In 1957, 19-year-old Bonnie married Dr. Franklin House, lead author of The 30-Day Diabetes Miracle (Perigee, 2008). The biscuits she made during their honeymoon were suitable for hockey only—but of course Franklin ate them! Bonnie humbled herself and finally asked her mother, a vegetarian cooking master, to save her from kitchen fear and ignorance. In the 60s, Bonnie began testing, refining, and improvising with recipes from her mother and beyond. First she conquered whole wheat bread baking—she’s made all her family’s bread for 50 years. Mexican food, which Franklin craved since his childhood south of the border, was next.
She’s come a long way. In those days, Bonnie was a milk-, cheese-and meat-lover: in the early 80’s, she studied quiche-making from a French chef, and she and Franklin ran a cattle ranch, which provided home-grown beef. But Bonnie’s father, the family patriarch, gave up all animal products for health reasons. That piqued her interest, because she’d suffered since girlhood from a painful joint condition no doctor could cure. So in the mid 80s, the Houses went on a quest to health centers across the country, in search of the ideal diet for optimum health. That journey confirmed what they already suspected, and they gave up all animal products. Two weeks into her total plant-based diet, Bonnie was free of pain and pain medicine.
That was 22 years ago, and she’s adhered to a plant-based diet ever since. Back then, though, Bonnie’s cooking style could best be characterized as trial-and-error. Many of the ingredients in plant-based cooking – even modern vegetarian staples like soymilk and tofu – were rare, and often had to be made from scratch. Bonnie persevered. With a degree in education, it was a natural for her to begin teaching two-week healthy-cooking classes to Franklin’s patients who wanted freedom from chronic illness, and the skills and confidence to cook plant-based delights at home. Through this process she assembled hundreds of time-tested, mouth-watering plant-based recipes. She self-published several cookbooks, including From Scratch and Oh Good, Soup, which she also illustrated.
In 2000 the Houses came to Lifestyle Center of America, where Franklin was President, and is now Chairman of the Board. Bonnie joined the circle of great chefs and teachers at LCA, and was a natural fit for the 30-Day Diabetes Miracle Cookbook.