 Welcome everyone to Lillian's Vegan World. I'm your host Lillian Cumick coming to you live from gorgeous downtown Honolulu. Today's show is plant-based March Challenge Progress Over Perfection and I have my gorgeous guest with me today, Sue Storfer, who has just moved to the islands, moved to Honolulu and she's my guest today on the show. A huge welcome to Sue. Aloha Sue. Aloha Lillian. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to hang out with you today. I've been looking forward to this show to be honest and bumping into you and meeting you at the farmers markets has brought you and I together for this moment in time where we're going to share some of what you're getting up to here on the island. I just did mention that you are new to the islands. You recently moved here from the mainland. How's it all going? How's your move? The move's been great although it's been a lot harder than I thought. You know when you get enthusiastic about something you're like let's go for it and you just push and jump and then you're like oh wow what have we done? But overall it's been fantastic. I mean my husband and I have been visitors to the islands for more than 20 years so it's I fell in love a long time ago. The time we visited in fact it's like let's pretend we live here and so we really kind of changed the way we we walked around and one of the great finds at that time was what we called the KCC farmers market over at the community college and oh my gosh my heart just went oh look at all of this and that's when I really adopted what Hawaii was telling me even then you know grown here not flown here and so when we got the opportunity to actually pick up stakes and jump we just said you know Hawaii's going to be the place where we're going to come back to life. We're going to come back to life on the island and we're going to come here and serve and listen and honor and bring everything we've got and just live live big. That's amazing Sue and we're so glad and lucky to have you here. I also feel so blessed to be living in Hawaii it is truly for me a vegan paradise and I believe that's so much so that I named my newly released cookbook Hawaii a vegan paradise and we'll get into all the reasons why this is the perfect place to you know delve into a plant based diet but Sue I do want to introduce you and my apologies for not doing so during the introduction that you are a filmmaker and story strategist absolutely very exciting well you know it is I've been very fortunate my whole career I have worked in the TV business and was able to create like short form informational promotional videos and things both on working and you know television station working for clients working for non-profit organizations and and so that's been a great joy of mine and I've really enjoyed also actually helping formulate what those stories are because it's really important to find who you are in your core whether it's a person an organization or a project you really need to get to that truce center and once you find the truce center you can share that story with some authenticity and everybody wants to hear the real thing so my husband and I do that together and he's a brilliant storyteller in his own right and we're just thrilled to be here and and share some of the great stories that we're going to find so and I'm lucky to have you here to share your story about some something you are just entering into which is the plant-based march challenge organized by changing tides foundation and you can go over to their website which is changing tides foundation org and enroll there's still time to enroll in this this month of plant-based eating tell us about this challenge and and what what it can do for for viewers or people who are interested in starting a plant-based diet yeah the whole point of it is again we talked about this progress over perfection you know it's not really a competition it's just a challenge to get better at something get better at it so the point of the challenge is to eat as many plant-based meals as you can some people have dietary restrictions that really prevent them from going completely meatless or going without dairy completely or eggs completely but really it's about taking a step forward and being as intentional as you can and at the same time educating yourself as to some of the impacts that animal agriculture have on our world and to really understand that and honestly that was really the beginning of of my journey in stepping away from a really meat-centric diet to something that's more plant-based and so the challenge is really just a refresher for me you know sometimes we get a little off base you know we all start january and we're like i'm gonna do this and this and then we kind of go and fall back into some of our habits and then you know we wake up after valentine's day with an empty box of chocolate on our pillow and it's like okay i really i really gotta gotta get some community help so that's what changing tides is about it's it's an organization that was founded by a lovely group of ladies who shared the big beautiful mission of creating ocean health and community vitality and and equity and opportunities and that's a lot of the things that i believe in too and leah dawson's a friend of mine i've known her for a lot of years and she's one of the co-founders so when the challenge came around i was like absolutely this is just the kick that i need to get me back into a little bit more intentional way of eating and in why oh my