Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Summer Cool Tips and Good Reminders ☀️

Summer cool tips are needed during the scorcher months. Our bodies are screaming for cool and hydration. And our minds are looking for adventure and outdoor exploration where excessive heat and humidity causes havoc on our bodies.

I think and feel for the Tour de France cyclists 🚴 who rode in all weather conditions over mountains ⛰️ and uphill Montmartre Paris narrow neighborhood cobblestones that look like these whole wheat peach cobbler cobblestones.

Can you imagine what that would be like? I can’t …and to feel the impact less, below are 12 cooling tips to help soothe the mind and body… plus highlights of past blog post articles with good healthy summer reminders.

For starters, you can enjoy your summer by leaning into Ayurvedic ways like a cool and refreshing bowl that can help drive away heated Pitta season moods. You can easily save money and make your own chocolate ice cream …and not be disappointed that the soft serve machine is broken at the drive thru. 😊

And when you’re packing and getting ready for your hot day, these are 12 good summer cool reminder tips:

1. Keep aloe vera near you. Aloe helps with burns, heat rashes, and to instantly cool your skin. That’s like giving a spa water bath to your body when it’s thirsty for cool relief. Many moisturizers have aloe barbadensis leaf juice ingredients, but I like to go straight to the 100% ingredient source.

2. Bring a water spray bottle that comes in handy. You can hang it to a beach bag or something in case you run out of car cupholders, and so you don’t have to go rummaging for it like a regular water bottle.

3. Start your day with a smoothie, that has chilled ingredients like nut-based milk, bananas, coconut, and berries. Try frozen smoothies. Let them cool you down as they defrost. 🧊

…Up for it? Try a sweet smoothie challenge.

The point is to lower sugar intake and increase fiber and nutrients. For sweetener, try adding maple syrup, honey, or fruits instead of white table sugar. Did you happen to see my blueberry cobbler recipe that has no added sugar?

4. Take cool showers or end on a cool setting for 10-30 seconds. This is can keep you chillin’ down to the bone. 🚿 You can feel cool inside and warm to the touch on the skin. To lock in skin moisture and help stay hydrated cool, moisturize right after showering when the skin is still moist.

Movin’ on, now we can talk about the fun stuff… food! (I think fun, anyway!).

5. Use cooling spices like cumin. Adding a Pitta spice like cumin is going to help your body stay cool. You can add to a hummus dip or a beet cauliflower soup that can be served cold (or served warm if you’re feeling fall Vata cold in the summer… that can happen). Mint herb is another great cooling add… that goes well in a pea bowl.

6. Eat foods that hang between a fruit and a veggie like beets, avocados, and medley color tomatoes. Many are vibrant in summer colors as well as nutrients! And you can always freeze produce and add them to smoothies.

If you’re on staycation or grocery shopping, you can also challenge yourself to these cool smoothie and healthy beverages.

7. Cut up summer tropical fruits like a mango, guava, dragon fruit, passion fruit, coconut, and pineapples that are eat-from-the-rainbow 🌈healthy. For more happy vibes, you can make a tropical fruit salad or tropical fruits pie.

8. Add refreshing whole fruits to your list like peaches and plums that are usually summer abundant. Handing them out to others in the car is always fun and well received. And you can make and take healthy peach juice and drink ideas 🍑

9. Add and eat hydrating juicy fruits like watermelon, kiwi, pears, grapes, and oranges that can go in a salad and make great food garnishes too.

10. Bring out cool veggies that win you plant-based points. Like raw carrots, lettuce, and celery that are easy to transport. You can make a memorable Italian bean salad or no-bitter radish salad.

11. Bring along a cooling towel or T-shirt. A day or two before, roll up a towel and leave in the freezer or fridge, and then bring along with you so you can wrap around your neck or put on and quickly cool you down.

