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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. 🥭

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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.

 

Apple Galette with Lemon (Low Sugar)

Apple galette is a gala event with Gala Apples like these… or any organic red apples you can get your hands on apple picking!
apple galette table with Gala apples.

Below is an easy apple galette pastry recipe that need no proofing. And the proof is when you make them (…and in photos below 😊).

They are made even more tasty sweet tart good with baked lemon.

If you’ve never had a baked lemon, you’re ready to be taken to a whole new lemon experience from the juicy bright citrusy one to a cooler weather vibe… but still prepare to pucker up! 🍋

So this occasion is a zesty candied lemon and apple event all-in-one. 🎉 And once-upon-a-time I spent my entire week dreaming up event tables with clients… and now I’m doing the same for you.

You can lean into the stuffed candy apples that are fun, easy, and healthy snacks to make that take less effort than apple bobbing… that’s an old apple water in a barrel game like juggling🤹

For this snack apple making craft, be sure to source organic apples for these desserts with the skin-on… where the skin stays on and you get all the fiber and anti-inflammatory vitamin benefits.

…Plus, there’s no waste to handle that’s good for our world that isn’t daily compostable just yet (Debby-Downer wah-wah-wah). 

…But hopeful it’s in the works… I believe. 🙏  And we have workarounds today like eating all the edible parts that’s not hard to do.

Which btw, you can do this sustainability move with fresh homemade juice too.

And for these apples, add some cinnamon to your apple-lemon (sweet and sour) for an irresistible zingy pairing. Add a douse of cinnamon that’s good for anxious energies. And cardamom if you want energy-energy. ⚡️

And when it comes out of the oven baked and spiced, you get to be transported a happy nostalgic mood through your senses. 💭

…Do you remember your first apple pie? I remember the apple pie 🥧 store where I grew up. It was out a ways that’s now a bustling town and part of the area I grew up in.

baked apple galette with lemon.

And in those happy memory vibes, you can make your own apple galette dessert in the shape you like 🥧, comfort of your kitchen and do no traveling… and have a cozy home and enjoyable experience no matter what the weather is outside.

As the Danes say, Hygge! 🎉

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Easy Apple Galette (No Proofing)

If you want to lean into apple vibes with sweet and tart, then this is a good easy bake.
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • organic medium apples (red)
  • cinnamon
  • 1 cup flour of choice
  • 1-1/2 cup dry oats
  • lemon, cut in wedges
  • lemon curd
  • honey or maple syrup to shine
  • 2 tbsp cold butter
  • cold water

Instructions

  • This will make a galette for 3 rows of medium sized apples.
  • Prepare lemon curd on the stove. I low heat warm two eggs, lemon juice and zest, 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp flour stirring constantly for a few minutes until flour is fully blended in. I purposefully leave out sugar, but you can add some if you choose. Honey can be added at the end as shine. Let curd cool and refrigerate to help thicken while you prepare the rest of the steps. Save 2 thinly sliced lemons cut in half moons for decoration and taste.
  • Prepare oat flour: pulse or grind oat into fine flour.
  • Make the pastry shell: hand blend flours, cold butter, and add enough cold water to create a dough disc. Roll out onto your baking pan and create the pastry shape you like.
  • Cut two sides of the apple up to the core so you get the arch sides. Cut into thin strips and keep each side intact. Add to the pastry shell along ith lemon slices.
  • Add cinnamon on top and brush lemon curd throughout your galette.
  • Bake at 325°F/165°C for about 75 minutes or 350°F/180°C for about an hour until deep golden brown. I usually turn the oven off around the hour mark and leave in oven another 15 minutes.
  • About 15 minutes before turning off the oven heat, brush honey or syrup on pastry top and sides for additional shine and sweetness.

 

Microgreens Are Growing Healthy

Microgreens have been around longer than our modern culture. 

It was a way of food survival during the winter months of the oldest civilizations on our planet… a lot like how modern squirrels have preserved the foraging acorn traditions. 

Baby arugula microgreens are tasty for a salad.
Baby arugula microgreens are tasty additions to a salad 🥗

Which btw… is outdoor entertaining to watch Rocky the flying squirrel in his purposeful scurrying meal prep moves. 🐿️

How they actually feel about their work we’ll never know, but it has kept their species around.

…And to keep ours going, modern food planning is something we do. 

In human life, that’s how it can look with us daily running around in our busy lives… and for me, that’s how it sometimes looked behind-the-scenes as a food service professional in organized chaos prepping and planning weekly catered event challenges in hotel ballrooms and for restaurant parties celebrating Mediterranean food styles.

And even with all the variety of food available to our planet we can be bored with our food sourcing options. 🥬

Daily, we open the fridge and pantry cupboards thinking: “what’s for dinner?” or “what can I have for a little snack?”…sometimes coming up short for a good answer. 🤔

Microgreens can be part of the answer as a healthy and tasty choice.

