A Living Flourishing Learning Orchard™
Find excellent resources. Go to the source. Bring the learning home.
There is already extraordinary educational work in the world. Kitchen Monk™ does not need to recreate all of it. Our role is to help you find trustworthy resources, understand what each one offers, and carry useful knowledge from the screen into the kitchen, home, clinic, family, and community.
Browse by topic
Every card tells you what it is, who it’s best for, whether it’s free or paid, and whether it’s a Kitchen Monk resource or an independent one. Tap a topic to jump to it.
🍲 Food & Cooking · 🥡 Convenience & Travel · 🚶 Movement · 🌙 Sleep, Stress & Caregivers · 🤝 Community · 🦉 Kids & Families · 🌈 Faith & Compassion · 📖 Books & Stories · 🩺 For Professionals
🍲 Food & Cooking
FREE · KITCHEN MONK
The Start Your Journey cooking trail
What it is: a gentle path into the VA’s free Practical Plant-Based Cooking guide.
Best for: beginners and anyone rebuilding kitchen confidence.
Keep in mind: some recipes include eggs or dairy; check ingredients for your needs.
FREE · KITCHEN MONK
The Flourishing Table
What it is: Kitchen Monk’s approach to learning food skills, from the classroom to the cutting board to the community.
Best for: people who learn best by doing, together.
FREE · INDEPENDENT RESOURCE
NutritionFacts.org
What it is: short, free videos and articles about nutrition research, from a nonprofit.
Best for: people who want to understand the “why.”
FREE · INDEPENDENT RESOURCE
Full Plate Living
What it is: a free program for adding more whole, fiber-rich foods to meals you already eat, including free group visits.
Best for: anyone who prefers small steps over big overhauls.
FREE & MEMBERSHIP · INDEPENDENT RESOURCE
National Health Association
What it is: recipes made without added salt, oil, or sugar, plus a podcast, a magazine, and an annual conference.
Best for: families and people who like learning in community.
Keep in mind: some resources require a paid membership.
INDEPENDENT RESOURCE · CHECK CURRENT ACCESS
Teaching Kitchens
What it is: the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative, a network of hands-on cooking classrooms in hospitals, schools, and communities.
Best for: learning by cooking with others.
Keep in mind: class availability varies by location.
🥡 Convenience & Travel
FREE · KITCHEN MONK
The Healthy Convenience guide
What it is: our guide to cooking yourself, cooking with community, and choosing better convenience, without shame.
Best for: busy, tired, caregiving, or traveling people.
PAID · INDEPENDENT RESOURCE
LeafSide
What it is: shelf-stable, whole-food, plant-based meals you make by adding water.
Best for: travel, backup meals, workdays, and days when cooking isn’t realistic.
Keep in mind: review ingredients, allergens, pricing, and shipping. Not medical treatment or individualized nutrition therapy.
PAID · INDEPENDENT RESOURCES
Ready-made meals & pantry helpers
What they are: Chef James Nutrition, Enliven Foods, WellBean, and Well Your World.
Best for: weeks when cooking isn’t realistic.
Keep in mind: Enliven Foods was co-founded by Chef Robin Jeep, Nathanael’s co-author.
PAID · INDEPENDENT RESOURCE
NHA Plant-Based Travel
What it is: whole-food, plant-based group trips, including cruises.
Best for: travelers who want support keeping healthy habits on vacation.
🚶 Movement
◐ IN DEVELOPMENT · KITCHEN MONK
Move With a Nurse™
What it is: walking, rolling, cycling, stretching, and movement people enjoy, with nurses moving alongside.
Best for: beginners, older adults, families, and people living with chronic illness or disability.
Keep in mind: community gatherings are still in development.
FREE · KITCHEN MONK
One small movement step
What it is: three simple ideas you can try today, like a five-minute walk or one song of stretching.
Best for: anyone starting from zero.
🌙 Sleep, Stress & Caregivers
FREE · KITCHEN MONK
Who Cares for the Caregiver?
What it is: reflection and support ideas for nurses, family caregivers, and anyone feeling worn down.
Best for: people who spend much of their life caring for others.