12. Use an aluminum water bottle that keeps water and beverages cold longer. Sometimes all day.

Another cool item from the fridge I like to bring out, are high antioxidant-rich fruits like sweet-scented pineapple chunks or tart lemons. Not for eating, but I can run one down my face for a hydrate cooling moment and get a Vitamin C fruit facial.

It’s a topical tropical 🍍😎🍍

And when you’re out and about, think of healthy drinks such as coconut water. Some have electrolytes. Check the label also for low sugar content.

Instead of water or milk, you can add coconut water to smoothies like a watermelon smoothie, tropical smoothie with dragon and passion fruit, and mango green smoothie. 🥥💧

A smoothie is a way to squeeze in more antioxidant foods that help the skin and protect the body from chronic damage that shows up as aging. Unlike juicing, you keep the food fiber that’s also good for weight loss.

You can also get food shopping inspiration from this eat-from-the-rainbow 200 anti-inflammatory grocery food list.

Hope you enjoyed these summer cool tips.

Have an excessively cool week! 🍉 …and if you’re driving or sitting down a lot, reminder to do a ‘lil seated yoga to help unwind and build up flexibility!

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Peach Cobbler – Low-Sugar Healthy

Peach cobbler is a fun dessert especially when peaches are in season. And this one is made with whole wheat so it’s darker color that work for cobblestones! And this one is low-sugar.

There are so many peaches to choose from. Eastern peaches are common and Georgia is a the Peach State and prime producer.

Peaches stand out as the star ingredient.

And adding a peach cobbler is all the more fun as they look like cobblestone taking us back to Southern places like Charleston. South Carolina is another state that’s known for being the Peach Capital.

And it can be made as a healthy peach cobbler dessert and a light one without any fat… no butter, no oil, nothin’…

So in staying on the healthy theme cobblestone path, whole wheat flour is used instead of all purpose flour.

Whole wheat flour also has more fiber and protein if that matters to your healthy tastes.

And by adding a low sugar (or a fraction of a cup of sugar), that’s always more healthy. Because the sweet comes from the baked peach slices and dripping juices.

If you don’t add white sugar, then you appreciate whole peach fruit sweetness that peaks abundant in hot summer months. 🍑

I added only 1/2 tsp brown sugar which is about 1/2 a turbinado (Sugar in the Raw) brown sugar packet ontop to zhugh up the cobblestones… and to give them a crunchy sweet bite, as ontop the sugar won’t melt in the oven and will stick to the cobblestones in the baking process.

To make the peach cobbler:

First off, cake pans works great as they are round and fit the semi-circle peach slices. You can use a rectangular pan also that would make a neat design when you partially stack the peach slices.

I like to make the peach design first because then I get a waff of the sweet juicy peaches. Then I make the dough. But that’s up to you in what order you prefer!

The dough will be a little sticky and easy to make into a ball.

Then use a scooper or spoon out scoops onto peaches. Since they’re cobblestone shaped, they don’t have to be exactly all the same size or shapes. Oblong or round will work!

Then bake and enjoy!

Whole Wheat Peach Cobbler - Low-Sugar Healthy

Peach Cobbler is delicious when you taste the sweet peach variety of your choice.

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 25

Total Time 40

Servings 3

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

3 peaches, whole and then sliced
1/2 lemon's juice
1 egg
1 tbsp almond flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup Greek yogurt, thick part (strained)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp turbinado sugar (optional)
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

Instructions

Cut up peaches with skin into thin slices semi-circles. Arrange in a pattern around your baking pan. Evenly add the lemon juice and a few sprinkles of almond flour to the peaches to absorb some of the juices. You can also use tapioca flour for the same healthy effects.
Make your cobbler scoops. Add whole wheat flour to a bowl. Evenly whisk in baking soda.
In a separate bowl: beat up egg with a whisk and then add yogurt and maple syrup.
Combine wet ingredients to dry ingredients with a spoon or whisk, and add the salt. This will be a sticky wet dough that's easy to make a dough ball.
Add scoops ontop of peaches.
Bake at 350°F for about 25-30 minutes.

