Veena (Sahay) Thompson was born in Suva, Fiji Islands in 1966. Her parents moved to Creston, BC, Canada when she was 6 months old. Veena’s passion for cooking started at a very young age, turning out cinnamon buns from scratch for her 4 siblings at the age of 8.She cooked her first turkey dinner at the age of 12. AFTER fully cooking the turkey she discovered the neck, giblets and liver packaged inside the turkey.
When she graduated from high school Veena received a bursary for cooking school and applied that to her training at Vancouver Vocational Institute, one year culinary arts program.
After graduating from V.V.I. in 1986, her first cooking job began after a recommendation from an instructor at cooking school. Next she worked for a couple major hotels in Vancouver then moved to Toronto and worked for a company specializing in large corporate catering. Eventually Veena transferred back to Vancouver and catered to several corporate and school food service locations.
In 1994 Veena left work after the birth of her son and 6 months later she wrote “A Practical Dinner Guide for Real People”.
As a Red Seal Chef, Veena has taught cooking classes for Scott Town Continuing Education, she has appeared on several television programs doing demonstrations and talking about her first cookbook. Plus articles about her cookbook have appeared in magazines and newspapers across Canada. She also wrote the weekly food column for The Surrey Leader newspaper for three years.
In 2004 Veena completed her Canadian Food Service Nutrition Management certification and now works for Compass Group Canada -Morrison Healthcare at a seniors residence managing the foodservice for 170 residents.
Contact Veena at: veena@veenacooks.com ... With recipes that practically cook themselves, A Practical Dinner Guide for Real People offers a tasty solution to the angst many people face at the end of a busy day. Combining detailed weekly shopping lists with step-by-step cooking instructions, someone who doesn't even know how to boil water will feel comfortable in the kitchen. Self-published by Surrey resident Veena Thompson, this book really cooks. With 10 weeks of dinner planning, it's sure to put and end to the day-to-day grind of deciding what to have for dinner. A Practical Dinner Guide for REAL PEOPLE: When I first heard about “A Practical Dinner Guide for Real People” I just had to take a look at it. I knew it had to be a good one since it was “made in Canada” by a “mom!”. I think I can speak for the majority of our parenting community and say that we are all looking for quick, easy, tasty, economical recipes for our families. This cookbook offers more than just that! Presented in an easy to wash binder, the pages sit flat and are say to read. You can take them out stick them on your bulletin board or fridge or leave them in the book on the counter. Each page has lots of space for adding special notes and changes that will suit your family’s tastes. Like many cookbooks this one is well indexed, has a coloured picture of each recipe and a list of ingredients and instructions for preparation. The thing that separates this one from all of the others is that not only does it offer the instructions but also a step by step guide for anyone new to cooking! It also offers full weeks of recipes ranging from Meatloaf to Tacos to Curried Chicken to Lasagna. The best part about this recipe book is that each week has a grocery list already made up for your. The list is laminated so you can use the marker that comes with the book to cross off what you have and make additional notes as you need to. While you will likely not find many recipes that your family won’t enjoy, the creator, Veena Thompson has made it easy to mix and match just incase. Oh, for those of your who are on a low fat diet, Veena has included a list of alternate ingredients. This book really is suited for everyone! A Practical Dinner Guide for Real People gets the CPO seal of approval. By JUDY CREIGHTON, THE CANADIAN PRESS SURREY B.C. -- Veena Thompson has taken the step-by-step method of cooking for novices one step further. The home chef from Surrey, B.C., has devised a fool-proof meal and shopping guide complete with pictures showing how meals should look and simple instructions for those who can't cook at all. As the mother of two children, aged two and five, Thompson and her husband look upon the supper hour as a family time and a chance to enjoy nutritious home-cooked meals. "I developed this cookbook so everyone in the family can help with the cooking and shopping," she says. "It's for beginner cooks as well as those who just want to organize the kitchen and have all the ingredients at hand." Thompson, 34, has loved cooking since she was eight and turning out cinnamon buns for her four siblings soon after her family emigrated to Canada from Suva, Fiji. She graduated from the Vancouver Vocational Institute in 1986 and moved to Toronto where she worked at a large corporate catering company. This led her to the position of catering manager at Simon Fraser University until the birth of her first child, Andy. In 1994, now a stay-at-home mom, Thompson began to compile her Practical Dinner