Hot cross bun can be traditional, or you can give it an unconventional modern twist. These are made with a celebrational sweet (but low-sugar) cake recipe, and piped with berry yogurt and blueberries.
Dried blueberries shrink from a raisin size to a smaller currant size.
And you can make these from start to finish in 30 minutes with no proofing needed. Because it’s an easy cupcake recipe. So you make your one bowl batter and fill your muffin tins.
Then bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool. And pipe each cupcake hot cross bun style with healthy blueberry yogurt and adding dried blueberries ontop (or currants) for decoration.
I found there are a wide selection of yogurt choices at Publix grocery stores where they have also have milk-alternative yogurts, like plant-based yogurts.
For the dried blueberries (optional), you can use frozen blueberries that you pull out of the freezer, drain, and leave in the refrigerator. Let dry out for a few days.
For a blueberry-lemon tasting pairing, add a tsp of lemon zest and a tablespoon of dried blueberries to the batter before baking. 🫐🍋
Berry yogurt smoothie is one great breakfast starter that you can make quick and easy with your speedy and mighty Magic Bullet. With probiotic pro-gut health, you add good bacteria to your gut and you can feed the good bacteria with prebiotics like a banana, flaxseeds, oats, and chicory root.
These days chicory root is common in ingredients, like tea and coffee. It’s a prebiotic add to help your gut (good bacteria).
This all makes your gut happy, where a lot of the happy hormones are made that make you happy.
The recipe below is filled with fiber and healthy fat options that give your body the healthy food variety it craves, and make great breakfast starters.
And teaming with your body, if you’re someone with a sweet tooth, this is a celebrational start as a party in the mouth.🥤🍓 An amuse bouche.
And the best part is you can make this smoothie in 5 minutes with a blender. And if you have and use a Magic Bullet blender or similar, you can even use the top capsule to keep the smoothie in a cup (or temporarily store in your fridge).
How easy is that!?
Gathering your ingredients will be the heaviest lifting you’ll do for this treat that looks like a milkshake.
But this is a berry healthy starter that won’ weight you down, and has natural sugars (fruit, yogurt, honey, etc.).
Cranberries also add a tartness that pairs great with orange juice, and superfood wild blueberries pair well with lemon juice. Or you can make a hybrid pairing of these flavors!
Or mixed wild berries that can be turned into home berries.
And they’re all healthy Vitamin C adds. Cranberries also have a natural ability to protect against bacteria along the gut and urinary tracts.
So, how can you say no to the tart berry that you can store frozen in the freezer?
And to this berry yogurt smoothie you can enjoy today!
Add juice and berries to blender and pulse blend once.
Add in yogurt and banana (if adding). Pulse blender several times until smooth.
Stir in honey and seeds with a spoon.
Notes
To thicken your smoothie and/or add another flavor dimension, you can add natural peanut or almond butter for a healthy fat. And if you do not have flaxseeds (or other seeds), you can also add a healthy gluten-free flour such as coconut flour, for additional fiber, healthy fat, and minerals.
Anti-inflammatory recipes help you practice daily meal prep and healthy eating habits, that pay off in your long run toward longevity. Below are recipe links from this blog to inspire your year, no matter what season you’re in. To your anti-inflammatory life! 🎉
Because an anti-inflammatory diet helps protect against inflammation in the body (skin, joints, teeth, vital organs) that are health warning signs.
And preventing inflammation flare-ups help protect against and prevent chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases that are still among the highest causes of mortality.
Chronic inflammation is linked to tell-tale body signs that can also lead toward certain cancers and cognitive decline.
And type 2 diabetes (or lifestyle diabetes) is the one of the fastest growing diseases on our planet. No matter what genes you were bestowed, anti-inflammatory habits help fight against what’s stacked up against you in the environment that you don’t have control over.
Anti-inflammatory foods were and are a leading source of prevention, where anti-inflammatory spices are a big deal. Adding more spice in your life and to your diet helps support better health and longevity.
And sticking to an anti-inflammatory diet is also a remedy from following Diet Culture of some kind. It’s a long-term healthy eating strategy.
Where whole and minimally processed healthy food and ingredients in meals and bakes you eat are at the core of anti-inflammatory foods and your health eating. Anti-inflammatory foods are real (nutritious) foods that the body recognizes as healthy
And this includes plant-based foods, so eating plant-forward helps the body. And foods on a Mediterranean diet, which is a type of anti-inflammatory diet that includes healthy proteins and healthy fats, such as wild fishes and olive oil.
👉 To learn more, grab my FREE Anti-Inflammatory Diet Food Guidewith printable food lists to help you make more healthy decisions for grocery food shopping. And get insights about an anti-inflammatory diet in the free guide.
And here on these pages of Anti-Inflammatory Lifestyle (Winter/Spring edition), you’ll discover simple and easy recipes you can make weekly. And get inspiration about anti-inflammatory living and seasonal foods you can lean into (that are more abundant and coins per ounce). To turn the pages forward/backward, click on the arrows at the lower corners of the pages. ↪
One of my favorite meals is weekend brunch. 😊 You can make your own no-butter bearnaise for a lower-calorie and anti-inflammatory-infused olive oil brunch sauce to pair with delicious savory meals like Eggs Benedict (with French bistro vibes🍽️). You can make this recipe and other healthy-conscious (but always tasty) waffle iron recipes.
And low-sugar desserts where the sweet tooth list is growing (variety is the spice of life! 🍥)
🍴You can also get more anti-inflammatory recipes and food ideas for the table from the Summer/Autumn anti-inflammatory food recipes. 🥄 That for some may be the season you’re celebrating and living out (literally or figuratively!).
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
And you can make cardamom tree cookies for a Jenga stack on a plate while you listen to Christmas music.
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
3/4cupcake flour
1tspmonk fruit sweetener
1egg
1tsplight olive oil
1/4cupmilk
3/4tspbaking powder
white vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
1/2tspvanilla extract
pinch of salt
1tspcardamom 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!