gosh look at the choices i mean look at the choices that's interesting so um what kind of support does this organization give you if you were to enroll in the plant based diet it's already march fourth so four days into the into the challenge but still plenty of time to to log on and you know enroll and join what kind of support are they offering sure there is a guide so once you once you sign up there is a a guide book that just really gives you the skeletal outline of what you're doing and how to approach it and then they're also sending out regular emails with updates and recipes and encouragements and things like that so there is a lot of things that are going on throughout the months just to really get people to you know to keep their energy up but even in the very basics i mean really just to sign up take a look at it get the guide read through it and again give yourself permission to step as far as you can um and not really worry about the perfection of holding something absolutely tight in rules it's it's not about rules it's about becoming and involving on our journey together yes i did take a look at the uh the website it's it is very interesting i must say and i do uh journey of the viewers to go over to changingtidesfoundation.org and take a look at their web page because they are doing a lot of other very echo um conscious uh projects as well but uh sue how do you start this the number the million dollar question to me all the time is where do i start where do i start how do i start a plant-based diet so four days into this what was start from day one how do you begin well what i first of all my mindset was i really need to think about how i can change my mind about things because there was a time you know when i grew up if we didn't have meat in a meal i felt like i hadn't eaten i mean i could have eaten to the point where i couldn't put any more food in my body and yet if there had not been meat in that mix i would have said i didn't have lunch i didn't have breakfast i didn't have dinner so i really had to change my mind and that happened one day when i was having a sub and i realized that the turkey was so weft off in that i probably wouldn't i couldn't even taste it in there you know i couldn't taste it i could taste the crunchiness of the cucumbers and the juiciness of the tomatoes and the bread and yet turkey was there turkey in there i missed that so i started to realize i didn't have to have it and and then i also really thought about the fact that when i wake up in the morning i like to eat so the fact that i'm not eating eggs i had to just think well what else can i eat oh i can eat anything i want i can have rice i can have broccoli i can have sweet potatoes i can have whatever i want you know for breakfast as long as it's not eggs so really the first step is just changing your mind and and accepting the fact that you're gonna find out some new things and then one meal at a time what else can i do go to the store get some stuff you know build some armament like salads this is one of my favorite things from the farmers market if i could show you oh my gosh oh this beautiful cabbage we have learned so much about this lovely thing in fact this has been my best friend in the fact that instead of making pasta what i learned to do was to cut cabbage into little ribbons almost like little fettuccine ribbons and then use that for the basis of either an asian dinner or an Italian dinner or something like that so i started to just experiment with things and realize that man like like these little guys mushrooms oh and in fact i got i i grew these mushrooms in my house but mushrooms are a fantastic replacement for meat if you can marinate them like in teriyaki or something like that so it's really about just thinking well what do i like and and let's load up on that and meantime let's find some other things one at a time one at a time yeah you bring up an awesome point yeah there is definitely no lack of food out there if you go plant-based in fact i'm going to say that probably vegans or people on a plant-based diet eat more of a variety of ingredients than non-vegans because we do go through all the beans and lentils and legumes vegetables that people have never heard of i i guarantee not many people pick up a red cabbage or a purple cabbage often and by the way my favorite way of enjoying that is just stir-fried with a little bit of olive oil and balsamic reduction yeah chopped macadamia nuts on top yeah that crunch is incredible not to mention um red and purple foods have a lot of antioxidants so excellent for your health as well um so there are such things as vegan egg dishes i actually have to help there actually a lot yes i haven't i haven't gone down the path as as much as i can on the exploration end of it so believe me your book has been inspirational to me and i will tackle some of that stuff but it was at least in my beginning phase was what do i already like and then how can i increase that maybe even in percentages and then one step at a time you don't have to take it all on at the same time you can just get a little bit like like i love sweet potatoes guess what i found at the market here an okinawa sweet potato and it's purple on the inside it's beautiful so that led me to go hey i can do this and and and i can include it in a salad and i can so i started to experiment you know with the things i already liked and like brussel sprouts and and you know what can i do with those and so yes i promise lily and i will