Helping you Thrive on healthy whole plant foods!
Hello and welcome! Here you’ll find delicious and nutritious whole food plant-based recipes as well as learn how to succeed as a plant eater.
My name is Venny and together with my husband Andy, we create all the recipes, articles, and photography on WellnessDove.
I am a medical doctor and currently, I’m doing a residency in clinical nutrition and dietetics. I am also certified in clinical homeopathy and aromatherapy.
Andy has a master’s degree in psychology and is dedicated to helping you understand your cravings and emotions around food so that you can make healthier choices!
I believe that diet is the foundation of great health and whole plant foods are the way to get there.
I’ve developed a deep passion for leveraging my medical expertise to craft great-tasting, healthy recipes that nourish the body and have the power to heal!
Personally, eating whole food, plant-based has given us so much more energy and vitality and helped us regain our health.
Andy stopped treating his seasonal allergy with medication and lost 40 lbs of weight. His chronic stomach pains, diarrhea and vomiting issues disappeared as well.
My autoimmune hypothyroidism has also improved significantly. We get sick way, way less often as well!
Our goal is to help you achieve great health by sharing nutritious, tasty recipes and helping you thrive on a healthy diet!
You can read our full story down below.
About the Recipes
Our Culinary Philosophy
At WellnessDove, our culinary philosophy revolves around one key concept: “healthy, whole food, and plant-based.” We firmly believe that what we put into our bodies plays a significant role in our overall well-being. That’s why we’re dedicated to crafting recipes that prioritize:
1. Healthy + Tasty + Simple:
Our recipes are thoughtfully designed to be both nutritious and delicious.
We believe that food can be a powerful tool in promoting a healthy life.
Equally as important, though, is that it has to be delicious and easy to make so that you want to stick to eating plant based.
That’s why we focus on creating meals that are packed with essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that look great, taste delicious and are as as simple as possible!
2. Whole Foods:
We’re all about whole foods.
That means our recipes are centered around unprocessed, unrefined, and wholesome ingredients.
We believe that nature provides us with an abundance of nourishing options, and we aim to celebrate those ingredients in every dish we create.
3. Plant-Based:
We believe that including more plant foods in our diets is healthier for us and those around us as well.
We don’t like labels and it doesnt matter if you are vegan, vegetarian or neither – we hope to inspire you to eat more wholesome, healthy, delicious food that brings you joy.
4. No Oils or Refined Sugars:
We take it a step further by excluding oils and refined sugars from our recipes.
Instead, we rely on natural flavors and sweeteners, allowing the true essence of our ingredients to shine through.
A Balanced Approach
We understand that adopting a completely vegan or vegetarian lifestyle may not be feasible for everyone. That’s why we embrace a balanced approach to eating. Our goal is to inspire you to make healthier food choices, even if it means incorporating more plant-based meals into your diet without committing to a strict dietary label.
Our Story
Discovering the power of plant-based nutrition
I’ve always been passionate about prevention and helping people achieve better health.
In medical school, I learned that most of the chronic health problems people are suffering from are preventable through a better diet and lifestyle.
Slowly, I started to dig deeper and deeper into the realm of nutrition and the effect of diet on our health.
The more I learned, the more astonished I was!
It’s scientifically proven that high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and many others can be improved or even reversed through something as simple as the food we eat.
A whole plant food diet with no processed and animal foods seems to be the way to achieve better health!
Even more, the latest nutritional research shows this is the most complete, anti-inflammatory, and healing dietary approach.
Andy’s Weight Loss and Going Plant-Based
Our plant based journey really started when Andy got serious about losing the extra weight he’d been carrying on him since he was a child.
By that time we had been eating a mostly vegetarian diet but that hadn’t really helped him lose any weight whatsoever.
He started by doing a modified juice fast that really jumpstarted his weight loss and the whole plant foods diet took care of the rest. By the end of the year he’d lost about 40 lbs and he has been at his ideal weight ever since (read his story).
Enjoying the benefits of eating plant-based
We got serious about our diet at the beginning of February. Then spring came along and we were expecting him to start suffering from his pollen allergies, as usual.