Guide for Real People. "Every night I would cook a different meal and photograph it," she said. "The family then decided if it was good enough and practical enough to go into the cookbook." The guide is divided into 10 weeks and every week features five complete meals. It comes inside a binder which also holds a detachable laminated shopping list of food items needed for each week. "So as you are out shopping, you buy what you need and circle each item with the erasable marker which is also included in the guide," Thompson says. Each recipe contains methods for experienced cooks and on the facing page, step-by-step instructions for those who are just learning to cook. "I have seen some of my friends cook and what takes them an hour may take me 20 minutes," she says. "It just depends how much experience you have." The guide is also a boon for people on the run who find the challenge of what to cook for dinner each night almost unbearable. For example, if you follow her plan for Week 4, the menus would include country fried chicken with potatoes and peas, bok choy pork stir-fry, breaded fish, chicken feta casserole and chili con carne. It means not having to think of what vegetables to have with each meal because it's already on the menu - thanks to Thompson. She's now planning another guide on bag lunches. "The idea is that it is for real people who have to work, raise families and cook a decent meal." Harry Mudaliar, a dietitian at B.C. Women's and Children's Hospital in Vancouver who prepared a low-fat supplement included in the guide, says the plan is well-conceived. "For nutritious meals prepared in a hurry, it's an alternative to fast food," he said. "And it's very handy." The guide, including the low-fat supplement, costs $25 including GST. It can be ordered at www.businesswindow.com/dinnerguide; by mail at PO Box 84511, Kennedy Heights Postal Outlet, Delta, B.C., V4C 8G1; and by phone at 604-599-4511 She graduated from Prince Charles Secondary School in 1984 with a bursary worth $500 from a local restaurant to go toward cooking school, and so far it has really paid off. Creston native Veena Thompson, currently residing in Surrey, has written and published a clever cookbook called “A Practical Dinner Guide for Real People”. The book is set up as a 10-week dinner planner, with each week having five complete meals, and is written for experienced or even not-so-experienced cooks. The dinners are designed to take people back to the days when a family actually sat down around the table and ate dinner together, without the television. I developed this so everyone can help with the cooking and shopping,” Thompson said. “There’s no room for excuses with this book.” Thompson’s book comes with a removable laminated grocery list, an erasable marker to use while grocery shopping, a low-fat guide for those who are watching their diets and step-by-step instructions on how to prepare a meal. A picture of what each dish is supposed to look like when it's finished is also included. After graduation from PCSS, Thompson took her bursary and attended the Vancouver Vocational Institute. The one-year cooking program served only to enhance Thompson’s enthusiasm for cuisine. Her plan was to become a chef, but that goal became kind of a second thought after a while. “You either have a life, or you are a chef,” she said, explaining that if she had become a chef it would have taken time she would rather spend with her husband and son. A Practical Dinner Guide for Real People is set up almost foolproof so that just about anybody can make what she has written down. The opposing picture page gives detailed instructions so it's almost impossible to goof up. “I made that page especially for my friends who have no idea how to cook,” she said with a laugh. Preparation times of the meals in the book are nowhere to be found – so don’t bother looking. “I've seen some of my friends cook and what takes them an hour may only take me 20 minutes,” she said. “It just depends on how much experience you have.” The graphic design for the book was also done by a Crestonite, Rich Hoeve. The most difficult part about dinner is deciding what to make. The next most difficult thing is figuring out if you have everything you need. Just ask Veena Thompson. When she had her first child five years ago, she sent out her husband to buy groceries and was never sure just what he’d bring home. So she devised a menu planner and shopping list that really worked. She then jotted down her recipes and-prompted by her husband’s first attempts at breakfast when the eggs were cooked before anything else- included another complete set of step-by-step instructions for each recipe. Thompson’s Practical Dinner for Real People makes every dinner a snap. It has 10 weeks of menu planning paired with a laminated grocery list for each week so you can mark off which ingredients you need to buy, wipe off the list after you’ve bought them and use the list again and again. And Thompson knows what she’s doing. She trained as a chef but decided to give up the night shifts that characterize most chef positions so she could spend time with her family; husband Kevin, son Andy, 5, and