Ayurvedic living Archives - Page 2 of 14 - Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Wheat Crackers For Fall Vata Season

Wheat crackers are so easy to make and a nice fall backdrop to decorate a food table.🍁

It’s a perfect rustic add. And if you’re feeling the pinch of shinkflation, these crackers can certainly help your wallet.

…Or baking any of your own salty cracker snacks (as low-calorie carb choice meal accompaniments).

They’re an easy baking challenge. ⏲️

You game?

…And even easier when you’re already cranking up your oven.

I do this baking move while I’m prepping my 350°F bakes, that are mostly rising cakes and breads… and anything that’s needing dry heat.

To start, I turn the oven on a low 250°F or lower. That also works well on warm days where you can feel the heat in whatever season you’re experiencing. 🔥

And while the oven is warming up, is when I bake the crackers, tortillas, or toast depending on season or mood. It’s a good use of oven energy. ⚡️

And also baking effort… where prepping cracker paste for a sheet of crackers takes seconds.

All you need is an even flour-water mix, and then spread with a little balancing salt on a baking sheet.

That’s it.

…It doesn’t get easier than that for the basics.

But I have some useful tips below with ancient flours that can enhance your wheat crackers, and making-baking experience.

Plus there are so many flour varieties and cracker taste options to consider and get into for your happy wild-free self… maybe Wild Thing or Wheel Pose. Just sayin! 🎡

You can use any ground flour for cracker making which is a great way to clean out your pantry. You can ground your own gluten-free and seed versions. Grounds reminds me of coffee since I make my own cold brew daily. 💭

And like coffee, if you add anything else as ingredients besides your grounds, water, and flavor adds or seasonings to your cracker mix, then you’ve prepped another food… but not crackers.

K.I.S.S. (keep it super simple). 💋

…that means no oil or yeast as tempting as it can be.

The essence of crackers is dry, salty, and flat crunchy. That’s why it’s a good Vata season balancing snack.

Great for anyone in fall season or leaning into their Vata body.

For me, that’s a double score. 🧘🏻‍♀️…maybe you too?

…I didn’t make up these rules 😊

The ancient people were the inventors.

Flat breads still exist as precursors to our modern day crackers.

(See Ezekiel 4:9 in the Bible that mentions several grain flours for baking bread: “But as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt, put them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself…”).

And fast forwarding to today, the flour is still the star ingredient for bread and crackers.

…So, choosing a healthy flour is a smart choice.

Making homemade crackers is a good opportunity to use your healthy gluten-free flours and whole flours like whole wheat.

Whole grains rule because they keeps the entire kernel that has all the nutrients like extra B-vitamins that refined grains do not have.

Refined grains are also deprived of fiber that’s not added back even if the grain is enriched.

Keeping it simple, remember the fine print “whole” as a top ingredient when you’re looking through the shelves deciding which is the healthy good choice, all things being equal.

Whole is also a good intention for all us healthy intentional peeps to eliminate holes in our diet.

Some of the whole goodness comes in gluten flours (yes, gluten!) that can be used to make wheat crackers.

Whole wheat grain flours have more fiber, so if you can eat gluten it’s good to keep some higher quality whole wheat in your diet.

And ancient wheats like Einkorn, spelt, and emmer are good choices.

Einkorn has less gluten than the other two so it makes for a great cracker that doesn’t need proofing.

The proof is in the cracker recipe below. 🧡

…You can add your flavor touches and textures like chia seeds or Everything Bagel spices for crunch and vitamins.

Btw, chia seeds are loaded with some B-vitamins, magnesium, calcium, iron, and other minerals.

Chia vary from poppy seeds even though they look like twins and are both carbs. 👯‍♀️

…And when I hear people say that they don’t eat carbs, that saddens me.

Carbs include veggies AND also healthy grains that don’t wanna be missed. Veggies are usually low calories in case those points are added up.

