{"id":253,"date":"2013-06-06T08:04:26","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T08:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dahz.daffyhazan.com\/food-cook\/?page_id=253"},"modified":"2020-04-16T03:16:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T03:16:04","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www-dev.cookingwithque.com\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Quiana “Que” Broden<\/h1>\n

Hiyeeeeee!!!! \u00a0 I’m Quiana “Que” Broden, \u00a0owner and blogger of Cooking With Que, a place where Vegans and Meat Eaters coexist. \u00a0The mission is to teach people how to EAT TO LIVE; by introducing more plant based meals into everyday lives.<\/p>\n

My Story…\u2026\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Soooo before you understand \u201cQue\u201d I gotta let you in on some things \u2026 ok?<\/p>\n

I have not been Vegan my whole life.\u00a0 Surprised?\u00a0 Don\u2019t be.\u00a0 It\u2019s been about 7 years now.\u00a0 And I mean 7 of the GREATEST, LIFE CHANGING YEARS.<\/p>\n

Please understand that this story is not fancy by any means. It\u2019s just real life, as it happened no fluff.<\/p>\n

It is said that children tell you exactly what they love, if you just watch them and pay attention to the things that they do.\u00a0 Everything that you are created to be, you were already born with it.\u00a0 How crazy is that.<\/p>\n

Close your eyes and think about all the things you loved to do as a child.\u00a0 You don\u2019t remember it all, but you remember the things that brought you extreme joy, or pain.<\/p>\n

For me as a child, I remember Family.\u00a0 I remember Love.\u00a0 I remember Church. I remember the people around me always helped someone else.\u00a0Even if it was their last, if it hurt to give it to them.\u00a0 I remember them giving.\u00a0 I remember unconditional love.\u00a0 Wether you did something wrong or not.\u00a0 I remember being told that God is Good, All the Time and All the Time God is Good.\u00a0 I remember.<\/p>\n

My fondest memory as a kid was going into some dime store, maybe Kresges, or Woolworth, and seeing a pretend Kitchen. You know the plastic one, no bells and whistles, because we weren\u2019t.. rich.. but we were good.\u00a0 Like I never missed a meal, a holiday or a flower dress good, ( like I hated flowered dresses until I came into myself and realized someone tormented me with flowered dresses, and I didn\u2019t have to wear them\u2026lol).\u00a0 We walked into this store, and I remember seeing this Kitchen, and I remember wanting it. Like\u2026 Bad. Like, I\u2019m not a kid that threw tantrums \u2026 but this might have been worth it, bad.\u00a0 I wanted that kitchen.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember telling anyone how I felt about this Kitchen, but Momma (Grandma, but Momma in our House\u2026 Okay saint!) , and Mommy (my Mommy Mommy\u2026 like out of her Vagina Mommy) knew!<\/p>\n

\"\"

Young Que<\/p><\/div>\n

Christmas came, and I remember seeing this Kitchen, and it made my life.\u00a0 LOL.\u00a0 That\u2019s what it felt like, I remember the dolls head (because I loved to comb hair\u2026 (it totally got me through my trial college lifespan).\u00a0 Barbie had just this upper torso Barbie head (which is weird now that I\u2019m thinking of it, but hunty.. it\u2019s probably where all of our Hair Stylist come from!!).\u00a0 So this Kitchen was like someone gave me a new house.\u00a0 All I remember is begging them to let me put Christmas Dinner it.\u00a0I wanted to cook and serve out of the dishes that came with it.\u00a0 I remember it like it was yesterday,\u00a0 the blue plastic pots, and \u201cplay\u201d China I got as an accessory.\u00a0 For dinner there was Potato Salad, Chittlins, Mommas Macaroni and Cheese, Dressing (in our household, yall might say Stuffing), Greens, Sweet Potatoes, Corn Bread and Turkey! Why do I remember all this? Couldn\u2019t tell you.\u00a0 But I wanted to put the food in my dishes\u2026.and I can\u2019t even tell you if I could talk or not, but huntyyyy my brain was like.. give it here, put it in here.<\/p>\n

