Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Italian Bean Salad with Gorgonzola Cheese

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? 🥗

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.

Share this

Start Over Helps You (and My Blog Story)

Start over is a theme that many of us have experienced and maybe a lot since 2020. Whether we wanted to or not, it can be our ticket to our best lives… and that’s what this article is about so you can embrace your start over opportunities.

One thing we can all have a say in is… evolving in our personal growth and what matters to us.

Embracing what healthy gains we’ve made brings rewards for our daily lives.

And embracing starting over as a new way or perspective is a blessing gain…

It’s a micro mindset pattern shift you can practice in your day (maybe even today), so you can see and feel how start overs are good, and not bad or sad interruptions.

That self-training helps our future and best outcomes.

Because changes in life are meant to help you and if you see it that way, you help yourself grow and further.

For most my younger adult life I played the victim without knowing I had that internal narrative.

I also thought that choices I made would be permanent. I was naive.

And when good situations didn’t last, I was disappointed.

I saw them as failures.

And I fell for that over and over again.

If you didn’t have role models and influences growing up that drilled into you the more positive ways and helped shape your self-esteem, then that’s the pattern you’re likely to fall into.

And the saving grace is we have the Universe on our side as fall back and providing answers to us.

We may call it luck, but it’s part of the plan. 😉

You’ve probably heard the saying that the Universe keeps serving up the same lessons. The lessons are there to help us and not make us feel less than..

…I didn’t know that in my younger years.

And as years went by, I grew up in wisdom and got revelation, leaning more into internal truth.

Truth and reality aren’t the exact same thing.

Reality is what physically is happening or not happening. Truth are the thoughts that are real and factual. And lies are the opposite in false beliefs. Ego perception makes you believe they are real, when they are not.

And in that case, then anyone can be a victim to their own ego.

Recognizing this, my life realities started to better align with truth, where I also realized nothing stays the same.

I told my ego the truth, that it wasn’t just what I experienced.

Because everyone has their versions of uncertainty.

In my belief lies I had bought into, I was the only common denominator for the situations I faced.

So that made me the victim. But I turned that narrative around one situation at a time.

Rewriting my beliefs with love over ego, starting with experience outcomes (reality) showed me the deficit in my faulty thinking that my mind led me to believe.

And took me from victim to abundant mentality.

It was micro-start overs from little lie beliefs that got me over the hump.

Being abundant minded, changes the identity to someone who takes responsibility for changing her thoughts to positive, loving ones for better outcomes and perspectives.

Perspectives transform your life when no influences can.

And if a perspective change is what you think you need, this helped me:

This one exercise helped to changing the tide…

Let’s take something most of us have privilege to do every day: we take a shower.

And imagine if one day you do your regular shower routine but you don’t get most the soap off your body or shampoo out of your hair. Maybe you were distracted and busy with shower thoughts.

After you’ve dried off and gotten dressed for the day, you realize that small miss.

What are your options?

Live with the fact and try to forget about the remaining residue.

Or…

Take a few extra effort minutes to go back in the shower again and rinse off knowing that you’d have to dry with a towel again and essentially re-trace all the steps you would do when you got in the shower the first time. It’s a small hassle in a busy day.

And while most would probably just live with it and get on with their day…

If you have the extra few minutes, you’re better off to get back in the shower.

Why?

…So you can get your best day.

If you don’t do a redo, then you keep the residue theme running in your day as part of your thoughts and maybe a physical reminder.

If you do rinse off again, you start clean and fresh.

So those extra 5-10 minutes back tracking was worth the time.

Initially our lazy bone tendencies can kick in and resist.

But fight the urge and jump to the though part of what you’ll gain in those critical decision moments.

Change the thoughts in your mind to productive ones, such as: you’ll be happier later on.

Picture yourself happier.

Try this taking extra minutes with another daily self-care or micro routine you do that didn’t work out the first time… maybe cleaning, shower, or grooming routine.

Take an extra 5 minutes.

For the narcissist, you don’t have to tell them twice, but for the rest of us — those are good minutes.

The micro change in our new habit and patterns creates new perspectives.

Eventually you don’t mind a redo or start over whether it’s a shower or a season. You teach yourself not to succumb to immediate feelings and wants for better outcomes.

Embrace the lesson here is: don’t skip what will bring more joy and a clear mind as the biggest gain rewards.

And on a grander scale in your life, start over with what you first started with that has never left you. That you still think about today.

Those can be part of your dreams come true realities.

Another wisdom lesson is: forget time. Time never heals. As you grow wiser, you realize changes and experiences heal.

We can’t gain time. And the feeling of lost time can keep you stuck if you let it.

Like take me for example, I started a blog in 2009 that took off.

And a few months in I had to quit.

The blog was about my local area businesses I was living near and I ended up moving that year.

