Anti-inflammatory recipes help you practice daily meal prep and healthy eating habits, that pay off in your long run toward longevity. Below are recipe links from this blog to inspire your year, no matter what season you’re in. To your anti-inflammatory life! 🎉
Because an anti-inflammatory diet helps protect against inflammation in the body (skin, joints, teeth, vital organs) that are health warning signs.
And preventing inflammation flare-ups help protect against and prevent chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases that are still among the highest causes of mortality.
Chronic inflammation is linked to tell-tale body signs that can also lead toward certain cancers and cognitive decline.
And type 2 diabetes (or lifestyle diabetes) is the one of the fastest growing diseases on our planet. No matter what genes you were bestowed, anti-inflammatory habits help fight against what’s stacked up against you in the environment that you don’t have control over.
Anti-inflammatory foods were and are a leading source of prevention, where anti-inflammatory spices are a big deal. Adding more spice in your life and to your diet helps support better health and longevity.
And sticking to an anti-inflammatory diet is also a remedy from following Diet Culture of some kind. It’s a long-term healthy eating strategy.
Where whole and minimally processed healthy food and ingredients in meals and bakes you eat are at the core of anti-inflammatory foods and your health eating. Anti-inflammatory foods are real (nutritious) foods that the body recognizes as healthy
And this includes plant-based foods, so eating plant-forward helps the body. And foods on a Mediterranean diet, which is a type of anti-inflammatory diet that includes healthy proteins and healthy fats, such as wild fishes and olive oil.
👉 To learn more, grab my FREE Anti-Inflammatory Diet Food Guidewith printable food lists to help you make more healthy decisions for grocery food shopping. And get insights about an anti-inflammatory diet in the free guide.
And here on these pages of Anti-Inflammatory Lifestyle (Winter/Spring edition), you’ll discover simple and easy recipes you can make weekly. And get inspiration about anti-inflammatory living and seasonal foods you can lean into (that are more abundant and coins per ounce). To turn the pages forward/backward, click on the arrows at the lower corners of the pages. ↪
One of my favorite meals is weekend brunch. 😊 You can make your own no-butter bearnaise for a lower-calorie and anti-inflammatory-infused olive oil brunch sauce to pair with delicious savory meals like Eggs Benedict (with French bistro vibes🍽️). You can make this recipe and other healthy-conscious (but always tasty) waffle iron recipes.
And low-sugar desserts where the sweet tooth list is growing (variety is the spice of life! 🍥)
🍴You can also get more anti-inflammatory recipes and food ideas for the table from the Summer/Autumn anti-inflammatory food recipes. 🥄 That for some may be the season you’re celebrating and living out (literally or figuratively!).
Matcha banana bread is an easy bread you can make for brunch. And this one is a mixed batter (and not a proofing bread dough) before it’s in the oven, so you’ll save hours! Think of it like a quick pancake batter.
…And you can make this simple, where all you need is a pancake mix and a banana.
…Oh, and then add a little milk and/or yogurt for moistness. You can also make your own easy banana bread mix with flour (gluten and gluten-free), baking powder, and choice of sweetness (such as maple syrup or honey that are good for breakfast and lower sugar than sugar).
You can also get your healthy ingredient adds in like matcha tea in banana bread. Matcha is a healthy anti-inflammatory green tea, good for calming that also supports weight loss. 🍵
…Where less sugar is also going to support those efforts.
I also added in healthy gluten-freebuckwheatflour to the mix, that’s high in protein and fiber… and good in healthier pancakes and a recipe like this.
You can hide the healthy ingredients after you combine the ingredients. But I left a small trail of spring green matcha on the top of the batter, so you can see it’s there. The color will also blend in more after baked. 🌱
Only the banana bread will stand out in the end.
And that’s a good way to hide healthy ingredients for those who are picky eaters!
…But that you’ll feel better about it in there and anyone you’re sharing with!
The best part is: you can make healthier breakfast sweets like this matcha banana bread without compromising any tastes.