FREE & PAID · INDEPENDENT RESOURCE
American College of Lifestyle Medicine
What it is: education on six areas of health, including sleep, stress, and relationships, plus a way to find a lifestyle medicine clinician.
Best for: anyone, with a deeper track for professionals.
Keep in mind: some resources need a free account.
FREE · KITCHEN MONK
One small rest step
What it is: simple ideas for tonight’s sleep or today’s stress.
Best for: anyone who feels stretched thin.
Ongoing trouble sleeping, loud snoring, or low mood that won’t lift are worth raising with your clinician. In the US, if you’re in crisis, call or text 988 any time.
🤝 Community & Relationships
● AVAILABLE NOW · FREE · KITCHEN MONK
Kitchen Monk free communities
What it is: free online groups for encouragement, questions, and shared ideas.
Best for: anyone who doesn’t want to do this alone.
● SIGN-UP AVAILABLE NOW · KITCHEN MONK
The Community Map
What it is: share your approximate area and interests so we can see where community is growing.
Keep in mind: the interactive map itself is in development.
INDEPENDENT RESOURCE · CHECK CURRENT ACCESS
Plant Based Support
What it is: peer encouragement, recipes, and a place to ask questions about plant-based living.
Best for: people who want ongoing support from others making similar changes.
INDEPENDENT RESOURCE · NONPROFIT
Plant Based Nutrition Movement
What it is: a nonprofit offering community nutrition education, cooking demonstrations, and teaching kitchens, with a focus on children and families.
Best for: families and communities looking for hands-on learning.
🦉 Kids & Families
FREE · KITCHEN MONK 📖 STORY
Flourishing Guardians™
What it is: stories and activities for children, with a separate guide for parents and caregivers.
Best for: families who want to read, cook, and move together.
Keep in mind: the stories are fiction and do not replace pediatric care.
FREE · INDEPENDENT RESOURCE
The Jaroudi Family
What it is: Brittany Jaroudi’s whole-food, plant-based recipes her own family loves, plus a podcast about raising kids on plant-based food.
Best for: parents cooking for picky or busy households.
INDEPENDENT RESOURCE
Dr. Yami Cazorla-Lancaster & Nourish Wellness
What it is: a pediatrician’s book and podcast on raising kids who enjoy healthy food, plus her pediatric lifestyle medicine practice in Yakima, Washington.
Best for: parents who want help without food fights or shame.
🌈 Faith & Compassion (optional)
You are welcome at Kitchen Monk regardless of faith background. These are here for those who want them.
OPTIONAL · ◐ IN DEVELOPMENT · KITCHEN MONK
Faith Communities
What it is: an invitation to congregations of every faith to help bring lifestyle education home through their own nurses and volunteers.
Best for: faith communities and members who want faith-connected support.
OPTIONAL · FREE · KITCHEN MONK 📖 STORY
Faith & Flourishing: Willow’s Teaching
What it is: an optional Christian faith trail for families within Flourishing Guardians, with Scripture and story clearly labeled.
Best for: Christian families who want faith woven into stories.
📖 Books & Stories
📖 STORY / FICTION · FREE ON KINDLE
The Book of the Lamp
What it is: Book I of The EVERgreen Chronicles, a story about finding light for the next step.
Best for: readers, caregivers, and nurses who love a reflective story.
FREE · OUTSIDE VOICES
Kitchen Monk in the World
What it is: published stories about Kitchen Monk, including Robin Jeep’s feature in Women’s Wellness / OptiMYz.
Best for: anyone curious about where Kitchen Monk came from.
🩺 For Nurses & Health Professionals
🩺 PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
- American College of Lifestyle Medicine professional education (independent · free & paid)
- The Plantrician Project & Plantrician University (independent · free & paid)
- Teaching Kitchen Collaborative (independent)
- Flourishing Nursing Forward and the Flourishing Care Ecosystem (Kitchen Monk · in development)
- Help Shape Flourishing Nursing (Kitchen Monk · your feedback welcome)
CURATE → EXPLAIN → ATTRIBUTE → CONNECT → APPLY
Skip to the resources ↓
The Kitchen Monk Learning Path
1. READ THE SCIENCE. NutritionFacts.org
↓
2. JOIN THE COMMUNITY. National Health Association
↓
3. DEEPEN THE PRACTICE. The Plantrician Project + Plantrician University
↓
4. LEARN THE FRAMEWORK. American College of Lifestyle Medicine
↓
5. CONNECT WITH SUPPORT. Nurse Coaches, our Flourishing Care Connectors™ (in development)
↓
6. BRING IT HOME. Family, kitchen, and community, and in the future, Flourishing CNAs™ (future vision)
↓
7. LIVE YOUR FLOURISHING JOURNEY.
This is a trail map, not a required order. Start wherever you are.