So the blog no longer made sense to me as I couldn’t be in that area, and it was hard to juggle writing with the busy work life I had in the hustle and bustle of DC.

Then in 2019, I started over where I picked up writing again.

And then started this blog in 2020.

Starting over in blogging again was so different the second time around.

I had some blogging skill experience under my belt but the landscape had changed.

In 2009, very few out there knew what a blog was.

And when I came back a decade later, the internet scape was full of blogs.

But that didn’t stop me as blogging is something I have felt passionate about since I got my first taste.

Despite the challenges, I still feel as passionate if not more, so I know it’s meant to be.

In your start over or start overs, if you come back, that’s a good sign too! Because most things in life we don’t go back to unless it’s meant for us.

…Maybe the first time we weren’t ready, the timing wasn’t right, or we needed to make a little tweak (or perspective adjustment in ourselves).

It was all of the above for my blog.

My blog topic this second go round is so much more personal and about helping my reader’s personal growth, happy life, and healthy living.

In my first blog experience where I got the chance to interview business owners, I wouldn’t have been ready yet to write on personal topics.

But with another decade, personal growth, and more life experiences, then I was able to launch and sustainably contribute writing in this blog.

So my encouragement to you, my blog article reader, is to use your start overs as your opportunity to take steps in the areas you couldn’t do the first time around when you weren’t quite ready.

The first time wasn’t a failure.

That was your introduction.

Going back is a high call.

We can miss our higher calling if we choose to look at time and deadlines as rules.

If we allow for our entire life to be the time span we accomplish our goals, then we open up opportunities.

How you finish is what matters most, not how you started.

So it’s never too late no matter if you’re in your 30s, 40s, or 60s and beyond.

And in the shower metaphor… by the end of your day, you won’t have remembered the time getting back in the shower, but you will remember feeling like a million bucks coming out and what you achieved that day because of your feelings… and that maybe you wouldn’t have if you let soapy thoughts last.

Just something to consider about your start over that every day and morning opportunity is. 🌅

I like to reset every day with new food creations. I was inspired to start over with this sweet potato squid turmeric salad bowl of anti-inflammatory food goodness. 🍠

Share this

Vanilla Milkshake with Cinnamon (Low Sugar and Low Fat)

Vanilla milkshake is a plain shake, but made doubly delicious with cinnamon. And to shake it up even more, it can be enjoyably healthy.

In fact, there’s no room for high-fat or sugar as this one is filled with egg yolk nutrition that’s full of vitamins.

Jump to Recipe

vanilla milkshake mixed with cinnamon and zhughed up. — Recipe for this low-fat and low-sugar vanilla milkshake below. 🧡

And it’s only about 150 calories for an 8 ounce glass.

That’s not your usual fast food milkshake, that can often be 500 calories or more.

Plus fast food milkshakes are usually loaded with 60 plus grams of sugar (that’s over 15 teaspoons).

Also on healthy notes and Ayurvedic terms, vanilla calms and cinnamon is Vata balancing and Kapha calming, so this is a healthy drink in more ways than one!

…But it tastes anything BUT healthy.

In case you’re wondering what Ayurveda is and why it matters here is that your body knows sometimes before you do, if you’re feeling balanced… and where happy, calm, and peaceful are healthy.

You get clues through your 5 senses.

How this milkshake helps to give you clues… when you smell cinnamon or vanilla, you’re attracted to the aroma and that means adding more is balancing! That’s an example of Ayurveda in a nutshell.

Another sure-fire sign: you don’t make a sour face and maybe you turn a frown upside down into a smiley face. 😊

And an interesting fact about cinnamon is it has been around since B.C. times long before vanilla that dates to modern A.D.

Cinnamon is referred in the Bible as a precious spice and anointing oil. Cassia is mentioned as cinnamon (that’s our common modern cinnamon spice in the markets).

Cinnamon is a symbol of love, prosperity, and abundance.

So in those ways, adding cinnamon is good luck in life blessings.

Cinnamon as variety to vanilla milkshake pleases Vata. And cinnamon is also great in an ice cream cousin like this cinnamon ice cream baked into Baked Alaska

…But, that’s getting dessert steps ahead, as Baked Alaska may be a step or two more work… and maybe one to try on another day or as a baking project where you clear out your freezer.

But making a milkshake doesn’t involve all that work.

It’s simple steps and you most likely already have the milkshake ingredients in your kitchen stash.

So let’s get started…

You don’t need to have an ice cream maker but that will make your milkshake making life easier.

Without an ice cream maker, you can freeze, and after 30 minutes stir up the icicles. And then freeze for another 30 minutes or so (or until slushie ice cold before you bring out and enjoy.

Part of the fun experience is watching your dessert melt in front of you.

And waiting builds up excitement!

