The idea to start a blog came to me about five years ago, when I was a sophomore in college. The problem was, I didn’t know what I wanted to blog about. At first (and this is embarrassing for me to admit), I wanted to blog about what it was like to be a “lady” in modern times. But then I realized that what I was doing was totally judgy and actually pretty awful, so I nixed that idea. Then, I wanted to have a blog about animal rights, inspired by the adoption of my own rescue pup. But being in college, I didn’t have the time to devote to animal rights activism that would warrant a blog. Then when I graduated from college, I wanted to start a blog about finding work/life balance (which is something I still struggle with!). But I wasn’t really inspired by that topic enough to write about it constantly.

But still the need to create, inspire, and share pervaded my thoughts. It was at this time I was transitioning to veganism from dairy-free vegetarianism, and began experimenting with food as I had always been wont to do. Then I found blogs such as Minimalist Baker, Faring Well, and The First Mess, which opened me up to a new world of delicious, vegan possibilities. And from there it just clicked!  I felt like I had suddenly found my passion.

But when I first started Well and Full,  creating the recipes and taking the photos were my main priorities. But what I did not expect was to have such an amazing creative outlet in which to share my ideas. Which, I think is important to mention, is not something that is taken lightly in my life right now. I touched upon it a little in this post, but I’m still struggling with my career choice, and the continual feeling that I don’t have my life “figured out” yet. Having these doubts, along with some health issues I have been experiencing recently, have impacted my life in a painfully negative way. When you’re sick mentally and physically, having doubts about your life and your direction, it’s very hard to keep a positive frame of mind. Sometimes it’s hard to keep going at all. And especially knowing that I have so much to be grateful for – I am infinitely blessed – my mind has created these harmful feelings of guilt that have been extremely destructive in my day-to-day functioning. So I don’t think it is an exaggeration at all to say that Well and Full has helped me keep going.

Sometimes, when you feel like everything is going wrong – you’re continually messing up – you’ll never figure it out – there’s nothing left here for you – even the tiniest little thought can send a ray of sunshine through the seemingly impenetrable clouds. And, knowing that this sunshine is still there – it still exists! – can you start to see the path forward illuminated for you, even for just a few steps. Well and Full has been that tiny ray of light for me. And every single time one of you reach out and share a little bit of your experience, or even send a thoughtful comment, even if it’s just a few words – you are contributing your light and helping me see the way forward. For that, I can’t thank you enough.

But the funny thing is, for all of this soul-sharing I’ve done here, I’ve written very little about the actual food I’ve been presenting! This recipe here is a delicious (if I do say so myself) pesto made from garlic scapes, which are actually the stems of the garlic plant. While they do taste garlicky, it’s a very verdant and fresh taste that is a special treat during the summer months! This pesto would work great in a salad or combined with chickpeas to make hummus, but I served them on little slices of ancient grain bread as toasts!

Song of the Day:

Lost in the Light – Bahamas