Virgin berry tea is a mocktail drink that can be made delicious for a special Mother’s Day drink.
Shaken, not stirred, you can easily make a mocktail drink like this with your Magic Bullet blender recipes and brunch waffles. You can shake the ingredients over your shoulder and this will create a smooth frothy tea beverage like this virgin berry tea drink that all ages can enjoy.
Btw, when my mom was with us on earth, she spent most of her working career as a dressmaker, so this light pink and purple color berry tea celebrates her life well and fits into the 2026 Met Gala’s Costume Art theme she would’ve liked. She never ate desserts with sugar, but had plenty of fruit.
…Oh, and if your mom is more a Mint Julep Kentucky Derby type, then you can try this Virgin Mint Julep tea drink anytime of day.
This is a virgin pink and lavender celebratory and festive mocktail drink with healthy notes that any mom would love! The drink checks the boxes for the service and quality time love language mom as she kicks up her feet to sip on this special mocktail that can be made into a cocktail.
Course beverage
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Equipment
martini strainer or other strainer
Ingredients
blueberry tea
hibiscus tea
can of coconut cream (or heavy cream)
blueberries and strawberries
lavender tea bag
Instructions
Reserve the thickest part of the coconut cream. Then mix the thinner part of the cream to make a milk consistency that will be used for blending.
Combine brewed blueberry tea and hibiscus tea and milk consistency cream. Shake up and strain to create the lavender purple color layer. Optional: add berries to this layer if you wish.
Freeze the first layer.
Repeat the second step but omit the blueberry tea to make the pink color layer as red and white make pink. Optional: add berries to this layer if you wish.
Freeze the second layer.
Add the thick coconut cream to the top. Add a little of the milk consistency cream to make the thickness of choice.
Decorate with dried hibiscus and lavender tea leaves, and/or fresh fruit.
Sponge cake roll is one that I embrace as a cake fan, and because cake fun is how I happy roll. And the cake texture does live up to the sponge name, like this sponge cake…
That looks like it will be sent off as a spring letter (onto an eating table).
…And you can make your own sponge cake with your own personal design 💌
It’s easy to make a unique imprime pattern (your imprint) where you bake the cake batter pattern you make for a minute on the cake pan, and then add and spread the rest of your batter on top to complete the bake off (or like I saw on The Great British Baking Show bake off).
And while you may be wondering how easy this is to make, I’ll first say it’s easier to make than it looks.
Below I give you the shortcut ways…
That starts with making the batter that you spread onto a silicone baking mat. One shortcut is you don’t need to go to the pan edges. Because the batter should hold its own without sides.
…Because it’s a wet batter, but never runny.
…Which is also a good battery test for your batter on how it will turn out.
And if you use a silicone baking mat (or a Silpat) with orange lined edges, you can use those edges as guidelines for where to stop. Because it’s tempting to go to the pan edge.
Your batter spread doesn’t have to be ruler straight, as the ends will get cut off at the end after baked,
And if use a half or full pan (12″ x 18″ or 20″) for your bakes, they make silicone mats that fit perfectly. Metal pans were the ones I saw daily in hotel and restaurant kitchens when I managed catering events and parties.
They will work well for this application. Like on this 12″ x 18″ pan setup with a thin layer of the batter recipe. And you can make a smaller rectangle if you want a thicker sponge. That’s up to you!
Then bake for about 12 minutes. Most other cakes can take 45 minutes or longer to bake… but this is a sponge cake roll that’s a quick bake, and that can save you minutes.
Thank you, magical oven!
And you’ll know it’s baked done because the sides will be baked done, just before they brown. And if the cake edges brown, that’s okay as you can cut those off later, but that’s your sign to take it out of the oven.
But the best way is to check the oven at the timer 12 minute mark. I could’ve pulled this one out at 11-and-a-half minutes, but I wanted to give it a few more seconds.
