Healthy Foods Archives - Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Vegetable Soup – Low-Sodium Healthy

Vegetable soup is one of the healthiest and tastiest soups when done right. And low-sodium homemade healthy.

…That’s easier than doing it not-right, because you can’t really mess up this easy-to-make simple soup.

Especially when you use fresh veggies that stand on their own. You can find unusual varieties from your local farmers markets and grocery stores.

Variety is the spice of life and this bowl of spice has plenty. Recipe below.

This Ayurvedic balancing soul food soup recipe is all veggies and great for Vata (fall) season. 🥣

It has no tomatoes (that’s a fruit and maybe doesn’t belong that way?).

The healthy goodness ingredients are good for any diet you’re on (plant-based, anti-inflammatory, Mediterranean, all-of-the-above)… and even a balancing Ayurvedic one.

Plus, this no-tomato variety vegetable soup is even more exciting to look at than an ordinary tomato-based soup.

And then another plus on top of that… if acidity prevents you from eating tomatoes, then this umami soup base recipe will be a good substitute.

It’s like a change in autumn leaves color in a bowl. 🍁

So you can think of it like a no-tomato, heartburn-resistant minestrone soup full of welcomed warm comfort surprises.

That also includes no carrots or celery found in other common soups.

Save those good ingredients for homemade low sodium soups like immunity carrot ginger soup or a cream of celery. Or anti-inflammatory eat-from-the-rainbow soups.

…Believe me, I used to buy all my soups before I learned how easy it is to make my own healthy (soups).

…Sometimes it’s as much or little effort as heating up a canned soup, like the vegetable soup here.

It’s also fun to add in your own little of this… and a little of that.

You build a warm relationship with food in a healthy way.

…Oh, and wait ’til you hear what warming and cooling spices (below) are in this soup that’s great for transitions and weather changes.

I get excited over the simplest things, like spices that are year-round adds 🎉for me. And changing it up as Ayurvedic seasons change.

…That’s something I look forward to plus a bowl of soup in the fall that I like to make bottomless by adding new veggies like a growing soup garden.

But I slowly digress.

…And speeding it up – are you ready to make this comforting soup-ed up souper soup (sorry, couldn’t resist 😁) that can enjoyably last as long as you can before spoon scooping it up?

This fresh vegetable soup has a umami flavor with spices, so that the star ingredients are the veggies and the spices that support them.

Adding more plant-based veggies to a diet is always a good thing and when you can make it super tasty with simple flavors and spices like turmeric, pepper, thyme, and paprika. And even a little cayenne pepper heat.

…Depending on your season. And you!

Or add white pepper that’s not hot, but has an adult umami-forward flavor. And turmeric is perfect for a smoky touch in a warm bowl like this.

Spices are a great way to balance daily Ayurvedic moods and preferences that your body naturally gravitate towards. And as holiday spice accoutrements.

Spices can be the new low-sodium substitute (from salt).

And if spices were punctuations…

Cayenne pepper is the exclamation point ❗️of spices. Where a sprinkle of heat sneaks up on you at the end.

If you’re not ready for heat or are Kapha balanced, you can put a comma pause on it. 😁

And you can add dashes of cumin for Pitta if that’s still spilling over from summer heat in your body.

If you add cayenne and cumin equally, they’ll help to cancel each other out as heat in your body even though you’ll get the cayenne heat in taste.

And turmeric will change everything. It’s a great year round spice add, period.

Now you have a smoky and herby blend great for fall outdoor tastes.

I also love to add a little sumac (that’s found in za’atar). The dramatic purplish color blends in well and contrasts with the warm orange and yellows. It gives a little subtle tart taste.

You’ll know whether to add the spice if you give it an EASY sniff the spice test. If it smells good, it will BE good in your vegetable soup.

I’m never shy experimenting with spices and I use taste and sniff preferences as my Ayurvedic balance guide.

And with that, then I add the soup base.

Water is underrated (like, “it’s just water”) as an ingredient, but often the most important ingredient for soups.

Which btw, the no-cost pure ingredient solves a lot of cooking and baking dilemmas that other ingredients can’t.

You can make a vegetable broth with a little umami flavor that soy sauce adds.