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Blueberry Cobbler – Applesauce (Low-Sugar)

Blueberry cobbler is a dessert that can be made with low-sugar and no butter. And this one is made from unsweetened applesauce as a substitute.

This is also a blueberry recipe that can be made all healthy with no-added sugar (only blueberry and apple 🍏🫐), and all gluten-free if you want.

You can super easy mix this in one bowl and in less than 30 minutes from start to finish (prep and bake). 🏁

Pre-heat the oven to 325°F/165°C while you’re gathering your ingredients.

It’s that simple…

And with just 5 primary ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen: flour, applesauce, frozen blueberries, maple syrup, and milk.

The star ingredient is the blueberries. I’m wild about the wild ones (…you too?).

Blueberries are super healthy foods with their anti-inflammatory eat-from-the-rainbow polyphenols 🌈 Anthocyanin flavanoids are also found in blackberries that can be added or substituted in this dessert.

Berries paired with applesauce is loaded with vitamins, minerals, and fiber… and you’ll taste all that natural goodness in a blueberry cobbler dessert.

Fruit cobblers came from England and word got around and traveled to the U.S. southern states where it’s a dessert staple.

And that’s where I made this simple and healthy blueberry cobbler version.

The mixed batter will look like pancake batter if that makes you happy!

And it reminds me of the batter I made for my first blueberry muffin pan. That was the first dessert I ever made as a teen. I remember the box with the small aluminum can of blueberries inside that was cracked open with a can opener.

Those baking memories inspired me later on to make more blueberry inspired desserts like blueberry pancakes. And then blueberry became wildly popular as a touted super food.

So I added in my blueberry cheesecake. And a blueberry smoothie too.

And if you use frozen blueberries, you don’t have to drain or take out in advance. You can just add them from out of the freezer. And you always have them available like ingredients in your pantry (like applesauce that’s also a great item to always have on hand).

I like how they leave a little blueberry streak as they defrost.

You can even make a blueberry swirl pattern if you like by slightly squishing the blueberries as they warm up to room temps, and then taking a knife to swirl the juice.

But there’s nothing a full on blueberry look… it’s dramatic and you can make no mistake… it’s blueberry!

applesauce blueberry cobbler with no butter that's low fat and low sugar.

Applesauce Blueberry Cobbler (Low-Sugar)

This berry delicious cobbler is made with applesauce fewer calories.

Course Breakfast, brunch

Cuisine American, southern

Servings 2

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1/4 cup buttermilk (or milk)
1 oz applesauce, unsweetened
1/4 cup frozen blueberries
1/4 cup flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp brown sugar (for top)

Instructions

Combine dry ingredients and wet ingredients. Pour batter into small baking dish.
Add blueberries ontop.
Sprinkle brown sugar on top.
Bake at 325°F for about 20 minutes or until top is golden brown.

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Tropical Smoothie Blend – With Dragon and Passion Fruit

Tropical smoothie is one you can make at home with passion and tropical fruits like dragon fruit we now have access to in our Western grocery stores.

Like I’ve seen beautiful dragon fruit that’s a relatively new find in the Western hemisphere. The fruit’s outside vibrant pink and green color gives off the tropical (orchid?) look. It’s also called Pitaya that means “scaly fruit” and not scary fruit as it’s very pretty like a tight rose.

But, surprise (!) it’s not what it looks like inside…

Blend in a smoothie, it does do as the dragon fruit taste is so subtle (almost tasteless) and smooth in a smoothie with dragon fruit, passion fruit, and pineapple. 🍍

But you don’t taste the dragon fruit.

And like Houdini magic, you don’t even see it either… the dragon fruit disappears as you saw that it’s distinctly whitish with black seeds.

dragon fruit, passion fruit, and pineapple in a tropical smoothie. — Dragon fruit, passion fruit, and pineapple tropical smoothie blend. 🍍🪷

…But invisible dragon fruit is quickly becoming a common tropical fruit. And makes a good choice to add to our tropical smoothie drinks 🌅 since we can find the fruit in our stores.