be following you to figure out all of those other meal stretching opportunities that i i think i think you're doing amazing so honestly what what you're pulling out we we are going to show the viewers some slides that you um you are going to share with us about food that you're creating and it is very beautiful let's look at one before the break let's have a look at what you've been cooking up see that is gorgeous explain to the viewers what it is uh i know well one of the challenges was again to replace meat so what can i do with my mushrooms what i discovered with these beautiful oyster mushrooms and you can use them with other mushrooms is that i could take olive oil and like chicken seasoning they make it with salt without salt your favorite poultry seasonings and just stir fry those those bad boys those little strips and it actually is really close to giving you the experience of chicken so what i did there was i just took some glass noodles some asian noodles because like my family loves udon and and you know bowls and then used those mushrooms instead of the chicken and then i got some great little microgreens from the farmers market here and i was able to create that which again replaced what we already love but it just substituted out one particular ingredient and you've done you've done an amazing job with it that actually has become i'm guessing also a gluten-free dish that you've used the the glass noodles um which are made from rice or a starch depending on on which ones you use some some of them are made from mung bean starch which is also gluten-free and i found some ones here that are actually made with sweet potato starch so again yeah i've really been working hard to to watch the gluten and to challenge myself because maybe i might not be as sensitive to other as other people are but i really do want to walk alongside a lot of people who are to find some really good new solutions for that so that has been a big part of my journey too so thank you and just your whole mindset that you mentioned earlier you're you're so positive about this and that's what i think people need to embrace when they're because basically changing your food patterns is just breaking old habits so once you learn how to break old habits set goals you know if you're going to try this challenge there's the goal right in front of you one month plant-based i think when you start setting goals that's when you start achieving and progressing towards you know what it is that you you want to achieve so i love the mindset and the positive attitude that you have sue we are going to take a quick break and come back with more of sue stoffer and her march challenge on a plant-based diet stay tuned welcome back to lilians vegan world i'm your host lilian cumick vegan chef and cookbook author i'm also part of the think tech hawaii team of citizen journalists and we bring forth news that's happening in and around hawaii um important stuff that you all need to know and that we love to share so welcome back to the show um i'd like to welcome back also my awesome gorgeous guest sue stoffer and you on the islands here and just beginning her march plant-based diet with the tide pardon me changing tides foundation dot org um challenge so sue welcome back thank you lilian thanks for letting me hang out with you today my pleasure sue before we go on i do want to mention to the viewers that my cookbook might help if you're interested in learning more about vegan cooking it was just released in uh november of 2020 last year it's called hawaii a vegan paradise over 120 plant-based recipes of the islands or from the islands and inspired by the islands you can buy the book um on in most stores around hawaii and on amazon uh it's also available on barns and noble you can order the book directly from the local the local publishing house mutual publishing um find me and more about what i'm getting up to on the islands at lilianvegan.com i'm also on youtube lilian vegan facebook also lilian vegan and i have an instagram account lilian vegan under bar chef hawaii so i'm doing lots of stuff and i also have my show here lilians vegan world with the gorgeous sue so let's take a look at it at some more of the food that you've been creating because this is so important we were talking before we started filming about how we do eat with our eyes and one thing i always always try to tell people i've been teaching cooking classes for about 20 years now and one thing i always tell people is make it look good put the effort into it everybody's too rushed in their lives you know i cannot fathom sitting down to a meal in my home eating on a paper plate this will never happen in my home i understand there are busy people and and all that sort of stuff but you know you also will be um leaving less of a footprint when you start thinking about what it is that you're using on a daily basis and throwing away things like paper plates plastic plastic cups plastic stores um things like that i think when you start delving more and more into a plant based diet you start to realize that there's there's a bigger picture out there other than just the food so be aware be mindful of you know what you're what you're contributing as far as your carbon footprint so talking about going back to presentation and making food look beautiful you sue are a very or i should say your husband is a very lucky man let's have a look at some more of your creations that is so beautiful that is such a simple thing one of the things