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Category: Low-sugar healthy recipes

Anti-Inflammatory Recipes – Get FREE Guide

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! 🎉

anti-inflammatory recipes.

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.

You can read about my inflammatory journey signs and preventative anti-inflammatory lifestyle ways that dodged flareups.

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 Guide with 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. ↪

Turmeric Soup

Mushy Peas

Healthy Chicken Salad

Salmon Salad (No-Mayonnaise)

Radish Salad

Sourdough Bagel

Healthy Mayonnaise  (Egg yolks)

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!).

Blueberry Muffin – (Low-Sugar) One-Bowl Easy in 30 Minutes

Blueberry muffin is one of my favorite breakfast morning starts. I remember when I was a tween who made blueberry muffins from a box and they were a hit. It’s hard to mess up a mix! Blueberries in a can came in the mix and I remember enjoying draining them as part of the experience.

Blueberry muffin made easy and delicious.

Little did I know that a blueberry muffin is so simple to make with a few ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen pantry! This wild blueberry muffin recipe is a delicious, low-sugar and healthy-ingredient one. I think you’ll go wild over it if you give it a try! 🫐

With flour, milk, and blueberries, you can bake muffins. And below I tell you how to get the most out of what you have in your kitchen or pantry already, and use healthier ingredients than what you find in a mix/box.

Of course… organic wild blueberries are the super star anti-inflammatory healthy ingredient. Frozen blueberries work great and also go well with a blueberry smoothie with peachy cheesecake tastes.

For the muffins, to improve the muffin texture, an egg yolk and rising agent (baking powder and baking soda) with do the trick. A box of baking soda is usually in your fridge already to prevent odors.

Then add in a little lemon juice or vinegar to activate. And if you don’t have those ingredients, you can also add honey. Yes, honey! Or maple syrup that’s in this recipe for sweetness (to go with the blueberry muffin morning theme). How sweet! 💕

And if you don’t have milk available, you can make your own oat milk from oatmeal or nut milk from nuts and even a pecan latte to go with your blueberry muffin in the process. So you don’t have to keep shelf-stable milks in your home anymore. And coconut milk too is an option on the table!

How nuts… that milking (a plant) is so easy with ingredients you may already have at home! 🥛

Oh, and this easy blueberry muffin recipe starting from the time you gather home ingredients, combine, and bake in your oven… all-in, is 30 minutes!

Blueberry muffin that's made in 30 minutes.

Ready for your blueberry morning? You may also like to add a blueberry cobbler (made with applesauce), buckwheat blueberry scone, and/or a blueberry muffin with chocolate chips and Greek yogurt.

Blueberry muffin made easy and delicious.
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Low-Sugar Blueberry Muffin - 30-Minutes and One-Bowl Easy

This is a healthy low-sugar breakfast staple that can be made from wholesome ingredients. This recipe makes 2 muffins.
Course Breakfast, brunch
Cuisine American
Total Time 30 hours
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Equipment

  • muffin or cupcake tin

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup blueberries (organic and wild suggested)
  • 3/4 cup almond flour (or gluten free flour of choice)
  • 6 Tbsp whole wheat flour (or all purpose flour)
  • 1/2 cup milk of choice
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 1 tsp neutral oil (light olive oil or coconut oil)
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp maple syrup (or raw honey)
  • pinch of salt

Instructions

  • Prepare your muffin tin. You can use cupcake holders or use baking spray so they don't stick.
  • Combine the dry and wet ingredients in one bowl. The batter will be wet and thick and pour-spoon-able.
  • Spoon batter into cupcake tin or holders.
  • Bake at 350°F/180°C for 20-25 minutes.
  • Let cool and enjoy!

Cardamom Cookie – Low-Sugar (Cake Soft)

Cardamom cookie is great with melted chocolate vibes. And since these are healthy-ish with cardamom and olive oil, you can make these cake soft cookies anytime.

cardamom cookie trio on a plate.

The chocolate and a hint of vanilla with cardamom make a great combo for a warm festive cooke. They just need a mug and warm beverage to dunk in.

This reminds me of a vanilla wafer soft cookie or the Italian dipped cookies. You can make these S-shaped cookies that look like a G clef symbol or Gruppetto on a music sheet.

It’s classic on a cookie, just like classical music sheets.

…I don’t read music, but I appreciate everything about music when I hear tunes 🎼

Or if you’re into beauty, you can make cookies like unique railing curves in historical homes. They don’t have to be cookie cutter.

And whatever shape you make these, you’ll hopefully get a nice hump rise. And this has become my new favorite cookie (I say that about most yummy cookies in front of me!).

You’ll want to pipe the cookies as the batter will be a little sticky (or elastic). So cookie cutters are not needed. And you can decide if you want make them each unique shape or a specific cookie cutter shape.

And how these are different than most cookies is the cake flour. You want to be sure to not mix too much as you’re not trying to build gluten (like for bread). And that gives the softer bite.

cardamom cookie plate.

And actually if you pipe the batter through a pastry bag with a larger tip, you’ll get a better result. It’s not always about the flour.

