A long way from the Big Brother house! Angela Rummans, who competed on season 20 of the reality TV show, has switched gears for the time being and is gearing up to release a vegan cookbook called Angela’s Plant Based Kitchen, which is now available for pre-order.
“I think a lot of Veganism can come on really strong with people. Like, I think some people are a little intimidated by it,” the 28-year-old told Us Weekly exclusively on Monday, August 10, noting that she wrote her cookbook in part to help non-vegans discover new recipes.
The dishes included in the book are plant-based versions of classic comfort foods such as vegan chicken pot pie, pizza and macaroni and cheese. “I took those recipes and I made them vegan so that people that want to adjust more to a plant-based lifestyle that maybe aren’t fully vegan, or have maybe never eaten [something] similar life, can try it,” she told Us.
The model hopes her book, which is packed with more than 100 recipes for everything from breakfast staples to snacks, will open people’s minds to “new kinds of foods and new ways of cooking.”
When it comes to whipping up vegan meals at home, Rummans loves to cook some of her boyfriend Tyler Crispen‘s favorites. Before Crispen, 25, returned to the Big Brother house for the All-Stars season, which is currently airing, the pair cooked “every single night together.”
“He was my sous-chef and that’s what was so sad, that I don’t have him to do this anymore,” she added. “I would always just make his favorite recipes just because … I feel like [cooking] is a labor of love. I love cooking for Tyler because it makes him so happy and he gets so excited about the things I cook.”
According to Rummans the reality star has an affinity for “anything Buffalo chickpeas,” including pita bites and a pizza. Crispen is also “obsessed” with a vegan salsa that’s made with roasted pumpkin seeds. “We freeze it and he eats it like literally every single day.”
As the South Carolina native explained, she was inspired to write the book after realizing her recipe posts on social media were a hit with her followers. Additionally, she told Us she switched to a vegan diet about seven years ago after stumbling upon a book about Veganism. “I read the whole thing in, like, one sitting and I was just so confused because it negated everything that I ever thought about my nutrition and my health,” she recalled.
However, after giving up meat “cold turkey” for 30 days Rummans noticed a change in how she felt and said some old sports injuries no longer hurt. “I didn’t want to believe it. Like, I wanted to feel like the hunger pangs and headaches and the other stuff that you would expect,” she explained. “And it wasn’t like that at all.”
Now completely vegan, the Unbothered author told Us she’s a fan of the way the diet makes her feel. “I just love the way that when I eat a vegan meal … instead of getting tired … I would get, like, this burst of energy.”
If Crispen wins Big Brother: All-Stars, Rummans hopes he will use some of the $500,000 grand prize money so the duo can open a vegan restaurant together. “I would love to do it in South Florida because I feel like where we live in Hilton Head, [South Carolina], people aren’t really ready for a full vegan restaurant because it’s very, like, Southern and fried chicken and seafood,” she explained. “I would love to do it somewhere that’s ready for it.”
Big Brother: All-Stars airs on CBS Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Marc Lupo
