Coffee milkshake is a nice option along with many coffee drinks out there… coffee lattes, macchiatos, cappuccinos… and the list keeps growing as coffee interest grows. ☕️
I was a late coffee bloomer if there’s such a thing… starting a morning routine decades into life.
It was a bitter acquired taste to my younger self.
But I realized after some years into the happy habit, around the 7-year switch (like allergy changes), that my gut couldn’t keep up with my cup o’ java demand… so I switched to homemade cold brew coffee.
Because I didn’t wanna give up my new healthy routine.
Afterall, black coffee is a healthy plant-based antioxidant beverage choice. Tea has its own special place in my drink world, but after noon. 🕛
…And with a cold brew coffee milkshake, you don’t have to choose, you can enjoy anytime of day!
It’s a great treat option (…yes/maybe?) especially when it’s still warm temperatures outside. And that can be closer to year round in these climate change days.
And just seconds if you’ve been on the cold brew coffee bandwagon for a while, and have your setup and coffee grounds available.
…I could make you a nice cup in a minute and it’d be ready to drink in that same minute. 😊
I started making cold brew daily in 2019.
That’s when I discovered that I could not have a regular morning coffee routine because of the acidity. Whether it was the fasting day next morning or it was breakfast time, my stomach needs water and food first!
…Maybe yours is like that too.
But I can enjoy cold brew coffee at ease with some small food (like a banana, yogurt, or some fiber) in the gut.
So if you have a sensitive gut or lining, that’s something to consider… and maybe you don’t have to give up a coffee habit or coffee morning routine if you don’t wanna.
…And this light creamy coffee milkshake is a nice complement.
You can keep adding cold brew to your milkshake that can be a breakfast shake (or more like a light cappuccino). 🧋
And it’s a healthy breakfast dessert drink because it’s light but also has egg protein. 🥚
With a plant-based milk like almond milk added, this does your body good. 🌱
Since cold brew coffee is less acidic in the process, you can start your morning with any ground coffee that you can sift through the coffee filter, that is “the brew” process in cold brew.
You can use light, medium, or dark black coffee grounds. Whatever suits your fancies.
And to top it all off, the optional sweet zhugh is chocolate shavings. If you use dark chocolate then you gain some additional healthy polyphenol anti-inflammatory points. 🎉
That’s all the sugar needed in this coffee milkshake drink, if any.
It’s not loaded with sugar like so many cool coffee beverages you buy that give even my inner child a sugar skin crawl attack just looking at how many grams of sugar. 😮
This milkshake can have no added sugar and be wickedly good!
…And not only is this a low-sugar beverage, you gotta love that this is 3-ingredient easy shake steps… where you focus mostly on the drinking enjoyment!
Italian bean salad is inspiraton from one salad dish I used to make every day. 🥗
That was in my teen years when I worked in the pantry of an italian restaurant with marble floors where you could hear silverware drop like a drum band.
…Those young years, I was responsible for lunch salads and desserts served at the tables that I could see from the open-style kitchen.
While the job was a summer one, the salad is one that stuck with me for many decades later when I became a food service professional… and can be one that you make.
It’s loaded with Italian ingredient greats… like gorgonzola, radicchio, and arugula that have distinct flavors.
Those are common in big American grocery stores where you can play a version of Guy’s Grocery Games 😊 as they’re usually hiding among the salads, produce, and cheeses.
Maybe see how long it takes you to find them camouflaged amongst the greens… and cheeses. 🧀
No green cheese, but blue healthy moldy cheese. Penicillium Roqueforti is mold that gives the blue veining easy to point out.
That makes it easier to find the cheese in the grocery store.
…And as for time, shopping will take the longest from sourcing (or farm) to table as salad prep can be quick and I think is relaxing, even though this Italian bean salad has 11 ingredient types to add.
If you can’t find radicchio, you can also substitute for Belgian endive, and blue cheese or a French cheese for gorgonzola.
Then you’d have an Italian-French salad.
They are worth the hunt as their flavors add interesting variety.
And eating variety is healthy for our microbiome guts. As you peruse, you’ll probably explore different sections of your grocery store than just around the perimeter for the staples.
And some may be right under your nose (like it was for me in my shopping adventure)…
I got lucky as there was a big gorgonzola cheese wheel that looks like a cake.
…So it wasn’t likely to be a miss. 🎂
Packaged up, you can’t smell the cheese… but imagine if it were open 🤔, that would have also attracted attention.
This good moldy cow’s milk cheese is a milder blue cheese. It doesn’t have such a funky aroma like a strong smelling blue cheese that purposefully smells rotten (but is healthy).
The cheese is named after the Gorgonzola northern Italian town it came from that’s famous for the blue veined cheese.
