Wellness 🌱 and Food Blog ~ NEW Posts 📜 Every Tuesday (& Weekly)👇
Balance Your Body Type – Based on your score, you can find better health, balance, and passion-purpose work
In 2008, I went through Deepak Chopra’s Perfect Health Program in Carlsbad, California that cost me more than any vacation I can remember. My reward has been a life changer, as I’ve used some of the life skills every day and still to this day, over a decade later (and you can use to help balance your body type).
I believe everyone can use this helpful information for their whole life in several ways, including better health to slow aging, whole balance, and finding passionate work.
HOW I DISCOVERED THE PROGRAM
I was personally struggling with remaining angry emotions from a stressful, uninspiring management position I had just left.
Some roles aren’t the right fit, and there was one in particular I held after a line of unsatisfying work that mildly put was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
You could be good at your job and hate your job, which is how I felt, so I left that position (but my story had a good ending as a new role was created for me at the same company). Continue reading…
Sweet potato sour is one delicious comfort soup. If you like dramatic soups with a melange of umami and herby fresh flavors (like Pho broth), you’ll love this elevated sweet potato soup.
It doesn’t need salt with all the punchy flavor adds. It’s also low-sodium.
It’s an anti-inflammatory soup that’s great anytime of year and will be good with your favorite flavors made from fresh ingredients. 🥣
I call these penny adds because spices, herbs, and alliums are when you break down the costs. Since 2020, homemade, warm low-sodium soups are the way I roll.
After you soften and prepare your cooked sweet potatoes in a pot of heated water, that usually takes about 45 minutes on medium-high heat, you can mash them down in the water.
You can decide whether you like a thicker or thinner soup. Thinner would be with more water, and straining out the small sweet potato pieces (that you can enjoy or use separately) .
And a thicker soup would be on the opposite spectrum, with less water. It’s kinda like deciding if you like high pulp OJ (or no pulp). And in line with cold, winter month extra Vitamin-C decisions
This sweet potato soup bowl is great for those reasons.
It’s when a bowl like this is love and hearty comfort. You can add in all your immunity flavor foods like mushrooms, red onions, more onions (green), and cilantro. 🍄🟫 If you like, add in your jalapeño or mild peppers. Some people like to add garlic, but I like to save some flavors for other soups.
Shiitake mushrooms are high in Vitamin D that go well with a cold weather bowl.
I also added a jammy egg as the top bowl feature. My personal rule is if it’s savory sauce or soup, add an egg. Poaching eggs for any bowl occasion is easier done than many think.
And it’s not only delicious, it’s nutritious.
The egg yolk has less sodium than the whites, that may sound surprising when you break down an egg. That could make the yolk sunnier to some (that grew up eating only the egg whites).
And eggs in general are a way to get in more protein, and alphabet soup D, E, A, K, and Bvitamins.
That’s also a good time to add in your healthy fats (olive oil, Omega 3, etc.) for better absorption. And healthy fats mean it’s a better time to take your fat-soluble daily vitamin supplements.
A bowl of soup can be the timely reminder. 😊
Then you can also add in your elevated noodles and fish sauce. I opted to add in rice (unlike Pho) and soy sauce (where a reduced low-sodium version is an option).
A drizzle of lime juice adds more zingy taste. It pairs well with the fresh cilantro. And healthy lime juice is good for preventing kidney stones and for the skin, while anti-inflammatory cilantro has many benefits including detoxification.
…Sounds like a lot added, but they’re easy ingredients to add.
Oh, and don’t forget to add in additional proteins where the possibilities are endless… chick peas, meatballs, chicken, seafood, fish, and tofu.
In this dreamy soup bowl you can do you. 💭
If you like this soup, you may also like a turmeric soup that would be a good variety. And is perfect if all you have is the (turmeric) spice and soup warm water. It’s the simple things that are the best….
And what makes this sweet potato soup, sch-weet. 🍠
This is a delicious warming bowl of soup that you can elevate.
Course Soup
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
3medium to large sweet potatoes
2Tbspgreen onions, finely diced
2Tbspred onions, diced
1Tbspcilantro (or parsley), cut
1tspsoy sauce
1tsplime juice
1Tbspjalapeno or bell peppers (optional)
Instructions
Prepare sweet potatoes: peel potatoes and cook them in a pot of water on the stovetop in medium heat until potatoes are soft.
