Shrimp and grits is one of my favorite Southern dishes. And it’s healthy! It’s a fast meal to prepare and have on the tasty food table too, anytime of day.
Because 5-minute grits cook fast (7-10 minutes on medium-high heat). You can also go for the Old Fashioned version that’s less processed and takes about 15 minutes on higher heat.
Either way, grits are a healthy corn grain and are easy to digest. They are considered good on a low FODMAP diet (like rice).
And you can’t mess up cooking grits. They are dry to begin with, so as long as there’s enough water in the skillet for cooking, you’re good to go! And even if you run low on water, you can revive your grits easier than say rice.
And you can even microwave grits without worry about texture consistency.
And shrimp and grits is a dish you can get your flavor and spices in. Grits are a great base because grits are mildly tasteless.
So, Old Bay spice blend is a great addition with paprika, celery salt and pepper already built-in as some base notes.
I douse Old Bay on anything seafood! It’s a no-brainer for me. 😊
And coriander is a good way to bring in lemony-summery notes, especially if you’re feeling summer nostalgic or your summer flew by and you wanted an endless summer. It’s a good way to preserve the enjoyable feelings.
You can also substitute with lemon pepper if coriander isn’t one you have in your stash.
I also add tarragon on the shrimp for French bistro vibes. And I add either white pepper or a mushroom spice blend for umami tasting vibes. I’m never shy on the flavors.
Tip: Keep in mind if you use spice blends, they usually have salt in them to optimize flavor, so you may not need to add any more salt. And you may have added salt in the grits while cooking.
You can add the Holy Trinity (pepper, onions, and celery) like in Cajun or Creole-style cooking for a healthy trifecta. But if you want to do less chopping and spend less time preparing this meal (like 15 minutes total), you can find diced pimento peppers (sweet) already cut like in this bowl:
If someone handed me a bowl like this and said, “enjoy” or “bless your heart,” I’d be grinning from ear-to-ear saying, “thank you and yes, ma’am.” 😋
And if you like this shrimp and grits bowl idea, you may like a 20-minute paella you can make with lobster or shrimp seafood that’s low in calories and high in protein and Omega-3 anti-inflammatory goodness. 🧡
spices: tarragon, coriander, Old Bay, white pepper
coriander seeds (or lemon pepper)
Old Bay spice blend
fresh onions and peppers
cayenne (optional) for heat
Instructions
Prepare grits. Follow instructions on the package (or 1 cup of dry grits to 4 cups of water).
Add spices in grits. Spices is tasty art work so add the amount you would like.
Cook shrimp separately (or about 6-8 minutes on medium-high heat)
Arrange shrimp ontop of grits. Add more spices and fresh onions and peppers (if adding). If you're serving for others, keep some spices on the side so they can add to their tastes.
Salmon salad is something you can enjoy anytime on bread or by itself. And it can be made deliciously without mayonnaise, in case you’re not a fan. Or if you want to try a different healthy way like this version on an open face toast… toast to that!
And any way you prefer, it’s a great protein snack or meal. Especially for lunch for all ages. As salmon salad is universal and can be eaten anywhere unlike an egg salad (…where I still remember a classmate’s bag lunch).
Cooked salmon has no fish aroma that your companions next to you can detect, (and that can make you feel self-conscious about your lunch).
It also has a more subtle fish taste. So it could be the new tuna salad sandwich… if it isn’t already on your menu!
…This also reminds me of my days as a teen working in a deli where it was all about the scoops. But the scoop wasn’t an ice cream scoop… it was tuna, chicken, or shrimp salad… and served like this salmon salad one on the plate that fits in a 4 oz cup (recipe below 👇).
In the deli, it was served on the side of a bed of lettuce or grapes, or on a sandwich.
And you can smear this salmon salad like butter.
But without butter. I personally like my dinner salmon with a béarnaise sauce, with a French Mediterranean vibe (no butter).
And this version for lunch.
For variety and fresh healthy ways, you can also serve your salmon salad with or without mustard, like Dijon mustard.
And if mustard is what you’re craving, you can substitute the horseradish or add ontop of the salmon salad.
It’s also delicious with crackers, multigrain, rye bread, or sourdough.
