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A few weeks back, Da Capo Press sent me a review copy of Allyson Kramer's latest cookbook, Naturally Lean. Allyson and I met in the vegan blogging community many years ago and bonded because we both eat a gluten-free diet out of medical necessity. She's one of my favorite XGFX authors, and I can always count on her for delicious, creative recipes.

If you're not familiar with her cookbooks, they are:

♥ Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats (my favorite pancake recipe of all time lives inside)

♥ Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats From Around the World

♥ Sweet Eats for All

Athough Naturally Lean sounds like a diet cookbook (and can be used as one), it was written to offer recipes focused on nutrient-rich whole foods, rather than highly processed ingredients. The title comes in because Allyson believes if you eat more unprocessed whole foods like fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, greens and seeds, you'll consume less calories than you would from typically over processed foods.

For me, I'm stoked to have another cookbook full of delicious vegan and gluten-free recipes that are also refined sugar free. This means I can gobble up as much of the yummy desserts and savories in this book as I want (for the most part I ignore the serving size suggestions) and keep my arthritis and muscle crap at bay.

Naturally Lean is organized a bit differently than most cookbooks, which takes a little getting used to. Instead of recipes being grouped together by type, i.e. breakfast, lunch, and dinner, they're organized by ingredients: greens & crucifers, hearty grains, fabulous fruits, nuts & seeds, legumes, and squash, roots, & mushrooms. It's nothing to get chuffed about, a few well positioned sticky notes will help you out, or if you're a brainiac, you can even use the index!

                                   Flax and Chia Garlic Crackers.

So far I've made Flax and Chia Garlic Crackers, Red Quinoa Tabbouleh, Cinnamon Pumpkin Donuts and Chocolate Brownie Cake. Not to bullshit, all four of these recipes will probably go into heavy rotation here. I didn't have to go to the store to buy any ingredients except for tomatoes, which I buy weekly anyway, and everything came out A++++.

Flax and Chia Garlic Crackers
These were ridiculously easy to make and were gobbled up in a couple of days. My tip is to score the crackers before baking, and then they easily break up into perfect shapes when they're done. These would lend themselves to all sorts of different flavor combos.

Red Quinoa Tabbouleh chockful of fresh herbs, which is the way I love to eat. 
Herb it up!

Red Quinoa Tabbouleh
Tabbouleh is the perfect summer food (parsley, tomatoes and cukes galore), and I've made this recipe three times already in the last week. Allyson's version has the perfect balance of olive oil to lemon and does not skimp or taste "diet-y." I left out the paprika, 'cuz I wanted the other flavors to shine, and I love how this recipe has you cooking quinoa with a crushed clove of garlic (Imash it in, instead of discarding as the recipe suggests).

Baked Cinnamon Butternut Squash Donuts 'cuz I'm a cheater.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Donuts
I cheated with these and used some steamed butternut squash I had in the freezer instead of pumpkin, and they were still wonderful. Unglazed, these are a bit muffin-like and since I wanted something a bit more decadent, I dipped mine in glaze. I mixed 1/4 cup melted coconut oil, 1/4 cup crunchy almond butter and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup. It's warm here, so I dipped and chilled these multiple times to build up the glaze. YUMP.

Chocolate Brownie Cake

This cake is a keeper in the Kittee department. I've been eating it for breakfast everyday this week, since I've been in need of a wee caffeine rousing lately. I glazed my cake by mixing together 3 tablespoons of melted coconut oil, 4 tablespoons cacao powder, a little vanilla extract, and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup. I topped the glaze with coconut shreds and toasted hazelnuts and then tucked the whole cake away in the fridge to keep the topping solid. The recipe is shared with permission below!!