A holistic health counselor and author of the best-selling Creating a Charmed Life shares practical advice for gradually shifting to a vegan lifestyle, providing recommendations for becoming an informed consumer while sharing 40 vegan recipes.

Decide that you can do this -- Recipe: My mom's wacky cake -- Start where you are -- Recipe: Lentil-spud burgers -- Retire from dieting -- Recipe: Grandma's lasagna (raw) -- Propel yourself with plant protein -- Recipe: 3-bean and quinoa salad -- Recast the entrée -- Recipe: Neat loaf -- Find out what other vegans eat -- Recipe: Baked chee spaghetti casserole -- Amaze your doctor -- Recipes: Oh-so-good mashed potatoes and easy mushroom gravy -- Save your money as well as your life -- Recipe: Cheapish chili -- Take a bird's-eye view -- Recipe: Veggie-edamame pot pies -- Know the beings behind bacon and burgers -- Recipe: Classic quiche -- Let fish off the hook -- Recipe: Mock tuna salad -- Outgrow your need for milk -- Recipe: Uptown pizza -- Get your calcium where the cow got hers -- Recipe: Gena Hamshaw's collard wraps -- Thrive with the five fitness food groups -- Recipe: Casablanca couscous -- Go green -- Recipe: Corpus Christi cornbread -- Go greens -- Recipe: All hail the kale salad -- Go the whole way with whole foods -- Recipe: Back-to-basics grains- brown rice and millet -- Veganize your kitchen -- Recipe: Scrambled tofu -- Supplement with vitamin B12 (and maybe a few other nutrients) -- Recipe: House dressing -- Move your body, manage your stress, and poison yourself less -- Recipe: ALT, the BLT alternative -- Dine out -- Recipe: Savory stuffed mushrooms (from the candle café) -- And cook out -- Recipes: Spicy coconut lime grilling sauce, Asian peanut glaze, and all-American fat-free marinade -- Wake up and smell the breakfast -- Recipe: Nick's holiday pancakes -- Joyfully juice -- Recipe: Kris Carr's "make juice, not war" green juice -- Have a drink if you want one -- Recipes: Adair's no-place-like-home chocolate martini, and at-the-bar choco-hazelnut martini -- Eat soy and wheat- or skip one or both of them -- Recipe: Peanut butter "minus" cookies -- Rethink macho -- Recipe: Working man stew -- Replace cruel cosmetics and household cleaners -- Recipe: Chef John's spa smoothie -- Choose fashion with compassion -- Recipe: Catwalk cobbler -- Bring the kids along -- Recipe: Krispy kale chips -- Walk the walk -- Recipe: Mock chicken noodle soup -- Don't sweat the small stuff- at least not in public -- Recipe: Better fruit gel-oh -- Invite people over -- Recipe: Hot "cheesy" vegetable dip -- Win friends and influence omnivores -- Recipe: cool dilly tofu dip (or dressing) -- Love the people who wish you'd just eat some meat -- Recipe: pumpkin pie -- Travel tastefully -- Recipe: chickpea curry -- Engage in a little activism -- Recipe: chocolate chip cookies -- Grow older better -- Recipe: shangri-la soup -- Engage your spirit -- Recipe: seitan stroganoff -- Go the distance -- Recipe: chocolate mousse.