And what makes this one different is the lightness. Unlike heavy duty mayo (as in full fat), this version is salad light.
It uses yogurt, so you can hold the mayo. And no eggs.
But you could make an egg salad layer (if you want) for a Smorgastorta effect, or sandwich cake to go with your salmon salad.
That goes hand-in-hand with these 2 Swedish concepts I can get behind:
Fika is a Swedish concept for a coffee break with pastries and while you’re on yours, you can enjoy a Swedish finger sandwich or smorgastorta. This concept is kinda like afternoon English tea or an American brunching on the weekend (one of my fun things to do!).
And a salmon salad is perfect fit for a brunch. It’s light and protein-full. And if you want to give it a building-an-autumn-fire tasting vibe 🍁, you can add fiery orange color turmeric-spice that has ember burning smokey flavors… in case you didn’t know what the turmeric taste is like.
Black pepper and turmeric are a healthy spice combo so it makes sense too.
You can also substitute with Spanish smoked paprika that’s sometimes harder to find. Now that you have some good ideas, maybe it’s time to make your salmon salad sandwich! 🥪 You can make it today and eat tomorrow.
I bake the salmon and then decide!
A good tip is to decide what you will do with the salmon when it is still warm cooked or baked 🐟 . Because it will finely crumble easier when it’s warm and soft.
Drizzled with olive oil and a little salt and pepper, on 350°F/180°C it’s to my baked doneness liking in 3o-40 minutes depending on the fish filet thickness.
You can also cook on the stovetop if that’s your preference. But don’t add too much EVOO if you plan to make it into a salad, as it leaves the salmon more oily. Vs. baking that will dry out and soak in the oil quicker.
But no worries, you can’t go wrong…and all who love salmon will love. 😋
Healthy protein foods are a priority at the top of healthy eating and weight loss. They go hand in hand with healthy fats.
And plant based foods are fun to plant into your overall diet because they add color, textures and flavor.
In catering, we always leaned into plant based foods for the color like in a Crudite dish with raw crunchy veggies and the rainbow effects from the anti-inflammatory polyphenols.
…which makes them wildly nutritious and can be the healthy rainbow food on your plate! 🌈
Making them delicious in dishes from their natural bland-boring taste and out of their whole identity or grocery packaging is what makes the tasty edible difference.
Well… when it’s reframed that way, then we can embrace adding more plant-based foods to our healthy diets. They’re sustainable.
But the real problem with veggies if there is one, is that they’re not filling to our bellies.
Most are low calories leaving us feeling hungry. And that can be good for weight loss when balanced in our lives…
Plus adding healthy protein foods to fill in the gaps for us.
Like these examples:
A plant-based tofu “chorizo” healthy protein foods dish doused with balancing Ayurvedic spices.
Tofu chorizo recipe below. 🌱
You can add alliums like onion and garlic that are fiber and good for immunity. Plus green veggies like green bell peppers, and plenty of spices make this a balanced healthy meal.
You can save tomato for your Italian dishes and lean in on the sweet potato in this dish. 🍠
The spices add the flavor and this one has paprika, turmeric, 5 spices, garlic powder, and cumin.
And for healthy proteins, while sausage is usually high in saturated fats, tofu has healthy fats (Omega-3 and unsaturated fat types) and nutrients like magnesium and calcium so it can be a chorizo substitute.
Three Sisters is a corn, bean, and squash trifecta.
Other healthy protein foods include a 3 Sisters dish that celebrates beans at the heart of plant-based healthy protein foods.
This is a complete meal. If you have a corn, beans, and squash trifecta, and also add olive oil or avocado to the meal, then you have all your macros in one. That’s tasty and healthy smart eating.
The stuff I get wildly excited about, plus playing with food. 😊
…Like a plant-based homemade pizza that can bemade with wholesome healthy whole wheat, and in as much time as it takes to place a pizza order and have it delivered… and it’s funny I would know because for 4 teenage years, I was a pizza maker for Domino’s Pizza.
That would be a long time for a teen in today’s working world… but I had fun working. People at all ages stay put when they’re happy.
Back then, like most my age I leaned into the carefree happy over healthy.