And next to protein, grains support the body in B-vitamins that we need a lot of to work together.

They also help to lose weight along with fiber. 🎉

So if healthy eating is one of your goals too (and a good one since you’re eating for the rest of your life), building good habits that keep your weight the same or consistent year-round makes sense.

A rainbow variety diet with food as medicine works. 🌈

Yo-yo diets that I grew up around don’t support that.

And eating food like rustic wheat crackers can fill the gaps.

Since fresh baked are not preserved (with preservatives) like the crackers you could buy in grocery stores, they will change texture over time and days.

It’s best to enjoy them the same or next day after baking (and that helps to get us to bake or cook more, if that’s another goal initiative you’re trying to make).

You can leave your baked crackers out for a few more days but they will likely become more dry.

So you could add a little olive oil or keep a moist towel over them.

You can also bag and seal them when they’re still warm out of the oven and that will create some heat-rising condensation in the bag that will help them stay hydrated… a little cracker TLC. 😀

…Wheat is plant-based afterall 🪴

And if they dry out, you can still save and revive them.

You can add a little water back and let them dry out for a few hours and then enjoy again. Then they’re as good as new again!

The wheat cracker taste factor will be the same because remember water is the next inherent star ingredient. ⭐️

How’s that for fall-ing in love with wheat crackers?

Wheat Crackers

Wheat crackers are so easy to make. You can make them and bake with your other bakes.

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

whole wheat flour and einkorn flour
seeds (flax, chia, or sunflower)
salt to taste
water

Instructions

Mix ingredients until you get a paste. Spoon out dough and make about 1/8" thin wit a knife. If you use more flour, you can alternatively roll out into a thin even paste. It will come out the same as a cracker.

Anti-Inflammatory Fall Soups (Rainbow) 🌈

Anti-Inflammatory fall soups are special because they have healthy rainbow plate and bowl goodness that’s good for the palate too. Like this fall color beet soup that can look like weeds growing in a swamp. 🌱

cold beet anti inflammatory fall soups — Beet soup recipe below 🌈

…And the swampier the better for your body! 🌈

Hot or cold is an Ayurvedic choice that in balance can be a balance in weather season and your body balance needs! Our bodies wisely know what bowl would be better for each of us. 🥣

If we listened to our body… like the way we listened to our mothers, then we help ourselves out.

But the body is usually more subtle in its approval process… showing up in deeper satisfied feelings and as your healthy body without daily symptoms.

And in Ayurvedic terms, eating hot or cold makes a difference in healthy balancing your body.

Homeostasis (balance) means healthy. And the other good “H” word: happy.

A happy body is a happy mind.

And a happy body-mind is a happy self.

Getting to this place is often from choices we make in lifestyle, environment, and work choices.

…I know this well working in buttery situations, with kitchens that used a lot of butter earlier on in my hospitality food career.

…That was the foundation I started with that helped teach me the better ways… similar to butter smeared on a cake pan to prevent sticking.

Those were my hotel days that gradually turned into Mediterranean food restaurant days where the ingredients grew more healthy over the years…

And cold soups first found a place in my culinary world when I tasted cold Gazpacho soup.

I was planning parties for a Washington DC metro Spanish restaurant chain then.

And after that a similar bowl scene in an Italian Capitol Hill restaurant that taught cooking classes.

I was warmed up to the cold soup idea by the time I got to a Lebanese restaurant chain where recommending food menus, promoting food, and tasting was my job.

Someone has to do the hard, dirty work 😋

I learned a thing or two in those years working with the talented culinary staff and foodie guests.

I looked forward to the seasonal menus like most of us do celebrating in-season and farmers market ingredients like watermelon 🍉 in summer… and pomegranates and pumpkin in fall. 🎃

And in my lessons, I learned no matter what temps are going on outside, you can make anti-inflammatory fall soups year-round.

Like a cold beet soup (recipe below 💗). You can’t beat that…

And especially with anti-inflammatory whole food pairings that taste like heaven on earth in the mouth.