Then something happened.<\/p>\n

They actually gave me what I was asking for!!!\u00a0 I was cooking on my play kitchen from the Dime Store, and there was no imaginary food!! They put real Christmas Dinner inside!\u00a0 It\u2019s so Vivid in my memory that I\u2019m excited and antsy just talking about it. All I kept hearing my brain say was theres real food on my plates!\u00a0 They let me do it!<\/p>\n

If that wasn\u2019t a sure sign of my future.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what is!<\/p>\n

When I shared this with My Mommy, she\u2019s like, I don\u2019t know how you remember that.\u00a0 You had to be like 5!!!<\/p>\n

Surely, I was meant to be In a Kitchen\u2026 helping people eat.<\/p>\n

Fast forward, I don\u2019t think I ever aspired to be like a world known Chef, and surely I don\u2019t think my goal was to ever open my own business.\u00a0 It\u2019s just now what people did in my family.<\/p>\n

The true spark, was getting sick.\u00a0 Different symptoms at different times.\u00a0 I was just under 30 and I didn\u2019t understand why I was getting so sick. I always had a cold.\u00a0Always had a sinus infection.\u00a0Skin rashes everywhere.\u00a0 The most horrible eczema you have ever seen. \u00a0Got pneumonia like it was a common cold. Then, after my second pregnancy, I developed Asthma.\u00a0 I coughed like I smoked 20 packs of cigarettes per day.\u00a0 Then, a few years later, I woke up and one day I couldn\u2019t move my feet.\u00a0 Like literally, I woke up and my feet looked like I had elephantitus.\u00a0 My ankles, calfs, and feet were swollen to the point where I couldn\u2019t walk.\u00a0 My Daddy (grandfather) and Mommy had to literally come to my house to carry me out of the bed and take me to the hospital.\u00a0 Nobody could tell me what was wrong.\u00a0 I felt like I was a real life episode of House (are you old enough to even know what that is)\u2026\u2026. Moving along!\u00a0 They told me I had everything under the sun, but I refused to believe it.<\/p>\n

Then, a specialist told me they wanted to do a biopsy of my lung, because the one of my leg showed nothing.\u00a0It was the first time I was going to have to be put under, but they needed to see the cause of all these weird symptoms.\u00a0 I was afraid, but I went through with it.\u00a0 Sure enough, when I came to, they told me I had Stage 4 Sarcoidosis<\/a>. Most annoying auto immune disease ever. Same time, I learn that I have a dairy allergy.\u00a0I literally wanted to punch myself.\u00a0With all these diagnosis, they had to reevaluate all the meds I was taking.\u00a0 Most of them contained dairy (no wonder I could never get better), then I had to add new pills.\u00a0 Steroids.\"\"<\/p>\n

No human on the planet wants to take steroids on purpose, especially me, not 2-3 times a day.\u00a0 All I remember thinking is that, they are trying to kill me for sure.\u00a0 I have a family. I. DON\u2019T. WANT. TO. DIE.<\/p>\n

So I did what anyone would do in this situation.\u00a0 Especially seeing that I graduated from Google University\u2026. I freakin Google\u2019d It.\u00a0I mean I looked high and low.\u00a0Everything pointed to being plant based.\u00a0I couldn\u2019t believe it.\u00a0 I wanted to SCREAM! At the time, Momma (my Grandmother) was living, and hunty she makes theeee best Mac N Cheese in the world.\u00a0All I could think about was not being able to eat it anymore. Sigh.\u00a0 I knew if I wanted to give this Plant Based thingy a whirl..I didn\u2019t have a choice.<\/p>\n