Keep stove on and mash sweet potatoes (in the same pot), straining small sweet potato pieces into a separate bowl if you would like a thinner soup.
Add all other ingredients in the pot. If cooking raw ingredients like mushrooms, allow 3-4 minutes longer. If adding poached egg, add to pot for several minutes until the egg yolk turns translucent. For a jammy egg, add about another minute to the poached egg time and take out of the pot into your soup bowl, with a slotted or regular spoon to stop cooking.
Cottage cheese in a cheesecake sounds like a lot of cheese, like this oozing over cake you can see below. But it’s actually a healthy way to get protein.
And a way to hide the cottage-y cheese texture (especially if you’re not a natural cottage cheese fan). And in this dish, you’ll get a smooth texture you’ll love!
Use your Magic Bullet or food processor and add 1/2 cup of cottage cheese and one egg.
Pulse the blender with cottage cheese and egg a few times to smoothly blend. This will make enough for an individual portion.
You can bake into an oven-safe mug if you don’t have a baking vessel that’s the exact right size.
Anyone can make this! 😊
It’s a quick (quiche?) way to get protein that’s sweet or savory delicious and healthy.
You decide!
And this is where it gets fun because you get to decide if you want a sweeter cheesecake (dessert) or savory cheesecake with healthy veggies or more proteins, like that you would add to a quiche.
Either way, it’s about 14 grams of cottage cheese protein and much lower in calories and fat… in case that’s important to you. And the egg adds another 6 grams, so this one individual portion has 20 grams of protein, plus any other proteins you add.
The Breakstone’s 2% milk fat cottage cheese I used had 13 grams of protein, but was only 100 calories. Some creamy cheese can be more than double or triple those calories.
I went sweet (the blueberries are a hint) and I added 1 tsp of maple syrup and some berries and surprise-inside cherries. That’s it.
The bottom was brushed with coconut oil. And if you go the savory route, you can make this a Mediterranean diet olive oil serving as an option.
Oil helps for a non-stick bottom that’s baking-desirable and improves the overall bake texture.
And since I used an under 2-inch low baking vessel (that’s shorter in height than a drinking mug), I got the anticipated dramatic spillover effect that’s fun and adds a lava effect.
Like an oozing fall “lava” cake or a French Onion soup that’s baked in another baking pan to catch the flow. I used a cake pan and carried over the spill to the plate (that was scrumptious too 😋).
And you can simply cut off the baked lava or leave on for an ahhh…
After exiting the oven, you would think this dish is made with fancy cheese like Gruyere (or other fondue cheeses) that are usually more expensive per ounce and higher fat calories. You’d never think it was easy-to-source cottage cheese.
And you may at first think that using cottage cheese as the main ingredient doesn’t give a delicious bake… but not here in this cottage cheese cheesecake where it’s controversially satisfying.
Give it a try yourself. Your friends will never guess it’s cottage cheese… unless you tell them. 🧀
Tofu pepperoni is plant-based and a healthy protein snack or topping-add to your pizza without guilt. Below, it’s the new pepperoni 🍕
And even further below is how to make this liked (or disliked) food (depending on the taster), a regular part of your healthy food meal prep for grab-and-go protein. Or add to pizza food.
Unlike regular cured meat-based pepperoni that’s hands-down liked, tofu is a healthy topping sub on pizza. Regular pepperoni is high in saturated fat, sodium and acidity.
But tofu is the opposite. It’s lean. low-sodium, and considered an alkaline food.
If you experience heartburn often from certain foods, tofu pepperoni could be one protein substitution answer.
It’s also a one big block full of calcium, iron, and fiber.
…So when it’s put that way, maybe worth a go?
And maybe help sway your tofu decision in your upcoming grocery trip. Or may open your eyes to make you look at tofu in a new light.
Plus, if saving grocery money matters to you, tofu could be a good protein savings.
Tofu disguised as pepperoni could be the idea to give the creamy protein block a needed new identity (for you). If you can get your mind to agree to the tofu look and taste as similar… or at least agreeable with enough salt and spice tastes added, then you get all its benefits.
And if you’re not too familiar with tofu (or never tried the food before)…
Tofu is the Japanese name.