Five Streams Into the Orchard
Each organization keeps its own name, leadership, and mission. Kitchen Monk is simply the trail guide.
Stream One · Science · 🟢 Free public resource
NutritionFacts.org
Free, non-commercial videos, articles, podcasts, and guides on nutrition research, in English and Spanish. Best for: everyone.
Stream Two · Community · Free & member resources
National Health Association
Recipes made without added salt, oil, or sugar, the NHA Today podcast, Health Science magazine, and an annual conference where clinicians and community learn together. Best for: patients, families, caregivers, and clinicians with the people they love.
Stream Three · Education + Changemakers · Free & paid
The Plantrician Project + Plantrician University
Free Quick Start Guides, free webinars, an open-access journal, Plantrician University, and the Power of the Plate conference. Best for: clinicians, students, educators, and changemakers.
Stream Four · Lifestyle Medicine Framework · Mixed access
American College of Lifestyle Medicine
The six pillars, a free account with complimentary resources, a Culinary Medicine Curriculum, professional education, and a way to find a lifestyle medicine clinician. Best for: everyone, with a deep professional track.
🍲 The Culinary Stream: Teaching Kitchens
Where knowing becomes knowing how. The Teaching Kitchen Collaborative connects teaching kitchens in hospitals, schools, workplaces, and communities, and builds the research showing what hands-on cooking education can do. Pair it with Food for Life classes from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and the ACLM Culinary Medicine Curriculum.
Choose Your Door
🏡 For Everyone
Patients, families, caregivers, friends, and the newly curious: start with NutritionFacts.org, NHA recipes and community, Plantrician Quick Start Guides, ACLM patient resources, and our cooking guide.
🩺 For Healthcare Professionals
RNs, APRNs, NPs, physicians, PAs, RDNs, pharmacists, PTs, OTs, behavioral health, health coaches, public health, and faculty: build your practice with the ACLM Learning Center, Plantrician University, and NutritionFacts.org.
🤝 Clinicians + Friends + Family
Health knowledge should not stop at the clinician’s office door. The nurse and her spouse, the NP and her parent, the physician and his best friend: learn together at the NHA Conference and, where eligibility permits, Power of the Plate.
👩⚕️ For Nurses
Move nursing forward with ACLM education, Plantrician University, NutritionFacts.org, NHA community learning, and the Flourishing Care Ecosystem, where Nurse Coaches are the water and Flourishing CNAs are the roots.
🎒 For Students
Nursing, medical, PA, dietetic, pharmacy, public-health, and CNA students: start earlier with ACLM’s academic curricula, Plantrician University, free Quick Start Guides, and NutritionFacts.org.
👪 For Families
Bring flourishing home with NHA recipes, Plantrician pediatric Quick Start material, NutritionFacts.org, shared meals, family walks, gardening, and good sleep routines.
🪔 A Moment by the Lamp
Where does your life need a little more light right now?
Sample Journeys
“I was just told I have prediabetes.”
NutritionFacts.org research → ACLM patient resources → Plantrician Quick Start Guide → NHA recipes → talk with your healthcare team about an individualized plan.
“I’m a nurse who wants to teach nutrition.”
ACLM education → Plantrician University → NutritionFacts.org science library → NHA community resources for patients → Flourishing Nursing Forward™.
“My family wants to eat more plants.”
Plantrician Quick Start Guide → NHA recipes → NutritionFacts.org → a shared family meal this week.
“I want my kids to love healthy food, without fights or shame.”
Dr. Yami Cazorla-Lancaster‘s book A Parent’s Guide to Intuitive Eating and her podcast → family recipes from The Jaroudi Family → a Flourishing Guardians story at bedtime. In Yakima? Dr. Yami’s pediatric practice, Nourish Wellness, is one Nathanael personally recommends. (Independent; not affiliated with Kitchen Monk.)