…That’s what I lived and breathed planning event menus and food tastings for thousands of catered hotel and restaurant events before I embraced how healthy the ingredients are.

And a nice bowl of soup was part of that healthy immersive experience.

These are 7 soup-er bowls birthed from that healthy spirit.

Pumpkin and Cranberry Soup

I brewed and added seasonal Bigelow Cranberry Harvest tea that will add a crisp acidic, sweet bitter taste with apple bits, hibiscus rose hips, and licorice root. That gives a grown-up sophisticated taste vibe in the mouth.

And you can add whole cranberry juice, plus tomatoes and carrots for balancing anti-inflammatory food pairings.

I used purple carrots here that have anti-inflammatory anthocyanin polyphenols (that are also in dark color berries). Each color has special healthy effects. 🌈

Cook carrot variety of choice (or regular carrots 🥕) until soft. Add a dash of fresh ginger to pair the taste. If you’re not sure if you like ginger, you can use ginger spice to keep it subtle or leave out.

Creamy Tomato Soup

And for a more traditional taste like tomato and grilled cheese with a restaurant-like twist, you can heat up a creamy tomato bowl 🍅 adding in a creamy cheese like Camembert or Brie to get a delicious pairing. You can skip the rind or leave in.

Movin’ on to other anti-inflammatory fall soups that bring a comfort smile… 😋

Chunky Sweet Potato

Cook your sweet potatoes in water, mash, and add to a bowl.

For hot and cold balanced spices, my favorites are trio medleys like: black pepper, turmeric, and coriander.

Or for an Ayurvedic heat-cooling duo, you can use black pepper and cumin.

This is good anytime if you’re leaning into your Vata or Kapha where you’re feeling a cold body internally regardless of the weather outside.

And since both doshas (Vata/Kapha) natually run cold, I’d recommend a warm soup like this one…

Warm Mushroom Soup

Mushroom soup is always my favorite. You can turn into a porridge with warmed oats.

And you can make your own creamy mushroom soup with two simple ingredients: mushrooms and creamy cheese.

You can even use milk or yogurt if you don’t have cheese on hand.

The creamy soups were my favorite growing up… and Cream of Mushroom was high on the list.

The way I like to do it is with the double boiler method where you heat the mushrooms slowly in the inside bowl, so they don’t get as mushy like on a sautee pan.

And you can use the natural mushroom juices to flavor the soup. You can also add a little sherry like they do in restaurants if you like. But this is where I leave the heavy cream in the restaurants. 😀

And near the end of heating up cooking, add the cheese like a creamy Camembert or Brie and let it melt to your liking. Camembert has B12, calcium, and proteins.

If you mix up your cheeses, then you get different healthy benefits. 🧀 And the gourmet creamy cheeses are healthier than regular store cream cheese or Boursin (Gournay cheese) that’s the restaurant equivalent.

If you don’t like any floating cheese that doesn’t melt in your soup, you can simply sift out those pieces. I personally like kitchen sink (everything) in my soup, leaving the cheese rind (mold) and all the natural, herby, and bitter tastes.

But that’s a preference you have a choice in if you make your own soups.

To finish off, I add a dash of white pepper from a mill to lean into the umami mushroom-y taste. 🍄‍🟫

Add a few drops of balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire sauce and then I’m in Cream of Mushroom heaven.

Staying on the warming trend, this is another easy one that’s so good for you…

Warm Potato Soup

Potato soup was the first soup I made from scratch and a good beginner soup you may have already discovered.

Earlier on I did like most… I bought my soups.

Then in 2020, like many I started making my own soups regularly. That’s when I made my first easy potato soup.

Btw, making soups is easier than making a salad ’cause there’s one star ingredient… potatoes. 🥔

That’s one sac of usually 5-lb bag of potatoes. You can add that as points to your fitness shopping routine that counts! 🎉

And then you don’t have to make extra effort to buy cans that take up space in your pantry and are usually loaded with sodium in case you’re on a DASH or MIND Diet.