You can also sub the sauce with Worcestershire sauce that has several subtle tastes for the taste buds.

And that’s it for the broth. The spices will also bring out the broth.

Now it’s time to meet the star veggies. 😊

Before cooked, look at the gold beet ⭐️, red beet 🫜, watermelon radish 🍉, and red cabbage. This could be a band.

And these colors can’t be BEET!

Then when cooked with okra in a vegetable soup, they become the burnt autumn leaf colors. Oh, and there’s a violet tucked amid the bowl from a purple bell pepper that snuck in there.

Anti-Inflammatory Vegetables For Soup:

Okra is an anti-inflammatory food that you often find in southern dishes and soups like gumbo. It is sometimes used as a thickening agent… so now you can look at its somewhat slimy personality as a plus.

It’s also filled with healthy antioxidant seed pods that add pearly contrast to a bowl.

An easy way to cook okra is to cut the long veggie into smaller pieces like you see in frozen bags (with the round flower shapes). Okra is actually related to the hibiscus flower. 🌺

It also belongs to the same family as cotton. And cacao too.

Beets – classic red beets are earthy that go well with umami flavors. Gold beets taste pure to me and you gotta love the warmish color glow. 🌅

Radishes – watermelon radishes are so pretty like ‘lil pieces of artwork in a soup bowl. They’re also less bitter than classic radishes.

Red cabbage is loaded with polyphenols from the purplish color. They have more of a bitter taste and is a hearty vegetable.

After you choose your veggies, add your longevity beans like pinto beans. Or kidney beans for a minestrone vibe… and then you’ve got one anti-inflammatory preventative health forward bowl.

It’s that simple for bringing in more plant-base in your soup bowl.

You can also make your own no-soggy za’atar cracker for your soup that’s 3 ingredients if you include water (that ya know I do).

And to make fluffy rice flawlessly from dry grains, it’s easy and you can walk away from the stove when you use the double boiler method.

Healthy Fall Vegetable Soup (Low Sodium)

Ingredients

okra, cut
watermelon radishes, sliced
beets, sliced
pinto beans (or kidney beans)
cooked rice (optional)
water
soy sauce
spices

Instructions

Cook veggies, spices, and liquids in a pot. Let simmer but don't overcook veggies.
Cook rice separately. Add if desired.
Pour in a bowl and enjoy.

Notes

Tip: Add your spices in the heating soup to enhance the flavors and unleash the spice healthy benefits.

Low FODMAP Diet Restores Bloating

Low FODMAP diet is one food map you can follow when you have bloating symptoms… that anyone can feel from time-to-time caused by disagreeable food choices.

…That’s just a part of living and trying new foods.

When that happens, restoring the gut with a list of researched, healthy, and selective food choices that will soothe the tummy is the fastest and least painful cure with tummy discomfort.

It’s easy to do when you know what to do.

And choosing a low FODMAP diet (at least temporarily) is the easy way.

…It’s like reigning in Nature’s medicinal foods, where Nature is a 3rd party talking some sense into your gut.. so you can bounce back to less restrictive eating and get back to regular food celebration.

…Where baby foods and water aren’t the only items on the menu.

A Low FODMAP diet can also be a digestive reset, supporting a healthy eating lifestyle. The foods are mostly all plant-based and anti-inflammatory. 🌱

So you can think of a low FODMAP diet as a food map to optimize healthy eating. And lower gut acidity that can show up as heartburn, upper GI inflammation, or lower bloating abdominal discomfort.

Many of our American or Western world diet foods are high acidic and can tip the cause to a condition called GERD… that I can attest to feels like amped up heartburn.

…So it’s good to keep a handy list of Low FODMAP foods that won’t 🌱 exacerbate stomach acidity, so that you can fully enjoy your preferred daily foods and beverages.

Where it gets tricky is that some foods can fall into higher or lower FODMAP categories.

Coffee is one such example. It’s a Low FODMAP healthy ingredient. But the way it’s prepared (like as a regular hot brewed coffee) makes it more acidic.

That’s why on that note, daily home cold brew coffee is my safe choice so I don’t have to give up the healthy caffeine starter. Cold brew is easy to make and an easy tweak. But I still cushion with food like a banana. 🍌

Another example is nuts where walnuts and peanuts can be okay… that is, assuming you can even eat nuts.