daughter Priya, 16 months. With her professional training, Thompson has created convenient recipes that use ingredients that are readily available, such as frozen vegetables. She’s included a substitution guide for low-fat versions. Today’s busy families don’t have much time to fuss in the kitchen and make everything from scratch. But they still enjoy sharing the events of the day over a hearty, home cooked meal. Simplifying life while feeding the family is the reason Veena Thompson created “A Practical Dinner Guide for Real People.” A 10 week dinner planner complete with photographs, the cookbook includes a removable laminated grocery list and an erasable marker to use for shopping. A low fat guide is included at the beginning of the book. There’s even two sets of instructions: the basic how-to for experienced cooks and the step-by-step approach for novices. Thompson, former catering manager at SFU, created her practical guide after she became a stay-at-home mom. She grew frustrated when her husband would do the grocery shopping and return home only with the items on the list. She decided that planning meals ahead of time and having a matching grocery list would simplify things for everyone. The dinner in her cookbook are hearty and there’s ample use of convenience foods like frozen vegetables, pre-made spaghetti sauce, shake’n’bake and canned soups. “I developed this cookbook so that everyone in the family can help with the cooking and shopping.” A trained cook, Thompson developed her own recipes, photographed the finished product and then tested the food on family and friends. If dinners didn’t rate it highly, it didn’t get into the book. The basic criteria for inclusion was taste, inexpensive ingredients and easy preparation. Microwave cooking is not featured because, says Thompson, “I’m not big on using the microwave. I find it doesn’t cook evenly. Food, especially vegetables, seem to cool down faster. I use it to partially cook things. You can’t brown in the microwave and I think it makes meat tough.” Many will find those favorite foods mom used to cook but that they never were quite able to duplicate. There’s traditional fare like steak and mushrooms, roast chicken, pork cutlets, meatloaf, even cheeseburgers, as well as ethnic dishes like chicken pita, chicken chop suey, seafood linguine or bok choy pork stir fry. “They are just basic family meals and they’re very, very tasty. They’re designed to appeal to everyone in the whole family,” said Thompson. I consider them comfort food recipes. It’s designed to get the family back to have dinner together.” Response to the book has been excellent, said Thompson. She is now working as a casual cook at Langley Lodge, teaches cooking classes through Scott Town Continuing Education and writes a food column for the Surrey Leader newspaper. A Practical Dinner Guide for Real People is available locally at Chapters in Langley City. Website orders available at: Knowing that not everybody is quite so fortunate, she came up with a concept that puts great meals within the reach of even the most culinary-challenged individuals – a clear, concise, easy-to-use cookbook. As icing on the cake, she also came up with a way to make the sale of the book benefit far more people than just those who need help in the kitchen. A Practical Dinner Guide for Real People is a compilation of dinners that covers 10 five-day weeks of complete meals. Sold through a variety of retail outlets, it is also available for purchase from Peace Arch Community Services in White Rock. Five dollars from the sale of each book bought at the agency goes toward the Healthy Families Project. “It’s great,” said the organization's Elizabeth Faith, noting one of the programs it benefits is the community kitchens project. It also helps support various parenting and educational courses. Faeth said she often turns to the cookbook to facilitate her own home cooking schedule, and has found that not only does it cut down on the stress of everyday cooking by laying out grocery needs and instructions well in advance, it actually helps her cut down on her grocery bill – those flour tortillas she just might want to use in a couple of days remain in the grocery store if they aren't on the list. “Everybody who's bought one thinks it's just the best idea ever,” she said. “It makes grocery shopping very simple.” Thompson added that many group homes have commented her book makes meal planning easier as residents can look at the pictures to help decide what they want for dinner. When Veena Thompson cooks up a mean Chicken Cacciatore or Honey Garlic Pork, it's because she's made a choice. The 30-year-old started out in Vancouver Vocational Institute's one-year cooking program with the intention of becoming a chef. But she got sidetracked. Her love for creating delicious dishes didn't diminish - she just had bigger appetite for spending time with her husband and two-year-old son. "You either have a life, or you are a chef," explains Thompson, referring to the occupations typical evening and weekend shifts. Instead, Thompson has combined staying-at-home and cooking, and created a cookbook, A Practical Dinner Guide For Real