The other common names are bean curd or soybean curd.
It’s a soy food. You can also find soy in edamame and soy milk where you may know other soy ingredients.
But unlike those soybean products, tofu is easy to find. Today you can find it in most mass grocery stores.
It’s usually in a white container that the protein spongy-looking block looks like it would fit in, and what you find when you get inside the no-mistake-it’s-tofu packaging.
But tofu won’t end up looking like a spongy block after you crumble up the tofu protein. That’s also a legume.
Because it’s soy, it’s a legume.
Legumes are the larger plant-based food category.
It’s a broader category of plant-based foods that gives you a healthy food variety to choose from and additional fiber to add to your diet.
But usually you just call out the food name instead of legumes. Like beans, peanuts, and peas.
And if that’s what you’d like to add more of in your diet, maybe try a 15-bean turmeric soup…
With all the variety out there and plant-forward foods growing abundantly outside, it’s easy to see why natural foods is a forward path to food sustainability.
…And is great for those who don’t eat meat, and for those who do.
Plant-based tofu pepperoni can be the first thing you reach for when you’re hangry for a snack or wondering what to eat.
Spiced up, tofu pepperoni can have similar tastes to meat pepperoni.
Easy-to-find spice powders like paprika and chili powder give a closer-to-pepperoni reddish color.
You can add sharp and punchy spices flavors like fresh garlic powder and cumin. Plus, salt balances well with oregano for an herb-y taste.
Oregano is one of the healthiest antioxidant herb spices on our planet. It has a sweet peppery note and goes well with any savory Italian dish or red tomato sauce.
To make the tofu pepperoni:
From a standard 3″x4″tofu block (14 oz) that comes in a common tofu plastic container found in grocery stores, cut the tofu into 3 long rectangle pieces so then you have 3-3″x 4″ rectangles. A regular bread knife works well for this task as tofu is soft and smooth like butter.
From there, you can cut out the round pepperoni shapes. Since the tofu rectangle is about 3″x 4″, a round cookie cutter about 1-1/2″ (4 cm) works well. I didn’t have a round cookie cutter that size (and you probably don’t either), but I found a 1-1/2″ round spice container top worked perfectly. So look around your pantry and kitchen. A small juice glass could even work.
If you have perfect cuttings, then you can cut out 12 pepperoni that you can then cut again each pepperoni round in half (because they’ll be thick). I like to do it this way because it’s easier to cut smaller flimsy tofu pieces. But you do you!
So you’ll end up with 24 pepperoni plus tofu scraps that you can make into a tofu scramble 🥣 or tofu scrap (a new dish?). 💭
Then, make a spice dip. Add in all the spices you’ll be using with a little water (as the glue), and dip each tofu pepperoni in.
Dust with additional red paprika. I find a tea infuser works for this step because the small, even holes lightly dusts just enough for the reddish color effect (without adding too much of the spice).
Do this with all the pepperoni round slices.
In the process, I found I lost a few because tofu is soft and more delicate to work with. I forgot they weren’t hardy like meat.
Those broken ones went to the edible tofu scrap pile that will also get cooked up.
And in your sautée pan, cook tofu pepperoni rounds for about 15 minutes total, gently flipping over once, about halfway through.
Then they’re ready for eat-alone snacks and on pizzas. They will stay good in the fridge for 3-5 days (and you can also freeze them for longer).
On pizzas, since the tofu is already cooked, you can add them as pepperoni toppings during the last 5 minutes in home pizza oven baking.
And if you want to accompany the tofu rounds with more plant-based eating, you could add herbs and microgreens and make a salad. 🌱
Cut wet tofu block into 3 (3"x4") rectangles. Cut round tofu pepperoni shapes using a round cookie cutter (or a round kitchen item like a round spice lid top for the tofu pepperoni round size you desire). Cut tofu rounds if thicker than 1/4".
Mix spices with a small amount of water (about 1/2 the spice amount). Dip each tofu pepperoni round side in the spiced-water.
Evenly sprinkle additional paprika (for red color) on each tofu pepperoni round. Tip: use a tea infuser with small evenly-spaced holes to maximize pepperoni color effect but not adding too much additional paprika.