These days, wiser having tried more food experiences, we can make better choices.
And we can bake and make our own meals where we get to choose ingredients.
Whole wheat flour is slightly higher in protein and fiber than everyday white flour. And that reminder can help move us closer to healthy desires.
Each step starting with food thoughts make us intentional about what we manifest in this Life.
If we source healthy ingredients and foods, then that’s what ends up on our plates and in our bodies.
And the choice of healthy protein foods is a healthy leader for us and our meals especially when we choose the protein foods first.
Too often we have healthy intentions but end up with the happy for any number of reasons. 😋
So balance or a happy medium I like to say is the best approach… and in my world, I lean into the happy tastes and end up doing the healthy without compromising taste…. and happy to give healthy friend advice.
It’s simple when there’s no pressure to eat healthy, so then it’s easier to make the healthy choice most the time because the freedom of choice…
And we can do that when we go out also. There are plenty of healthy and tasty places to eat these days.
Intentional good foods is what happened when I planned events for American restaurants serving Mediterranean cuisines.
Those experiences made me appreciate small plates and family style foods with healthy flavors.
At a Spanish tapas place, small appetizer plates were the only plates they had.
They also had gigantic paella pans (that could’ve held all the small plates inside).
One was the Friday happy hour pan fit for as big as a dining room table.
I remember back when I would blog every day and the people I worked for didn’t even know what a blog was. I just told them it’s marketing and they let me do my thing, haha.
But the people that were coming to the blog, got it.
You all get it. 😀
I shared recipes and special happenings that’s still the way things are today.
And in the Italian, Spanish, and Lebanese restaurants where I was a food insider, one common ingredient used was tomatoes. Often it was a subtle hint as part of a mixture of flavors we call a relish.
Like Meshi Bel Zeit stuffed veggies that was the vegetarian option for Lebanese events.
For home meals, a dish like that would pair well with a common tomato dish that goes well with many healthy protein foods including peas.
Green peas are a good source of healthy protein as are chickpeas. That makes us hap-pea! 🫛
And quinoa is good to add to our healthy protein foods list. It’s another complete meal.
Quinoa has 9 essential amino acids that our bodies can’t make, so you can definitely feel full after a bowl. It’s a food illusion because you’re eating what looks like a cooked grain (starch), but as a pseudo-grain it’s acts more like a protein super food when it lands in your body.
Frozen peas cooked in with quinoa. Hold the salt.
And even more of an illusion when you add quinoa as a breakfast cereal. This would’ve been a great way to start the back-to-school days if we knew about the super grain way back then.
3 Tips for Cooking Quinoa – Healthy Protein food
1. Use a pan (instead of a pot) for more even cooking.
2. Toast your quinoa on the stovetop before cooking.
3. Don’t salt your dish until the end if you use peas so they don’t dehydrate.
You can make a quinoa paella like this one made of quinoa instead or rice, and then add other healthy protein foods on top. This way you can get all your protein grams in that day with a bottomless quinoa dish.
If gram numbers count for you… the easy way to remember is to take your weight and divide by two for a rough idea of how many pr0tein grams you’re looking for.
Quinoa paella would also be deliciously paired with a za’atar cracker.
Fish and Chips with Cod is a recipe toshare because it’s easy, filling for a family, and made healthy light when baked (and not fried)… and that’s a tasty way to make healthy food count and enjoy the calories.
Baked fish and chips cod recipe below. 🧡
This one is accompanied with no-fried waffle chips with a salty and tangy sour dip that has balanced tasty notes (…what’s not to love?). The recipe is below. 🧡
My inspiration for making fish and chips takes me back to travel and one special place memory of my time in U.K. 🇬🇧 hoppin’ in and out of London Cabs after dramatically being re-routed from visiting the Mediterranean south.
I didn’t mind as I had worked in food party planning for Mediterranean (Lebanese, Spanish, and Italian) restaurants for years, so that felt a little like home.
And, re-route is part of adventure.
Oh and travel is always an adventure… and GOOD times…
…even if it’s serious business getting history (Stone Henge) downloads.
