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Frozen Cocoa Cherry Pistachio Beverage

Frozen cocoa beverage…whaattt? Cold cocoa (vs hot cocoa)  is probably not what you think of when you think of cozy Christmas-y holiday vibe drinks in December. ❄️

And not a beverage you would hold with mittens around a dreamy outdoor cozy fire.

…But before you turn away the idea, a frozen HYGGE-cozy flavored and FUN layered cocoa variety can be a welcomed chiller! 🧊 Think of it like an unusual frozen smoothie. And that is great for cooling any stress-irritated moods that can sink in.

Like this one I share how to easily make…cold cocoa beverage with cherry and pistachio

…It’s layered, and looking like a sand art glass (yes?). And one you can imagine maybe finding at a Christmas market or art show.

Oh, except this one is deliciously drinkable made with  drink slip away ingredients (and not slipping sand)! 🧋

And this frozen cocoa beverage is inspired by dairy-free spumoni ice cream flavors dreamt up from a childhood travel experience in Italy. 🇮🇹

Each layer is frozen and when the drink melts, it’s more fun to watch than a snowman melting. ☃️

You can use anti-inflammatory cocoa like I did with Hershey 100% raw cocoa, and then layer with cherry juice… and then add almond milk with a few drops of Pandan (for natural mint green color) and pistachios.

If you’ve never tasted Pandan 🌱, it’s a plant-based ingredient with a vanilla-nutty vibe that taste mixes well with plant-based milks like almond or cashew milk.

For healthy cocoa, instead of going to the cocoa mix beverage aisle of the grocery store, visit the baking or seasonal aisles instead to find the pure multi-purpose cocoa.

The cocoa can be used to make a drink like hot or cold cocoa, or used to bake with and make desserts like healthy chocolate cake, brownies, and cookies.

You want to find an unsweetened, raw cocoa that is not alkalized (processed or Dutched cocoa) for the healthy tastes. And this is the best kind to bake with too!

Most marketed drinking cocoa coming in packets or pouches with the options of marshmallows are the processed kind often loaded with sugar.

You can always sweet treat yourself with marshmallows (sugar) ontop at the end. Or simply zhugh with coconut chips or pistachio crumbles.

You can also substitute the cocoa with a healthy coffee milkshake or pure cold brew coffee.

And then after you’ve made your frozen cocoa beverage artwork 😁, you can serve with cocoa desserts like this cocoa brownie cake with cashews and dried raspberries.

Which btw, polyphenol-rich cocoa and raspberries are an anti-inflammatory power couple.

…But me-thinks 🧒🏻 that a frozen cocoa beverage is just what these healthy un-iced  and faceless molasses gingerbread men ordered. The mystery remains… 😊

 

Lemon Cookies – Healthy For the Holidays

Lemon cookies are one tasty way to brighten up your holiday and Christmas cookie baking fun. 🎄

At first, it may sound strange to bake in lemon during the holidays.

…Because when we think of  Christmas cookies, we traditionally think of chocolate, pistachio, or spices for Christmas-y vibes… and not summery lemon-y ones.

…But actually lemon is a winter fruit as most citrus fruits are.

Tip: you can buy lemons in the grocery stores in the winter months and freeze them for year-round use. You can save money this way as lemons are abundant in winter and when their price falls.

And these two healthy-inspired lemon cookies warm up the holiday baking season and festivities…

How to make these lemon strawberry and lemon rosemary cookies are step-by-step below…  ⬇️

…So now that we’ve established lemons 🍋 are great, tasty year-round ingredients, they’re also super healthy.

Lemons are loaded with Vitamin C and full of limonene that’s an antioxidant.

And not only body healthy, the sunny lemon yellow is going to put anyone in a good happy mood… while brightening up tastes.

…Just ask those in the Mediterranean regions where cooking lemon into the daily diet for longevity reasons is a happy way of life.

Healthy Lemon Cookies

And so…  in search of making one happy, anti-inflammatory lemon cookie, I was inspired by using healthy oils (no butter) and more healthy, natural sugar sources that have vitamins.