That spring, though, he showed almost no symptoms at all!
I had read that plant-based eating could alleviate allergy symptoms but I didn’t have any high hopes. After all, I had learned in medical school that allergies were practically uncurable.
So, needless to say, I was astounded and unbelievably happy! I had witnessed such a beautiful transformation! I felt so empowered!
Meanwhile, I went on a routine blood test for my autoimmune hypothyroidism.
Honestly, I didn’t expect to see any difference here either. That day, though, the blood test showed that my MAT antibodies were 4 times lower than before and my TAT were within the healthy range!
Basically, my condition had improved!
Not only that but all my and Andy’s blood markers were within range!
There was no iron deficiency, no calcium deficiency, everything was normal.
Inspiring others
Naturally, my eagerness to share the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle, starting with my parents. Though initially hesitant, my mother eventually embraced the idea and embarked on her plant-based journey.
In just a matter of months, my parents’ blood pressure levels returned to a healthy range, and they no longer rely on medication. Additionally, my mother noticed a remarkable improvement in her arthritis symptoms.
Several years have passed since she adopted a plant-based diet, and the transformation in her overall well-being is truly remarkable. She now enjoys improved health and a renewed sense of vitality.
Learning to eat whole food, plant-based
The health benefits we saw motivated us to continue eating whole plant foods.
Initially, we had the problem every beginner has, we didn’t know what to eat!
We searched for recipes on the internet, bought cookbooks, and spent our days in the kitchen.
In the beginning, we thought that we were going to starve. Many recipes were difficult, time-consuming, and weren’t satiating at all!
Slowly and steadily, though, we learned about calorie density and how to create complete, satiating, and healthy meals.
Leading by example
I love to experiment in the kitchen and soon I was cooking delicious salads, hearty meals, and irresistible desserts everybody around us loved.
Our friends and family, who initially thought we were crazy and we couldn’t live this way, started to praise our food.
I discovered that healthy, delicious meals were all that was necessary to help people change their diets and improve their health.
This is why we created WellnessDove, to share our easy, simple, and satiating recipes with you.
We hope that they inspire you to eat more whole plant foods and be the healthiest you can be!
ABOUT THE RECIPES
Healthy and tasty.
The recipes here are whole food, plant-based. The great majority of them are oil-free and without refined sugars.
Simply put, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, fruits with some nuts and seeds. No dairy, eggs, meat, and highly processed ingredients. Here’s why you should eat whole plant foods and here’s how they keep you healthy.
No outlandish ingredients, though. I try to cook with everyday, simple ingredients that you can find in your local supermarket.
When I tell people we are plant-based, they assume that we must be getting all of our food from the health food store. We go there once a month at most!
Every recipe is homemade, tested, simple and truly healthy!
THE ARTICLES
Unhealthy foods seem to have the uncanny ability to charm us under their spell and have us eat them!
It isn’t magic, though, it’s simply the unnatural world we live in.
A century ago people didn’t have access to cheap and super accessible sugar, oil or animal foods.
They were expensive and prized, to be eaten on special occasions like Christmas or Thanksgiving. Today, because of technology, these are ubiquitous.
We hope that our articles will help you understand why we are attracted to these foods and why they are so unhealthy for us.
By combining my medical/dietetics expertise and Andy’s knowledge of psychology, we want to explain why unhealthy foods can call you by name sometimes and how to resist them!
ARE WE VEGAN?
Technically, we are, although we do eat some honey. We don’t like calling ourselves vegan, though since there is too much stigma.
Personally, we have experienced substantial health benefits by eating exclusively plant foods and we try to avoid animal products as much as we can.
Actually, we don’t want to eat animals now. When you feel that much better and you are so much healthier, animal foods just lose their appeal.
And we honestly believe that we should since it’s better for our health, our planet’s health, and the wellbeing of the animals.
It’s a win-win-win situation really.
That said, we don’t blame anybody for whatever they are eating.
Trying to be 100% vegan in such a non-vegan world can be tough. It’s way better to eat mostly plants with some animal products instead of deciding that veganism is too hard and not trying at all!
That’s why we just want to help you be healthier by eating more plants. One vegetable at a time!