i discovered when i got here and went to the farmers market and i really wanted to try everything again right i really wanted to just take a fresh idea and just try it again you know what that is that's poi that is poi that is an avocado sitting on top of poi with lemon juice and olive oil and some tahin seasoning which is a which is a seasoning blend that one of my friends who's born in mexico she gave us on the way out the door and so i i have fallen head over heels back in love with poi and you know that was so satisfying to me and i made it for myself okay i made that dish for myself and and yeah i mean it's fun i also found that during the pandemic when we were all kind of confined so much that it it became my creative outlet i couldn't do a lot of the things that i was even doing during my profession for my creative expression and i just found food was one of the most brilliant medias to work with because we all eat every day and it's just an opportunity to really indulge in color and texture and flavors and it's a real joy to use food as a creative outlet it absolutely it absolutely is i couldn't agree more um to to cook cooking is so gratifying isn't it there's something just so satisfying about having something you created from scratch turn up on a or end up on a on a plate looking so beautiful like that um i do want to mention to people who don't know what poi is it's actually just taro it's steamed or boiled taro that's been pounded down to to form a very glutinous kind of paste if you will very um i would have to say this is a this is one that might require some uh tastings before you become accustomed to it you know one of the things lillian that has helped me with food and getting over some of my food bias is to start to think about it and then to look for bridges with things that i already love and what i found with poi when i really looked at it was that it's very similar to other things in other culinary expressions poi is a neutral kind of a thing as you know and so you can add other flavors to it i kind of like my husband loves um lebanese food and middle eastern food and he will use what he calls leban which is actually yogurt and so you know he doesn't like yogurt but he'll eat leban so in taking that particular thing you can kind of blend it with other stuff and it complements the same way that like creme fraiche does or or even mashed potatoes if you think of poi in those kind of neutral um perspectives so i found that there's one manufacturer here that actually creates a poi that does not quote-unquote ripen over its lifetime the same way like yogurt water cheese would that might get more pungent as it ages um the way that they make it it holds that really neutral flavor and because it's held that neutral flavor i can use it in all kind of ways and experimenting with it has been fantastic and also it really fulfills my wanting to be um non-gluten and have a friendly carb base so i can use it at breakfast i can use it in all kind of ways but but yeah i have to sneak it in some people even if it is purple that's so creative i would never actually have thought to pair it with avocado but i i can see that creamy yeah that creamy texture on top of the the very neutral poi would would work yeah yeah poi has a bad rap but as i really looked at how can i honor hawaii i went back to look at that history and poi was a staple it was a very stable carb carbohydrate that went with your fish and it went with some of the other more sour things and and it was a very basic element and when i looked at basic elements and other culinaries like rice base is a staple in some and potatoes and another and you know poi was a very well used so i went back and i go you know this just deserves another shot and i really can't say enough nice things about it now if i can get my husband on board i haven't done that yet but we're still yeah my husband is the same he's he's definitely not a um for the poi but again i think it's just about tweaking tweaking some of these things to you know make them taste better to you because that's the whole point it's how how it tastes on your palette and you know who you're cooking it for um you'll see you'll see in one of the other pictures that you have and we'll talk about it and when when it comes up because i know that you and i talked about one other presentation coming up and and poi's in there okay let's have a look at another slide and back there it is back there it is the magic of tv yeah yeah now see that was me going what else can i do i need a snack i want something you know that i can have and on that plate is bok choy and bok choy as you know is a is a beautiful member of the asian cuisine family and it has this great crunchiness and it has this little kind of spiciness to it so i'm like hey i can use that i know you know my world likes to use celery so why can't i use bok choy and then what i did with the poi was i started to mix it with things and i mixed it with teriyaki and i put a little bit of almond almond paste you know in it because when i was in orlando where we used to live i got to know some vietnamese um recipes and things and i loved the peanut sauce so i started mixing and experimenting and i went wow this is almost kind of like bean dip when i was in college and we were all living on bean dip and if i set that down in front of you you might not ever figure it out but it is so clever sue honestly because when you think about it um the taro paste or the poi is actually very kind of