Here are 5 points that make microgreens a smart choice:

Point #1: Microgreens are food like-able and tasty good.

…Because if they weren’t, why bother?

Children seem to love them as some of the pickiest green eaters on earth.

Many microgreens are smaller, cute kid-size bits and bites like baby arugula, so it’s easier to get a handful of the finger foods than the adult version. 

The young greens also add interest, taste, and texture to any plate.

…And why they’re not more commonly known today is unknown. Maybe like their shape-forms, they still have a wild-like reputation… 🌿

Like, I remember alfalfa sprout microgreens from a school age where I once saw the jungle wild-looking tangly-fine weeds in a friend’s lunch box that made me curious…

And now as an adult, thinking it’s a good idea. 🎉

You grow into new perspectives and healthy ways and today is a great way to spruce up 😋 and vertically beef up a light protein mustardy salad sandwich or the like (…einkorn finger sandwich idea below 🧡). Or to garnish a bowl of beets… 

Point # 2: Microgreens are less bitter.

Microgreens have the reputation of being less bitter that is good news for some people’s tongues who avoid the taste.

That reminds me of green tea…

If you don’t love bitter green tea tastes that can grow stronger if brewed too hot or you picked the wrong flavor for you, then you probably don’t lean toward preferring many bitter tasting superfood veggies and plant greens.

And that’s why certain veggies 🥦🥬 don’t end up on the plate (like green tea in cups)… or in a diet despite their healthy goodness.

…Green teas 🍵 come from the same Camellia Sinensis plant as common black, white, and oolong teas but differ in process where they’re not oxidized like common black teas. 

And what makes the difference for microgreens (and similar to green teas) is the process from the same plant.

Microgreens are harvested early, coming from the same plants as the adult version we see mostly on shelf space in grocery stores. 🌱

So they’re fresh and have different tastes worth trying, often more mild tasting and welcoming to all.

Point #3: Young greens are replenishable, sustainable, and abundant.

…Just like other foods from the soil, nature provides and delivers over and over again..

When we think “fresh” we immediately think of the produce aisle in a supermarket, farmers market, or our backyard garden that produces fastly perishable foods that the soil can replenish. 

If you’re a green thumb growing your own mini-market, you can have microgreens planted, harvested, and eatable within foreseeable weeks (and not months or seasons that is the time most produce take). 🧑‍🌾

That makes microgreens more productive… and where you can have more than what you know what to do with! A good problem to have. ✔️

That would be too easy for getting a meal on the table. 

And that ideal IS microgreens.

When you choose the micro-world of microgreens, you too help our community and local farmers. 

…Those are baby plant little steps that you can take for your health and to support the world. 🪴

Point #4 – Microgreens are often organic without pesticides. 

So much of our plant-based foods are exterior sprayed with pesticides to deter mostly bugs, and that offsets the healthy goodness of the healthiest skin parts of the food. 

We throw away the skin that could have been healthy edible parts. 

And today, reusable composting ways are not yet available for the common household. 

So then we end up creating more waste that adds more plastic bag waste that also attracts unwanted critter nuisances to our community. But what if composting machines were as common as house dishwashing machines? 💭

But that not being today’s standards, with organic microgreens we can eat those problems away as the end consumer. And our bodies are healthier for our choice.

Point #5 – Microgreens are low calories and high in nutrition.

There are few (if any) green plant-based foods 🌱 that aren’t low in calories compared to plant-based (as in factory) foods. 🏭

Fresh microgreens from nature come packed with vitamins and minerals, along with some eat-from-the-rainbow 🌈 polyphenols that make you excited to color your plate and palette with anti-inflammatory food ideas! 🎨

And, mighty microgreens can have 4x (and up to 40x!) more nutrients than their full-grown version.

🎯 Final Points:

Microgreens fit in our consumer micro cultures where we are becoming more customizable specific in food diet preferences that impact food growing ways, and where our farming culture impacts our world. 

Sustainable food and young microgreens are sprouting interest in our fast climate changing world searching for longevity answers where eating anti-inflammatory foods fit.

One way you can be part of the anti-inflammatory solution is by growing your own portable microgreen micro garden that can be indoors (good for those with outdoor allergies or without garden space).

Plus, so many viable options to bring in more microgreens from dream to  life… yasss!

…That’s something to be excited about today. If this resonates with you, could you PLEASE HELP share this message with others so they can join the MICROGREEN movement that’s healthy here to stay.🎉

Go micro GREEN 🌱

🎉🎉 Discover and support local microgreen farms for fresher produce and healthier living.

Oh, and heres’s an easy whole wheat or einkorn (ancient wheat) sandwich in a modern recipe you can use to make finger sandwiches that was an idea I grew up with in the catering party world… and you can use for lunch, brunch, or an afternoon party.

