Welcome!

Steph in the kitchen holding a tortilla chip.

Hi! My name is Stephanie Kondrchek, and I'm the writer, recipe developer, photographer, and coder behind StephSunshine.com. I'm a former 15-year Miami resident, living in Taiwan since 2022. I'm on a mission to make going vegan easier for everyone, one delicious recipe at a time!

I've always wanted to be in the kitchen since I was a kid, but I had limited opportunities while I was young. So when I finally got an apartment with a kitchen towards the end of my college years, I began teaching myself how to make everything from enchiladas to cheesecakes. I was cooking and baking constantly, so much that I brought a dessert along any time I was invited anywhere. In my 20s, I had a cupcake business selling cupcakes at farmer's markets on the weekends.

When I went vegan (circa. 2014), I found myself having to re-learn how to cook and bake. The rules of vegan cooking and baking might be a little different, but I realized that it can be done without sacrificing flavor.

My goal with StephSunshine.com is to create a place on the internet where you can get vegan recipes that always work and are always delicious. Before I make any recipe of my own, I always try at least 4 different recipes that are already out there. If any of those recipes are so good that they can't be improved upon, I'd rather refer you to their recipe than make an inferior or duplicate version.

After I've tested other recipes, my own recipes go through multiple rounds of testing and modifications. I won't publish a recipe unless I know it's the best version of that recipe that I can make.

Sometimes during testing, I find that certain recipes are particularly tricky, or have inconsistent results. Since I'm a self-taught home cook, I know that if I am having problems with a recipe, most of my readers will probably have similar problems. I would prefer to scrap a recipe than publish a recipe that has a high chance of failure.

I hope that by consistently creating easy-to-follow, delicious recipes, my food will be invited back to your family's table over and over again!