On the stovetop, cook tofu pepperoni on medium heat in a skillet for a total of 15 minutes, about 7 minutes on each side (flipping tofu pepperoni rounds once)
Use as a topping to pizza that can be baked in near the end or enjoy the tofu pepperoni as eat-alone snacks. They will last for 3-5 days in the cool part of the refrigerator.
Fig bar tastes is a good sweet snack for low-sugar healthy options. These are healthy baked even though they look like fried desserts.
And the wholesome figgy tastes are a reason for celebration in the season you’re in.
When I was growing up, Fig Newton cookies were my healthy go-to choice as a cross between an obvious sugared cookie, and a healthy snack cookie bar concept that didn’t yet exist in my young world.
When you’re a kid, you’re barely aware of good vs. bad, but you know cavities are bad and dodging them is good as verified by the dentist.
Back then, my little hands didn’t think grabbing and stuffing my mouth with a wholesome fig bar could fall in either a good or bad zone.
Fast forward decades later to a new century and a quarter century later (that’s today), and I’ve parted ways with most packaged daily sweets. The hardest part was weaning myself off a crispy nutrition or oatmeal breakfast bars that often are loaded with hidden sugar that I used to supplement sugar with.
Today, if I had a teaspoon of honey a day, that’s sometimes enough. My younger self would’ve never believed.
So I would’ve never seen that coming and parting the Red Sea was more believable to me.
But life is surprising and healthy changes gradually happen and you notice when you look back, and realize you’re happier with your changes.
And in case you think I’m a healthy food snob, I’m not at all… I’m not one to judge others if they’re enjoying themselves, especially since I’ve been there. We all have choice.
If you want to protect your body, that’s a healthy choice. And that was my choice. To replace, I use my tasting background (in catering) and healthy eating experiences.
While a banana a day can be boring, adding peanut butter or switching fruits is a game changer.
And finding healthy duos like cacao and unsweetened coconut, or fig and cinnamon can be enough. The flavor pair gives a tasty bite.
You don’t need that much addictive sugar unless you keep eating gobs of it, and then you need to keep the cycle going to keep your taste buds happy.
That was me too. 😊
And you can start with making low-sugar desserts like a homemade fig bar with wholesome ingredients you and I grew up with, and can easily source.
When you buy food ingredients that include sugar, the trick is to not use the whole jar. And look to avoid high fructose corn syrup. You’ll find the healthy jars aren’t that much more pricey if you look around a minute or two.
For flour, whole wheat flour and gluten-free flours like almond flour or coconut flour that you won’t know is there, is a good mix.
When you add fig jam, the taste masks coconut tastes if that’s what you want. Or it complements the refined coconut flavors.
…And these healthy bars stack nicely to make a festive plate too! They ooze with fig.
So, how do you make this fig bar?
The easy way is to roll out a rectangle to about 1/4″ thick and spread a thin layer of jam.
Then fold in the two outer sides to the center, so now you have two folded tops. It’s like easy origami. 🪅
And then cut the dough in the middle with a pizza roller or kitchen knife. It almost looks like a burrito… and it’s a fig one.
Then cut into smaller bar rectangles like shown here…
Most people cut after baking and letting the bake cool.
My tip is to cut before baking, so you lose no crumbs and get an even bake.
Look at the back side shown here ⬇. It’s golden brown on the shorter edges too. If you were to cut after baking, you would lose that additional tasty browning definition. It’s a subtle enhancement.
Bake at 350°F for about 15-20 minutes. Or until golden brown.
Some common fig bar recipe questions:
What could I substitute for whole wheat flour?
You could substitute old-fashioned or rolled oats! To get a smoothie fig bar, you should use a food processor to make or grind into smaller, fine oats.
What type of honey should I use?
Organic and raw honey is recommended as healthy. You can use a common clover honey, Manuka, or orange blossom (that has a citrusy taste). My favorite to use is wildflower honey that’s sweet with a hint of floral, and works well in baking.
What can I use besides butter?
You can use coconut oil, a neutral olive oil, or even natural peanut butter.
Should I keep the bake in the oven slightly longer for a deeper brown?
It is better to under bake these then over bake as they can get too crisp (instead of a softer bite). Take a look at them in the oven at around the 15 minute mark. You can also flip the bars topside down to give a more even bake and make golden tops.