…And then getting my bearings back up to food familiarities like with these small BUT mighty food bites at Covent Garden near Westminster where I stayed…
Covent Garden salmon lox.
…Even as big as London is, somehow I found the comfort food. What a memory! 💕
And one memory dish that U.K. is famous for and you don’t have to look long and hard for there is Fish and Chips.🐟 … it’s as common as U.S. served crab cakes, corn on the cob, and potato chips.
That’s a mouthful of “c’s” to say.
Saying Fish and Chips is much easier…
The common U.K. fishes sourced for the dish are salmon, cod, and haddock.
The healthiest fish are wild fish anywhere you source because the fish eat what they would in the wild… makes sense.
And cod is the best choice.
Why cod?
It’s easy to source and that means affordable groceries .
Most U.K. fish come from the shared seas in the North Atlantic and Norway I learned working with chefs and travel.
My last fishy travel tale was in the Bergen, Norway fish market as I’m going down memory lane 🐟
…And in the U.S., we have our own fish markets. it’s common that we source wild fish from the Northwest Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
But anywhere you are and anytime of the year, you can make your light (aka healthy) baked Fish and Chips.
This healthy baked fish dish is served with waffle potato fries that doesn’t compromise taste or healthy food notes… and is so simple to make.
Potato waffle fries are made with a little extra virgin oil love that’s healthy. You can use a waffle iron if you have one or you use a skillet on the stove and make potato hash or flat potato pancakes.
And if potatoes are not on your menu choice and you want a different style with the same basic ingredients in baked fish and chips, alternatively you can cook your fish with boiled potatoes.
But if you just want to stick with the traditional fish and chips fare made in a healthy cooking way, enjoy this recipe with no guilt.
A healthy baked fish and no-fried waffle chips with a no-mayonnaise tartar sauce recipe.
Course dinner, lunch
Cuisine American, british
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Equipment
waffle iron
Ingredients
6ozwhite fish such as cod, whiting, or flounder
1/2cupPanko bread crumbs
1-2white or all-purpose potatoes
1/4cupcottage cheese for tartar sauce
1-2pickles or gherkins
Instructions
Brush fish with olive oil to keep from drying. Add to oven at 325℉/165°C until fully baked.
For bread crumb topping, toast panko crumbs in a separate pan from fish. Set bread crumbs on the top oven shelf so they don't burn. They will toast brown in about 5 minutes or less on the top shelf.
Cook/soften your potatoes until they are mashable. Scoop out small balls about the same size and flatten. You can make the "chips" in a waffle iron or on a sautee pan with olive oil.
For the tartar sauce, mince the pickles and add to a blender with cottage cheese. Add a tiny bit of pickle juice for stronger flavor. You can do this in a Magic Bullet or similar easy blender.
Plant-based breakfast ideas encourage our better low sugar healthy habits that help our bodies protect us against inflammation and preventable lifestyle diseases like Type 2 Diabetes.
Plant-based can be delicious and filling like a Three Sisters dish where the trifecta effect is proteins, carbs, and fiber.
Net healthy plant-forward 3 Sisters dish with butternut squash, corn, and black beans. Imagine starting your day with this trifecta!
Eating more plant-based foods also help our warming planet and climate change causes.
And when we align all of those intentions with farm-to-table delicious eating and seasonal food preferences, we’re restoring our Ayurvedic body balance…
Some simple examples are: we want to eat and drink lighter, cool foods like cereals, smoothies, and cold brew beverages on warm days. And prefer comfort, warm porridge and potato food on cold days.
With rapid climate change these days, we often flip flop back and forth daily and seasonally. We use our internal body cues and external clues to keep us balanced.
It’s good to be aware how all this healthy information helps us.
And the good news is there’s a plant-based fix for all of us.
Below are some plant-based breakfast ideas that can get you excited about your health, energy, and planet with unusual climate changes… plus help you lower your sugar intake.
Like an Earth Day layered drink helps us appreciate all the constantly changing stratospheres in our planet. And this is a metaphor for our lives where nothing stays the same.
