Dirty soda is made healthy with tea. What about a blueberry green tea like this one that that has strawberry and rhubarb flavors infused? Oh… and coconut cream (healthy fat) that dirties this beverage. This could be an elevated virgin drink you pour in a celebrational glass.
The pretty white is coconut cream that’s a healthy fat (MCT). If you’ve heard of MCTs, they help convert fat into energy and support metabolism.
They’re a natural energy boost that help you wean off energy drinks and old habits you no longer need… from cramming hard or finishing projects that tested you!
A cream soda is a good way to infuse new healthier habits, and one I dreamed up from a not-so-healthy, sugary cream soda can past.
But with a splish dash of coconut (milk) and a splash of fizzy seltzer water, or gut healthy prebiotic or probiotic soda, is going to be better for you than regular sodas.
The difference between prebiotic or probiotic sodas, is feeding the good bacteria gut fiber (prebiotic) or adding more good bacteria (probiotic).
Both are good for you and your gut where most your happiness is.
…And a better healthy low-sugar habit. That’s good if you’re learning the ropes to calm your sugar cravings which btw helps overall healthy and weight.
And a good switch off artificial sweetened diet and regular sugary sodas if that’s your daily rhythm… I did that in my 20s when regular and diet can sodas were the rage (and still are today!).
They were complimentary in the office I worked in and gave me the daily energy push I needed.
…so I couldn’t say no (I thought).
And the healthy alternative was water. Still is.
But water as the drink of life lacks taste.
(Not to mention, it’s a tad boring compared to tea-fruit’s juice-soda variety. Where whole fruit is naturally an anti-inflammatory choice, and you can choose an anti-inflammatory tea).
So I gradually switched from breakfast can sodas to coffee for morning. And then tea in the afternoon.
Those were quiet options back then (without coffee shops everywhere other than diners and convenience stores).
But over the years, coffee and tea helped me gradually wean off diet sodas.
…And if you want to be healthier too, a modern dirty soda is how you can make a micro-switch habit to add in more healthy drinking ingredients to your overall daily consumption habits, where the body keeps score.
These are the ingredients I used for my blueberry healthy dirty soda tastes:
…Oh, and like a healthy smoothie you make, you can’t go wrong with your mixology skills.
Like, you can’t add too much or too little. Because naturally, you’ll adjust the liquids because your taste buds (or someone else’s taste buds) will tell you so.
And if the fruity foods and beverages you add in appeal to you, they will be great in a mixed soda mocktail like this virgin dirty soda.
Whether you choose strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, cherry, or lemon flavors as your favorite now… or a vanilla tea instead of a blueberry twist one. Either way, is up to you! And it’s more than just a soda.
…And with drink in hand, you can let it help put a smile on your face to commemorate this season of your life. Or use tropical fruit flavors in season to remind you of a swoonworthy summer holiday place to get out of wanderlust feelings that can strike at any moment of the day.
And if you’re wondering if you should strain the healthy fat from the cream soda, my two cents is don’t bother, as that’s what makes this drink “dirty” and fun.
Some like to make a bigger head (foam), that you can do with a frother tool like you would use for making home cappuccino foam.
And if you’d rather have your soda less cloudy, or more clear and clean, then you can add no-fat milk to your soda tea juice. It’s a good way to get Vitamin D and minerals into your day. And green tea has L-theanine that’s healthy good especially for longer term focus.
And a great way to get your wildly superfruit berries in!
Pour ingredients into a drinking glass. Optional: shake ingredients in a blender if you like. To make an extra foamy top, warm milk of choice and then use a frother tool to agitate and thicken.
Beet green smoothie is a way to make a sweet and healthy smoothie you’ll love… that is so refreshing!
You can have a healthy and deliciously sweet green smoothie that’s not a bitter one. It’s great for breakfast or a daily sweet break.
…You can beet that!
Where to get the beets? Find a local farm or farmers market. There you can find the greens directly from the source without having to grow your own garden or driving hours out of your metro city.
And beet greens are some of the healthiest greens on the planet.
They are full of anti-inflammatory ingredients like A, C, E vitamins. Plus minerals including magnesium that we usually don’t get daily enough of compared to say, potassium that’s on many food labels.
But you shouldn’t go overboard with beets, as with most good things in life.
Even healthy foods are good up to a certain point. Moderation is the sweet spot. And a smoothie a day is one way.🧉
With fiber, this helps your gut and is good for healthy weight maintenance.
And if you have extra beet greens: you can make a nice anytime salad that’s similar to a spinach salad.
