Plantifully Lean

by Kiki Nelson

Reclaim your health, lose weight, and eat plentifully with more than 125 simple, plant-based, low-fat recipes and a four-week meal plan designed to meet you where you are on your path to wellness.

“Delicious, versatile, and approachable plant-based goodness is the name of the game for Kiki Nelson.” —Carleigh Bodrug, New York Times bestselling author of PlantYou

“A gorgeous cookbook filled with easy, healthy plant-based dishes…I LOVE THIS COOKBOOK!” —Gina Homolka, New York Times bestselling author of Skinnytaste

When Kiki Nelson adopted a plant-based, low-fat diet, she lost seventy pounds and reversed her risk for diabetes and heart disease. While a few programs had previously helped her lose some weight, it took going all in on plants to resolve her health issues and maintain her weight loss.

In Plantifully Lean, Kiki shares more than 125 wide-ranging, simple recipes and the four-week meal plan that were key to her success. Covering every meal plus snack attacks, Plantifully Lean includes simple recipes such as Mediterranean Pasta Salad, Blueberry Vanilla Pancakes, Warm White Bean and Potato Salad, Roasted Cauliflower with Pesto, Microwave Potato Chips, Shiitake Rice with Bok Choy and Thai Peanut Sauce, French Onion Soup, Sweet Potato Tacos, Mini Oat Bars, and Caramel Apple Streusel. When you’re eating a plant-based diet this satisfying and delicious, you’ll feel energized and motivated—never hungry or bored.

Originally shared with her online community, this new edition of Plantifully Lean has been redesigned to be even easier to use and expanded with new information, inspiration, and photos. To make a plant-based diet part of your healthy lifestyle, Plantifully Lean includes the
-Meal prep guidelines and tips
-Low-fat, plant-based comfort foods that will cover your cravings
-Lists of “high-volume foods,” or foods that are both healthy and filling and that are perfect for snacking and swapping into recipes
-Charts for balancing your plate with grains and produce
-Nutritional information for each recipe

Plantifully Lean was written to help anyone find health and well-being, whether they aim to lose weight, stave off diabetes, lower cholesterol, or address elevated blood pressure. Kiki writes with the warmth and vulnerability of someone who’s been there, and includes inspiration on every page. Plantifully Lean will help you change from the inside out.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Cooking, Health, Food

229 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 11, 2023

Reviews

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a simple and easy jumping off point if you desire this way of eating. Beautiful pictures. I always appreciate it when there are pictures of the food for every recipe.

Now as far as cookbooks go, this one was a little too "processed" for me. Lots of canned goods. Lots of easy shortcuts. If that is what you are looking for, you'll enjoy this one.

My favorite recipes were the ones with fresh food listed. I definitely want to try some, especially some of the dressing recipes.

[Stacy Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I dearly love Kiki’s recipes. I found her when we were working on healing our gut and immune system - because I was trying to find more recipes that where heavy on fiber and vegetables. And I have a kiddo on an elimination diet right now.
I’ve loved everything I’ve made from her book and her website/YouTube. Even my kids are big fans! It’s nice to find someone who has easy recipes that are delish.
Our faves:
Her cheese sauce
Her vanilla oat waffles
Chinese veggies and rice
Southwest Ranch
Buffalo Chickpeas

[Heather D-G]

If you're just coming to a WFPB diet now from a lifetime of cooking and eating standard American food, then this might be a helpful book. The recipes are VERY basic, for example lentil taco meat is made from canned lentils, onion and taco seasoning. I mean, that's not really much of a recipe, right? Still, for true newbie cooks, this may work. For more seasoned cooks, probably not.

High carb, low fat is the way I prefer to cook and eat, but I just didn't find much new and inspiring in this book. I did make the black bean brownies, because I've always been curious about that concept (not unique to this author), but found the recipe to produce a bland result that was just okay. Meh.
I have the book checked out from the library for a few more days, so if I make something else I'll update this review. There are a few more recipes I have flagged as having potential. One more thing to note: most recipes are sized for two people.

In terms of the health information at the front of the book, it draws heavily on the teachings and writings of plant based physicians such as Dr. John McDougall and Dr. Neal Barnard (whom she credits in the back of the book). I've read their books and found the information within to be presented in a way that was more clear, with the science side of things better explained. Again, if you are just looking for some basic recipes, this doesn't really matter, and I don't think this part is poorly done, but just know that she is very focused on weight loss above all else, whereas the the doctors listed above talk much more extensively about overall health and longevity.

This might be a fine choice for a young person just learning to cook, and of course the author has a popular YouTube channel that may appeal. I was reading the Kindle edition, which was cleanly laid out with many gorgeous photographs.
In May, I borrowed Jane Esselstyn's new book from the library, Be a Plant-Based Woman Warrior, and that's the one I plan to buy. My best advice, especially for experienced cooks, would be to check this out from the library first and see for yourself if it's for you.
No rating.

Happy eating!