Lowering Your Sugar in Breakfasts
Firstly, if you started out like I did as a sweet tooth (or still are one 😋), you know there’s definitely hope if you want to change your tastes from sugary sweet to lower sugar, healthy plant-based breakfast ideas…
Many years ago, I had a guest coming over for the holidays that I learned was diabetic. I knew I had to come up with a sweet option for this special guest. That was the only option for this former party planner (where finding a way was the only way and “once a food planner, always a planner”).
I sympathized because I couldn’t imagine going through life without sweets! 🍭
So around town I drove and picked up a bag of diabetic cookies (substituting refined sugar with maltitol). If you’re not familiar, monk fruit sugar is commonly used today as the new maltitol ingredient. I use monk fruit sugar often out of healthy preference. You don’t have to be diabetic.
And anyway, I fell in love with those diabetic cookies. I figured the guest would be as excited as I would to have an after dinner dessert with the rest of us.
Those were the days when AllRecipes was one of the very few online sites you could find recipes besides OG Martha Stewart and offline cookbooks that never grow old.
There weren’t diabetic recipe sites.
…And so, when the holiday dinner rolled around, I mentioned the cookies to the diabetic guest, and I learned something very profound I’ll never forget when he declined the sweet offer…
💡The sweet taste was no longer even a category for this person who hadn’t had a sweet bite since his diagnosis.
That was an eye-opener. Because previously I thought people were born with a sweet tooth or they weren’t (and could do nothing about their sweet sentence). And I definitely was in the first category.
When I started upon my own journey to reduce daily sugar intake, I was reminded of those lessons.
I then knew I could gradually wean off of sugar as others had (like the diabetic guest) from changing habits.
And if I knew that sooner, I probably would’ve done so sooner.
And that’s like how most of us are with our areas we want to change: we don’t know what we don’t know. 🤔
When I gradually took in less sugar, I found I craved sugar less.
I didn’t have to do the heavy lifting all myself.
My body helped me and it helps all of us when we don’t keep overfeeding our sugar cravings.
…A light cookie with a sweet tea flavor without extra sugar will do the trick. It doesn’t have to be the portions served at restaurants.
And baking your own sweet goods can save you because you don’t have a large box sitting around tempting you.
You can simply make less and then you’ve taught yourself that working for a sweet is a reward.
You satiate your sweet craving with a tiny bite that’s also the most delicious bite.
💡In economic terms, that’s: the marginal utility wears off with each bite.
💡In nutrition terms, that’s: intuitive and mindful eating helps you appreciate your food as part of daily joy and helps build a healthy relationship with food.
And in my first tries, making it through those habit forming days where I reached for a low-sugar cereal over cookies was sobering but still doable. One step forward, two steps back.
But I knew deeper down I could go a day without sugar.
And the opportunity arose where I chose to fast from sugar with a church-wide fast event. This was for our spiritual growth. We could choose anything that was addictive to us.
I was in a Bible book club then studying the book of Isaiah and learned that the people in that day were addicted to idols that caused their problems.
And without a moment’s hesitation, I picked sweets as the first thought that came to mind.
From the sweet fast experience, I learned I didn’t even crave sweets when I had an intention and was determined for a desired outcome.
But I was still stunned at what happened.
Because that was a new concept to me: what… not desire sweets!?…that would’ve shocked all my closest friends as I always had a piece of candy or something sweet on me even when I wasn’t aware.
It’s no surprise that when I was younger, I was a sucker for mosquitoes that loved my sweet blood.
And then in 2021, I started baking weekly. I added less and less sugar into my bakes. And sometimes not using refined sugar or monk fruit sugar at all and only using whole fruits, spices, and other healthy natural powder ingredients.
It was hard for me to add spoonfuls of sugar when I knew how harmful sugar is for both the body and mind.
And that became my healthy way out of sugar when my skin became inflamed with eczema during the uncertain early days of the pandemic when I was also building up a pantry and starting to home cook more.
Eczema was my wake up call.
It was my body’s warning to me that I took seriously.
And the effect was a much lighter consequence than a destroying gut microbiome outcome, Diabetes or other chronic disease diagnosis.
I used healthy teeth as one of my motivators for a comeback to heathy eating.
…As a kid I loved eating spoonfuls of white sugar straight out of the glass sugar jar. I always had cavities, and that thought alone makes me run to celery or carrots.