…But that was waayyy before I started baking all of my own sweets including cookies (my favorite!) for consumption…

Actually, I used to play a game with myself in the cookie grocery store aisle where I would find the healthiest cookie in a package with the smallest amount of sugar for the tastiest effect.

That was how I defined high cookie value.

Those were the day before I discovered how easy it is to bake your own cookies (that’s faster than if you go to the store and back).

And if you’re trying to lower your sugar intake (that’s a good idea! 💡)  but love cookies, tart lemon is a great ingredient dimension add to cookies so the focus isn’t on sugar.

…The sour taste buds are doing a front row Radio City Rockettes happy dance with the secondary sweet buds behind. 👯

Like in this celebrational plate of healthy cookies with a strawberry lemon drizzle dessert surprise (made of Greek yogurt and buffalo mozzarella) in the middle.

plate of homemade and baked cookies including lemon cookies.
Clockwise from left to right: lemon strawberry cookie, lemon almond thyme cookie, spiced cookie

Baking in healthy ingredients is anti-inflammatory for skin and gut heath.

And making a cookie without butter or white sugar of any kind — that’s also deliciously tasty, holds together, and is crunchy (wow, that’s a mouthful!) — similar to store-bought cookies, is a dream come true! 💕 ..

And these lemon cookies with strawberries 🍓 fit the bill. They’re zesty and sweet in every way…

lemon cookies with strawberries

…Maybe that’s where zest-for-life came from?

And you can make lemon cookies like these with mostly healthy ground almond flour where you can save money by chopping your own whole almonds with a machine.

Recipe below.👇

…Or you can make a thyme-rosemary lemon cookie that’s Mediterranean-diet-lemon-and-olive oil healthy.

Since you’re using oil instead of butter for this cookie, you don’t need to refrigerate or cool the dough before rolling out as an added bonus.

For the flour for those lemon cookies, use gluten-free flour like coconut or almond flour (again).

And for the sweetness, use a tablespoon of honey or maple syrup.

Those sweet ingredients also act as binders along with the olive oil. Honey is great for moisturizing in dry, winter months and maple syrup for cooling down in hot months. But either are great year-round!

You can measure the healthy EVOO, but it’s much more fun if you look at cookie making as a new adventure like the wonder you had as a kid.  💭

…In your wonder, you can take a cup of flour and make a mound. Then, make a small well in the middle (like you would if you were making pasta) and add a tablespoon of olive oil in the well and start combining… and see what happens.

You’ll probably see that you need more oil to hold the flour together.

Try another tablespoon of EVOO. Then add a tablespoon of honey (or maple syrup).

Then add lemon zest from one lemon, and you can also add your herbs like rosemary and thyme.

Keep combining and adding a little bit more of the ingredient amount you need, like more olive oil…

Cookies are super forgiving. 😋

When the cookie dough can hold together with crumbly bits falling off, that’s when you know you will have a good cookie crunch when fully baked.

Place a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper on top of your dough, and roll out the dough (or flatten dough with the palm of your hand for imperfect cookies).

Then you can form your cookies into the shape you like by hand or cookie cutters.

Bake on 325°F on the higher baking shelf for about 12 minutes. I like to flip the cookies (from bottom to top) about 5 minutes before they’re done so they are baked more even as the bottoms get brown faster.

Lemon cookies also tend to burn quicker than darker color cookies like gingerbread cookies, another favorite for this ‘lil Miss Cookie Monster! 😋

Print

Lemon Strawberry Cookie

Course Dessert
Cuisine American

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup almonds (or use almond flour)
  • 1 tbsp coconut oil, solid
  • 1 tbsp maple syrup
  • pinch of salt
  • strawberry
  • 1/4 cup bench flour

Instructions

  • Use a chopping processor machine to chop almonds to a fine almond flour or use store-bought almond flour. Combine with all ingredients except bench flour to make the cookie dough.
  • Add bench flour to your working surface and roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out shapes and add to a baking cookie sheet with a non-stick surface (Silpat or use baking spray).
  • Bake on 325°F for about 12 minutes or until sides are golden brown.

Coffee Milkshake with Cold Brew (3-Ingredients)

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.

