Tabitha Brown

There's always something in every situation that's meant to teach us something.

Garlic powder is the best salt alternative!

Air fryers make life easier and healthier.

Coconut aminos help give a soy sauce, meaty flavor with a hint of sweetness to all my vegan dishes.

My kitchen is where I take care of my family. I cook for them and the rest of the world. It's place I go to help feed souls!

Performing is like medication for me.

It fills my heart with joy to know people love me genuinely because every day, that is my intent. To lead with love.

Because I am able, I smile. It is a gift to be able to smile, and I don't take it for granted.

I watched my mother be one of the most vibrant, happy women every day. She loved to smile, all the time. She was a smile; she was pure sunshine. And with ALS in her last few months of her life, she lost her ability to smile.

Everyday I put me first. Everyday. And I start my day off with me. Which is important because you can't pour into anybody empty.

We all have times that are a little bit dark, but the thing that we must remember is: They're always temporary and they will pass.

Everybody needs a friend that can say, 'You know what, honey, I understand what you're going through and it's OK; it's going to be alright.'

Living your life, you build character within you. Going through things, being on my own journey, not focusing on one particular thing but allowing life to happen, it all built something inside of me that is worth sharing.

Communication is everything. Talking about our feelings, sharing about our feelings, sitting together and having conversations at a table. We used to do that when I was growing up, you know. We sat at the dinner table together and we had conversations about our day, or about our week.

For the most part yes, I am positive, I think because I've been through so many bad times. I made a decision that if I got through those, I'm going to choose happiness, I'm going to choose joy, and I'm always going to look for the positive.

I felt like I missed my opportunity to pursue acting or entertainment. I convinced myself to believe that for quite some time, because I'm from a small town in North Carolina, you get married, have a house and car and live happily ever after. You have a baby early, honey, you go to work! I convinced myself that I had to be OK with that.

I cook from the spirit.

When you've been to that dark place and you come out of that, every day is a gift.

I was sick for a long time. I had a resting headache and chronic fatigue, and many days I didn't think I would wake up.

I don't even plan what I'm going to cook. If I have a taste for something, that's when I'm like, 'What do I have a taste for today?' That's what I'll cook. And if I haven't made it already on TikTok, then I'll share... But I just think that's the best way to do things.

At first I started doing videos about the same mom and wife stories I would tell onstage as a comic. But then when I went vegan, the voice that I heard that said start doing videos whispered in my ear and said, 'Now tell people what you're eating.' And I was like, 'Oh my God, I have to tell people what I'm eating.'

You know what's so crazy? I had never wanted to do videos anyway. I never wanted to do anything with food.

I did community theater for a long time and never had an agent. And then I got an agent and I remember that was my introduction to her telling me I wasn't enough as I was. She told me, 'You're going to have to change your hair. No one wants to see a Black woman with dreadlocks on television.' And I believed it.

I would do these auditions and then beat myself up. I was always on a diet and always trying to look a certain way, be a certain size and trying to fit in. And because of that, I was not free - I was living for other people and not myself.

My first 20 years of acting, I did it from a place of not being free.

I always want people to feel free to be who they are, to be good to themselves.

I like a good mascara and a little foundation, blush, and lip gloss, then I go about my business.

My dad even followed in my vegan footsteps a year after I did, and then my daughter and husband.

You'd be surprised by how much protein is in plant-based ingredients, including chickpeas, lentils, quinoa, tofu, and spinach.

I started creating content and really became passionate about sharing my plant-based journey with others.

When you're forced to go to church all the time, the last thing you want to do is go to church.

I enjoy helping people feel seen and loved and heard.

I pursued a dream for over 20 years, and it was not successful for the majority. But I never stopped, because the faith inside of me said something greater is coming.

I realized that when I allowed myself to be free again, I started to shine on the inside and outside.

I wanted to help people find their way back to some joy and some freedom and love and happiness.

When you've been together as long as I have been with my husband, honey, you have been through just about everything under the sun.

It's so important to not want to force your life on anyone, because that'll make people want to run away from you.

That was my prayer - is that when people watch my videos for whatever that minute is, it takes their mind off of what's going on in the world and it gives them a little bit of peace or a little bit of laughter or a little bit of joy.

When I was growing up, I was very much a tomboy. I didn't want to be in nobody's kitchen, I wanted to be outside.

Every day I learn something new.

Our life is our business, and if we don't take care of it, we can go out of business!

Living in my truth is enough, and it's the best feeling ever.

I always tell people, if you need a recipe with measurements every single time you cook, you don't trust yourself.

When I learned to cook, I was in my early 20s, and my granny and my mom and my aunt would have to tell me over the phone how to do certain things because I didn't know how to cook. They would just say, 'Look, just put enough in there to where you feel like it's all right, because that's your spirit.' You've got to trust your spirit.

I stopped apologizing for who I was. I just told the truth, and I think that's what people gravitated towards and still do.

I'm thankful that God gave me light again, and to be light for other people's darkness is a responsibility that I take very seriously.

My dream is to perform. I want to be there for people.

When I went vegan, I just tried to make all my favorite nonvegan food vegan, and it worked!

Sometimes, it's hard for parents to talk to their children. It's all about learning that there are other ways to communicate, like through crafts, or through food.

My hope is that when people read the different stories and different things I've been through, it will make them look at their situation and say, 'OK, I know I must be going through this for a reason' and find the lesson in each journey.