The reason they need to be piped and not smeared on a baking tray or through a cookie cutter, is so the air isn’t knocked out of them.

When it’s piped, you get a pouffy cookie.

You can pipe onto a sprayed cookie sheet (or Silpat on baking tray so they don’t stick).

After baked, you’ll see all the piping marks so each cardamom cookie can be unique. And swirly good. 🍥

Happy like a pouffy bubble skirt, and not an A-line one that’s flat to the surface (that can be good for other applications). 👗

That reminds me of my mom who was a dressmaker. She made me a pink bubble skirt that also made me happy. So puffy or pouffy is a good word in my book. And cookies.

And when the baked cookies have cooled down, they don’t deflate.

Then you can dip them in melted chocolate that’s best with a coconut oil method that’s foolproof every time! If you use refined oil, you won’t taste the coconut-y tastes if that’s what you’re after.

I think that’s a myth that people believe that it’ll turn into an easy low-sugar coconut cookie (that’s good for other tasty occasions!).

And the cardamom cookie belong on a holiday table of snacks.

cardamom cookie as a sweet plate for the holidays.

And you can make cardamom tree cookies for a Jenga stack on a plate while you listen to Christmas music.

If you like this, you may like a low-sugar oatmeal cookie, no-bake matcha cookie, low-sugar vanilla cookie.

cardamom cookie trio on a plate.
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Cardamom Cookie Dipped in Chocolate - Low-Sugar

This is a festive low-sugar cake cookie that's easy to make and requires no butter. These will be puffy light and crunchy but soft inside like vanilla wafer cookies, and can be dipped in melted chocolate.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup cake flour
  • 1 tsp monk fruit sweetener
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp light olive oil
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • white vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp cardamom spice

Instructions

  • Mix ingredients. The ingredients should be wipeable and slightly elastic (almost like a choux recipe except *no need* to add the heated stove as another step... yay!). Tip: if your batter is too wet, add back a little flour.
  • Add your batter to a piping bag. Recommend using a large star tip (or sharp jagged tip if you're looking at the tip from the side).
  • Bake at 350°F/165°C for about 20 minutes or until bottom and sides are golden brown (but most the outside of the cookie will stay a light pale color). Don't overbake.
  • After the cookies cool, dip in melted chocolate and add sprinkles before the chocolate sets, if desired. Let set In refrigerator or room temperature. Plate and enjoy!

Coconut Milk – Homemade Delicious from Pantry Ingredient

Coconut milk is delicious when you make it yourself. You can buy it at the store but sometimes you don’t want a whole carton or you don’t have it on hand. And you can make coconut milk from your dry pantry ingredients. See below.

homemade coconut milk from shredded coconut found in a kitchen pantry.

First off, coconut milks can be confusing. And then there’s coconut water. So I’ll break down the main difference below that’ll help you in making coconut milk.

At the grocery store, you find coconut milk in the milk refrigerated section usually on the perimeter inside the store.

And you can also find coconut milk in the canned aisles or international sections, usually for cooking, soups, or baking needs.

Then there’s coconut water, that’s usually found in cartons in the beverage aisles.

The first two kinds of coconut milk are from mature coconuts. It’s from the white flesh parts that you probably are familiar with. 🧉

And coconut water is from young or baby coconuts. You can usually find those in international or Asian grocery stores that look like straw husk wrapped coconuts.

Coconut water is more pure tasting and goes well by itself or in a tropical mango drink.

And this recipe is all about coconut milk that you can easily find ingredients for in your weekly grocery shopping. And it comes from none of the sources above.

Because all you need is shredded or flaked coconut. I discovered this because I’m a baker.

So naturally I like looking at baking ingredients. And as someone who likes coconut flavors, making a coconut smoothie or a coconut fruit cake with coconut flour… making homemade coconut milk from pantry ingredients is right up my alley!

So I’m sharing how I do this with dry, unsweetened coconut, also known as desiccated coconut.  These are the dry coconut flesh shavings.

There’s also sweetened coconut that looks more moist in a bag. It has extra sugar and preservatives, so I recommend using the unsweetened version for the healthier reasons.

To make the coconut water: add half dry coconut shavings (or chips) and fresh water to a cup or bowl. Refrigerate overnight.

Then bring out and blend in a Magic Bullet (or blender_.

Next, pour the coconut and water through a sifter. I have one that I use for loose tea and you probably have one if you look around. You can also use a colander or cheese cloth.

As long as you can pour the water through and sift out the coconut, you can make coconut milk.

And voila! you have a delicious coconut milk with a white color and slightly opaque-sides. It’s really quite pretty like a dove or ghost color. 🕊️

And it tastes coconut pure, like a young coconut’s water.

So that’s where it’s fun because you’re getting a milk hybrid from mature coconut flesh, but the sweet pure tasting vibes of a young flesh (like in coconut water). Best of both worlds  🎉

You can then re-use the wet coconut shavings in your breakfast bowls and other uses. Maybe a coconut smoothie?