When it’s out of the oven, peel warm off the Silpat. You may have to wait 1-3 minutes, as it’ll will be super hot. Use your safe gloves. But don’t let the sponge cake cool before rolling it up because the cake needs to be shaped warm-hot, or it will likely cake break later.
And peeling is so satisfying to do, especially for the scrapbooker in me that likes to work with her hands and anything that’s like paper. This one is edible paper. 😊
I rolled this one tight on a separate kitchen towel, but a fast shortcut is to roll up the peeled-off sponge cake on the silicone mat you baked it on. No kitchen towel needed.
Then it can be rolled all-in-one, and then clipped or tied up temporarily like a scroll to keep the spiral swirl shape, until it’s cool. 🍥
So you decide how you want to roll it up.
Tip: Roll it tight like a sleeping bag as it will tend to spring back some. Even for a spring roll like this one. 💕
So if you just keep in mind that A LOT of action critically happens with a sponge cake roll when it’s piping hot out of the oven, you’ll be golden! (With most other cakes you don’t do anything with it, until it’s cool.)
…So be ready!
And then after cooled, either resting at room temperature or chilling in the fridge, your efforts will be rewarded with a nice swirl if you’re lucky…
The final part is deciding what you want to fill your sponge cake roll in. You can do this in stages, like frosting a cake.
So you don’t have to make all the cake decisions at once if that’s overwhelming, or you don’t have a final sponge cake vision. You can keep decorating for the next day.
I often don’t decide in advance, and change it up as inspired with how I feel when it turns out. Then I decide the enhancing flavors and colors. It’s like naming your baby after he or she is born.
So you can bake the cake (with or without a pattern) and then decide on the filling and final zhugh (toppings) later. And that makes it your own cake personality.
Yessss!… It can be so much more than just cake. It can be filled with a jam or stuffed with whipped cream or ice cream… use your delicious food pairing imagination.
For my healthy tastes, I often like to use a thick Greek yogurt. But here I turned it into a raspberry jelly roll to keep it light. You can even make a chocolate balsamic glaze to go with melted chocolate…
This is a fun sponge texture cake that you can bake quicker than most regular cakes, and add your own pattern and flavors.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Equipment
Silpat or silicone baking mat
Baking pan
kitchen towel (optional)
baking spatula
Ingredients
3largeeggs, separated
1/2cupplain flour
1/2splash of lemon juice, cream of tartar, or white vinegar (for egg whites)
1Tbsporange or lemon zest (optional)
1tspbaking soda
1/8tspsalt (or pinch of salt)
1/4cupjuice (pineapple, lemon, or orange)
1tspvanilla extract
1/3cup granulated sugar
Cake filling (jam or Greek yogurt for healthier version)
Instructions
Separate egg whites from yolks. Tip: it's easier to separate eggs cold and straight from the fridge. Then let them warm to room temperature.
In a bowl, beat egg yolks and add in sugar. Add juice and vanilla.
In the same bowl, mix in flour to make a slightly thick batter.
In a separate mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add in cream of tartar, lemon juice, or white vinegar to help stabilize.
Gently hand fold in fluffy egg whites (a little at a time so it's more evenly mixed in as the yolk batter is thicker).
Spread batter onto a rectangular baking sheet/pan with a silicone mat (Silpat recommended) or baking sprayed parchment paper. Level batter with a spatula or knife.
Bake at 325°F/165°C for 12-15 minutes. Watch closely toward the end/12 minute mark until the edges are baked but not browned.
Immediately or within a few minutes from warm-fresh-out-of-the-oven, peel off cake from the mat or paper. Then roll up in silicone mat (or a towel) into a spiral log. Clip or tie up so it stays rolled tight.
Let cool for 20 or more minutes at room temperature or in the fridge for quicker results.
Then cut off cake roll ends.
Add filling of choice (Greek yogurt for healthy). Plate and enjoy!
Notes
You can use all monk fruit sugar but it will not have the same texture as granulated sugar. Combining both can make a happy medium.
