Eating animal body parts is disgusting. Supporting the machinery of animal slaughter is gross. You figured out that the animals don’t want to be eaten. Excellent! Your morals and ethics are guiding your practices, amazing. In all honesty: congratulations. Now let’s keep it up.

To stay vegan, you must learn to cook. For example, when I became vegan in 2014, I had a rudimentary and incomplete skill set. Fueled by conviction, anger and self-righteousness, the first year was easy, and I was so very much on my high horse. But after another 6 months I started to get bored and discouraged…and was on the verge of being a 2-year vegan flame-out. Then I got a copy of Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and it changed my life forever. I’m not a shill. I’m not here to make money. I don’t even have a link to the book. I just want to help new vegans stay vegan.

If you get a copy of this book, you will learn how to select and cut fruits and vegetables. Tofu and beans will become your new besties. You will learn to love grains you’d never even heard of before. You’ll become a witch hovering over cauldrons of stocks and soups. You will learn how to stock a pantry, what cutting boards and knives you need, and become a seasoned seasoner. (sorry).

True, not a vegan book; but I’ve never found a vegan book that does what this one does–it will teach you how to truly live this new so-called lifestyle. While not every recipe is amazing, they are SIMPLE, affordable, practical, and serve as jumping-off points into finer cooking. So set aside any reservations about the title or your new-found morals and get a copy.

It’s only $13 on that big internet website that sells stuff and delivers quickly to your home. If you know of other websites or books that do something similar, leave a comment–would love to hear about them.