 

homemade coconut milk
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Homemade Coconut Milk

You can make bright tasting coconut milk with pantry coconut
Servings 4 ounces
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut shavings
  • 1/2 cup water

Instructions

  • Soak coconut with water over night.
  • Blend coconut and water in Magic Bullet or blender.
  • Set the strainer over a cup. Through the strainer, pour the water and coconut into the cup.

Coconut Chocolate Smoothie – 3 Ingredients Easy

Coconut chocolate smoothie is a refreshing, low-sugar smoothie that tastes like a chocolate bar you drink, but without all the calories. And is anti-inflammatory in the unsweetened ingredients below.

In a smoothie, you get a smooth and satisfying taste of chocolate decadence with a little coconut vibe. 🥥

Coconut milk works best but you can tone down the coco-nutty tastes with other milks or nut milks like almond milk. And you can make your own coconut milk if you don’t have any on hand.

You can also make your own nut milk like almond milk or pecan milk.

It’s like milking your own cow or cashew. 😊

Or you can make dairy-free oat milk that can be as good as store-bought for a substitute, or homemade oat milk in case your power goes out. You make it ahead of storms, then store refrigerate and/or freeze. Frozen, it will stay good for at least a couple hours.

And then for the coconut chocolate smoothie dry ingredients:

You can grind coconut into fine coconut flour. This is from the coconut meat, same as shredded (or desiccated coconut). But much finer ground into flour.

These days, it’s easy to source the gluten-free flour at the grocery store.

And if you’re wondering what to do with the extra coconut flour you have in a bag after you baked with it (like in a gluten-free fruit cake), then a coconut chocolate smoothie is an even better (maybe novel?) idea.🧋

Cacao is the second dry ingredient. It’s a superfood and less processed than cocoa (Dutch processed). They’re related.

I recommend unsweetened cacao as the raw pure tastes come through in the smoothie. If you think cacao is bitter, you can also add a drizzle of raw honey to sweeten.

Both cacao (loaded with healthy catechins) and coconut are anti-inflammatory foods that are good for soothing the skin.

If you have dry skin common in weather climate changes, this smoothie supports healthy skin.

These are the simple ingredients for the magical smoothie with healthy Almond Joy tastes:

1 cup coconut milk

2 tsp cacao powder, unsweetened

1 Tablespoon of coconut flour

Shredded coconut for zhugh topping

This is the smoothie recipe formula I use and is delicious, but I think if you eyeball the ingredients you’ll do just as good. Smoothies are forgiving.😊

That’s something to love about smoothies!

They will turn out delicious even if you don’t exact measure like in baking. Because the individual ingredients are tasty (the parts make up the sum or whole).

And in this Coconut Chocolate Smoothie, coconut and cocoa are the amazing pairing duo. This makes it great for an afternoon chocolate fix or a bright start to the morning.

If also you want to make it a trio (or add some healthy fat), then nut butters would be a good add. You can add 1 teaspoon of your favorite natural nut butter that will thicken the smoothie.

A banana (or half a banana) also is an optional flavor layer that will add the unique banana fruit sweet taste that only the tropical fruit can do.

And if you take fat-soluble vitamins (e.g. Omega-3), this is a good time to consider what healthy fat is in your smoothie?

Is there a nut butter? Is there coconut milk fat? Is there shredded coconut in smoothie (…yes, counts as healthy fat)? Are there seeds? Or did you add avocado 🥑 (…another wildcard add option!)?

These are other options…

Coconut chocolate smoothie healthy fat adds

These are all healthy fat decisions you can make to your healthy and happy (joyful) smoothie.🧋

If the answer is no, you can choose to add a little MCT oil that supports more energy and weight loss. For higher MCT versions, you can look for “coconut” as an ingredient. That’s high in saturated fat, but metabolized quicker for energy.

And if you’re starting your year or season with new friend or healthy groups, this smoothie joy is one that you can sip on while you think of these fun or interesting facts:

Coconuts are not nuts, but look like them with a hard shell like walnuts. They’re fruit, and specifically drupes (stone fruits). And the candy bar Almond Joy was named after the almond nut and coconut where the “nutty” pairing 2-ingredients represent “joy.”

You may have seen “joy” defined in the Bible, where it’s seen over 200 times.

Joy gives us hope, and this is a hopeful drink you make your own.

Almond coconut drink with chocolate.

Add this little bit of full joy and hope smoothie to the smoothie guide challenge! 🌟

Easy coconut chocolate smoothie with 3 ingredients.
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Coconut Chocolate Smoothie - 3 Ingredients Easy

This is a smoothie that has chocolate, almond, and coconut tastes.
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 5 minutes
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 2 tsp 100% cacao powder, unsweetened
  • 1 Tbsp coconut flour
  • 1 Tbsp shredded coconut flakes, unsweetened (plus additional as zhugh on top)
  • 1/2 banana (optional)

Instructions

  • Blend ingredients and enjoy!

Notes

The main ingredient for a magical Almond Joy chocolatey-coconut smoothie beverage, is coconut flour, and  can be gluten-free. If you don't like coconut, then make a chocolate smoothie beverage without the coconut ingredients.