General education and individualized care are different
The resources on this page offer general education. Individualized nutrition care comes from a registered dietitian or another appropriately credentialed professional, and diagnosis and medication decisions belong with your clinician. Need a lifestyle medicine clinician? Find one through the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.
◐ IN DEVELOPMENT In the future, Kitchen Monk hopes Nurse Coaches (our Flourishing Care Connectors™) can help people set goals and connect with the right resources and care team. This is not available yet.
Featured reading about Kitchen Monk: The Kitchen Monk: Reinventing Healthcare, One Meal at a Time, written by Robin Jeep for Women’s Wellness / OptiMYz (September 1, 2026). 🟢 Free. Read it at the source ↗ · Kitchen Monk in the World
🌱 Robin’s next chapter: Chef Robin Jeep is co-author, with Nathanael, of The Book of the Garden: The Cup of Flourishing, and is leading an effort to bring Kitchen Monk to a community college in New Mexico. Meet Robin
🎞 Historical Conversations & Mentorship
Two archived Chef AJ conversations featuring Dr. Ron Weiss, DipABLM, one of Nathanael’s earlier lifestyle medicine mentors, are preserved in the Kitchen Monk Mentorship Archive: an iodine discussion (March 2023) and a Lyme disease discussion (March 2024).
Included for their place in the founder story, not as current clinical guidance. Archived discussions may not reflect current evidence or Kitchen Monk™ recommendations and are not medical advice.
🪶 Mindfulness, calm & the whole toolbox
Mindfulness is one helpful tool among many, never a universal cure. See how it fits alongside food, movement, sleep, connection, and the wider care team in the Flourishing Nursing Coach Ninja™ toolbox, including the Mindfulness Feather, the Caregiver’s Calm Toolbox, and Nurse Blake’s Code Calm for nurses.
The Go-to-the-Source Promise
For every outside organization, we name it, describe it, attribute it, link to the original, and label access where we can. Link, don’t lift: we never copy another organization’s articles, handouts, recipes, courses, or recordings. Sometimes the best thing we can say is, “This organization explains it better. Go learn directly from them.”
Access labels: 🟢 Free · Free sample · 🔵 Free account required · 🟡 Membership required · 🟠 Paid or registration required · 🟣 Professional eligibility may apply · ⚪ Check current access
🦅 She does not build her nest on one leaf.
Momma Eagle builds where thousands of roots, drops of water, branches, seasons, and acts of care have made the tree strong. No single organization owns the orchard. No single profession owns flourishing. No single resource has every answer. But excellent science, education, community, nursing, culinary support, families, and compassionate connection can create stronger conditions for flourishing.
Grow the roots. Share the water. Strengthen the trunk. Open the branches. Cultivate the fruit. Build a place where the next generation can land.
Momma Eagle is a Kitchen Monk storytelling image and is not associated with any organization listed here.
Independent Resource Disclosure
Kitchen Monk™ independently recommends selected organizations, educational resources, conferences, and learning opportunities that may be useful to patients, families, healthcare professionals, and communities. Inclusion in the Kitchen Monk™ Lifestyle Medicine Library does not imply sponsorship, partnership, affiliation, certification, approval, or endorsement of Kitchen Monk™, Flourishing Nursing, Flourishing Care Connectors™, Flourishing CNAs™, or any other Kitchen Monk initiative by the referenced organization unless a formal relationship is expressly disclosed. All names, trademarks, educational materials, and intellectual property remain the property of their respective owners. Availability, eligibility, cost, content, and access requirements are determined by the originating organizations and may change. This includes NutritionFacts.org, the National Health Association, The Plantrician Project, Plantrician University, and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.
Medical Disclaimer
Educational information provided or linked through Kitchen Monk™ is for general education and is not a substitute for individualized medical assessment, diagnosis, treatment, or emergency care. Please consult your doctor or other healthcare provider before making any lifestyle changes.
External Content
Kitchen Monk™ does not control external websites and cannot guarantee that external content, pricing, availability, or policies will remain unchanged. Links are provided for educational convenience. Information last reviewed: September 2026.