What will make it extra special, says my catering self 😊, is wilting the greens with heat and about a teaspoon of water. That softens the greens. And then to take the bland taste to an extra special WOW, add a few douses of garlic powder (I find fresh whole garlic too strong), pears or apples, and walnuts for a crunch.
Fresh farm salads don’t need a salad dressing, but if I were to add one it would be with balsamic vinegar and Buffalo mozzarella (or substitute with other mild white cheeses, and even cottage cheese).
But now it’s breakfast time… and a sweet breakfast smoothie will do! And a beet stalk is my new happy Twizzler.
These are the simple beet green smoothie ingredients: beet greens, natural peanut butter, and a banana.
The most pure peanut butter to buy that’s good for a healthy smoothie has just roasted peanuts and salt in the ingredients (that you stir).
And if peanut butter or banana is not your vibe, but sweet IS… beets also play great with berries! You can make a beet blueberry smoothie that has a punch or make an after fasting herbal rose beet smoothie… schhweeeet and sweet!
Simply blend and enjoy! Or add your other healthy goodies like chia or flax seeds and protein powders that are a healthy good smoothie ingredient opportunity. 💚
Protein smoothie bowl is dreamy color-enhanced with healthy anti-inflammatory powder supplements like spirulina, that’s also high in protein… and that you can learn more about below. Plus, how to blend in the superfood powder to make a tasty bowl (and not just a healthy one!).
Spirulina if you don’t know, is algae. It sounds like what you and I may have studied in school under a microscope or saw floating in a pond. I saw both in my journey.
Today, it’s no longer controversial in food and as a food ingredient. It’s also no longer a hold-your-nose-to-swallow healthy food that tastes like medicine when you find the right mild one that’s much easier to come across and source online today.
…Because I remember when I tried to source blue spirulina before 2020, and it was not online ready yet. But back then, I did buy green algae spirulina that quickly brought me back to the smells of living next to a pond and walking into a pet store, getting closer toward the fish aquarium sections.
But I blended some of the powder into my green smoothies with a bunch of pineapple to try and sweetly mask the taste.
And then one day I noticed the blue spirulina powder on the market. I had seen the powder in a bowl coming out of a smoothie place years earlier.
I was excited for getting the powder because I knew what aqua bright colors it could make.
…And so I did! And you too can make a breakfast protein smoothie bowl into a mermaid blue…
With the concentrated spirulina powder I had, I added a few drops of healthy plant-based Pandan gel that I discovered had been available for a while. It’s the vanilla extract of the east. And has an earthy taste and dark green color if you’re not familiar.
With the blue powder and green gel combined together, you get a cool blue-green aqua shade. Is it blue or is it green? That’s between your color mix and cones’ perceptions in your eyes.
And whatever the soothing end color, for me this has become a loved yogurt smoothie breakfast morning bowl. It’s also one of my site colors for daily inspiration.
Spirulina Protein Powder
But more than color, spirulina is also more than half protein! Between 57-70 grams in 100 grams that you can add to your grocery healthy protein list.
it’s an alternative for a protein powder if you don’t like whey (that comes from dairy).
Or collagen powders (that come from animals).
Spirulina is plant-based, and has other benefits like it’s a high antioxidant potency for anti-inflammatory health. The blue-green algae colors are filled with chlorophyll, that are especially good for body immunity and detox.
Blue spirulina is great for smoothies or a protein smoothie bowl. It makes for a fun healthy drink or bowl with natural colors.
Blended up with yogurt or milk white as the base medium, you get a lighter shade. It’s really an eat-from-the rainbow drink because white contains all the colors.🌈
But you can also go deep green or deep blue marine blue by blending in blueberries to blue spirulina.
And if you want to go wild purple, you can even make a deep purple color by also blending in strawberries or raspberries. Now that’s one royal bowl. 👑
And if you’re deciding which powder to add based on protein amount, here’s the healthy skinny…
Spirulina vs. Collagen (vs. Whey) Protein
Collagen is animal protein and has about 90 grams of protein per 100 grams, so it’s more than plant-based spirulina. Hydrolyzed collagen is the finer version of collagen.
In case you’re wondering, bone broth has less than 10 grams per 100 grams, since it’s diluted (vs. powder supplement). Collagen is a type of protein found in bone broth.
Fun fact: Even though you hear fitness people talking about and taking whey powder commonly for weight lifting and muscle building, you’d think it came from an animal source. But it’s actually 70-90 grams of protein that comes from dairy (as in separating curds and whey in the cheesemaking process)… and milk is not just for babies.