People, designed for the "culinary challenged." And her friends. For that reason, Thompson made sure there was little room for error. Along with traditional instructions she included a photo of what each meal should look like and - for those who have trouble boiling water - an opposing page describing the step-by-step process of how to put it all together. "I made that side especially for a lot of my friends who have no idea of how to cook," laughs Thompson. "I have to take them through the whole process step-by-step in order for them to understand." Meanwhile, those who know the difference between an oven and dishwasher will appreciate the Surrey author's efforts to simplify meal planning. The book is divided into 10 weeks and every week has five complete meals. But what will grab the attention of both chef and novice is the guide's attention to detail. Included in the cookbook's binder format is a detachable, laminated shopping list of food items required for each week as well an erasable marker. This will insure that nothing is forgotten at the grocery store. Describing the recipes as "comfort food," Thompson said the meals are relatively quick to prepare, but based on her experience with her friends she decided not to include how long it takes to prepare each meal. "I have seen some of my friends cook and what takes them an hour may take me 20 minutes." she said. "It just depends on how much experience you have. The Practical Dinner Guide For Real People with a low-fat substitution supplement costs $22 including GST. You can order one by sending a cheque or money order, along with your name and address, to Practical Dinner Guide For Real People. You’ve bought the gourmet cookbooks, the healthy cookbooks and the specialty cookbooks (101 Ways to Cook Eggplant!) Veena Thompson offers a different approach: The realistic cookbook. And the author of “A Practical Dinner Guide for Real People” will five visitors to Chapters bookstore in Pinetree Village a taste of reality later this month when she hands out samples of lasagna made from a recipe in the book. And the book is no average collection of recipes- it's a 10-week dinner planner designed to simplify families’ lives by offering nutritionally balanced meals every member can help prepare. “I developed this cookbook so that everyone in the family can help with the cooking and shopping,” said Thompson. “There’s no room for excuses with this book.” Indeed, in each book is a removable laminated grocery list, an erasable marker for shopping, a low-fat conversion guide, a picture of every meal and step-by-step instructions for the inexperienced cook. Thompson is anything but inexperienced. The native of Fiji graduated from Vancouver Vocational Institute in 1986 and worked for the next eight years as a chef. In 1994, six months after the birth of her son Andy, she began working on “A Practical Dinner Guide for Real People”. To do so, she would cook a different meal each evening and photograph it, then let family decide whether it was good enough – and practical enough – to be included in the book. A Practical Dinner Guide for Real People that leaves you to think about other things. The most difficult part about dinner is deciding what to make. The next most difficult thing is figuring out if you have everything you need. Then it's pure hell to have to pack up the kids and hit the store to pick up last minute ingredients. Just ask Veena Thompson. When she had her first child five years ago, she sent out her husband to buy groceries and was never sure just what he'd bring home. So she devised a menu planner and shopping list that really worked. She then jotted down her recipes and - prompted by her husband's first attempts at breakfast when the eggs were cooked before anything else - included another complete set of step-by-step instructions for each recipe. Thompson's Practical Dinner Guide for Real People makes every dinner a snap. It has 10 weeks of menu planning paired with a laminated grocery list for each week so you can mark off which ingredients you need to buy, wipe off the list after you've made the trip to the grocery store and use the list again and again. And Thompson knows what she's doing. She trained as a chef but decided to give up the night shifts that characterize most chef positions so she could spend time with her family; husband Kevin, son Andy, 5, and daughter Priya, who's 16 months. With her professional training, Thompson has created convenient recipes that use ingredients that are readily available such as frozen vegetables. She's even included substitution guide for low-fat versions. As an example, Weeks 8's meal planning features Sweet and Sour Pork. Cheese Pasta and Italian Sausage, Steak and Mushrooms, Roast Chicken and winds up with Pork Cutlets. You won't even have to think of what vegetables to serve with the meal because Thompson's done it all. Thompson's guide is available for $25; P.O. Box 84511, Kennedy Heights Postal Outlet, Delta, V4C 8G1; email her at kave@telus.net or check out her website at www.businesswindows.com/dinnerguide. Here is a whole week's worth of recipes on these two pages. So - what will you do with your free time?