To gain smiles, simply add delicious microgreens like baby lettuce, cucumber, radishes, carrot, and tarragon.

And for dessert 🍥, some sweet herbs and spices are microgreens like anise that you can add to a creme anglaise for pancakes or sweet brunch waffles.

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Einkorn Sandwiches with Microgreens

I have fond memories of tea sandwiches from catering menus, and that are part of English afternoon tea events and traditions. Tea sandwiches are usually bite-size and made of spongey-soft bread where the crust is cut off. And flat crunchy bread like these add plate variety. They work well to celebrate the sandwich ingredients in the middle that can be light and/or all veggies.
Course Breakfast, brunch
Cuisine American, british
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • einkorn flour, salt, and water for the sandwich bread.
  • cottage cheese
  • cucumber
  • scallions
  • carrots
  • beets or radishes
  • lettuce
  • asparagus or favorite veggies
  • spices: dill, tarragon, black pepper

Instructions

  • Prepare the sandwich bread. You can make the bread in advance. Let dough proof: develop air pockets and double in size for for at least 2 hours. Then bake dough in oven in a small sheet pan about 1/4" thick until toasted. Tip: Einkorn wheat flour is not a high gluten (rise) flour, so it won't rise much and will lay more like a flat bread when baked. You need not knead long and can omit yeast. Let bread cool and slice the toast with a serated or bread knife.
    Alternatively if you use regular whole wheat flour, knead a few minutes longer and add about 1/4 tsp of instant yeast (easiest) for a bread that rises. You can cut horizontally into the vertical bread about 3-4 slices to get a similar flat bread effect.
  • Prepare the raw veggies. Thinly slice into flat or close to flat pieces.
  • For the sandwich paste, mix cottage cheese, dill, tarragon, and black pepper. You can processor blend the cottage cheese if you would like a smoother paste.
  • Add paste to the bottom of the sandwich and then layer lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, and others veggies. Add the sandwich bread top. For catering-style zhugh, you can add a toothpicked cucumber slice, or radish and beet and then plate. These easy, new old-fashioned touches show you put in extra detailed care.

Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes Cottage Cheese

Stuffed cherry tomatoes are a healthy dream snack.

When you add a filling with a great flavor pairing, that’s all you need for a moment of delicious joy.
stuffed cherry tomatoes cottage cheese asparagus

These are good low calorie bites that you can snack on daily. You can pop or stuff in your mouth, a cherry tomato without feeling stuffed.

They flavor burst squirt the tomato juice so effortlessly and why kids can love them so easily because they’re a form of eating entertainment.

And if that’s mouth-entertainment you avoid, when you stuff them, you remove the squirt effect because you remove the inside juices.

The juicy inner parts are also the most sour tasting that you can save for a tomato sauce.  An easy way to remove the center is to use a large round baker’s piping tip with open jaws or a star-shape one. ⭐️ Twist and scoop out the inside.

And then in its juicy place, add cooked quinoa (or cous cous would work and is even quicker).

Here with quinoa you get a nice bite that’s also a pseduo-grain that will help make it a filling protein snack.

Because quinoa is filled with the essential amino acids that are building blocks of protein.

And then add a small dollop cottage cheese topping (or your fave healthy creamy cheese) if you want to keep the healthy bite vibes.

You gotta love the micro healthy bites that help keep you tied over until dinner (instead of chocolate or salty bag snacks)!

And then finally to top it all off, add a green, fresh earthy bite that balances the acidic sweetness in tomatoes. 🍅

You can add asparagus or leafy herbs like mint or basil work well to give a 3rd dimensional taste. It’ll also give a color pop to the plate. 🌱

That’s what makes these stuffed cherry tomatoes, appetizer worthy: unique shapes, colors, and textures 🌿

There are a variety of tomatoes each season to deliver on their promised natural abilities. And maybe you experienced their abundance in your garden this year or discovered a new tomato in your store.

Another variety that’s similar in sweeter taste and juicy-ness is a plum tomato.

You can substitute cherry tomatoes with plum tomatoes if you want to do more stuffing as they’re larger. They look like new deviled eggs.

These below are filled with cous cous and gorgonzola creamy blue cheese protein.

You can make these snacks in minutes and I like that they look homemade and not like perfect little catering appetizers.

They’ll get gobbled up in seconds in a delicious and healthy way.

Tomatoes are full of Vitamin C, A, some B vitamins, fiber, and lycopene that’s anti-inflammatory (and even good for sunburns).

Well, when you put it that way! 😊… maybe you’ll give them a try too.