So the choice is yours… you can add whey, spirulina, or collagen into a protein smoothie bowl if you’re trying to rack up more protein points.
You’d never know in a pretty Tiffany blue bowl that you can dunk a spoon in… maybe even today?
And if you like this dreamy color and healthy idea, you’ll probably like this idea too, to make a healthy blue frosting you can have for breakfast (and feel good about feeding your body)… and/or a berry yogurt smoothie you can make in seconds with a Magic Bullet.
You can also turn a protein smoothie bowl into a drinking smoothie by simply blending in the liquid portion of the yogurt, milk, or other liquids.
Healthy proteins belong on the new food pyramid. Starting 2026, it’s an inverted triangle funnel shape with a heightened focus on healthy proteins and dairy at the top.
This is a printable protein grocery list you can use for inspiration and good for anyone who is following a healthy diet like the Mediterranean diet.
One other food category that has been a constant is Vegetables & Fruits (healthy carbs). They’re still a top priority as nature’s produce in a garden.
V&F are also store affordable, and have a lot of value add to the body with all its vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants (to fight free radicals in cells).
Unlike packaged foods, V&F grocery labels are PLU stickers that need no list of ingredients to dilute. They are whole and healthy.
I remember the original food pyramid that started in the previous century from the New food pyramid. It was a controversial 23+ servings, coming from the 4 basic food groups.
In simpler times, the rectangular 4 basic food groups kept it inside-the-box basic. Dairy was already one of the main food groups. Meat was another that represented healthy proteins.
Plant-based proteins have been around since B.C. times, but hadn’t cropped up on the table scene for the Western diet yet (…and maybe why a food pyramid was built 😊).
But amino acids have been with us for for-EVER, even though it’s more technical…
And amino acid profiles give more protein details… where some surprising foods (besides meats and eggs) have all 9 essential amino acids that the body can’t make: foods such as amaranth, nutritional yeast, and buckwheat.
Those just happen to be a few of my food loves to subtly add-in, and they’re naturally gluten-free (and easier to digest).
A few ideas... you can easily sprinkle in nutritional yeast like a healthy spice. In case you haven’t discovered yet, nutritional yeast is a dairy-free cheesy alternative. It’s a flaky powder that doesn’t melt well, but is as good as a final zhugh topping to pastas (and any foods you want a cheesy umami taste). 🧀
And you can spread some cooked amaranth into the dough of a homemade whole grain roll that rolls fresh out of the oven.
And many dairy foods have healthy proteins. Like real cheeses, that are mostly made of water, milk fat, proteins (casein and whey), lactose (milk sugar), and minerals. You can easily add into a breakfast meal like with a cottage cheese blueberry peach smoothie.
Below is a list of healthy proteins and dairy (along with tips, ideas, and inspo) on how you can get more food value with more healthy proteins and combining (…2 proteins together?). This helps your body win healthy points, alongside a loose guideline-based diet like in the new food pyramid.
What healthy foods are high in protein for the new food pyramid and a healthy diet?
You can use a printable healthy protein source food list like this one to decide for yourself, or when you’re making choices grocery shopping:
Generally, women can loosely stick to eating about .7 to 1 gram (or slightly less) per pound of body weight. I use 1 gram for easy math. As an example, for a 135 pound woman, that’s 100-135 grams per day.
And to get those points, here are a few point-based healthy protein comparisons. Keep in mind different proteins have different types and amounts of amino acids that’s important. I learned this unconventionally and out of curiosity.
…Because I wondered why on occasion when I ate something that didn’t agree with me, why I always felt better eating beef than other sources of protein, after being on the simple to digest BRAT diet or not eating for a day or two. And it turns out, it’s more than just familiarity and that I grew up eating meals with beef.
It has a lot to do with the different and different amounts of amino acids that describe the differences in protein sources between say chicken, fish, and beef that affect the digestive system.
So like most healthy foods, it’s good to diversify and not put all your eggs in one basket… but starting with an eggs is not a bad idea either.
And a good place to start on here…
Eggs -There is more protein in egg whites, but 6-7 grams for a large egg in liquid form. Keep in mind grams change for wet and dry ingredients (and before or after cooking an egg).
Chicken breast, skinless – If you want to get to your daily protein grams count quicker, chicken is a good healthy proteins answer. It has 30-31 grams per 1/2 cup (100 grams/3.5 ounces). 2 liquid eggs is about 3.5 ounces, so that’s less than half the protein than chicken. Lunch recipe idea: try an easy chicken salad.