I Can Cook . . . Turkey Dinner
By Veena Thompson, self published, 2009, 29 pages; $14.95 plus $4.95 for shipping and handling
This is not your usual cookbook. Instead, Surrey author Veena Thompson has created a unique hand-holding guide for anyone who wants to pull of a full holiday dinner with the perfectly cooked bird as the centrepiece, and all the side dishes that make for a true feast.
I first met Thompson more than 10 years ago when I was Food Editor at The Province. She arrived at our newsroom with a pan full of home-made cinnamon buns and her first cookbook, A Practical Dinner Guide for Real People. She self-published that book, too, and has since sold 1,960 copies of the 2,000 she had printed, so she seems to know what she’s doing.
Fiji-born Thompson is a trained chef currently working as manager of food service for 170 residents at a seniors’ home. She came to a love of cooking at an early age, making her first batch of those fabulous cinnamon buns at age eight. She cooked her first turkey dinner at age 12, so she’s had plenty of practice.
After the release of her first book, Thompson says she received requests to create a guide for novice cooks on how to do a special dinner. “I chose a turkey dinner and I kept the readers’ request in mind with a simple menu. It really is for anyone who is intimidated by the task. Not everyone can get the whole timing thing down while cooking and there are not too many books that can do that. Individual recipes are available but timing is everything for a large dinner.”
Amen to that! As any cook with any experience can tell you, organization and timing are everything, and when you’re faced with preparing half a dozen or more dishes, it’s crucial to do some pre-planning.
Everything you need to know is packed into this slim volume, from cleaning out the fridge to make room for the turkey and other components of the meal (yes, that bird takes up a lot of space!), to equipment you’ll need, to shopping tips, to fully illustrated instructions on how to carve the beast. There’s even a helpful diagram on how to set an elegant table.
The book includes a plasticized shopping list with everything you’ll need to buy when you go grocery shopping for your big meal. And there’s a precisely scheduled list of what needs to be done on the big day — including a brief nap before your guests arrive — to get your dinner on the table, perfectly cooked and at the appropriate time.
The recipes are fairly simple, which leaves room for substituting your own family favourites. On the menu are roast turkey, sage stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts and mushrooms, corn niblets, glazed carrot sticks french cut green beans and cranberry sauce. To keep things simple, Thompson suggests using frozen corn and green beans and canned cranberries. “It doesn’t have to be completely gourmet to be delicious,” she writes in the book. “Using ready-made items like canned cranberry sauce and frozen vegetables will save time without sacrificing taste. I’ve always used these items when I cook turkey dinner and never had any complaints . . . or anyone brave enough to complain.”
For more information or to order the book, go to www.veenacooks.com.
Articles written about "A Practical Dinner Guide for Real People":
BC Woman Magazine
The book that really COOKS- Meal planning has never been easier…
Canadian Parents ONLINE
Great Recipe Book!
