When Tabitha Brown, the actress and star of the Food Network competition show “It’s CompliPlated,” went vegan five years ago, she lost 12 pounds. But when the 43-year-old mom, wife, and culinary queen of positivity mastered the art of making that mimicked meatloaf and mashed potatoes, seafood salad, cheesesteak hoagies, and peach cobbler without meat, fish or dairy, she got, “right back thick.”
And she’s OK with that because her husband loves her that way.
Brown shares her tasty journey to veganism in her new cookbook, “Cooking from the Spirit: Easy, Delicious and Joyful Plant-based Inspirations.”
Brown’s tour to support the cookbook is delighting her dedicated fans who recently stood up for her on social media after Food Network moved “It’s CompliPlated” from a coveted Thursday at 10 p.m. time slot to Tuesdays at 1 p.m. After the move, Brown suggested in a social media post the Food Network was trying to stop her from being her authentic self. Her show, she said, is flourishing because her fanbase “is so loyal.” Like dishes the chefs prepare on “It’s CompliPlated,” Brown’s book provides audiences with plant-based recipes.
Her 184-page cookbook features recipes that call mostly for fruits and vegetables, although a few require canned tomato sauce or egg and meat substitutes. But don’t expect any measurements with the lists of ingredients. “I don’t cook from a recipe,” she writes in her cookbook, “and I don’t measure anything. I just add what I like and I do it until my spirit tells me to stop.”