Greetings.  My name is Randy Chase.  I am now reside in the small town of Cleveland Tennessee, just northeast of Chattanooga in the corner of the state and near the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. I have spent most of my life in San Diego Cailfornia.  I am by trade an engineering designer and work in various fields including Biomed and military electronics, doing work for companies like Google, Apple, Intel, and more.  My wife is a law school graduate who volunteers her time helping families and children.  We are raising two small children, twins that are 11 years old.  One is on the spectrum.  My mother-in-law also lives with us. We have two cats, one bird, and a fat guinea pig named Gene Simmons.

I switched from a low fat healthy diet (my cardiac doctor’s words… “your new diet is simple…if you put something in your mouth, and if it tastes good, I need you to spit it out”) to a vegan diet in 2013.  From 2008 to 2013, I ate dry toast, oatmeal, egg whites and was not enjoying my food or the experience.  I felt it was more a focus on what I could not eat. Since going vegan, I got back my interest in amazing foods since I now allow myself to eat well, just not eating any animal based products.   Moving to a small town in Tennessee though, meant I had to rely less on bought vegan products from Whole Foods and the many vegan restaurant options in SoCal.  I was not much of a cook, so deciding to feed the entire family on a plant based diet that they would like, would be a challenge.  Being an engineering type, I accepted this as an experiment in progress.  I had to learn a lot…why a Russet instead of a Yukon Gold potato?  What is the difference in a yellow onion and a spanish onion?  What is a parsnip?  So this became more a “Vegan Cooking for Dummies” exercise.  I made many mistakes, and I learned a few things.  The most important thing I learned… is that cooking vegan is easy and tasty and there is a lot more out there to eat as a vegan, than salads or plain veggies!  I am having fun experimenting with foods and trying new dishes and it is satisfying to make a dish that is healthy for the entire family, and having them ask for seconds.

Also being an engineering/science type, I researched the heck out of things involving nutrition, gut biomes, inflammation, cardiac health… and then the tie in to other health issues such as diabetes.  The more I learned, the more it was apparent that cooking and eating plants was the best thing I could do for my health, and my families health.  Please see the film (on Netflix streaming) Forks Over Knives which goes into detail about this.

The goal of this site then.. is that if you are in the same place I was… to offer some information that might be of use to you, as well as document my recipes for myself.  This site is not commercial, will not advertise, and does not seek any financial return.