Also don’t roll the fig bar dough too thin, as then you can get crackers. If you want thinner fig bars, lower the oven temperature from 350°F/180°C to about 250°F/121°C.
If you like this, you may like to make a low-sugar graham cracker too for craving a sweet tooth or just for a ‘lil nostalgia.
These are low-sugar bars that you can enjoy without all the sugar.
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
1cupalmond or coconut flour (gluten-free)
1/2cupwhole wheat flour
1egg white
fig jam
1tspraw honey
1Tbspmelted butter
Instructions
Combine the ingredients to make the dough.
Roll out the dough and add a think layer of fig jam.
Fold the left and right end inward to meet at the center (like origami). Take a knife or roller and go down the vertical center. Then roll or cut horizontal/perpendicular to make rectangles.
Bake at 350°F/180°C for about 20 minutes or until soft baked. Do not over bake. The jam will be ready to eat, oozing out some!
Letting in light in your life is a bright way to your future (and to let go of the holding back past).
Someone needed that.
…I know I did.
On my life journey, letting go was not a natural skill of mine.
Even through my 30s, I let my mind embellish on the past.
For better or worse.
Better is good past and happy memories that are meant to be kept and linger on. Because happy thoughts make a happy day.
And good is good, so don’t mess with good.
…But some days, I would let my ego run circles around me, ruminating in sour thoughts.
That’s what most of us do unknowingly, until we catch on and decide to exercise our healthy mind’s power.
When struck, rumination sometimes used to take up hours if I was lucky, possibly a whole day, or rob my entire weekend while I kinda did something else.
These days, I snap out and decide to change thoughts much faster, sometimes within nanoseconds with mind self-awareness.
That btw I was never taught. And most likely, you were never taught.
But one day (where I can’t pinpoint the exact day or year), it happened.
It was a gradual light bulb that turned on in me.💡
It started with self-reflection and self-awareness.
And that’s where any of us can begin.
But realize there are different kinds of self-awareness.
The most common type that made its pin drop on the map (and hopefully is part of you and your practices 📍🗺️), is the self-awareness kind where you know how you come across to others in work, personal relationships, and encounters with strangers.
It’s when you’re not just doing or saying whatever is on your mind.
…A very important skill to have in better relationships.
Because being thoughtful and thinking-before-acting in safe environments breeds kindness, humility, and all the good qualities that people want to be around, and especially for employers seeking new employees that customer face.
It separates us from animals that act on instincts in any surrounding.
And self-awareness is one quality described in the hospitality quotient (soft skills) that Shake Shack’s owner Danny Meyer came up with for businesses looking for their next employees.
One that I can personally relate to having managed hundreds of events in several DC restaurants.
And maybe you waited tables or worked in customer service which I think is one of the best training grounds for prioritizing demands quick on your feet.
So that’s one type of common self-awareness.
Then there’s another kind, the (deeper) thought-mind self-awareness, that helps you out the most. And helps others secondarily.
It’s a must-have skill for those who want to improve personal and life development.
This is where you catch all your thoughts.
And kinda like when you’re reading a nonfiction book and you’re aware of your thoughts about what you think of what you’re reading. You know if you’re being judgmental or if what you’re reading is helpful to you.
You’re forming thoughts about new thoughts coming in.
And similarly when you’re not reading, thoughts like this enter throughout your day, invited in or not.
Most thoughts are either loving or fear-based and unloving.
…Positive or negative themes.
…Helpful or not helpful.
And your thought-mind self-awareness (quotient) I’m describing here is determined by whether you can quickly label the thought as black-or-white (and not leave as gray-fuzzy), as an Observer with a capital O for an important role in life.
Like when you set filters in your inbox to decide if certain emails are worth ruminating or elaborating on.
Negative and unloving past thoughts (like junk messages) are usually not worth your time because they are time hogs and reel you down emotionally… unless they help you noodle something out to your next growth step.
Worry is another thought category. It’s another way to ruminate especially if it’s a go-to habit. But incessant worry is unhelpful and unnecessary.
Instead getting to the root of worry thoughts help you problem solve and come up with better answers.
And after you’re aware why you’re worrying and have come up with a few ideas on how to handle the situation (you’re worrying about or that could arise), you’re best to let it go, pray it off, and change your thoughts.