Those diets btw have anti-inflammatory sentiments in mind.

Lentil Soup

And one more soup you should add to your list of anti-inflammatory fall soups is lentil soup. It’s pennies to make.

Plus, you can cook lentils faster than potatoes… like 35 minutes on a medium heat stove in case you want to have a good day start like the running hare 🐇 and not the slow turtle. 🐢

You can add coconut milk as a tasty pairing twist. And if you don’t have milk on hand, you can also use coconut flour for a curry lentil soup. Balancing spices to add: curry, turmeric, black pepper, ginger.

And finally without further ado… beet soup 🥣

You can make some easy rustic comfort wheat crackers to go with your fall soups.

Cold Beet Cauliflower Soup (Rainbow)

Course Appetizer, Soup

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

beets
cauliflowers, cooked
tricolor carrots (purple, yellow, and orange carrots)
cherry tomatoes
microgreen (arugula or alfalfa sprouts)
crumbled goat cheese
cumin
salt and pepper
lemon pepper (optional)

Instructions

Cook carrots, beets, and cauliflower until soft. Let cool and add to a blender if serving cold soup.
Add blended ingredients to a bowl and garnish with the cheese, other veggies, tomatoes, and spices.

Mango Lassi Smoothie Spiced Drink

Mango lassi was a drink I discovered working for a Lebanese restaurant chain planning parties where they sold lassi drinks in a market.

…And this inspired drink is a cross between a yogurt drink and a smoothie great for breakfast starters that you can make! 🥤

mango lassi smoothie. — Mango lassi smoothie with Ayurvedic spices. 🥭

While lassi was a new drink for me at the time, it’s known as “the original smoothie.” It has been around for centuries in the Eastern hemisphere.

Whether it’s new to your senses or not, it’s an Ayurvedic beverage that can balance your senses.

What makes mango lassi different than other fruit smoothies is the Ayurvedic balancing spices… like the 3 C’s.

Traditionally, cumin, cayenne, and cinnamon are balancing for Pitta, Kapha, and Vata.

…But not all combined together as fire, wind, and earth is one big storm!

You can make your own special blend that’s good for your body and the season you’re in.

This lassi recipe is geared toward balancing Vata, so it’s a sweeter smoothie and the spice choices reflect that. 🧡

You can save the cayenne and cumin for cooler and warmer days, and for Pitta and Kapha drinks.

Or adjust the subtle spice blend to your today’s balancing tastes.

One taste that stays the same in any mango lassi is the tangy flavor coming from the yogurt ingredient.

Plus, to lean into the tart taste, a unique new ingredient added here is tamarind that’s one sour fruit… like think 5x lemons. 🍋

Wheww… and it’s good that sour is another balancing Vata taste where sweet and sour balance each other.

You can purchase tamarind in a paste form and it will last longer. With the sticky paste form, you can cut and smooth out the paste with a knife, or pull out small sticky pieces that’ll give you sticky fingers.

It’s a deep maroon crimson color in case you’re looking for the ingredient and don’t know what to look for.

…Or you can use the tamarind spice or powder versions that won’t be as potent-concentrated, but will still change your drink experience to a new one you may not have had before.

You can even douse on your sweet mango.

With any extra mango, you can opt to make mango juice which is one of my faves. Single mangoes can be easy to find in grocery stores and inexpensive compared to other fruits like oranges that usually come in a bigger bag.

And if you’re comparing healthy fruit juices, mangoes in mango juice vs. orange juice is higher in beta-carotene and still high in Vitamin C. So it’s a good and healthy alternative. 🥭

For healthy inspiration and other delicious anti-inflammatory smoothie recipes 🌈 , get the free 7-day Healthy Smoothie Recipe Guide while it’s available.

