard!
I just introduced myself the other day.
Look forward to your content you will create!
Lynn
Haha hello lynn! So glad you love avos just like me! I looove Vietnamese food (might be kind of biased there) and hopefully my future posts can get you licking the screen! Thanks for reading and welcome to steemit as well! Xx
Ana,
Oh...you dont know, when i met my hubby he took me to a Vietnamese restaurant that specializes in french sauces with the best food!
He won my heart by winning my tummy first, and it looks like you are doing the same.
Keep it up dearest! Continue with your gourmet art...as my mouth waters, yet i sense you infuse the food with your love like the film, "like water for chocolate "
So yummy!
Keep the creations for my
taste buds coming*
We will try your recipes!
Lynn
Haha I have definitely won over my partners heart with his stomach and introduced him to a whole new world of Vietnamese cuisine! I definitely do put my all into my food so I'm glad that it shows!
Can't wait to hear your feedback on my recipes!
Ana xx
Ana,
I am a ever learning sous-chef, but my partner has run out to the asian market and returned with baby bok choy cliantro and fresh sunflower sprouts, green onions,
fresh ginger root, and some amazingly large oysters, to make an oyster with ginger sauce sizzling hot plate for me tonite!
All because he heard me talk of you blog.
See...the inspiration is speading...i will give him one of your receipes, wait i will try to cook it myself.
and let you know how I did.
Lynn xxo
Aww that is so amazing to hear! Come to think of it I have quite a lot of bok choy that needs using up too! Enjoy being spoilt by your partner! 💖
You sound like someone who knows what you are doing.
Inspirational and well thought out post.
:)
Feel sure you are going to rock it here on Steemit.
Off to a great start.
Upvoted/Followed and looking forward to reading more.
I am an artist/writer/lightworker with lots to say. I invite you to pop by mine if you have a mo and would love your thoughts on my most recent post: https://steemit.com/spirituality/@ldacey-laforge/searching-for-zen
Now I'm hungry ~ thanks!
With wishes for a fantastic 2018.
xox
Hah! I'm glad it sounds like I know what I'm doing because half the time I have no clue!
Thank you for taking the time out to read my post! I did spend quite a lot of time on it so glad the message came through the way I wanted it to. Will definitely check out yours as I am all for searching for zen!
Happy new year to you!
glad you signed up! i think you're the first content creator that signed up here from instagram. glad you decided to check it out, i knew us creators would enjoy the platform. enjoy !
Happy to be one of the firsts! Thanks for sharing because no one would have believed the potential we have here!
AW I love your story!!! So inspiring! What an amazing transformation of your life <3 Looking forward to seeing more!
Aw thank you! I never thought it would be considered inspiring but that makes me so happy!
Hello Ana! Oh, it's so great to welcome another vegan here on steemit! You do have such a positive attitude! I'd love to follow you and get lot of inspiration from you and your future posts! 😊
Your beautiful photos are highly promising!
Hello! Nice to meet you! I'm so glad my positive attitude is showing through my post. Hopefully I can continue to inspire and motivate in the future! Stay tuned :)
It is great to hear that you've found your vegan way, seems like 2017 has changed everything for you, such an impressive transition! So what's going to happen in 2018?
I've just checked out your Instagram account and your plant-based creations do look amazing. Keep on sharing your journey :)
Thank you! It was definitely a huge year but i’m hoping to make 2018 bigger! I do want to focus on improving my creations and getting recipes out consistently on a blog as well to eventually create an ebook or a cookbook. And we plan to move back to melb so that will be a whole other crazy change!
Thanks for checking out my insta! :)
Sounds like you will have an exciting and busy year in front of you! I bet Melbourne has so much more to offer in terms of vegan restaurants and meet-up options.
I'm looking forward to hearing about your cookbook :)
I just licked my screen. That is some of the happiest looking vegan good I've seen! I have been increasing my intake of plant based foods and love the experimentation. I find myself stumbling into creating vegetarian and vegan items by happy accident of wandering into the kitchen without a plan. Texture, color and variety are my pilars of making special dishes, beyond just knowing how to safety prepare food items and I love to get weird with it haha
Following so I don't miss a morsel!
My goal is to make people lick the screen so glad it captivated you! 😂 Thank you for taking the time to read it and for the feedback. Experimenting with vegetarian and vegan food is so much fun! It’s like being introduced to a whole new world of food so I’m glad you’re finding the joys in it too!
Hello, welcome to Steemit! It's nice to see you here.
Thank you! Glad to be here!
Welcome to steemit ! Nice paost ! I hope you enjoy here ! will give the vote to you, Please upvote & follow me
Thank you and thank you for reading it!
welcome to steemit! great to have great content creator as yourself. looking forward to you posts!
thank you! can't wait to share it all here :)
Welcome to the community @thetinykitchen!
Thank you! :)
Good stories!)
Thank you for taking the time out to read it!
All that food looks delicious. Welcome to Steem!
Thank you! 😊
Yay, another vegan
Welcome!!
Yay so glad to find another vegan! Thank you! 😊
Hi Ana, and welcome aboard.
If you're ever looking for a few Aussies to chat with you can join @TeamAustralia in discord. And we are vegan-friendly, so you might find more of that community you are looking for. :-)
Great Post and I look forward to more of your adventures in NZ.
Thank you! Glad to be here! I’ll definitely have to join for some help and advice haha. I look forward to sharing my journey 😊
Tipuvote!
Thank you! Could you explain what a tipuvote is? Still working my head around this!