But then other types of nuts like cashews and almonds that you and I can cross off the list as they can be digestive havocs… it’s nut. 🤪 and there’s no rhyme or reason or easy way to remember (other than with a handy list).

That doesn’t even factor how the foods react individually with us.

But you can see how complex it can get in our busy world food choices.

Food is not black-and-white to our guts.

With any food, we can feel poked and burdened with the weight of lead after it goes down.

So bypassing questionable how-it-will-go-down ingredients, you can go straight to the unquestionable and safe… simple to digest foods..

…Early on, we relied on the B.R.A.T. diet that was bananas, rice, apples and toast. It was easy to remember and you didn’t have to break out a list.

It was so short and easy to remember that I also added yogurt on my stomach-friendly list when I was a young brat. 🧒🏻

Yogurt has probiotics and protein. It’s relatively inexpensive food medicine.

And finding the lowest sugar yogurt option optimizes the good bacteria count.

And the B.R.A.T.Y. (I added the “y”) simple digestive diet still works.

But these days… NOT ALL SO SIMPLE.

…With all the tempting choices around us.

So a personal Low FODMAP list that works for your palate and body is good to compile, so you can reach for the safe decisions made when needed. You can even set the list in your pantry cupboard for your emergency convenience.

I have a label on my Five-Spice.

That way you’re not confused or anxious when emergency calls… and especially with all the conflicting information out there of what may or may not help your bloating or digestive symptoms.

…Like ACV mixed with water.

In my world, it works.

It signals to the stomach to stop producing acid that it does.

Our bodies are all about being counterintuitive mystery curve balls where the best proof is our baby steps and trial-and-error.

That’s how we learn anything specific in our lives.

We test the apples.

And apple fruit is another one that is low FODMAP questionable depending on the apple type (for us apples).

Apples are on the B.R.A.T. diet from a simpler world time.

And you may find you do better with unsweetened applesauce as I learned with my stomach.

What works for one person may not for you.

Just don’t be afraid to try foods for variety.

Most guts aren’t happy on an empty stomach and delays our healthy restoration.

Our guts are forgiving if we’re biodiverse trying… otherwise none of us would be still be on the planet.

It comes from a similar diversifying principle of not putting all your eggs in one basket.

Eggs, btw, are generally ok too. 🥚

And even if we make a one-time food mistake, we can cushion with foods and ingredients that are generally safe on a low FODMAP list:

-bell peppers and most veggies

-avocado

-many fruits (and believe it or not… green bananas are lower FODMAP than soft, ripe ones).

-Yogurt (low-sugar Greek yogurt)

-quinoa, oatmeal, cooked soft rice

Amaranth is one grain I discovered to be super gut-friendly. It has a Cream of Wheat bowl texture… but is gluten-free.

If you’re a sourdough or bread making person, for Low FODMAP you can even add amaranth to your whole grain roll or bread loaf.

And, some other Low FODMAP list adds:

-herbs/spices: fennel (in Five Spice powder), anise, peppermint

-teas: green, black, and some herbal teas (chamomile, chicory root, peppermint).

Peppermint tea is something I always keep in my “food-as-medicine” cabinet. It does wonders for stomaches and other body aches like headaches.

And instead of reaching for candy or sugar sweets, you can chew on an anise star or make a low-sugar applesauce blueberry cobbler.

Use fruit and maple syrup for sweeteners.

Those can be okay if you’re experiencing high acidity where a GERD grocery list is also a good idea next time you’re in the store.

Healthy Mediterranean Foods – inspired by restaurant notes

Healthy Mediterranean foods is my world and a healthy diet way as in what you eat.

Off and on my hospitality career, I worked behind-the-scenes in food catering planning and event management for Spanish, Italian, and Lebanese restaurants and fine hotels in the Washington, DC area… a foodie hub.

During that time, I picked up many great healthy Mediterranean foods inspirations and also visited Italy and Spain.

Some of my fondest food event memories were the large corporate and bridal events that started out in my hotel days and then in restaurants.

And where I could be table setting pops of color with the festive food dishes. …I know where my today-brunch table roots came from.