…So why not?

A coffee milkshake like this one is different because it has soft serve-style ice cream, and cold brew coffee.

Cold brew takes minutes to make or “brew.”

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). 🧋

coffee milkshake with cold brew coffee.

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!

Print

Coffee Milkshake with Cold Brew

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

  • cold brew coffee
  • milk (unsweetened almond milk recommended)
  • cup scoop of ice cream

Instructions

  • Hand mix ingredients. Enjoy!

 

Biohacking Your Sweet Craving With Baking Substitute Tips

While you don’t need sweets to survive and would be better off without sugar, biohacking your sweet craving works if you work it.

And it works well when you bake your own goods and proof your own dough (like in the sweet veggie umami pizza that you can read about below).

I’m living proof it’s doable 🤗

…I’ve had a super sweet tooth since I was a child… candy, cookies, ice cream, you name it. Going to the dentist became so familiar, that now as an adult, I don’t have any dental office chair anxiety.  That’s the good news.

…And I think that’s one of the places early on where I realized that no news is good news.

The happy sugar on the tongue and mind keeps dentists and doctors in business. Most (not all) people have a daily sweet hankering that’s hard to shake off (well, maybe with a milkshake or a rich smoothie!).

Especially us Vatas who love sweets. And if you get in the habit of eating sweets because those around you (or you) bring it in the house, then below are some biohacking your sweet craving tips that I use.

Plus, ingredients you could consider adding or substituting (and my personal faves!).

…Especially over the past few years, people have been more cooped up indoors snacking, and sugar is everywhere and part of irregular stress eating patterns, that lead to increased weight and growing health issues.

Health is what got me to change my sweet ways. But I feel like I haven’t missed a beat in sweet enjoyment making a few adjustments. You can change your tastes because of healthy desires.

Chocolate cake, for example, wasn’t one of my fave flavors and now is. It’s one of the healthier cakes that I call Cocoa Cake.

Because it’s mostly made with cocoa. It’s healthy without the rich buttery decadence we’re used to associating with chocolate cakes.

I bake with unsweetened cocoa and a flour blend that includes gluten-free flour and probiotic Greek yogurt, almond milk, unsweetened applesauce, and eggs.

Some of those ingredients are healthy, especially without full-on fat and sugar. A ‘lil dab of the bad will do you… or better yet, you could substitute with healthy fat and fruits that have fructose sugar…

Your sweet spot is “in moderation” relative to your body’s tolerances for healthy goodness. If you have a Kapha body imbalance you want to reduce sugar, and if you’re daily “getting addicted” to sugar. It’s common sense + building good habits.

You can use nuts, higher in fiber and protein. And you can use coconut oil or light EVOO that I use as baking oil to give a batter moistness, and also make consuming daily fat-soluble vitamins more bioavailable to the body.

And my personal favorite is fruit zests and spices to add sweetness. It’s not cheating… it’s being smart with your health and calories.

And here’s a savory example that most of us have a weakness for: french fries. Without frying oil, potatoes are healthy sources of vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

So when roasting or cooking our potatoes, they’re then healthy. And even better if we add spices like turmeric, oregano, and pepper. Or my personal fave: tarragon.

And if you add proteins and veg to your plate, then you’re off to the races.

…Speaking of races, I’m still getting goosebump chills over the Kentucky Derby win over the weekend… the least likely to win (80-1 odds) horse, won. Maybe he got his winning oomph from the healthy grass diet too.

Which btw, we too could graze on more plant-based foods for our human sustainable energy. And for world sustainability.

That’s what I did with this untraditional plant-based pizza. Or a pie, that we called it when I was a teenager working in a pizza-pie shop. 🍕

…And where I learned pizza-making techniques for 4 years. Most of the pies had tomato sauce, but occasionally, customers would order no sauce, light, or extra sauce. This pie has no tomato sauce.

It’s loaded with eating-from-the-rainbow goodness and flavors. It has beets, sweet potatoes, white cannellini beans, ricotta (goat or buffalo cheese also would be good too!), cilantro, garlic, and truffle oil baked into a whole wheat crust.