It is a kind of voting bot. If you like a post, you can tell @tipU to upvote it. I found it very useful to show my appreciation for some people here on steemit and/or a very good and/or undervalued post, especially when my own voting power was really low for some reasons, so I couldn't share my love. Just send at least 0.005 SBD to @tipU with url to the post in memo (like when using voting bots) by adding a comment with word tipuvote! anywhere in the comment text. If you like it and you use it a lot, make sure, you always have enough deposit on @tipU. I refresh my deposit with 1.0 SBD every now and then...
Here is a link to the newest updates on @tipU:
https://steemit.com/steem/@tipu/steem-price-is-up-so-let-s-share-some-more-love-tipuvote-profit-3x-bigger-tip-bonus-vote
I wish you a lot of fun using it.
Oh wow that's so good to know! Thanks for taking the time out to explain!
You are welcome! ☺️
Awesome! Welcome to Steemit! Hope you decide to share some of your recipes here.
Thank you! I definitely will be sharing my recipes here real soon! Stay tuned for them :)
You look great, and so does the food.
Welcome to Steemit!
I hope you find everything you're looking for in this platform. I wish you success and that you enjoy the community.
If you ever need help, you know where to find me.~
Cheers!
Thank you for your kind words! Wishing you happiness and success as well :)
Welcome, ur food looks great!
Thank you! :)
Beautiful 👏👏👏
@thetinykitchen welcome to Steemit
Thank you! Glad to be here :)
Plant based vietnamese is by far my most favourite food.
Warm welcome, you got my follow!
Thank you! Plant based Vietnamese food is honestly so amazing and so underrated!
Thank you! :)
You're welcome @thetinykitchen to this great community. Thanks for sharing your story and looking forward to learn more from you
Thank you! So excited to join this community and share what I know!
Glad to have you on board the Steemit train
Glad to be here! Thanks for reading!
Hi! I’m super happy you joined Steemit! I’m brand new to Steemit and it’s wonderful to see other Steemian’s join the community. Keep posting. I’d love to see more ☺
Be sure to follow my account @zoewilliamson
Best of luck to you!
Hello! I’m so glad I joined too! Seems like such a welcoming community especially when I’m feeling a bit lost learning it all haha. Will check you out! Have an amazing day!
@thetinykitchen,welcome to steemit...
Thank you! So glad I joined!
Hey! Welcome to Steemit :) It's so awesome to have another vegan on here, seems like more and more are joining which is great! The food pics on this post look so good btw. Cheers, Paul
Hi Paul! Nice to meet you! Definitely so great that a vegan community is beginning here! Hope you enjoy the rest of the food posts I have to offer!
Welcome to steemit !!
I hope you enjoy finding common issues with people and learning new things.
you can follow my blog @jangkeum and even give me upvote ...
Thank you! Yes it’s quite fun figuring it all out! It’s quite a huge learning curve but I love challenging myself with new things so bring it on!
Hi Ana, I am a venezuelan girl and I am vegetarian, but a would like to lead a life completely free of animal suffering, so I avoid consuming milk of animal origin, cheese or eggs, but sometimes, due to the economic crisis that my country is experiencing, I am forced to consume cheese or eggs :-@
Hello! So nice to meet you!
Your mind is already open and aware of what eggs and milk does to you so that's so valuable! You're already trying to reduce it so don't get upset with yourself because it already makes a huge difference to the world. I'm not sure if this is the case in Venezuela but here in Aussie and NZ it can be more cost effective getting canned foods like chickpeas and corn, dried grains like lentils, frozen veggies and some rice/bread. It also helps if you shop for fresh produce that is in season! Vegan food doesn't have to be as complicated as I make it out to be in my posts it can just be simple wholesome foods that is good for your body. I try to make it a balance between both :) I hope this helps!
Welcome to Steemit! Great to see another Aussie abroad on the platform! Glad your life is changed for the better. I hope we can grow together on this platform :)
Thank you! Always happy to see another Aussie and I'm glad to see how my life has changed for the better too! So excited to be part of such an amazing growing community
Yep! Tossed you a follow and an upvote. looking forward to more content
Those vegan dishes look amazing!
Thank you for checking it out!
Hai, halo @thetinykitchen selamat datang di steemit, senang anda gabung disini 😉
Hello! My basic knowledge of Indonesian makes me understand the welcome so thank you! I couldn't quite catch the rest though sorry!
HELLO .. please Upvote and Follow me , i will upvote u also and Follow.. Thanks .
https://steemit.com/@juviemaycaluma
Hello! Thank you for checking my blog out! :)
Omg that sushi looks amazing!!!! Following 💫✨🙌🙌🙌
Thank you! It took me hours to make!!!! Was well worth it in the end though haha.
Great foods! Welcome to the platform @thetinykitchen.
Thank you! Glad to be here 😊
that last photo is making me consider going out for lunch an hour earlier than expected 😛 i really love your backstory, how you met your bf cody whose values aligned with yours and how you thrived in reaching your goals as a vegan and challenging yourself!
also this is truly inspiring : I went from failing a basic stir fry to making my own homemade rainbow sushi, mayonnaise and cheeses.
going to check your foodie venture on your ig as well :)
It is never too early to eat lunch! I hope you did!
Thank you so much for reading it and actually understanding everything I was trying to say. It means a lot to me that you think it is inspiring! I am honestly shocked at my own growth in the kitchen, as well as my mum haha. It goes to show you don't have to be a chef to start! you just need the passion and the willingness to learn!
Hey, welcome to TA, your food looks delicious
Hello! Nice to meet you! And thanks :) Glad to be part of a team!
Thank you! Glad I got the first post out of the way so I could understand everything more!