…Ready to milk shake it up? 😋

Vanilla Cinnamon Milkshake

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Equipment

ice cream maker

Ingredients

3 egg yolks
2 cups unsweetened almond milk (vanilla)
1 tbsp cinnamon (common or Cassia cinnamon)
pinch of sugar

Instructions

Beat egg yolks with a whisk. Add a pinch of sugar to help emulsify.
Heat milk and cinnamon on medium heat until small bubbles form, stirring constantly.
Add heated milk to egg yolks while stirring constantly for at least 30 seconds.
Refrigerate until cold.
Add to ice cream maker for about 15-20 minutes.
Add to glass and freeze. Enjoy!

Share this

Love Over Ego For Extraordinary Life

Love over ego has never been so needed in our world of multi-dimensional complexities and chaos.

If we were able to act in love in every one of our situations and everyone did the same, then our planet would be a place of peace.

And in our smaller world we live in, it’s easier to find daily love amid our joy that we get with peaceful and feel good micro moments. Like when we have chocolate dipped strawberries. 🍓

Enjoyable moments help us get through our challenging situations.

…That can happen daily and in everyday moments.

One big reason is because the ego strikes for no rhyme or reason, and shuts out love. But we’re equipped to override this from happening.

In my journey, I discovered this phenomenon from my office working life situations where I was tested and I sometimes saw two sides in people… almost like a head and a tail side of a coin.

…One minute, a person could be acting pleasant and then the next minute, not.

You probably know what I mean…

Someone is triggered or irritated by something someone else says or does.

At the time of witnessing this, I thought these types of recurring scenarios with different people and situations were because of personality differences… or if it happened often with the same person, a personality clash.

💡But then later got revelation: that was only part of the problem.

The root problem is that all of us have a built in brain ego-feature that doesn’t act when we want. And can act up in our minds.

And we have the choice to choose self-awareness and to find love over ego.

Those are the two sides of the coin.

Love is love and ego represents fear.

Love is more obvious to us, and ego and fear are not. So that makes ego super dangerous.

Fear can be triggered in anyone at any time. Fear can show up as subtly as insecurities that cause irrational decisions to be made.

But if we replace fear with joy inside us or in our spirit, then we can revert to love that’s in us.

Either way, it’s no one’s fault as we’re all damaged goods in an imperfect world.

No one living is perfect, but our damaging ego in us wants us to believe we are in some way.

So getting that deeper love message into our core is our ticket out of fear-based living… that’s all the things we’re scared and worried about in this world.

But first we want to heal what’s broken inside us.

If we never get through our pain and suffering that still needs healing from the past, then we have wounds that show up as resentment and unforgiveness that’s not love.

In my life, I didn’t even know early on that I needed past healing until I did self-help reflection and shadow work inviting in love.

I could’ve let clouds hang over because that’s how the ego thrives.

I didn’t know there was another way.

And anyone who you come across who hasn’t declared healing from their past is living in some form of their ego cloud when clear blue skies ahead are available. 🩵

My early goals in life was to come out unscathed. Or I should say that was my naive ego goals.

…But I didn’t even get past my early 20’s before I knew every bucket area of my life was off… nothing was as I thought it should be as an adult. I measured myself against those around me, my culture’s shoulds, and what my ego led me to think.

The biggest problem is the ego voice and personality is usually the loudest in the room in us and around us. Ego blocks out quieter spirit whispers and ideas of what would be best and most loving.

…So back to my past office work situations, I did not understand what was happening to the person sitting in front of me.

It felt surreal what I was experiencing as unpleasantries and the tone coming from their mouths.

And I found this could occur in personal situations with immediate family. So it wasn’t just work bosses.

Ego infected moments were all over this world… and destructive.

And even the most unaware affected are aware they are not happy and causing destruction in relationships. It’s a sad way to be.

A way to stay clear from being run by your ego and causing damage is asking: what did I do to contribute to this? How can I change the future from repeating?

How can I bring back love into this situation?

Another way is to get informed such as from an article like this.

This shines light and responsibility to making a positive change and seeking personal growth in an imperfect world.

Otherwise the past never gets healed and no healing growth happens.

Then the ego continues to deeper infect and spin perception of reality for a lifetime if allowed.

🌟Good news is, anyone can end this destructive ego pattern in them if they also choose to be better internal listeners, and let in love over ego no matter what siutuational triggers they receive.

Committing to be a better person is one good motivator.

You can’t change others, but you can positively affect your life one situation and moment at a time.

The Seeking Love Over Ego Opportunity (Or Challenge) For You…

🌱Commit to evolve quicker and embrace change.

🌱Identify with your loving self because you are loved.

With those loving mindsets, you move your sails toward a greater future destiny, even when you don’t know what that is.

🌱Let down your guard sometimes.

What If you let yourself be vulnerable?