And yeah that was many decades ago, but that’s pretty much what we’re doing when we buy processed sweets or sugary sodas. It’s not our fault because they’re in our face all the time.
And in America and the Western world cultures, that’s just a gimme.
Plus, Vata bodies love sweets! Others do too, but it’s a given with a Vata. We were born with this desire that we can turn into a healthy one.
And you and I can survive on fruit and natural powder only sweets that are loaded with polyphenol antioxidants. I haven’t met a fruit yet that didn’t have antioxidant vitamins. 😊
This works over fighting willpower that never works. Because what you tell yourself “no” to only builds energy more toward the thought.
If you’re jonesing for southern-style Devils Food Cake, you’re not going to head for white cloud Angel Cake without a higher intervention. ☁️
Distraction and replacement are sweet answers for sugary and processed snack food cravings.
You can turn to plant-based foods, like popcorn for potato chips… and get into an activity that takes your mind off food, like a fasting habit or gardening.
If someone tells me they have a sweet tooth craving they think they could never satiate or change, I know that’s not true. It’s all made up in the mind.
You can live with a lower, healthy amount of sugar every day. That starts with your first meal where you break the fast or breakfast.
Easy Low-Sugar Plant Based Breakfast Ideas For Starters
For starters, opt for a protein. You can start with a protein shake if that fits your preferences like a layered drink that has protein powder.
As you age, your body need to increase your intake of essential amino acids to compensate for muscle loss.
Add a healthy fat like avocado that’s great when you break a fast, first thing at breakfast, or if you’ve been fasting overnight or longer.
During my catering work days, we always had a Crudite platter available for vegetarians. Raw veggies are a great way to prime the stomach first and add some roughage fiber that the gut needs.
Raw carrots, bell peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, and asparagus are great examples.
They’re easy to put together on a plate. And if you need a dipping sauce, you can always use a Greek yogurt with dill as a savory healthy beginning.
And if you take vitamins, you do better taking fat-soluble Vitamins A, D, E, and K with some fat in your body. So it’s better to take those after or with your meal where you’ve had some avocado, oil, nut, or seeds in your system.
Black bean quinoa cereal. Both ingredients have protein. Add cocoa powder if you want brownie bite tastes and top with chia, flax, hemp, sunflower, etc.
Greek yogurt sundae. Add your whole fruits like banana and berries.
Sprinkle with your favorite nuts like sliced almonds, walnuts, or pistachios. Don’t be shy with your seeds. Cantaloupe and melon seeds loaded with vitamins are a nice vitamin addition too.
Oatmeal with apples or applesauce. If you’re leaning toward a little sweet taste, add Ceylon cinnamon (our Ayurvedic Vata go-to spice). This will set you up for a sweet bite without tipping the scales.
Chocolate avocado mousse. This is a great one you can blend up in seconds with dark cocoa and a ripe avocado.
Main Points
Be easy on yourself.
Be open to give the plant-based breakfast ideas a try. Pick a few more of your favorite healthy ingredients such as a banana or an avocado and let your creative breakfast imagination go wild!
Don’t give up. Not creating a deadline or rules can be the magic formula that eliminates the pressure.
Change your words and thoughts. Say, “Yum this tastes great even when it tastes odd to you.” That helps your mind to agree with you when you’re trying to be healthy.
Then next time, introduce a new healthy food or spice. Let the odd new tastes take over until they win you over.
And if you want to learn how to add fasting to your sustainable healthy habits to eliminate snacking, sweets, and extra pounds, check out the free IF guide.
If you still have a sweet hankering, you can enjoy your plant-based breakfast ideas with a decadent aroma tea like the chocolate mint black tea I’m sipping on. 🧉 And you can pair with a healthy start.
unsweetened 70% cocoa (natural, not dutch processed)
raspberries
shredded coconut
Instructions
Blend milk, avocado, and cocoa.
Zhugh with raspberries. These are anti-inflammatory ingredient pairings.
Notes
To make this healthy version is 3 main ingredients: ripe avocado, almond milk, and unsweetened cocoa (garnished with raspberries and shredded coconut).