The Canadian Press
Beginners´ luck
New Canadian cookbook offers more for novices
Creston Valley Advance Newspaper
PCSS Graduate Cooking with Clever Dinner Guide
Edmonton Journal
Flustered Mom Writes Practical Guide
Menu guide with practical ingredients compiled in book
The Langley Times
Taking the Guess Work out of Dinner
Thompson said. “It’s for beginner cooks as well as those who just want to organize a kitchen for family meals and have all the ingredients on hand ”
www.businesswindow.com/dinnerguide
The Peace Arch Newspaper
Recipes Cook Up Support
Cooking up a storm is just second nature to Surrey mom, Veena Thompson.
Surrey Leader Newspaper
Having a life...and eating well, too
Tri-City Newspaper
Real Cooking for Real Families gets Bookstore Demonstration
The Vancouver Province
Dinner's Ready!
Now even novices can produce a fine turkey dinner
The Canadian Press
(Oct 1, 2009)
By Judy Creighton
When Veena Thompson was 12, she cooked her first turkey dinner.
After fully cooking the turkey, she discovered the neck, giblets and liver package
inside the bird.
Now 31 years later, the British Columbia chef doesn't want to see this happen to novice cooks nervously contemplating cooking their first Thanksgiving turkey dinner for family and friends.
Just in time for this year's harvest feast, Thompson has published
I Can Cook ... Turkey Dinner, a 31-page spiral-bound glossy-paged book that lays out a complete start-to-finish dinner plan.
"I think with the step-by-step instructions it really isn't a lot of work," she said in an interview. "With a little planning and the right timing, preparing the feast can come together quite easily and effortlessly."
This isn't Thompson's first crack at making meal preparation simple.
In 1996, she produced A Practical Dinner Guide For Real People and was overwhelmed with the
response from across Canada.
Her new book contains a reusable grocery list, step-by-step cooking instructions, recipes, tips crucial for a successful turkey dinner, a turkey carving guide and cooking chart and a table-setting layout.
To learn more about the publication or to order it online, visit her website at veenacooks.com.
The book costs $14.95 plus $4.95 shipping and handling for a total of $19.90.
In an e-mail, Thompson said
online orders placed before tomorrow should arrive in Ontario by the middle of next week, in time for Thanksgiving.
"Once the order is received on my website, I will confirm with the person who placed the order the estimated arrival time," she wrote.
You can also send a cheque or money order to Veena Thompson, 13360 88A Ave., Surrey, B.C. V3V 7W4 -- .
Kitchen aide Book helps get dinner on in group homes A handy 10-year-old guide to shopping and cooking for busy families has found a new audience -- the mentally handicapped residents of group homes. "Word of mouth through the different homes has spread and I keep getting requests for more copies for different group homes because it allows residents to help with shopping and cooking," says author Veena Thompson, a professional chef. A single mother of two, she lives in Surrey, B.C., and works at a seniors residence cooking and managing the food service for 89 residents. The book, A Practical Dinner Guide For Real People, is a 10-week meal planner that includes colour photos of every meal. "Group homes typically have four or five residents who are supervised by one staff member who may not have culinary training," Thompson explains. "So my book gives them a guide to not only make nutritious meals for those in their care, but to use it as a teaching tool as well." The ring-bound guide is set up so that cooking can be shared. When opened, there is a picture of five meals for that week and next to it a laminated grocery list of needed ingredients that can be removed to carry while shopping. A handy erasable marker is included in the guide. Next is a page with a standard recipe for people who know how to cook. On the opposite page are step-by-step instructions on exactly what to do and when to do it for those who can't cook. "The laminated grocery list for every week is laid out the same way a supermarket is set up. On the grocery list, the shopper crosses out the items they have bought and then they can erase the list when they get home so they can use it again." She has included recipes and instructions for dishes ranging from Ginger Garlic Chicken to Braised Beef Ribs to Cabbage Roll Casserole. Thompson's self-published book costs $25. E-mail her at veenut@hotmail.com for details. Credit: The Canadian Press