Healthy Eating With Orchids & Sweet Tea

Happy Friday my lovely ASSASSINS! As usual, we’re back with another guest feature and this one is a first. I found Shanika on Instagram one day by stopping to drool over a food dish she posted LOL! To my surprise, the dish (and most of what you’ll see throughout this post) was VEGAN! My mind was blown because the healthy entree looked so delicious! From there on, I scrolled through Shanika’s Instagram feed to see even more appetizing meals that she cooked. Her entrees looked amazing and I knew she needed to be featured. . . Enjoy!

Tell us about yourself and why you started orchidsandsweettea.com!

Hi, my name is Shanika and I am a blogger at Orchids + Sweet tea! I’m a wife first and a Mom second—to a witty 2 year old. I’m originally from Florida where I was born and raised, but I’ve been a “Brooklynite” for the past 15 years, hence the whole lot of Brooklyn flavor sprinkled with a ton of Southern charm that you’d find on my blog. I started Orchids + Sweet Tea as a hobby a little over a year ago and I started out writing a lot of inspirational stuff for a very small audience of followers. However, in June 2017, I made the brave decision to re-launch my blog (self-hosted and all) and focus solely on all things Food, Motherhood, and Lifestyle. This “re-birth” is aimed to inspire others one blog post at a time through every day healthy eating tips, an open door to creating amazing flavored dishes with simple ingredients, sharing of Motherhood truths, amazing Lifestyle hacks/favorites, all that showcase the importance of using even the little that you possess to live a great life!

I read how you came up with the name Orchids and Sweet Tea however; can you please give everyone else the story behind the name?

In a nutshell, Orchids + Sweet Tea stems from my love for Orchids, which represent love, luxury, integrity, elegance, and strength. While the side of Sweet Tea, represents my Southern roots and the Southern girl that influences the core of who I am and how I live. Put my two favorites together and the perfect blog name was born!

I see your recipes are mostly vegan! Was this a lifestyle you always had while growing up? If not, what was it like switching to a vegan diet?

Honestly, I wouldn’t consider myself a vegan today! I’ve recently decided (about two days ago) to return back to my first love—-Chicken! Haha! But, while I ate a vegan diet for all of two weeks, I realized the importance of clean eating and how good it really makes you feel. Growing up in the South, it was normal to have ribs, steak, chicken, waffles, pancakes, bacon, and more bacon as a bare minimum for breakfast! So, eating healthy and clean definitely wasn’t something I was use to. Plus, my family stems from a Jamaican background, therefore, heavy meats and huge meals were a “double norm”! However, eating healthy came about after having my son, since I was a lot more intentional with eating healthy during pregnancy. It just became easier to transition into eating more fruits and veggies in my diet after giving birth. Turning to a vegan diet in the most recent weeks was a test to see just how healthy I could commit to eating on a regular basis. It was more about practicing discipline more than anything. However, after two weeks, I realized that I could still be disciplined without cutting down to a drastic diet such as veganism. I simply decided to vow to be just as intentional with meat and other ingredients just as I was while I did not eat them.

Do you ever have cravings for non-vegan food?

Oh man! I struggled for the first day and then I was fine after. While eating a vegan diet, the things that helped beat the cravings greatly was to create meals that taste just as great as everything else. I used a lot of bold flavors (it’s the Southern girl in me) and I was intentional about trying new veggies and ingredients that I normally wouldn’t eat. This made it interesting and less of a temptation.

Is it hard to eat a vegan only diet while on the go or at restaurants?

This was the main part of my struggle. Eating at home wasn’t a big deal because I didn’t mind experimenting and I often enjoy cooking! However, living in an area where there literally aren’t any vegan restaurants is extremely hard! In Brooklyn, most vegan restaurants or organic grocery stores are closer to the Downtown area. So, eating out became a real pain unless I wanted to travel at least 45 minutes or so to eat out at a vegan restaurant. Therefore, I did a lot of cooking at home and often bought organically through Amazon Fresh.

What advice would you give someone who wants to have a vegan only diet?

I would definitely recommend that they think it through before diving in! I say this not because eating a vegan diet is bad, but simply because it is a huge commitment. A vegan lifestyle entails a lot more than just eating a specific diet. It’s also about using products that aren’t animal derived, etc. So, before anyone decides to go for it, just make sure that it’s something that you are willing to dive into all the way!

You share a lot of your homemade recipes and dishes on your site (all of which look absolutely amazing!). Did you attend a culinary school?

Firstly, thanks so much! It took a lot of practice to get here when it comes to my homemade dishes. I wasn’t always a “home cook”. If you met me three years ago, you wouldn’t think that I would be doing recipes today! I was the girl always ordering takeout and who was insecure about making an entire meal. One day I’ll hope to take a few Culinary classes to improve my skills, however, for right now, everything is self-taught.

If you had to decide between cooking and writing, which one would you choose?

Wow, this is hard! I’m not sure if I can even choose accurately. Cooking for me has become almost like an art. I thoroughly enjoy creating a story through my visual presentation as well as creating an overall banging dish based on flavor. However, writing is something that comes innate to me and I don’t think that I’d be able to give it up, so I guess I’ll go with writing as my choice!

Where do you see Orchids and Sweet Tea in the next 2-3 years?

I’m hoping to make Orchids + Sweet Tea a brand that people see and notice right away! In the next 2-3 years, I see my blog being one with a large tribe behind it, almost like a community. I want my readers to truly be inspired by what Orchids + Sweet Tea has to offer and I want it to be a platform for those who have started out with very little, but refuses to accept it as their reality; rather, they turn the little into much.

Anything else that you would like for us to know?

My faith plays a huge role in the entire mission of my blog. While the visuals of great recipes, lifestyle tips, and other eye grabbing content is the main forefront of my blog, my faith is the foundation. I’m a big believer in walking this earth and making a difference. There are so many nice things to look at when you Google the Internet, however, my aim is to allow my readers at Orchids + Sweet Tea to leave with the desire to strive to be their best in every way possible, whether that be in the kitchen, in their journey through life or motherhood, or anywhere else.

To stay connected with Shanika, please make sure to join her newsletter at OrchidsandSweetTea.com and don’t forget to follow her on Instagram @OrchidsandSweetTea! I hope you all enjoyed this week’s Feature Friday post! Don’t forget to subscribe and we’ll speak next week! 🙂

Until next time ASSASSINS. . . Stay Motivated!

Miss Ashley Allison