Then it was drizzled with balsamic vinegar for a sweet-umami flavor that “hit the spot” for lunch. I didn’t need a side dessert or sugar.

So this brings me to the first tip I have for biohacking your sweet craving:

When you eat less sugar, you crave less of it; and when you crave less, you eat less. So, you can use the cycle to your advantage.

And then your body resets to a “new normal” for the better, which helps you, your health goals, and prevents glucose spikes.

And you can more easily achieve this by baking and cooking that help change the way you look at the foods you eat. Because then you decide what ingredients to add and how much.

You get more choosy about what you put in your body and that can help you make healthier choices.

You end up making the extra effort and time when you know the health and tasty benefits. That’s what this girl did. 

Besides the sweet-savory veggie truffle pie, I baked a pan pizza with spinach, tomato, and ricotta that was just as easy to make. Oh, Vata me… I forgot to take a photo. Next time.

There’s also a time for other options for all of us like selecting pre-made convenience, eating out, or ordering out.

The big healthy difference is many packaged goods have more than 30 ingredients (some you’ve never heard of and are hard to pronounce).

And you really only need 2-4 ingredients to make a healthy meal or bake a whole cake. (That’s another category of whole food.)

With fewer healthy ingredients, then you change your taste buds one bake and bite at a time.

Today, if someone handed me a sweet something, it’d have to be pretty darn good for me to eat an entire serving because of the changes I made and how I see food in general.

For sweets, a smaller bite is all that’s needed to be sweet and happy if ya know what I mean.

That’s true for most. At a grocery store or during any food shortages, you’ll never hear, there needs to be more sweet options.

Overall if we bought less processed foods, then the big companies would make more of the good-earthbound healthy-happy packaged goods.

I wouldn’t mind some healthy strawberry licorice …anyone else? 😉

And biohacking your sweet craving with baking substitutes is another good way to change your sweet tooth.

For baking, these are some ingredients I use just about every week. These are a mix of healthy ingredients and iffy in-between ones I use in moderation.

Applesauce

*Berry Jams

Cardamom

Cherries, Maraschino

Cinnamon

Cocoa, unsweetened

Coconut, shredded

Coffee/espresso

Dark chocolate morsels

Ginger

Greek yogurt

Fruit zests

Fruits, Dried (currants, dates, apricots, raisins)

Fruits, Whole

Honey, Raw (instead of maple syrup)

Orange pulp and peel

*Pineapple chunks

*use sparingly

Switching up your ingredients does your body good (encouraging a diverse healthy gut microbiome that is also a gateway to our brain health).

Our gut wants to be happy and healthy like we do.

If a recipe calls for refined sugar, say ¾ cup, and it’s great for emulsifying like in ice cream, I only use about ¼ cup or substitute with monk fruit sugar.

You can always zhugh it up later or to individual tastes.

You can also make your own sweet sauce, dips, glazes and frosting. These are a few other ideas:

Balsamic-chocolate sauce: mixing balsamic vinegar and melted to liquid chocolate is quick and easy.

Coconut cream frosting: Long gone for me are days of grocery shelf frosting and powdered sugar icing. You too can make your own frosting with coconut cream.

When you buy a can, the thick part can also be used for ice creams, and keep the liquid parts for your soups. After you open it, you can freeze what you aren’t planning to use within a few days.

Extracts: I used to add vanilla extract to everything sweet, but I usually skip the step unless it’s the dominant or only flavor, like in vanilla ice cream. Zests and spice flavors come through best, and mixing them together, and changing them up is even better.

The fun part of experimenting with less sugar and healthy bakes is creating your own faves.

Variety is the spice and zest in life. 🧡

And if you want to take it up a level from biohacking your sweet craving to biohacking sweet breakfasts, healthy eating, and fasting, then stay tuned to future blog posts.

Once upon a time, I couldn’t do without a non-sugary breakfast growing up on fortified cereals, and these days that’s all changed… and that was one-step at  a time easy and something you can do! 🥣

This site is all about happy and healthy living and eating ways and inspiration. If this is your first time here, I encourage you to find out more about me and this healthy lifestyle blog.