This is one way to exercise your power of healthy mind self-awareness… and so that you can get to the higher thoughts that lead to bigger dreams you want to manifest in YOUR life.
…And also so that you can be healthy, whole, and thriving,
And as you learn to better let go of unproductive thoughts that don’t serve you today and bad parts of the past that the younger brain recorded, REWRITE your ruminating thought endings as they enter.
Give those fuzzy past situations a happy and successful ending.
That lightens your load.
Like, you got an “A” and not a “D” on the project, or you turned your knots in the stomach into challenging yourself into an experience that made you into a better you today.
Let in the light to replace what you’re letting go. This allows fresh, new, and healthy ideas to birth… and old, tired ways to die.
But hold on, it’s not so easy… your ego doesn’t want those sad thoughts to die, so it will keep finding ways to drudge up past thoughts and make it stick to you like wet plastic wrap.
Be aware of your ego, and l’ego!
You have to be super intentional and aware to peel off ego’s thought and ways and disassociate, or else the same wrap just comes clinging again.
So when that negative thought situation arises, write down what you did to change your thought (because the ego doesn’t want you to remember that you already crossed that small win finish-line before).
Unaware, a similar thought will show up again in a different situation and sour your day… unless you consciously are aware to stop it again.
Connect the dots in wonderment. Don’t leave it as an open puzzle.
That’s the way to wholeness and getting a light waterfall of a-ha answers.
If you can get to the place of changing your subconscious ego thoughts (and head in a quicker-than-before direction 📈) to a new replacement thought despite the stubborn thought trying to edge back in at every curve, then you know you’ve got this!
You get this.
And if you’re being humble like me here, you can practice on all the other dissimilar thoughts that try to derail your life.
Like thoughts that try to make you more busy (and important that ego loves)…
One way to test yourself is how you interact with strangers.
I meet a lot of interesting people on my journey these days.
And where my younger self would’ve kept on going and stayed busy on my task list, I now (wisely better) stop and converse.
I can spend untimed minutes talking with new people, when edging in 20 minutes used to be impossible.
The metro city culture where I came from, local people just don’t do that.
They’re self-absorbed and quick in every turn and way. They run circles around people and they’re also movers and shakers helping our world move in other ways.
If you slow them down, they think you’re retired or from the South.
The value isn’t placed in slowing down. It’s encouraged to walk away and get ahead.
It’s rude, but accepted.
But that’s not a good way to get the most out of this life.
In a slower living, mind-aware way, that’s how you learn to let light in and grow.
That’s where the healthy good is in life.
Because if you gain wisdom and listen to people who have slowed down, they take time to give good words to you.
And if you let in the new information, that helps you grow.
Good people strangers speak wisdom, share valuable tips, and sometimes even help you see sides of yourself that’s eye-opening.
They don’t know you, but they can say profound things to you that make an impact on your future if you think about it from your past encounters.
In-person, you can make no mistake that face-to-face, from being-to-being, the message is for you.
Their words somehow swirl their way in your mind later in the day as the way the Universe can speak visually and audibly to you. Through people’s faces that will later fade in memory.
Soothsayers birth new ideas in and for you. And you probably do the same for others without knowing it.
And unlike people you know, in these good chance encounters, there is no motive from the stranger as it’s as surprising of a meeting for you as it is for them.
Most likely you’ll never see this person or people again.
Here they are and poof! there they go. And there you go.
Out into your rest of the day and life.
Where today and daily you choose to purposefully listen to specific outside people in our world, media, or from podcasts.
…When well-paid speakers often share stories about lessons they learned from strangers they met on the plane or out and about everyday life.
The kind I just described to you.
Most of us are looking to learn and be influenced…
To be more knowledgeable, grow as a person, and be better in how each of us define.
And with those intentions, thought-mind awareness can be part of that self-improvement and personal self-development process.
If you fully adopt a thought awareness mindset, you won’t just drift into your busy world and wonder years later where your life went.
Because shifts are happening daily all around us without our consent. The tectonic plates are even shifting under our feet now and likely wherever you are, as I wisely learned from a traveler I met and stopped to exchange ideas with.
So maybe for an intentionally better year this year, challenge yourself with a mindset shift and a determination to be thought-mind self-aware, to let go and let in some new light. ✨
