Vote for TCV on TheKitchn.com for The Homies!

*Please VOTE HERE for TCV for TheKitchn.com's Best Recipe Blog award. This is the finals, y'all! Everyone is allowed one vote by 2/13; tell all your sweet friends!

People often ask us how we come up with ideas each week for the blog. The truth is that we put so much time and effort into creating recipes in our home kitchen. That's what we do for fun, and we really enjoy it! We have a huge blackboard in the office where we write ideas as inspiration strikes, and then we work to figure out exactly how to put each recipe together in the easiest, tastiest way possible. Then we jump in the kitchen and start cooking. That's really our favorite part: something may work out surprisingly well the first time (this is rare!) or really need a few more tries in order to get it right. As we cook, we keep track of ingredients, techniques, and quantities on our iPhone -- or one of us calls out this stuff and the other one writes or types it. Next, when we're happy that a dish is ready to be shared, we put the plates together and photograph the result using a small homemade system of light modifiers that we always seem to be moving in and out of the dining room. The final step is writing it up, proofing it, and posting it here on The Chubby Vegetarian Blog. We are always so curious to see what people think about our food and to find out which recipes become loved enough to be used often in others' kitchens.

We have gone through that process over 700 times and come up with vegetarian versions of gumbo, chicken-fried portobello mushrooms, spicy curries, pasta carbonara, meatballs, delicious pimento cheese, inventive salads, and rustic desserts. We aim to help you move vegetables from the side dish to the center of the plate. We want people to know that meatless meals can be delicious as long as each plate is approached with some creativity and ingenuity. The photos and recipes you see here are not food-styled or set up; all of it is our actual dinner or lunch or breakfast. Since we're home cooks who never had any formal culinary training, we know you can make these dishes, too.

We would love to know how you figure out your own recipes! Please comment below and we can compare notes. And if you're moved to do so, please vote for TCV.