Mango Lassi Smoothie

A balancing morning yogurt drink with tangy, fruity, and sweet spice flavors.. a new old twist on a smoothie.

Course Breakfast, brunch

Cuisine Indian, middle eastern

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1/2 cup Greek yogurt,
1/3 cup mango, cut
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
water
3 tbsp tamarind, paste into small pieces

Instructions

Pour the liquid part of the yogurt container into your blender tool. The liquid will sink to the lowest yogurt level. Add semi-solid yogurt and water to consistency. Blend with mango chunks, tamarind, and spices.

Start Here 🎯

Wellness🌱 and Food Blog Posts

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…

Dolphin Pose Yoga + Water Animal Flexibility

Dolphin pose yoga is a common pose like Downward Dog. Both animals are enticing to pet and add joy to our celebration of life.

Dolphin pose yoga is named after a cute dolphin like this guy.

But if you can’t get your hands on petting a dolphin, today is National Strawberry Parfait Day.

You can celebrate a simple moment of joy with a summertime strawberry lemon parfait you can make that’s healthy and 100% delicious!

…You can also get in your Dolphin pose right where you are! 🐬

For inspiration, dolphins are one of the friendliest animals to us out there… and we think of them as our happy, summer ocean friends we can pet.

…Next to our dog land friends. And maybe that’s why the yoga Dolphin pose is similar to Downward Dog… and both poses are done on dry land.

In Dolphin pose yoga moves, instead of your arms fully stretched out, your elbows bend while your forearms and palms are laying flat like pancakes on the mat.

Because of this, your nose in awareness is also a lot closer to the mat.

…Like dolphin beaks called rostroms that are in placement where noses usually are on mammals.

This gives dolphins their appearance that they’re smiling and then when they show their pearly whites, we smile… and maybe that’s partially how they charmed their way to Hollywood as celebrities in Dolphin Tale with Florida home perks. 😉

But back to noses, dolphins have blow holes at the top of their heads where air is connected to their lungs.

This is where they breathe like us (and not like fish with gills)… and we can remember them in our daily Ayurvedic yoga breathing.

On the mat (…maybe you’re there now?), our Dolphin pose yoga fins and palms are also flat on the mat for good yoga form.

You get a good stretch in your entire body from head-to-toe in Dolphin pose yoga moves.

What you may notice that’s different is your body formation.

Your top half of your body may not be the same length as your bottom half.

If you have long legs and a shorter torso, then you won’t be as high peaked.

Your upside down “V” in the air will look different if that’s your body description. So you get to play around (or splash around 💦) in your Dolphin pose.

…You’ll be more like a hill than a mountain by design.

And that helps you to embrace your unique body and special creature that you are!

…You look more like a dolphin swimming instead of jumping hoops in dolphin show formation. 😁

Like us, dolphins are social and intelligent creatures with abilities.

To get more of their vibe, you can swim with a dolphin and not be afraid that you’ll be thrown.

Well, I take that back…

Once upon a time I swam with dolphins… or a better description is I was thrown from a dolphin’s beak landing into a pool of water.

That was a dolphin ride! Even though in the beginning I wasn’t sure what to expect 🤔

But I did know dolphins are happy and friendly creatures, so I knew we’d get along great in the end. And we did that day.

So all was good…

And I got my Vata anti-worry and cool and simple Pitta balancing self-therapy day in.

In that spirit, you can try these other water animal yoga poses that help with flexibility, and you can do on dry land without a splash.

Water Animal Poses

You can use Dolphin pose as a transition break pose before ending in Fish Pose (that’s an opposite position pose on your back), reminding us that dolphins aren’t fish.

And if you’re starting in Dolphin, you can then transition into a Turtle Pose, turning and facing sideways on the mat.

This way you can use the length of the mat and get a new perspective of your surroundings.

💡This is a good metaphor in life to change your perspectives for good outcomes.

