The Daily Vegan Planner: Twelve Weeks to a Complete Vegan Diet Transition [Paperback]

For me, the hardest part about eating healthy is planning my meals each week. While I love to cook, it can take me hours to organize a weekly menu plan and grocery list, and that is time I do not have. I also like to eat a variety of meals during the week, so cooking two or three dishes in bulk over the weekend to nosh on throughout the week doesn't work for me. Enter "The Daily Vegan Planner." This book has saved my life since I ordered it. It lays out 12 weeks of healthy, calorie-friendly, vegan menus, including 3 meals and 1 snack each day. The planning is smart, using leftovers but offering a lot of variety as well. There are a host of "easy," recipe-less meals and snacks, such as hummus on a bagel (snack) or soy yogurt with granola (breakfast). And then each day you are given 1-2 new recipes to try, and these recipes are total yum. Fat-free banana bread that is as good as any fat-filled, non-vegan banana bread I've made in my past life. Lentil and Rice Loaf alongside mashed potatoes and corn on the cob that is a to die for comfort meal. The list goes on and on. Whether you're vegetarian, vegan, or just trying to eat healthier, I highly recommend The Daily Vegan Planner. Use it as a weekly menu guide (and food journal - each day includes a section to note what you ate and when and to track your calories), or use it as a cookbook, either way, you won't be disappointed. 5 brilliant stars!

I LOVE this book. It is easy to follow with simple recipes. I have been eating very poorly lately and having a devil of a time getting myself back on track. All the vegans I know are slim and healthy looking so I thought I would give vegan eating a try. Most of the vegan books I looked at were far too busy moralizing why being a vegan makes me a better person and devoting too little space on meal plans. This book provides meal plans for 3 meals a day (plus an afternoon snack) for 7 days a week for 12 weeks. That's over 300 meals! Plus it includes simple recipes for those meals. I have followed it for one week so far and lost 5 pounds (really!) I am not a complete vegan as I just can't give up my half & half in my coffee. The book does talk a little about why being a vegan is better for the planet (and you) but, frankly, that is not my motivator. My motivator is healthy eating, losing weight, and feeling better. So far this meal plan has achieved those 3 objectives. Will I be a vegan for the rest of my life? Probably not but who knows. Right now I feel good.

The Kindle version isn't easy to use. Books with recipes, diagrams, charts, and workbooks can not simply be copied from the print version to the electronic version. With this book, the daily meal plan and the recipes span multiple pages (no matter how I adjust the font) and the charts cannot be filled out. I don't know if all Kindle cook books or diary-type books are this way but I am very disappointed in this one. The poor formatting makes it almost impossible to use.

This book is really the catalyst that I needed to finally transition to a vegan diet. Five years ago I got really interested in animal rights and wanted to find ways to avoid cruelty in what I eat and in the purchasing decisions I make. However, despite trying numerous time to be vegan, I have also had numerous slip ups. This mostly stemmed from an aversion to meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking, which resulted in me eating many non-nutritious animal product laden meals on the fly. I've bought various vegan cookbooks over the years but that never really worked for me. I needed someone to hold my hand and show me how to put together complete vegan meals on a daily basis that are tasty and will meet my nutritional needs. This book gives that blueprint with loads of options, most of which are easy to find in conventional grocery stores. I haven't been afraid to tweak things she suggests. For instance, the first day she gives you a recipe for homemade marinara, but being a lazy novice cook, I purchased store bought marinara. Still, I tried to follow the spirit of that dinner's meal plan. Also, I am someone who doesn't mind repeating meals so instead of doing a different breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, I would eat the same thing for each meal for a few days in a row and then move onto the next day's meal plan. Thus definitely simplified grocery shopping. I am not 100% compliant on veganism yet. I still add half and half to my coffee and about once or twice a week I eat a bagel with real cream cheese, but that's about it as far as animal products go (and my long-term goal is to transition to vegan replacements of those products.) I am eating WAY more veggies than I did before (in fact I had to cut back a little on her suggestions. I'm just not quite at the point where I can eat an entire cucumber along with additional salad ingredients for lunch plus a main dish). Still I feel significantly healthier already and I am grateful that this book has helped me transition to a more cruelty free diet. I can't thank the author enough for the hard work she put into this book. It really, in my opinion, should be heavily promoted as one the vegan books of the year as it is instrumental in helping "people straddling the vegan fence" like me finally, with confidence, make a successful transition to a nearly (or exclusively) vegan diet.