So I jumped.<\/p>\n

I did it.\u00a0 I thought it was gonna be hard and complicated.\u00a0 I thought I was gonna starve to death, and be malnourished. Boyyyyyyy was I wrong. I started reprogramming my mind.\u00a0I had to find a way to remake the things that I loved, but make them vegan.\u00a0 I changed everything around me, in my home, cabinet, and fridge.\u00a0 Making the switch was not as complicated as I thought it would be.\u00a0 I live in a house with 3 other meateaters.\u00a0\u00a0 They thought I was about to start giving them salad everyday.\u00a0 I changed basic things like butter, milk, everything was now organic.\u00a0 I read labels and threw out anything that I couldn\u2019t pronounce.\u00a0 No more ramen noodles, no more high sodium, high fructose cornsyrup.\u00a0 I looked for alternatives.\u00a0 I started creating recipes that I already knew, but used different things.\u00a0 I stopped buying regular sugar, and got cane sugar.\u00a0 I am big on how long did it take to get from farm to fork.\u00a0 Instead of always using sugar I used dates for sweetener.\u00a0 I used agave instead of honey.\u00a0 Once you start reading and learning, it\u2019s not that hard.\u00a0And\u2026..It was actually working? How could this be.\u00a0 Stop eating all the crap they were giving me, and I started feeling better.<\/p>\n

In 30 days my cough went a way.\u00a0 A cough that was like commonly known to me. Like, Que\u2019s here\u2026.everyone knew it.\u00a0Couldn\u2019t sneak anywhere. That cough.\u00a0It was gone.\u00a0 In 60 days my rashes\u2026.just started disappearing.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to scratch my arms, legs, and fingers with bricks anymore.\u00a0 In 90-120 days, my skin didn\u2019t even look like snake skin anymore.\u00a0 It was crazy.<\/p>\n

It made me want to know more. I read more, wanted to learn more.\u00a0 I wanted to eat to live. Crazy.\u00a0 We can heal ourselves through food. WHY IS NOBODY TEACHING THIS. I vocalized it everywhere I went.\u00a0 People started asking, me to send them recipes, cook for them, make the info available.\u00a0 Of course since I don\u2019t know how to half do anything\u2026I wanted to put my best foot forward so I said.. I\u2019m going to start a blog. \u00a0Now, when I say people, I\u2019m talking Facebook Friends, people who grew up with me.\u00a0 People with new ailments trying to figure it out as well.\u00a0 It\u2019s more common to for African American Women to have this disease. Folks wanted the information.\u00a0 What did I do.\u00a0 How did I do it. They were craving the information.<\/p>\n

The blog was a place for people like me, not a RADICAL VEGAN, but not a Mean Meat Eater who thinks that people who are Vegan are going to do because they lack protein!<\/p>\n

So I called this blog:\u00a0Cooking with Que: A Place where Vegans and Meateaters Co Exist.\u00a0 I just wanted people to learn how to eat to live.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to force veganism on anyone but I wanted people to understand the benefits of eating more plant based than anything.<\/p>\n

In the midst of creating Cooking with Que, one of the matriarchs of our family got sick.\u00a0 My Momma. Momma was my everything, best friend, 2nd<\/sup>Mom, her and my Daddy (they are my grandparents) are like\u2026. Literally my life.\u00a0 Like the children I didn\u2019t have, but I protect them with my entire being.\u00a0 Momma got diagnosed with Lung Cancer<\/a>.\u00a0 Stage 4.\u00a0 Pissed off was an understatement.\u00a0 It hurt.\u00a0It hurts to even talk about it right now.\u00a0 I watched her be diagnosed, I watched them offer her meds, I watched them offer her Chemo and Radiation.\u00a0 She was now the 4th<\/sup>child of her 3 other siblings to have cancer. No one offered her healthy foods.\u00a0 No one told her how eating could help her insides fight for her outside.\u00a0 I offered and sometimes forced\u2026 foods that were known to help fight cancer cells.\u00a0 Soursops, Teas, herbs\u2026. But everyone knows that women in their 80s are super feisty, and they think\u2026. \u201cwell I\u2019ve been eating this way my whole life\u201d and \u201cyou\u2019re not gonna change me\u201d \u2026\u2026I wanted her to make the drastic change immediately but I can only control what I can control.<\/p>\n

