Welcome to Sweet Salty Spicy! My name is Charlie, I am a PhD student and I live in Montreal, Canada. This blog documents how I try to live a healthy life, especially through healthy eating.
Don’t know where to start? Here are some recipes that are currently popular on Sweet Salty Spicy:
My story
I started cooking when I was 13 and love it since. I also love…
- photography, that I am self-learning.
- tea (takes a whole shelf of my pantry!)
- Weightlifting
- Zumba
- reading blogs 😉
I was “kind of” lucky in high school: I didn’t take on any weight, no matter what I ate. But this also meant that I really didn’t eat healthy. The extreme: my lunch, a poutine and a whole Haägen-Dazs Pint for lunch!
At 16, my metabolism changed but my eating habits didn’t: I put on 20 pounds in about 6 months. I didn’t weigh myself often, so I knew I had gained weight but didn’t realize how much. And when I did, I had no idea how to change my lifestyle.
I finally decided, about 6 months later, to join a gym. The goal was to lose the weight but I never knew I would actually LOVE working out. After one month, I was hooked, going 5-6 times a week. Still, I didn’t lose much until I decided to change my eating habits. I didn’t change much: Instead of eating the whole bag of chips, I ate one portion! Instead of eating the whole box of Vachon Passion Flakies, I ate one! And it worked! Not only did I lose more weight than I had gained, I felt so much better!
Not long after, I decided to reduce my consumption of red meat. And in summer 2010, I went vegetarian. It wasn’t that hard for me since I was never that big a fan of meat and I absolutely hate cooking meat since I find that raw meat is absolutely gross to take with my hands!
While some people think that vegetarians don’t eat anything, going vegetarian actually made me eat a bigger diversity of foods. I think I discovered more new foods in one summer than in five whole years!
Although I was vegetarian, I was making a lot of vegan dishes. I also ate mostly whole foods, and not processed vegetarian foods. After reading a lot and watching tons of food documentaries, I made the change to a full vegan diet, still mostly whole food based. I’ve been fully vegan since spring 2014. Thus, all the recipes you will find on this blog are vegetarian, and all the new ones will be vegan.
healthy… the tasty way
What healthy means for me.
You will find everything on this blog. (Food related, of course).
From the healthy Ratatouille to the unhealthy Dulce de Leche Banana Pie, passing by the Grilled Goat Cheese Sandwich and the Kiwi Parfait.
For me, healthy eating is far from meaning restriction. It means you can eat everything in moderation. Eat your veggies and fruits. Eat more healthy meals than unhealthy ones. But if you want to eat a pizza one night, go ahead. And if you want to eat pie after eating ratatouille, go ahead.
However, I do follow a mostly whole-foods plant-based diet, which means that I try to make sure everything I eat is made with real ingredients. Even if I buy packaged foods, I will look at the ingredients to make sure I know what they are. My way of looking at labels is this: if I would buy the ingredient to cook or bake myself, then I can buy it.
How to contact me or follow my blog
Facebook – Check out my Facebook page! I post all my recipes on Facebook and sometimes post some tips. You can also ask questions if you have some and I will definitely answer them :).
Twitter – You can follow me on Twitter, where I also post all my recipes, but will also share more interesting articles and recipes from other blogs. If you try my recipes, I’d love to hear about it! You even tweet pictures of your creations.
Google+ – You can add me on Google +, where I share my recipes as well as tons of yummy-looking recipes from other blogs.
Pinterest – You can follow me on Pinterest, my most active social media. I notably pin recipes, home decor ideas, fitness articles, fashion ideas and beautiful travel destinations. Note that I do pin non-vegan recipes sometimes as I want to keep them as inspiration.
Instagram – Check out my Instagram Profile. I mostly post food pics and recipes. If you try my recipe and share on Instagram, be sure to tag @SweetSaltySpicy so I can see it!
Questions and comments – Don’t hesitate to leave a comment on my posts, I love hearing your thoughts! If you have a specific question, you can also email me.
What a great story. Been trying to find other young bloggers such as myself. Love your blog and the recipes featured. I’m working slowly to reduce my meat consumption, succeeding some days and failing on others but I’m working on it. Thanks for the added inspiration!
Just found your blog through Healthy Tipping Point, and it looks great. When I saw that you’re from Quebec, I had to check it out. I’m from Massachusetts, and try to visit Montreal many times a year. (And spent a week in the Gaspe Peninsula this past summer.) You live in a lovely province.
Hi!
I just made your vegan stuffed peppers and they were AMAZING! Thanks so much for sharing all these tips and recipes 🙂
From a fellow Montrealer studying Psych!
Hi there, some fellow food bloggers passed these awards on to me and now I am passing them on to you because you are awesome and I love all of your recipes! http://www.eliseskitchen.com/?p=373
hey there! I found you through Healthy Living Blogs!
I’m from MTL also and i’m looking forward to following you!
I’m new to the blog world, we are lagging right now and I found your website to be awesome! I will be keeping it in my favs from now on 🙂
I am so pumped that i found your blog! As a personal trainer and general fitness enthusiast who is grdually adapting to a vegan diet for health reasons, i find your blog soooo helpful 🙂 i will refer my clients to your blog as well. Its good to know that there doesn’t have to be a difference between healthful and tasteful.
Hi there! I’m a fellow Montreal blogger and I just discovered your blog 🙂 Can’t wait to read you. I’ll add your link on my blogroll 🙂
I like your philosophy – I, too, believe that healthy eating doesn’t have to mean depriving yourself of treats and less healthy foods sometimes. Being vegetarian too, I sometimes feel that people assume me to be very healthy, and having just started a vegetarian cooking blog, I wondered if I was ‘doing it wrong’ as my recipes aren’t all healthy. But in general, I think I have a healthy, balanced lifestyle. I eat almost every piece of cake or chocolate offered to me(!), and don’t go out of my way to be super-healthy, but I do walk quite a bit, go to the gym, and eat a variety of healthy meals on a regular basis. If I deprive myself of treats, I won’t be happy – and that’s no good for mental health!
Congratulations on a great blog; it’s inspiring to read yours when I am just trying to find my feet in the blogging world.
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Merci à toi c’est très bien ton cité me donne envie de mangé à force qu’il est beau bravo 🙌