[Natalie Park · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. This is great resource is you’re looking for an easier way to be healthy and lose weight. This author focuses on calorie density, volumetrics and eating whole plant foods. She provides everything from the why and how(weekly meal planner, pantry staples and shopping list) as well as a brief section on positive mindset. I’ve tried a few recipes and they have all been tasty. Many are how to cook a vegetable and use one of the many sauces and dips to give it flavor. I’ve tried several vegan cheese sauces from various cookbooks and this one is my favorite.

[Michelle Kenneth - PerfectionistWannabe.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

After listening to my boss talk about living plant-based, she told me I reminded her of Kiki Nelson, so I started following Kiki on Instagram. I bought the cookbook, and it dived deeper into everything my boss was telling me about.

I like seeing this laid out simply, so you can understand food density. It makes sense. Since I'm currently in that place Kiki was in when she first started her weight-loss journey, I feel like I have all of the tools I need to change my health.

The recipes look delicious. I also like how she explains what she preps on Sundays for the rest of the week. She has fun recipes for the weekends when you feel like eating takeout.

I mean...this worked for her, so I'm going to try it, but modified according to my DNA.

[Tammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed all the things in this book it really helps you get started on the plant based journey. She laid it out so you can have a 4 week eating plan and made it simple to refer back to the recipes.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is going to sound awful, but I’m shocked that a cookbook this beautiful doesn’t taste amazing too. Most of these recipes are incredibly bland. They’re good simple bases, but if you like flavor in your food, you’ll need to do some extra work (and that’s coming from someone who’s bad at cooking).


Recipe reviews:
- Buffalo Cauliflower: 3/5. A good base but needed seasoning. The store-bought buffalo sauce I used was delicious though.
- Cheeseless Cheese Sauce: 4/5. Definitely doesn’t taste like cheese, but I also didn’t have nutritional yeast.
- “Cheese” broccoli casserole: 3/5. Honestly this just tasted like broccoli. Would have been faster to make everything separately and not bake it.
- Chocolate “nice” cream: 4/5. Basically just a smoothie. I added peanut butter, and it’s a lot better.
- Egg rolls: 5/5. So far, this is the best recipe I’ve had.
- Pumpkin waffles: 3/5. Super easy to make but needs cinnamon, possibly nutmeg, and more pumpkin. If was very bland.
- Weight-loss friendly granola: 4/5. Tastes delicious in yogurt but is a little too sweet if eaten plain.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

This is a nicely presented weight loss program that is even suitable for beginners. The core concept is calorie density and using plants as a foundation of life long weight and health management. I appreciated that this isn't a quick (and usually unhealthy) weight loss suggestion that would lead to yoyo dieting when the weight came back. As well, the side benefits of eating this way are overwhelmingly positive and not even that hard to do.

The book breaks down as follows: mechanics of weight loss, getting started, the recipes (breakfast, lunch and dinner, soups/salads/sides, snacks and cravings, desserts), resources, index. Recipes include biscuits and gravy, blueberry muffins, chickpea curry, sweet potato tacos, creamy poblano soup, southwest ranch dressing, microwave potato chips, egg rolls, caramel apple streusel, and many more.

The book breaks down the concept of dividing a plate: e.g., half a plate of vegetables and half a plate of starches. Eating the vegetables first to slow down digestion of the starches, getting started, maintenance, and a 28 day plan. There are photographs for every third recipe or so.

Each recipe is in large, easy-to-read type. It has an introduction to tells you about the dish and there are tips or notes as well for most recipes. Tips such as storage, why it is good for you, batch prepping, leftover suggestions, and when buying premade items like tortillas, what to look for on the label. The ingredients are centered in large bold type in the middle of the page. And then there are paragraphed numbered steps. The paragraphs are a bit blocky and I would have preferred they were not so dense/wordy - it makes it harder to follow the steps. Nutrition information (serving size, calories, protein, carbs, and fat) is listed at the bottom.

Those who eat plant based already will recognize a lot of components of a McDougall or Forks Over Knives program. As such, this is a great book for adding new recipes to an existing repertoire of plant based eating. There are a LOT of recipes and the author uses her Latin American/Native American heritage well here. But nearly all recipes are very easy to make, tasty, and low in fats (making it ideal for diabetics and those just getting into plant based eating). It does include salt (sprinkled on top lightly) and sugars such as maple syrup but few recipes include oil of any kind (typically only an avocado oil cooking spray).

In all, well presented with some great recipes. I would have liked more photographs and substitution suggestions. But those are nitpicks for a decent plant-based cookbook, suitable for beginners and advanced alike. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Nikki T · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book at a restore, and was beyond ecstatic. I've been following the Starch Solution for months now, and was so happy to find Kiki's youtube channel and recipes.

I tested out multiple recipes from this book (definitely not all of them!!) such as the Vegan Mac and cheese (and the cheese sauce on other things as well), the pizza, the garbanzo bean curry, the chickenless chickpea salad, the Mediterranean salad, and some of the various salad dressings as well. I feel like I'm forgetting a couple other recipes I've tried, but can't remember their names currently.

