My name is Lauren. I'm 26, I live in Melbourne and I am the laziest vegetarian you will ever meet. It is my secret shame. I have been a vegetarian for ten years and I rarely cook anything that doesn't at least partially come from a can, bag or packet.

This is me. I am a huge dork.


As you may be able to discern from my nose, I have Italian blood in my veins. I should be the greatest cooking mama since, well, cooking mama. Instead I find myself coming home from work feeling tired and motivated only to crack the lid off a sauce jar and dump it over some packet pasta.

The thing is - I am pretty sure I can cook, its just that I rarely bother. I needed inspiration. So I borrowed a copy of Veganomicon from the library - the bible in from-scratch vegan cooking. I salivated over every page. I suddenly felt compelled to cook every single dish in that 300 page compendium.
So I decided to do it. And write a blog about it. Isn't that what people do these days? Hey, I've seen Julie & Julia. I cried during the lobster boiling scene. Seriously, when they thrash around and knock the lid off - I was like a baby. Maybe Isa and Terry are the Julia Child's (Children?) of my generation, minus the artery-choking animal products.

So here I go. Cooking my way through every recipe in Veganomicon. Struggling to find the obscure ingredients in suburban Australia. Fucking up, making a mess and blogging.