Lean beef – This was mentioned already… but f you’ve ever wondered why after you feel sick from something you ate, when you’re recovering and you eat ground beef and feel better, it’s because beef is specifically high in glutamine and glycine (amino acids). It also has more leucine (muscle building benefits). 100 grams or 3.5 cooked ounces that is used for comparison with all the proteins named here (in this article) have about 25-30 grams.
Sardines and anchovies – Using the same 3.5 ounces, a sardine can have about 18-20 grams. Anchovies can be even higher in the 30 grams range, but always check the labels.
Wild salmon – This is the healthy fish protein choice, but more known for the Omega-3 content that’s good on a healthy fat list especially for heart, anti-inflammation, and on a Mediterranean diet. You can also find about 20 grams of protein in salmon filet. A salad recipe to try!: salmon salad
Quinoa, btw, and other pseudo grains like amaranth and buckwheat (already mentioned) are complete proteins. Quinoa has about 4 grams per 100 grams, but is high in lysine amino acid, so it can be good to include for those who only eat plant-based proteins. Oh, and get this… black quinoa you don’t hear about as often, has a higher amount of 15-20 protein grams!
Rolling them into your cereal is a good idea along with a rolled oat bowl. Rolled oats is a good balanced protein with 13-17 grams. Sometimes I like to add my daily oats, just shy of a cup, to make a low-sugar oatmeal raisin cookie that’s also got Greek yogurt (with about 10 grams of protein per 100 grams/3.5 ounces).
How’s that’s for double healthy protein inspiration?
And, moving into plant-based protein sources:
Tofu – has about the 7-10 grams of protein per 3.5 ounce, closer to an egg. And like an egg, you can make a tofu scramble. I like to add some nuts and seeds to give some texture, and additional healthy proteins. Some other healthy recipe ideas to try: Tofu pepperoni and tofu chil.
Nuts – Peanuts have about 26 grams per 3.5 ounce/100 grams. And most nuts have about 18-25 grams. These days nuts are deemed healthy and a healthy handful makes a good snack.
Seeds – Seeds have 16-31 grams with pumpkin seeds and hemp seeds/hearts. We only see a few varieties in grocery stores but there are many thousands of seed types in the world. You can find more seeds in spice aisles such as celery, poppy, and sesame seeds.
Beans – Beans are another fascinating protein food with 7-9 grams per 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of cooked beans. Cooking dry beans is a great way to get into cooking, and make the beans easier to digest (removing the complex sugars – oligosaccharides). Try a turmeric soup with 15 beans or an Italian bean salad.
Lentils – about 9 grams per 100 cooked grams. And of lentils, green lentils win the fiber count. Most lentils cook quicker than beans. You can try an easy mushy green lentils peas.
And one healthy protein may not be familiar with is spirulina powder that’s off the charts, in the 50-70 grams range. You can make a healthy virgin blue curaçao beverage with the spirulina blue-green algae. You just need a smidge to get the ocean blue colors. It’s the wave of the future! 🌊
And finally we can look at healthy foods that have protein and dairy! Meat and plant proteins don’t have dairy, but most dairy have proteins.
On the new food pyramid, 3 servings of dairy are recommended that varies on the food. For yogurt a serving is about 1/2 cup, so that’s still around the 3.5 ounces (we used to compare proteins). Grams change by weight for wet and dry ingredients (or before or after cooked).
Greek yogurt – 7-10 grams of protein per 3.5 ounce (or a dairy serving). I can’t say enough about Greek yogurt as it can be used for desserts, a savory pita bread dip, and for many breakfas-y and even waffle brunch recipes.
Goat or sheep cheese – less processed has 21-22 grams of protein!
Buffalo mozzarella cheese – True buffalo mozzarella can even be eaten by some people who are dairy sensitive. Because the milk comes from water buffalo, that is lower in lactose than most cow milks. Buffalo mozzarella also has sirtuins (“longevity proteins”). I believe we’ll be hearing more about sirtuins in the future as helpers to cellular health, aging, and metabolism.
Buffalo mozzarella is very meltable and especially delicious on a Neapolitan-style pizza crust you can make from your home oven!
And last but not least…
Cottage cheese – Cottage cheese about 11-13 grams of protein, but check the labels as with all the other labelled foods. Cottage cheese is high in casein, that helps you feel full especially if you’re trying to lose weight.
Looking for some healthy dessert recipes? I got you. Try these low-sugar dessert sweets. Some of them are no-added sugar (Greek yogurt) or could be made delicious with low or no sugar. 🍥