In alignment, I was also co-hosting brunches in some of the foodie-st restaurants near the ones I represented and worked in… like Jose Andres’ fun DC restaurants and many American farm-t0-table ones that stand out.

From all those experiences, I learned to create balanced menus for preferred and customized tastes around specific seasons, daily occasions, and special events.

I got to make input and taste-test delicious foods, recipes, and dishes. With the Spanish, Italian, and Lebanese chefs, I was thankful they were much easier to work with than the ones that came from Ritz Carlton type-hotels (that give chefs their edge and what-you’d-expect in a chef fiery reputation 😊).

Today, the Spanish and Italian chefs stick out for me.

…Which btw, Spanish and Italian cuisines are having a moment (yes?) with Stanley Tucci’s Tucci in Italy and Eva Longoria’s Searching for Spain.

Have you seen?

They’re great for sparking food travel. If only you and I had smell-o-vision… 💭

But without, those countries had some of my favorite inspired healthy Mediterranean food dishes that can be prepared and made at home.

For starters, these are 3 healthy Mediterranean recipes soups and salads that also help to balance Vata and especially tame Pitta imbalances that are common in hot months.

One of my favorite plates was the fresh watermelon feta salad that many people love around the world.

Salt and watermelon are great pairings because the coarse salt stops the juicy in watermelon and gives a nice balance.

Salt added here is a lot like when you add a coriander seed and you bite into one and you get a strong burst of favorable flavor.

And when you add mint, you get a super-refreshing salad. Cooling mint added to juicy-ripe summer watermelon with salt and then finished off with a drizzle of balanced olive oil is a balanced salad or dessert. 🍉

Watermelon Mint Salad

Course Salad

Cuisine American, Mediterranean

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

fresh watermelon cut
olive oil
fresh mint
coarse sea salt
goat cheese crumbles (optional)

Instructions

Drizzle olive oil over watermelon
Add coarse sea salt
Generously add mint to watermelon

Feta cheese is often added but I prefer a sweeter goat cheese crumble that’s less salty. That way you get an overall sweet taste. Or you can add a dollop of Greek yogurt that’s more creamy like an Icelandic yogurt.

You could serve with lightly toasted pita chips where you can also make your own easy pita bread chips.

Spanish food dishes:

Planning parties and marketing at a Spanish restaurant chain called La Tasca allowed me to experiment with many Spanish food tastes and healthy Mediterranean foods.

The menu was full of variety… and never-ending like a Cheesecake Factory menu.

And in the Spanish restaurant version, one of my faves was a seasonal freshly-prepared gazpacho soup that traditionally is served cold and without tomato overpowering as the base.

But I like the sweetness of tomatoes that are abundant in hot temps when you want a cold soup.

So for this gazpacho, the blend I like is: blended watermelon (or cucumber if watermelon isn’t available), fresh diced tomato, cumin (that’s also cooling), and a drizzle of olive oil and garlic.

There’s enough water in watermelon to make a soup.

Minced pimiento sweet peppers are also great to add. They’re anti-inflammatory healthy and the bright fire engine red is striking. 🌶️

No heat in this gazpacho!

Then I like to add balancing fresh cilantro and salt & pepper.

…I remember ingredients used to always end with “salt and pepper to taste” and somehow that got dropped, maybe ‘cause of all the other great ingredients that we have access to.

I think S&P still are the two that often are the final balancing flavors if you can’t quite put your finger on what’s missing. 🧂

Coarser kosher or sea salts are star ingredients for certain healthy dishes, like a gazpacho, Brussels sprouts, edamame, watermelon salad, and pasta water.

Btw, Brussels sprouts are actually named after Belgium’s capital, Brussels. So that’s how you can also remember.

Food is simple in that the name often gives its origin away, but is complex because you don’t know what’s inside until you’ve had a taste.

And a gazpacho is one taste you can’t forget and named after “soaked bread” from Andalusia… I love how that region name (An-da-loo-see-ah) just rolls off the tongue like interesting music notes.

Traditionally, a gazpacho is served with a spongy white, unsalted bread that doesn’t have much taste (like Wonder Bread you would feed the ducks with at a lake 😊).