Turtle Pose is especially good for shoulder streching and tight hamstrings where you’ll feel a good stretch in those parts.

In the pose, your shoulders are a bit hunched over forward to give that turtle back look. 🐢

Turtle is a low to the ground pose where you’re seated and legs are ideally in “V” formation laying flat on the mat, or with slightly bent knees until you get more flexible.

Yoga is a journey.

Then you span your wings (that were fins in Dolphin pose) as far from one end to the other underneath your legs.

Maybe you bend forward with body closer to the mat if you can.

You can challenge yourself daily to bend forward as much as you can in the pose, and then build up your flexibility with knees straightening and legs flattening down toward the mat.

Then after you’ve spent enough time as a turtle, you can turn into a frog.

…Which btw, turtles are reptiles and frogs are amphibians even though they both live on land and water.

And in your land-water abilities, still optimizing the length of the mat, you can flow your legs that were positioned forward in a “V” previously… and move them behind you like frog legs.

Your arms can rest on the mat and floor in front of you.

Frog Pose is exceptional for inner hip and thigh flexibility.

🎉Between turtle and frog, you’re getting full upper leg stretches. Your legs are in the largest muscle group in the body.

You optimize your legs in Frog pose that looks just like the yoga pose name, so it’s easy to remember and get into the position.

If you’re a swimmer and know frog swimming strokes, then you’ll be a natural. 🐸

This is a good pose to challenge yourself and see how low you can go eventually, but if you can’t get there just yet (and still feeling a bit like a turtle), blocks are good to rest your forearms on.

For any yoga pose, don’t hurt yourself by overdoing it the first go-round.

Let yourself open up slowly like a lotus 🪷 and that way you protect your joints and tissues from injury.

💡It’s better to start up high and easy and then work your challenging way down, down, and more down to the mat over time.

In a good way, yoga can take you out of your regular norm and reset your mind because usually going down references in your day are easier than getting up and going.

You can pause and think about that one in the pose. And the longer you spend in the pose, the better! 😊

If you spend 5 seconds in a pose, that counts for total time. If you spend 30 seconds in one pose, that’s 6 times the amount for total time.

Not that you’re playing a game of keeping score, but the point is the longer you spend, the greater the daily benefit… and for next time.

Yoga flexibility is all about gradually stretching further each time.

The longer you hold the pose, the more flexible you become in your body’s abilities.

So don’t expect it to happen the first time.

And if you take a break or a season off from yoga, you’ll start over in flexibility. BUT, the your body cells don’t forget so you’ll likely get there quicker than the first time you tried.

Like dolphins that have good memories, body cells also have good memory.

And like the turtle fable metaphor, slow and steady wins the race.

If you’re naturally super flexible, you can rest your forehead on the back of your hands in front of you for both poses.

Then to round out your water poses, you can finish by going into a seated position and laying back into Fish pose. You can do a Dolphin pose yoga move before your transition if you like.

Fish Pose is a great stretch for your neck.

You lay back with your elbows resting on your mat behind your shoulders like you’re catching some rays. ☀️

Then you let your neck rest backward behind you.

Your neck could be wound up as we spend most of our day with our heads and necks leaning forward especially if we work most our day on a device.

So a counteracting reverse pose like Fish Pose helps our neck unwind.

Before you try it full on without prep, it’s good to stretch your neck looking up first to get it more ready and flexible.

Our necks are delicate because they have such small muscles that also have to hold up our heads that weigh like bowling balls.

Like other areas of injury, necks can take weeks to fully heal so be gentle the first few times.

For precaution, a good pre-stretch for the stretch can be practicing looking up toward the ceiling at least 15 seconds several times a day.

I micro-habit stack this move while I’m filling up the filtered water pitcher that takes about that amount of time.

You can also do head circular motions wherever you are and turn your neck from side to side. Those are good if you spend a lot of time car seated.

Hope this keeps you encouraged in your yoga moves and instruction. Stay cool! 😎