Let in new better ways… remember, you can always go back to the old ways that weren’t working well. 😉

Show up as the lovely person that people refer to as kind or doing good. They’re the ones that attract others and have a happy life because they live aligned.

With lovely attitudes, there’s no room for ego plays.

🌱Find your love over ego in situations.

This bypasses unproductive anxiety, fear, and worry that rob joy.

Reset by going to bed early could be the remedy for a bad day. A good night’s rest is known cure for getting more loving thoughts.

🌱We can openly talk about more adding love (and less ego) in everyday life instead of making it an “elephant in the room” because it’s not exciting to talk about and ego conceals itself.

If we brush aside our ego fears but let those eat at us, then we pay the price and the people around us suffer too.

“Love” spelled backward is “evol” and when we add more love with “ve”, we get evolve. And we shut out fears.

And, these are loving life goals we can consider:

Seek meaningful work for a satisfied life.

That can be easier to find and do if we disconnect weekly from our noisy surroundings, so we can listen to what our inner self is trying to tell us is best for us.

When we re-strategize and are willing to pivot with a little risk, we get to live out our best life and the world around us gets the best of us.

Choose to live love on purpose.

We can focus on love that is healthy.

For ladies, think of yourself as a ladybug. There are 5,000 species despite similar appearance.

Our destiny was there even if we couldn’t see it fully. We had a few red ladybug stripes.

Before we became our ladybug selves, we went through a caterpillar metamorphosis.

Through younger struggle and experiences, we became our full potential selves. We saved plants on our journey as our loving work on our planet. 🪴

We also showed up lovely and cutely clothed with ladybug matching black polka dots. We’re admired and even called good luck. 🐞We added more love tho this world.

That’s what our life legacy and relationships can be like. 🧡

Share this

Beet Smoothie With Blueberry and Ginger

Beet berry smoothie is one inviting drink that’s vibrant pretty to look at… and pretty gut healthy. Plus, tasty good!

Like a painting in creation, the Alizarin crimson hues in this beet red smoothie are deep saturated in color 🎨 and filled with rainbow polyphenol anti-inflammatory goodness.

More on this below…

Jump to Recipe

Ginger as a punchy spice ingredient is good for digestion and calming bloating symptoms.

It’s one of the power spices for digestive health. And even recommended for IBS patients.

Plus, adding ginger to a beet smoothie gives it a flavor pairing knock-out punch… that I’m all about coming from my catering days.

…And this one knocks you off your seat!

Ginger takes this beet drink from good to POW-WOW. 🤩

You may even skip a caffeine jolt as the flavors are awakening strong.

And if ginger is not a flavor vibe you’ve gotten accustomed to… (or maybe even detest today), I can totally relate.

…When I was a kid, my mom cooked ginger in meals. Not just hints of ginger spice, but actual whole chunks of ginger.

And that’s when I made a face ☹️ and didn’t want to eat food or anything that came within millimeters of the infected ginger taste.

But as our bodies change, our tastes also change.

Little did I know that ginger is Vata balancing.

And it’s surprising I started to like the taste of ginger decades later… it grew on me with ginger and cookies and gingerbread cookies. 😊

…And ginger chocolate.

…So, maybe those are the sweeter ginger tastes needed for you to see the value and bring ginger alive in your life. 😉

Crystallized ginger goes well with chocolate and is one of the happy foods (as it has a little bit of sugar). Sugar and spice is balancing.

You can even make a puzzle game out of it if that’ll bring in the likability factor.

And slowly your tide can change one ginger taste at a time and you find yourself one day drinking ginger water.

And graduate to a smoothie like this one where ginger is one of the star ingredients that gives this beet smoothie some good stars! 🌟

Along with a red apple, this is one anti-inflammatory beet smoothie.

Apples are high in quercetin that daily help us keep the doctor away. 🍎

…And finally, another star ingredient is the blended in super berries, like blueberries (and you can substitute or mix in with strawberries if you prefer).

So, that’s 4-anti-inflammatory ingredients in the smoothie if you’re counting. Anti-inflammatory is good for all ages, as you can never start too soon.

That makes this a super healthy berry beet smoothie slushie ride!

This is one punchy medley of a drink that you just can’t get in a regular fruit punch.

Are you ready to jump in?

And if you like blueberry smoothies, a Blueberry Cheesecake Smoothie or Blueberry Pina Colada smoothie are others to try.

Beet Berry Ginger Smoothie

It's gonna be hard to beat this berry punchy smoothie drink.

Course beverage

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Equipment

blender

Ingredients

beet, canned (or chopped beetroot and water)
berry mix (blueberries and/or strawberries)
1-2 tsp ginger powder
1 medium apple

Instructions

Use a can of beets with juice.
Add berry mix (1:1 ratio) and chopped apples.
Add ginger powder. Tip: use fresh ginger powder that hasn't expired.
Blend. Enjoy!

Share this