For Molly Patrick, eating plant-based dishes isn’t a diet. It’s not even a lifestyle. It’s just life, and about fueling our bodies with plants as a way to feel healthy, energetic, and joyful. One of the co-founders of the plant-powered Clean Food Dirty Girl, Molly is all about using food as a way to heal and nourish. We chatted with the blogger about what makes a plant-based diet so important, her secret to delicious salads, and what she would cook for Anthony Bourdain.

Tell us a bit about your health journey. I’ve been vegetarian my whole life and I grew up by my mom’s side, helping her in the garden and kitchen, learning how to grow food and cook with plants. So in a sense, this was the trajectory of my life from the beginning!

Why is a plant-based diet important to you? Because too many people suffer unnecessarily form health conditions that can be avoided by lifestyle and dietary changes. As a society, we aren’t taught how to prevent illness and disease, instead, we are conditioned to treating illness and disease once it shows up. People have more power over their health than they realize and plants play a unique and important role in that.

How does your diet help you feel better, mentally and physically? I have an insane amount of energy, I sleep like a rock, my cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure are all in perfect range, I have zero allergies, my digestive system purrs like a kitten, I hardly ever get sick, and when I do, it only lasts a couple days, I am focused, happy, motivated, patient - the list goes on!

Healthy nutrition tips for busy people? Batch cooking is crucial! Choose one day a week to cook a few different recipes so you will have food ready to go in your fridge when you need it. If you make a soup, a dressing, a sauce, a batch of beans, and a batch of grains, then you can mix and match those items throughout the week and it will keep you fed and satisfied all week long.

Biggest misconception about plant-based diets? *It’s hard *It doesn’t taste good *Not enough protein

Where do you find inspiration for your recipes? I don’t know where it comes from. I literally dream up recipes. I don’t own a single cookbook or watch cooking shows, but I do look at food magazines sometimes. I like to take meat and dairy dishes and figure out ways to make them with plants.

If you could cook any meal for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be, and what would you cook? It’s a toss up between Anthony Bourdain and my Grandma Emma. For my Grandma, who I loved dearly, I would make a plant-based meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy to show her that she didn’t have to compromise her health in order to eat meatloaf.

For Bourdain, I would stay away from Asian food because that’s his favorite and I can’t compete with Vietnamese street food. I would probably go with an array of really tasty bowls, layered with different combinations of veggies, beans, grains and sauce. I do think he would enjoy my spin on plant-based food.

Current favorite recipe? I just came up with a new salad dressing that has tahini, red wine vinegar, garlic, dijon mustard and spices. That dressing makes me want to eat salads all day long.