Protein smoothie bowl is dreamy color-enhanced with healthy anti-inflammatory powder supplements like spirulina, that’s also high in protein… and that you can learn more about below. Plus, how to blend in the superfood powder to make a tasty bowl (and not just a healthy one!).
Spirulina if you don’t know, is algae. It sounds like what you and I may have studied in school under a microscope or saw floating in a pond. I saw both in my journey.
Today, it’s no longer controversial in food and as a food ingredient. It’s also no longer a hold-your-nose-to-swallow healthy food that tastes like medicine when you find the right mild one that’s much easier to come across and source online today.
…Because I remember when I tried to source blue spirulina before 2020, and it was not online ready yet. But back then, I did buy green algae spirulina that quickly brought me back to the smells of living next to a pond and walking into a pet store, getting closer toward the fish aquarium sections.
But I blended some of the powder into my green smoothies with a bunch of pineapple to try and sweetly mask the taste.
And then one day I noticed the blue spirulina powder on the market. I had seen the powder in a bowl coming out of a smoothie place years earlier.
I was excited for getting the powder because I knew what aqua bright colors it could make.
…And so I did! And you too can make a breakfast protein smoothie bowl into a mermaid blue…
With the concentrated spirulina powder I had, I added a few drops of healthy plant-based Pandan gel that I discovered had been available for a while. It’s the vanilla extract of the east. And has an earthy taste and dark green color if you’re not familiar.
With the blue powder and green gel combined together, you get a cool blue-green aqua shade. Is it blue or is it green? That’s between your color mix and cones’ perceptions in your eyes.
And whatever the soothing end color, for me this has become a loved yogurt smoothie breakfast morning bowl. It’s also one of my site colors for daily inspiration.
Spirulina Protein Powder
But more than color, spirulina is also more than half protein! Between 57-70 grams in 100 grams that you can add to your grocery healthy protein list.
it’s an alternative for a protein powder if you don’t like whey (that comes from dairy).
Or collagen powders (that come from animals).
Spirulina is plant-based, and has other benefits like it’s a high antioxidant potency for anti-inflammatory health. The blue-green algae colors are filled with chlorophyll, that are especially good for body immunity and detox.
Blue spirulina is great for smoothies or a protein smoothie bowl. It makes for a fun healthy drink or bowl with natural colors.
Blended up with yogurt or milk white as the base medium, you get a lighter shade. It’s really an eat-from-the rainbow drink because white contains all the colors.🌈
But you can also go deep green or deep blue marine blue by blending in blueberries to blue spirulina.
And if you want to go wild purple, you can even make a deep purple color by also blending in strawberries or raspberries. Now that’s one royal bowl. 👑
And if you’re deciding which powder to add based on protein amount, here’s the healthy skinny…
Spirulina vs. Collagen (vs. Whey) Protein
Collagen is animal protein and has about 90 grams of protein per 100 grams, so it’s more than plant-based spirulina. Hydrolyzed collagen is the finer version of collagen.
In case you’re wondering, bone broth has less than 10 grams per 100 grams, since it’s diluted (vs. powder supplement). Collagen is a type of protein found in bone broth.
Fun fact: Even though you hear fitness people talking about and taking whey powder commonly for weight lifting and muscle building, you’d think it came from an animal source. But it’s actually 70-90 grams of protein that comes from dairy (as in separating curds and whey in the cheesemaking process)… and milk is not just for babies.
So the choice is yours… you can add whey, spirulina, or collagen into a protein smoothie bowl if you’re trying to rack up more protein points.
You’d never know in a pretty Tiffany blue bowl that you can dunk a spoon in… maybe even today?
And if you like this dreamy color and healthy idea, you’ll probably like this idea too, to make a healthy blue frosting you can have for breakfast (and feel good about feeding your body)… and/or a berry yogurt smoothie you can make in seconds with a Magic Bullet.
You can also turn a protein smoothie bowl into a drinking smoothie by simply blending in the liquid portion of the yogurt, milk, or other liquids.
