Jenny is a mom of three and resident of Tennessee who grew up in the Midwest with a strong appreciation for respecting the earth and all its inhabitants, instilled in her by her grandparents.
Despite being surrounded by food as a child in an Italian deli and being raised on home-cooked meals made from scratch, Jenny never enjoyed cooking as an adult. However, when her family’s health concerns prompted her to remove pork from their diet, Jenny became a vegetarian while her family continued to consume other animal products. This led to a struggle of balancing both diets, and ultimately, Jenny felt like a hypocrite for claiming to be an environmentalist and animal lover while still consuming animals.
This realization prompted her to watch documentaries about animals and the environment, culminating in her decision to go vegan after watching “What The Health” with her husband in July of 2017. Despite the initial challenges of learning how to cook vegan meals, Jenny’s determination and research paid off, and she soon fell in love with cooking. Join us as we delve deeper into Jenny’s journey towards living a vegan lifestyle and her passion for spreading awareness about animal rights and environmentalism.
Jenny has her degree in early childhood education, but has been spending the last year as a cook. When she isn’t working, she is spending time with her family outdoors, shopping or watching anime.
Meatless Movement recently had a chat with her.
She told us that she loves the warm weather and tries to spend as much time outside in the sun or hiking in nature as possible. Being vegan means taking care of things she loves. It means caring for the earth for future generations and loving All living creatures.
Please tell us more about yourself
All vegan all the time
Jennifer Jen Jenny💜
My name is Jenny, and live in Tennessee. I grew up in the Midwest. I am an Italian cook with a degree in early childhood. I also love nature, cats, art and hiking. My grandparents, as best they know, taught me to respect the earth and the creatures on it, to live in harmony.
They were not vegan or vegetarian, but there wasn’t much going on with that movement at the time. I grew up around food in an Italian deli and went home to home-cooked from scratch food. Despite always being around food, as an adult, I did not enjoy cooking.
For health reasons for my family, I removed pork from our diet, but we still consumed other animal products. I became vegetarian while my family did not. It was difficult for me to balance both diets and I eventually failed. I felt like a fraud, huge amount of guilt for saying I love animals and claiming to be an environmentalist all while consuming animals. I started watching documentaries about animals and the environment. In July 2017 I sat down with my husband and watched What The Health.
In that moment I knew I was being a hypocrite, there was no denying it. I knew it wouldn’t be easy and I knew I would have to learn how to cook, but that day I went vegan. I donated everything in the house that wasn’t vegan. I had no idea what I was doing, so I researched everything. It took less than a month and several dinner fails, but I learned to love cooking.
It makes me really happy to create food that tastes so good and no animals had to suffer in the process
Jennifer Jen Jenny💜
The food had to be good to keep my family satisfied with the change in our household. Turning plants into delicious meals is an amazing feeling. My style of cooking is mostly taking popular meals and making them vegan. I enjoy cooking for people and showing them with my food, animal products are not needed. Vegan does not mean sacrificing flavor or favorite dishes.
I didn’t have anyone to guide me along or support me with this change and that made it a little more difficult. I would suggest linking up with other vegans for guidance. I would also suggest picking your favorite meals and making them vegan. Take a regular recipe and replace anything nonvegan with an alternative. If you are unsure how to do that, research it online.
Some things I do to make things easier, I always bring snacks with me no matter where I go. There are very few vegan options where I live and I do not want to be in a position of not having at least something to snack on. I’ll bring pretzels, nuts, peanut butter crackers.
I typically make most meals for my family, we do not eat out often. There have been times where I’ve been somewhere and chips or fries were the only vegan options. I think what has kept me vegan is my reason for being vegan. No I don’t want fries for dinner, but sometimes that might be the case.
Cruelty free, delicious vegan food!
Jennifer Jen Jenny💜
Vegan doesn’t mean boring or lacking flavor
Jennifer Jen Jenny💜
I do it because I love animals. That is what keeps me vegan. I’ve been teased about being vegan, things aren’t always the easiest, but at the end of the day, my soul rests easy knowing I did my best to keep animals free of suffering.
One way I educate others about being vegan is by sharing my cooking with them. People often have inaccurate opinions about vegan food not tasting good. I am also an open book. I let people know if they want help reducing their animal intake or questions about being vegan, ask, let me know.
Jennifer Jen Jenny💜
Vegan home cook🌱
Italian restaurant cook🍝
Degreed early childhood teacher🖍️
Mom of three💚💙🤍
Tatoos🦋💐
Teslas🚘
Tennessee 🌄
all images courtesy of Jennifer Jen Jenny💜