dippy isn't it it is almost like a dip but i don't think that's how people normally use it which is fantastic you've found your own way to turn it into you know something something completely different which yeah just blows my mind how people when you start to think out of outside of the box you know you come up with all these brilliant ideas and when it comes to food as you said it's just so gratifying gratifying when i saw that dish i was thinking that's i could see that like in a magazine yeah really no really because it's so simple but you know the beauty of the food in hawaii is that it actually is simple the problem is most people mess with it too much and try to you know turn it into something that it's not but hawaii has a lot of food to offer that's what was so exciting when i was writing my book like learning about all the like things like poi which really don't travel very very well outside of hawaii i don't think many people are used to it although it is a Polynesian staple so you will find it in other islands like fiji and tahiti and places like that but it is a it is a fun way to to cook i love the way you think lady thank you well i've had great i've had some great help you know in my my previous days and in marketing and promotion i've been surrounded by creative people who we were always challenged to come up with a new way of saying something so i've been very fortunate that i'm encouraged by a lot of others who continue to say we're all born creative we just don't exercise our creative muscles enough but the more that you just give yourself some freedom and we call it you know i tell my husband every day it's an experiment i'm a jazz artist in the kitchen so i don't know what's going to jam today but you know that gives us some liberty it gives me liberty to test and try stop and to not worry about past fail i mean just not worry about it just try it and if you love it maybe somebody else will love it that that is a good point to bring up and i do love what uh changing tides the changing tides foundations say on their website something along the lines of uh progress over perfection and that's what we i named the show today it really is any any aspect of your life it can be incorporated into your you know your social life your your work life your family life progress over perfection when we try to try to make everything so perfect it doesn't work in a world like ours does it but progress does yeah progress is um is breaking the old habits maybe obtaining or attaining new habits that that work for you and work for the planet so again when it comes back to the vegan lifestyle it's it's about working together getting connected getting you know getting on board feeling sharing that energy that you have with the rest of the planet and not just focusing on you know my little small world i want to do this i want to continue to support the slaughter of animals you know we've got to think we've got to think more about what's going on around us and i think having this plant-based march challenge is a fantastic way to challenge yourself and do something fun it looks like you're just having a ball oh i i totally am i mean i mean i brought some of my little friends that i got the farmer's market i mean here's our little friend bok choy and look at how fresh that's yeah it hasn't been sitting in plastic under fluorescent lighting in the supermarket when they were like this is spinach i'm like it is are you sure but of course there's so many varieties of things that you don't always get to see and of course you know i they have you know beautiful onions and i got lemons i mean i got all kinds of oh and mr happy sweet potato there's another different kind of sweet potato so i just had a great time i mean i look forward to farmer's market saturday and my husband and i have just you know we go running and and i just go what's this what's this like in my fridge right now is this cutest little tree fruit called chico and i was like what's this and he goes you're gonna have to let it get kind of mushy squishy it gets you know it needs to kind of be close to feeling like a rotten tomato before it's really good and i'm like okay but oh my gosh it's like this beautiful little cross between a peach and a pear that kind of has a flavor like brown sugar i mean so i just i look forward to it all time i i have picked up some things that didn't work out so well i mean you know but it's again you know it asks questions ask questions ask questions and and and i but i found some great things and i found new ways to to eat and it's been a lot of fun well so it has been a lot of fun having you on the show and i hope that viewers take all of this in and you know find that positive that positive vibe that will get you through anything you challenge yourself to do in particular you know starting new eating habits so sue thank you so much for your insight sharing your journey i wish you all the best of luck with the rest of the month the challenge and your new life here on the islands mahalo for for sharing your story thank you lily and i look forward to learning lots more from you as well so thank you so much and thank you everyone for tuning into another episode of lilians vegan world i look forward to seeing you on the next show where i'll be talking with a vegan cardiologist and getting his insight into what really goes on and also the the vaccine that does contain animal ingredients so looking forward to that take care stay safe and see you next time aloha