…This also reminds me of the bread served at Tuscan meals and with my favorite Ribollita soup served warm and great for wet and cool days (in early spring, late fall, or winter)… or if you’re feeling a bit over-Vata and need some comforting balance food.

You can also try a gazpacho inside a bread bowl.

Italian food dishes:

I started working in restaurants in my teens. The first one with servers was an upscale all-marble floor Italian restaurant chain. There I got in the habit of dipping bread in olive oil with cracked black pepper.

This was before that was common to do in restaurants.

The bread was served by a server who came around with black pepper mills who asked if you wanted to have fresh black pepper in your dipping olive oil and on your entree when it was served.

Serving butter with bread before and during the meal was still the American restaurant norm those days. Not olive oil.

The restaurant I worked in also had the first cappuccino machines in America (…those were exciting times!).

I wasn’t a coffee drinker then but I thought the machine was so cool and I was happy to make the drink!

Funny how these little Mediterranean healthy foods and drink (olive oil and cappuccino) intros stuck… many American restaurants customarily serve bread with olive oil because of these Mediterranean-influenced restaurants.

And we know what happened with cappuccinos as they’re everywhere.

And it was that restaurant experience where I also came to love this salad plate 🥗 (and you may too!):

Tomato Mozzarella Basil Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette. It’s a work of food art with balsamic vinaigrette dotted around the plate for each bite (like a paint palette… “a little dab will do you.”).

In summer, tomatoes on the vine are abundant and if you grow tomatoes, you may not know what to do with all of them.

Besides making a pasta sauce or gazpacho, a shrimp cocktail sauce is an idea. And salads of course!

Plum or Roma tomatoes are great for most salad recipes. They don’t squirt everywhere and they have a strong taste, unlike tomatoes for burgers.

San Marzano tomatoes were common in Italian restaurants and are now the rage in home cooking…

And so are heirloom tomatoes (organic). The tri-color yellow, purple, with orange give a visual pop of color too!

Also green tomatoes that aren’t as common anymore.

And for a tomato mozzarella salad, all tomatoes will work.

Then ontop of the tomatoes, add some sliced buffalo mozzarella cheese that’s the star of this recipe.

Buffalo mozzarella (white color) on its own doesn’t have much of a flavor, but paired with these ingredients… is scrumptious and anything but mild.

Sometimes people who have dairy sensitivities can eat this kind of cheese from buffalo.

Ontop the cheese, don’t forget the fresh basil and it’ll look like an Italian flag.

And for the zhugh? Pine nuts were popular and people who have tree nut allergies can sometimes eat the nut that comes from pines.

If you toast them, be sure to watch them as they can burn quickly.

Today, you can also sub in walnuts or sunflower seeds if you like.

So that’s it for this week. Good Eats, Buono Apetito, and Bon Appetit!

Hope you like that culinary healthy Mediterranean foods trio! 🥗

Easy Blueberry Scone with Buckwheat

Blueberry scone with buckwheat is a delicious brunch idea! The recipe below is an easy one that you can make in few steps with frozen blueberries.

…And you’ll even get leftover crumbles for your next parfait.

Whether you see green or blue as in BLUE berries, it’s a delicious crumbly bite that goes great for afternoon tea or a weekend brunch.

You can add a jammy glaze …and maybe some cream… or ice cream (I scream) anyone?

The best part is it has healthy parts, including buckwheat flour that make this blueberry scone with buckwheat great along with other brunch recipes.

With gluten-free flours like buckwheat and coconut flour, egg, and Greek yogurt… ooh and wild blueberries 🫐, it’s one breakfast jam!

Buckwheat blueberry scone ingredients for easy recipe. — Buckwheat and coconut flour, yogurt, blueberries, egg, and a smidge of butter for this delicious healthy-inspired scone recipe.

It’s ready for brunch! 🎉

But before that… there’s a crumbly process that’s relaxing.

Looks a ‘lil like dirt, but trust me it’ll be deliciously shareable and brunch plate worthy! 🍽️

The dirt color is mostly from the healthy buckwheat flour that you can learn more about in this buckwheat ginger snap cookie recipe where I give the skinny low-down. That recipe btw has NO Butter if that’s important to you.