While the recipes were okay, my family didn't find the majority worth the effort of creation. The Mediterranean salad was a hit, but everything else was definitely more of a "meh." Kiki's story and restoration of health is inspiring, and I love her personality, but I just wasn't really impressed with the recipes tbh.

My main complaints, besides that we found the recipes to be somewhat lacking in flavor, was that the recipes were NOT as low fat as I would prefer. A lot of the dressings had cashews in them and I found that to be very disappointing. I was hoping for more out-of-the-box-ideas for incredibly low fat plant based Starch Solution recipes, but that was not the case.
The ease of creation also left something to be desired for the flavor achieved imo. Like seriously. Veggies and noodles with seasonings win when compared to most of the dishes we made. Taste better, easier, and can be made healthier as well. Which is hilarious to me for some reason.

I'm not surprised that it's taken almost an entire month for me to get to writing this review. With each recipe we made, I felt less and less like making more from this book. It was a bit disappointing and so I didn't feel like making a whole lot more.

I honestly have more fun in the kitchen messing around and making my own recipes with WFPB Starch Solution centric ingredients. I recommend that instead of this book tbh. Especially if you want to watch your fat intake personally.

[Kelley Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ordered this plant based cookbook with a great overview on how to approach weight loss using volumes of healthy foods. Kiki knows the journey and shares her experience here. It is easy to follow step by step and even has a few meal plans to get you started. The recipes are simple, quick to prepare using pantry items and easy to purchase items from regular grocery stores. After putting a hold on it at the library and then reading it I knew it was a must add to my plant based cookbook collection. A wide variety of recipes and a good backstory on why eating plant based is by far the healthiest way to eat. This book is a great tool and resource for those wanting to lean in to a more healthy way to eat.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is great for those transitioning to a whole food plant based diet (WFPB) as she has lots of quick recipes of favorite American foods. I made her cinnamon roll oats this morning and they were great, albeit a bit sweet for me, but still delicious:) I’ve also made her crunch wrap supreme, Chinese vegetables with rice and wontons. I discovered her blog and had made several recipes from there. Everything has been good and I would eat again, especially the stuffed shells and cheese sauce! I have read some of McDougall’s book she mentioned as well about the starch diet. I’m always pro more veggies, fruits, and whole foods!

[Alex Galvan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

Some of the recipes seem rather enticing. However, there was an over abundance of recipes that ask for bananas, sometimes many in a row, especially in the breakfast section. The picture for a bok choy recipe looked like they didn’t trouble themselves to cook them first, as the leaves looked raw and dry. There are a few recipes that look like more than a chop-chop, with a promising foundation for deep flavors. Mexican recipes were only loosely related to any actual Mexican dish.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book for someone new or new-ish to plant-based eating. Kiki has good recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and some great weight loss tips.
I didn't find much new-to-me as I have been in this space a long time and there are only so many variations of hummus, burrito bowls, and red lentil curry. But if you are looking to drill into some good basic recipes, give this book a look-see!

[Melissa Travis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Save your money!!!

I don't know why a cookbook with a dish called "Frozen Raspberries" was published in the first place. There may be 2 recipes I use in this cookbook because most of these recipes are extremely basic and require no imagination whatsoever. If you cannot figure out that a "Garden Salad" has lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes, then a plant-based diet probably isn't for you.

[Chickpea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good theories about weight loss and healthy eating. Some of the calorie counts don’t seem quite right to me but the one recipe I’ve tried was delicious. If the other recipes are as good it will move to a 5! Friend has lost 7lbs following plan.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this cookbook. The cheese sauce is perfect. My husband is obsessed with the ranch. I am losing weight, and I love that the nutrition information is included with each recipe. I'm really really picky about cookbooks - but I'm seriously thinking about buying her newer one as well.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked some of the recipes and pictures in this book. I like that it has a pantry listing too.

[GG Meneses · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Sample 28-Day meal plan, with plant -based recipes for health & weight loss”

[Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those cookbooks that, as you're reading it, you realize you want to make all the recipes! I think this cookbook will be one I turn to time and again.

[Melissa Halbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all the great recipes in this book! It has definitely become my go to for flavorful plant based recipes that aim to please.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great info and recipes

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes healthier eating easy with clear & informative explanations. I am looking forward to trying out more of the recipes next year. The ones so far have been delicious.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

tasty recipes

The sauces are the key to a low fat diet. These are easy to make and taste great on a variety of foods.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like her plan and recipes.

[L]

Really great cookbook.

[LemontreeLime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gonna try some of these.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the simplicity of these recipes . She’s very encouraging and love the way the plan is laid out, very easy to follow.

[Tracey Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best vegan cheese sauce ever is in this book! I continue to read it and try new recipes. I haven't tried anything I didn't like yet.

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful pictures accompany almost every recipe. I appreciate that so much!
These recipes sound delicious and I can’t wait to try them all.
Lots of helpful info included.

[Alayna Hammer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love all of the recipes!