Between carrots and tomatoes, you can have your healthy, low-calorie orange snack anytime of day. 🧡

Btw, you can take any tomato seeds and grow a plant. I started one a week ago and it has a green sprout 🌱 about 2 inches tall. Maybe growing tomatoes are the easiest produce plant to grow…  as I’ve been told, have seen from others, and who knows?… maybe will see my own. 🤞

stuffed cherry tomatoes cottage cheese asparagus
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Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes Cottage

These are like mini build-a-snack bites that delight.
Course Appetizer
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Equipment

  • jumbo jaw piping tip

Ingredients

  • cherry tomatoes
  • cottage cheese
  • asparagus or fresh green herb

Instructions

  • Cut cherry tomatoes in half with a serated knife so they cut cleanly without squirting juice. An easy trick to remove the seeds is to use an open jaw or star piping tip. Swirl around and put the seeds aside and save them for a sauce. Or grow a tomato plant.
  • Add cooked quinoa (or grain substitute).
  • Add a dollop of cottage cheese.
  • Add green veggie zhugh for flavor and color!

Apple Smoothie Milkshake with Sweet Potato

Apple smoothie is a healthy fall-ish color drink you can smile about… and when paired with the balancing tastes of sweet potato and carrot, you’re also getting a trifecta of anti-inflammatory goodness with vitamins and beta-carotene that’s the orange rainbow compound good for eyes. 🌈

 

Plus these ingredients are easy to find year-round and is great for season transitions where hot and cold (life on ho-ld) meet. 😊 So that’s pretty much year-round for a year-round beverage option!

For a great breakfast smoothie, it’s as simple as cooking a sweet potato and 2 medium peeled carrots until soft.

Let them cool and then blend with milk and a chopped apple.

…Oh yeah, the apple is the star ingredient.

I chose a Red Delicious apple because it’s a bit more sweet than a green apple.

Red apples are the ones with quercetin that is buzz talk (or you may have heard of).

But green apples, like a famous tart Granny Smith is one of the most anti-inflammatory apples.

…So either red or green, you can’t go wrong when comparing apples to apples. 🍎🍏

And if you want to kick it up a notch, you can add a ‘lil cinnamon to give a better version taste like in cinnamon cereals, but without the added sugar.

…That’s huge!

And you can do the same tasty and anti-inflammatory goodness intentions with an apple smoothie milkshake (recipe below 🧃).

This drinkable shake is a breakfast meal (inside a drink) because it also has eggs.

apple milkshake with cinnamon and sweet potato.
An apple milkshake is all natural with real apples, eggs, sweet potato and cinnamon.

It’s a egg protein shake that’s bordering on ice cream for breakfast… that puts a smile on old faces especially when it’s hot enough outside. 😋

…Which btw, when you make homemade ice cream… it can be healthy with a few healthy ingredients.

So if you’re looking for a satisfying cool refreshing snack, this could be one to try that meets your hotter moods and sweet tooth.

…I remember as a child when I came home from the dentist after having cavities filled because I ate a lot of sugar… and I didn’t mind because I was always excited to have ice cream for dinner. 🍨

That was the sugar freak in me and still is today in a healthy living way.

And, maybe that’s what it’s like for you or someone in your household situation who wants to enjoy sweet, but lower the sugar intake.

I know I wouldn’t have liked a sophisticated (aka grown up) milkshake taste like apple-sweet potato.

But a vanilla milkshake… oh yes! or maybe even a Vanilla Cinnamon milkshake that’s closer to familiar common ice cream flavors that the little people like. 👧🏻

And then maybe grow up one day wanting to try other flavors they never liked before.

And if that’s what we’re up for, then adding a hint of natural peanut butter enhances the body’s absorption to an apple and sweet potato milkshake dessert snack-meal loaded with fat-soluble vitamins… plus another taste dimension!

Now that’s something to wake up for 🍎

And for a little detox kick, add a little ginger for a natural energy jolt⚡️to your souped up apple smoothie.

apple smoothie milkshake with sweet potato, cinnamon spice, and a nice ginger kick.

You can visit these links for more smoothie beverage recipe ideas and simple and delicious anti-inflammatory recipes.

apple milkshake with cinnamon and sweet potato.
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Apple Smoothie Milkshake with Cinnamon

Ingredients

  • 2 medium or large eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 medium apple
  • cinnamon to taste
  • 1 tbsp peanut butter
  • 1 small sweet potato, cooked soft
  • cardamom
  • ginger to taste (or zhugh on top)

Instructions

  • On low to medium stove heat in a pot, constantly stir eggs and milk until almost boiling (small bubbles). Then let cool in the refrigerator until cold.
  • Blend all the ingredients together. Then freeze.
  • Bring out to room temperature and enjoy! It's best to freeze the milkshake so it sets, and then add any leftover in the refrigerator if you do not finish.
  • If you want to build a (second) layer of the sweet potato, after you freeze the first layer, you can add the second layer. Easy peasy and you get to mix and enjoy all the flavors together when it has melted some.