And getting back to buckwheat scones that does have a ‘lil 🧈, you first have to break ground (or ingredients in this place). 😉

The biggest tip I can give is to get the little pats of butter to a melted room temperature, so they adhere smoothly and evenly to the flour small bits.

…And if you’re like me who tends to forget to bring out the butt-ah in the morning, take out the butter you need the night before you’re going to bake.

On that note: this is one sweet blueberry scone with buckwheat recipe that I wouldn’t skip on the butter fat. Often I use neutral or light Mediterranean healthy olive oil in my bake recipes, but this recipe won’t work well with oil because scones like to stay dry… and that’s how we prefer them in our mouths. 😋

And if you’re beyond healthy, two pats or tablespoons of butter is all you need so don’t worry.

…My healthy sensibilities has a hard time using a stick of butter in any recipes… that would also work, but you can keep this light and healthier, and still tasty and delicious even if you’re living in the south.

A little butter is a good compromise where you’re not giving up anything…

…So you’ll have no regrets! 😁

And for sugar, I usually use the healthier sugars like honey or maple syrup, but this one won’t be the same without a packet of raw brown or turbinado sugar that will be the sweet and the dry crunch fitting for a scone.

You probably know this sugar as Sugar in the Raw in the beige packets, usually sitting by the coffee station.

One packet is 5 grams of sugar in case you’re like me who counts grams of sugar.

But remember this is a larger round bake (maybe 8-9 inches total) depending on your scone height of your choice. This can be made into 4 large scone pieces or 8 smaller scones to share.

Keep in mind, some of the baked parts may be too crumbly, so make another scone on the same baking tray if you have guests. Don’t worry… you’ll save the baked crumbles for your brunch parfaits, so nothing will be wasted.

It’ll all be re-purposed in someone’s mouth.

Ready to make this?

Buckwheat Blueberry Scone

Buckwheat is a healthy flour for a delicious blueberry scone.

Course Breakfast, brunch

Cuisine American

Ingredients

1 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/3 cup frozen blueberries
2 tbsp butter, room temperature softened
1/2 cup Greek yogurt, unsweetened
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 Sugar in the Raw packet

Instructions

Set butter out in cool kitchen room temperature overnight.
Mix ingredients to make a crumbly dough.
Dump the dough on a baking tray. Form the dough as a round disc mound with a flat top about 2 inches tall.
Score or cut into 8 smaller wedge pieces or 4 larger pieces before baking.
Sprinkle a packet of turbinado sugar to the top that will add a sweet crunch good for dry scones. You may find you don't need the entire packet if you're preparing for sugar sensitivities.
Bake at 325°F for 30-35 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

Healthy Foods Substituting Ingredients

Healthy foods can substitute processed and other ingredients that your body doesn’t use as nutrition.

The Great British Bake Off does substituting ingredients. But healthy substituting, I’m not so sure about 😊 because that’s not their point.

Getting to love healthy foods can take gradual changes.

And food variety and curiosity can create opportunities.

Eating healthy got me interested in cooking healthy foods and using healthier ingredients later in life post-catering management work days.

Those days, I rarely cooked as I was always around decadent foods from a hotel kitchen.

And then stepping away from party planning and then into the pandemic days, I started to home cook and bake daily.

One ingredient at a time, I exchanged filler and not so great ingredients for healthy ones.

It started with interest and fascination with exchanging a simple ingredient like yeast for eggs, gives you risen bread instead of pasta.

That’s the same sort of small ingredient change that you can make in daily meal planning (even if you don’t cook today), that can make a big difference in your health.

But first, you need to know what to do.

“When you know better, you do better.” -Maya Angelou

Btw, as of today, Maya Angelou is now appearing on minted quarters (so her legacy advice is even more valuable!).

But anyway… long before I learned to cook, I didn’t care so much about the quality of ingredients as I did the final product taste.

And for work, I planned catering events in hotels and restaurants, and I can’t think of a single instance where there was a request for a full-on healthy party menu (over good tasting meals).

That theme never came up in conversations. In throwing successful events, enjoyable and making happy memories in those situations means serving an unforgettable mouthful of delicious.

Once in a while, sprinkled in the mix, there would be a request for healthier alternatives because of food allergies, or for a raw vegetable crudite platter that was considered veg-forward, and to start the party off on a light note.