As a creamy cheese (almost like a cream cheese texture but not quite as creamy), it blends in with all the flavorful ingredients of this bean Italian Salad.
The beans are what make this Italian bean salad pennies per bite.
Added cannellini beans are the white beans…
And like most beans, they are high in protein and fiber good for losing weight and a healthy diet.
Beans are almost always great adds for soups and salads.
These cannellini ones are used in main Italian soups like Tuscan Ribollita and is one you can substitute in an everyday minestrone.
Beans can sometimes be boring, but you won’t be missing any bites in this salad as each one is flavorfully loaded.
It’s great for intuitive or mindful eating to slow down and lavish the flavors.
You’ll also get more flavors from the walnuts and apples (or pears). This is a fully nutritious bowl that’s a mouthfully fun experience to chew on…
You get bitter (arugula, radicchio), slightly sweet (onions), citrusy, herby (pesto), acidic (balsamic) and balanced (spices).
You get soft (beans), creamy (gorgonzola), salty (capers), and crunchy (apple, walnuts) textures.
Ready to make this flavorful Italian bean salad? 🥗
In an Italian restaurant I worked in as a teen pantry helper, my job was to prepare salads and desserts! This one is inspired by that restaurant with great Italian ingredients you can find in most big grocery stores.
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
arugula salad
radicchio
cannellini beans (white beans)
gorgonzola cheese (milder blue cheese) crumbles
pesto sauce (basil, pine nuts)
balsalmic vineger
oregano, lemon pepper, coriander, parsley
white onions (Vidalia or cipollino onion)
apple or pear (diced or sliced)
walnuts (optonal)
capers
Instructions
Add a bed of arugula.
Fill a radicchio leaf with a mixture of beans, cheese, capers, and onion.
Add fruit and walnut on the salad. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar (or light vinegar of choice as an alternative) and pesto. Flavor with spices.
Watermelon coffee drink is an idea you can make to use up watermelon leftovers and the reserved juice.
The watermelon taste is balanced and add a nice subtleness to coffee that’s stronger than water or ice… afterall, watermelon is 90% water.
Gotta love watermelon water!
…as you’re quenching your thirst and getting watermelon fruit nutrients all-in-one swoop!Oh, and coffee energy that you can sip on all day with cold brew coffee if you choose!
Watermelon coffee has a crisp enhancing flavored coffee taste that’s good and healthy. Its low calories and loaded with Vitamin C, B6, and magnesium.
And unlike morning coffee, this watermelon coffee drink you can sip on all day or until your caffeine quitting time. ⏰
How to make watermelon coffee:
It’s made effortlessly in a day with cooled liquids ready-to-go and to mix together.
This can be half pre-made cold brew coffee and half watermelon juice that comes out from carving a watermelon and saving the liquid..
Basic watermelon coffee
And then make a frozen layered drink as fun as this watermelon one if you dare… here you’ll take advantage of healthy plant-based food coloring that give a nice green color (…yes?) and saving part of the watermelon full of fiber that’s usually never eaten or shared.
And you can add to a salad too. 🤔
Layered watermelon coffee
You can zhugh your drink with watermelon shapes and watermelon popsicles…
Add layer of watermelon juice from a fresh cut watermelon. Freeze
Cut the green section of the watermelon (that looks and tastes like a cucumber) into small chunks and blend with water. Add layer to glass and then freeze.
Add cold brew coffee with a drop of Pandan gel. Tip: add about half coffee and half watermelon for good taste results. Freeze.
Pull out of the freezer and add milk to see the watermelon layering effects!
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.
Either avocado smoothie way, an avocado super fruit is one good healthy fat food to eat first thing because of its profile. 🥑
An avocado has fiber, protein and healthy fat that will help your muscles, and prevent blood sugar spikes that’s easier to do on an empty stomach before you’ve had your first meal.
And all that helps prevent weight gain from cravings.
And on those missions, you can add one more healthy step intention.
You can make your avocado smoothie more of a savory experience with a little vinegar, leaning into its veggie appearance. Yes, adding a little vinegar like in a salad but in your smoothie.
I recommend drinking this with the simple avocado smoothie only, but up to you or not if you add to your avocado coffee as a healthy smoothie enhancement.
Vinegar with acetic acid is a natural probiotic and can help balance gut, improve digestion, and lower bloating and gas.
As food as medicine goes, ACV can be your remedy for heartburn symptoms taken before or with your meals. No more popping pills.
A good way is to add a few ACV eye dropper drops full or a teaspoon of vinegar to your avocado smoothie that you’ll barely taste.
And one last easy step for your healthy balanced living is growing an avocado seed to a plant.
This way you keep all the avocado parts, in sustainability efforts.
Avocado is one of the healthiest ways to break the fast in the morning. It's high in glutathione antioxidant that's raised with coffee in research studies.