So I had to sit and watch the medicine kill her.\u00a0 I had to watch it deteriorate her little body.\u00a0 I watched her become sickly and in constant pain from the Chemotherapy.\u00a0 My brain knows that back in the day, when we would get sick, with a stomach ache\u2026. Granny would go grab some roots out of that backyard in South Carolina, bring em in the house, boil em. Then tell you to drink it.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t say it tasted like heaven, all I know is that my stomach ache was gone.\u00a0What happened to that.<\/p>\n

It hurts to feel helpless.\u00a0It sucks to have to sit back and watch medicine kill someone that you love. Momma would tell me so many things.\u00a0She would say, Quiana, they are going to know your name all over the world.\u00a0 You work so hard.\u00a0 Momma wanted to be a Nurse, she was going to Nursing school in New York and then she got pregnant.\u00a0 No one told her she could do both, so she left New York and moved to Detroit, where my Daddy was working to make their life better there.\u00a0 She always said \u201cI wish I would have\u201d\u2026\u2026\u2026 I remember hearing her saying that, even when I was younger and in my mind, I never ever wanted to \u201cwish I would have\u201d anything.\u00a0 Momma died February 19, <\/sup>2017. That day I wanted to give up.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to fight for anything.\u00a0 I was angry.\u00a0 I was upset.\u00a0 I was frustrated.\u00a0 I honestly wanted her to fight to stay with me.\u00a0 I knew that was selfish. I knew it was my emotions getting the best of me. They had given Momma 6 months to live after she was diagnosed.\u00a0 She lived over 2 yrs longer.\u00a0 She did fight.\u00a0 She fought like a champ.<\/p>\n

Momma taught me a few things.\u00a0 Keep God first, and you will be fine.\u00a0 Teach your kids to Keep God first and they will be fine.\u00a0 Make yourself happy, and don\u2019t wait on anyone else to. (I WISH I UNDERSTOOD THIS EARLIER) When things are crazy, throw on some Red Lipstick and no one will know. (LIFE CHANGING) and don\u2019t be like me, don\u2019t wish you would have ever.<\/p>\n

GOD IS CRAZY FAITHFUL. MY WORKS ARE MY FAITH JOURNEY.<\/p>\n

There are tons of people in the world that will tell you what you can\u2019t do.\u00a0 They will tell you that your idea is ridiculous. They will tell you how you won\u2019t make money.\u00a0 They will tell you that you are doing to much.\u00a0 The one thing I know about people is they will give you advice even when you didn\u2019t ask for it. What I do know, is that I don\u2019t have to own anyone else\u2019s thoughts.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have to allow anyone to project their insecurities on me. I\u2019m not just a little black girl with dreams.<\/p>\n

I am a Daughter of a King.\u00a0Everything that I want wants me.\u00a0I am blessed.\u00a0 I have no choice but to be blessed. I am here to bless those around me.\u00a0 Leader, not a Follower. Head not the tail.<\/p>\n

God created me to be one of the strongest soldiers in His army.\u00a0 My job is to Teach People How to Eat to Live. I will walk in my purpose until the day I level up to heaven.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s how it all started.\u00a0 Now it\u2019s the way I want to live the rest of my life.\u00a0 Helping people do just that. Teaching people how to Eat To Live.<\/p>\n

Welcome Family! Now click around like you own the place \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Que<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quiana “Que” Broden Hiyeeeeee!!!! \u00a0 I’m Quiana “Que” Broden, \u00a0owner and blogger of Cooking With Que, a place where Vegans and Meat Eaters coexist. \u00a0The mission is to teach people how to EAT TO LIVE; by introducing more plant based meals into everyday lives. My Story…\u2026 Soooo before you understand \u201cQue\u201d I gotta let you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-253","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.cookingwithque.com\/rest_api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.cookingwithque.com\/rest_api\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.cookingwithque.com\/rest_api\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.cookingwithque.com\/rest_api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.cookingwithque.com\/rest_api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.cookingwithque.com\/rest_api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11258,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.cookingwithque.com\/rest_api\/wp\/v2\/pages\/253\/revisions\/11258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.cookingwithque.com\/rest_api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}