Or for conference event planning, where the catered food was the main daily food the guests were eating and the host planner wanted healthier energy and “brain food” served. But those were the exceptions.

And that’s partly because eating rich foods for a day or eating out for a few days doesn’t have the same consequences as it does for daily eating that become the routines and habits.

When you have an overall goal to stay healthy or be health-conscious, you care about the overall weekly diet and the ingredients.

And if you’re the one cooking and adding the ingredients, you get to decide how much of this or that you add to meals. That can very rewarding and I share a few tips below whether or not you cook today.

…You just never know what will be a good source of inspo to get you cookin’ and as I found on my journey.

I never say never, but if you live near a city especially, gardening isn’t usually the main source for full-on meals. But many of us cook regularly as we want to learn how to make new dishes and develop cooking skills confidence.

So that’s my first tip for anyone: to try and cook more often even if you don’t think you can boil an egg or make a box of pasta. We all start somewhere!

When you make, cook, or bake your food, you start to think about your foods more than when you’re just eating, heating, or ordering food in.

Then that brings more awareness to eating healthy foods if that’s a goal you have.

And in that case, making everyday recipes that have sticks of butter or shortening just won’t cut it.

At first, you can be feeling at odds following recipes that have a mix of healthy and not-so-healthy ingredients. That’s part of the journey.

I always start with the ingredients.

If I don’t like what’s in it, then I just skip the recipe or food. But when you’re starting out, following a recipe is easier and can be more fruitful… just in case you needed some cooking encouragement to keep trying.

Our olive oil EVOO society has also made it easier. That’s what I call it because EVOO (thank you to the Mediterranean diet) is often used in restaurants over butter, that used to be the standard.

Healthy fat foods and healthy monounsaturated fat like EVOO (as in EVeryday olive oil + extra virgin) used with a light hand drizzle is going to be a good substitute for your body health.

Just add a few drops and then spread it around the pan with a baton flick of the ninja cooking wrist 😊. Just sayin’ too much of a good thing is too much.

But a little bit benefits your cooking too. Besides food flavor and a glisten, this keeps your food and pans from cooking heat burns.

The biggest goes to body health of course. So, my second tip is to substitute butter with healthier ingredients like applesauce or yogurt for baking, and ghee or EVOO for cooking when you can.

Traditional Christmas Cookies are the sweet recipe exception I have found that isn’t the same without the buttery taste-texture.

But even in that context, I still think (and from my own baking experiments) know that butter can be substituted, and still be just as delicious and enjoyable.

You may just have to get a ‘lil more creative with the cookie decorating.

…I made these (above photo) bak-love-a layers with light EVOO (that’s great for sweet and savory baking). I only used butter to add on the top layer glaze to please my younger self.🤷🏻‍♀️

Just an example that balanced moderation can be effectively added into recipes where it doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

I find hard and fast rules can fall flat and in the category elimination diet that I tend to stay away from.

I think eating diverse, mostly plant-based, and moderation for most everything else is the way to go and the way I go. Especially if you have food allergies and sensitivities.

But, this is a healthy leap from when I started my baking journey using ingredients like shortening that you still see in Southern comfort cooking recipes.

Aah… but, when I knew better, I did better. And that could be your journey.

Like I learned butter is made from heavy cream and if you keep whipping, it easily turns to butter.

It’s lessons like this where you can get revelations like I did, that an ingredient’s makeup and consistency is (ex)changeable. And so, ingredients are not fixed as what we know them as. They can be substituted and swapped in recipes.

A good example would be substituting sugar with healthy foods like dried fruits, fruit zest, or honey (that can help allergies too).

These types of little changes make big difference to health, and how you feel in your day. And, maybe the bottom line… or the waistline (yay!).

Or, maybe you’re a natural Vata (or know of some)…that’s me too 🙋🏻‍♀️, where you may have inherited the thinner genes and higher metabolism. You still have to watch the fats.

If you’re a female adult, you wanna make sure you’re not “skinny fat” that’s a good healthy measurement.

You can do this by comparing your waist to hip ratio (where most women can aim for under 80%).

There are no shortcuts to good health as your body has a different opinion on what it needs that’s different than our tastes and wants.

Another healthy substitute is oats and grits for pie crusts, cookies, and brownies mixed with apple sauce or yogurt and honey. When you bake, then you can make these swaps pretty easily, both butter and gluten-free (without flour).

But when you shop from grocery shelves that’s a different story as pie shells look harmless, despite not-so healthy ingredients. And healthy foods don’t jump off the shelves either.

You can just as easily add Greek yogurt and jam or fresh fruit to your gritty pie shell.. that’ll hold up beautifully!

That’s how I started, not really paying attention to nutrition labels and ingredients.

Then along my healthful journey, I decided not to choose Mister Donut of any kind, fresh or not, because I knew and know what’s in them.

Besides taste, very little. And lots of sugar and fat. And I trained myself from awareness to look at them like that, and see the missing-ness through the hole in the middle.

But for others, and you, that could just as easily be another processed food item where the consequence is known and inevitable.

When a tradeoff is determined as individually undesirable, then you beneficially want to give it up (and don’t HAVE to give it up that can cause an internal conflict).

These btw (below) are healthy “donut hole” inspo w-hole bites and balls of energy that anyone can bake and substitute for high-sugar and fat.

Black bean “brownie-inspo” ball of energy bites

When you pause on the processed foods, you can gradually not desire to eat the super-sweet stuff anymore. It can work if you work it. And then you actually like the taste of healthy foods.

Your habits then become your choices.

If you’ve ever fasted, then you probably know the feeling… because after a while you can stop caring or obsessing about eating (like I did in fasting experiences). I’m not a good faster but I’ve attempted fasting sweets.

After a day or so, you can stop craving whatever you’re fasting from because you, your mind, and your body are in agreement that you don’t need those foods (at least not now).

So, then you’re satisfied.

And that’s all you need to care about when it comes to eating enjoyment. Being content to be happy.

…I remember the days when I got teased by friends for eating healthy and selecting healthy food choices. I felt bad they didn’t know what I knew in nutrition, and sadly, that adds aging stress on the body.

Our bodies are tricky and complex and has a different daily systematic agenda that doesn’t necessarily like our unhealthy choices after swallowed or initial taste bud food changes that we choose (that can be unhealthy or healthy foods).

I knew back then (even if it was subconscious) that I wanted to live without eating regrets or damaging the one body we’re given, so I followed my instincts and those became habits.

When you don’t take for granted your body’s resiliency, that can help you to want to be healthier.

Plus, we have so much more food sources and healthy information available to us now that allows us to buy ingredients in person, online, and from global sources.

When your body is used to you eating healthy, another healthy food strategy (and final tip) is to switch up the healthy foods and ingredients regularly. Switching up foods is fun.

It’s an enjoyable game you can play that you’ll never get sick of and is what your body wants for you as it craves good taste and healthy variety.

Plus, if a food is labeled bad or good and that evolves or changes, like nuts used to be deemed bad and now are great healthy fats, then you haven’t put all your eggs in one basket 🥚🥚… you know what I mean, Jelly Bean 😉.

And you can make your own baklava… baking and phyllo dough is as fun as pasta making along with the Great British Baking Show.

Easy Phyllo Dough For Baklava Dessert (Mediterranean Olive Oil Healthy)

Make phyllo dough from scratch! It's not as difficult as it sounds... and dare I say fun!

Course Dessert

Cuisine lebanese

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup flour
1 cup water
pinch of salt
honey
chopped nuts
dates, orange, and cinnamon (optional)
additional bench flour (to prevent sticking)

Instructions

Making phyllo is a lot like making homemade pasta, but much thinner.
Make a mound and a hole in the middlle where you can add the olive oil and slowly add water. Knead for about 5 minutes and then form a dough disc. Let rest.
Roll out as thin as possible and then you can slip into the pasta maker if you have one, adjusting until you get to the thinnest setting (e.g. 1). It will look opaque but the hope is that there will be no holes.
Cut into strips that you will use as layers for the baklava.
For the baklava, you can brush honey and top with chopped dates and nuts (walnuts or pistachios work well) on every other layer if you make 7 layers ending with the top layer with honey and nuts. Sprinkle each layer with cinnamon and orange zest if you like (good for Ayurvedic Vata balancing!).