And you know what that means: fruit abundance equals price drop.

This hand-picked tropical fruit was under $3 and I remember its fruit siblings as over $5 just a few short months ago. It even has its own 3040 PLU sticker and number, making it a common produce. 💕

So you can add to your anti-inflammatory morning routine, breakfast parfait, or break-fait to take a break.

But first you have to crack into the stunning looking soft magenta and pineapple green streak fruit exterior.

…When you cut inside, you see the magenta flaming color even brighter than the outside.

Inside has a lot of pink color drama going on. 💄Looks like yummy fine silks. And feels slippery like an orchid’s petals.

When you finally get deep down into the fruit center, you’ll see the stark color and pattern contrast.

It’s like a dice color pattern design. Nature is so clever.

…And you can cut them into game playing dice shapes for your edible creations! How fun is that. 🎲

Whether you slip them into your dragon fruit tropical smoothie or assemble in a parfait, it’s a fun treat.

And a healthy one full of fiber (beating strawberries 🍓) that’s good for losing weight goals. And full of C and B vitamins.

…And when paired with passion fruit, it’s off the fruit charts!

In addition to a tropical smoothie, you can also build a tropical parfait.

How to Play the Parfait Game (or Build a Parfait)

This is a game where you end up eating what you make with your dragon fruit dice. 🎲🎲

It’s a lot more rewarding than playing a game of Parcheesi that can take hours. It takes prep minutes and you can play with one or more players. 😊

So let’s begin…

Rule of thumb for parfait (that I like to use): add one layer of Greek yogurt at the bottom.

That becomes your base.

Bottom layer: And then add two star ingredients (or hero flavor ingredients as Paul Hollywood would say on the Great British Bake Off if he were here critiquing).

…Be bold, choose visually contrasting food ingredients in color and/or texture. You can even choose kiwi or a star fruit which was popular during my catering days. That can also go in your tropical smoothie.

Dragon fruit is an interesting choice.

I chose blueberries for the dark moody blue contrast, and you can sub with any bright berries for a pop! 🫐

Making micro choices like this is fun and relaxing… it’s playing creative dress up with your food. Then it’s not like work.

Moving on, next add another layer of the primer or Greek yogurt white base.

Middle layer: And then add another layer of one of the star ingredients already used, and introduce another fruit or new ingredient.

In this case, banana slices. 🍌

I could keep building layers, but by this point I’m running out of space in the glass. If I had a trifle bowl to work with, I’d add another layer.

Top layer: Then for the very top layer I call the zhugh layer, add your textures like nuts and seeds. I like walnuts and flax seeds for this one.

Chia seeds would be dramatic too.

It’s your dreamy parfait, so you can dream up your parfait desires into reality!

The other tip I have is to make two for yourself. So if you’re making for a couple, then make 4. Easy math…

Or roll the dragon fruit dice, and see what fun number you get. It will be at least uno “1” for each dice. 😊

The reason I make one extra is because then you can enjoy again. The next day. And the same for a tropical smoothie.

This is a good smoothie for breaking a fast…

It has protein (yogurt or milk for a smoothie), carb (fruit), and fat (nuts and seeds) all in one.

Tropical Smoothie with Dragon Fruit, Passion Fruit, and Pineapple

This is a tropical smoothie you can now make at home and not travel to the tropics or a smoothie place to get!

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1 Dragon fruit, diced (they actually look like dice!)
1 Pineapple (fresh or canned)
Passion fruit, diced
maple syrup (optional)
milk of choice (coconut milk suggested)

Instructions

Blend up your tropical fruits and add about a 1/4 cup milk to 1 cup milk. Add more milk as desired for a thin or thick smoothie. To add more or less sweetness, add or reduce pineapple and/or maple syrup.
For a foam top, you can use the thicker part of coconut milk to create.

Notes

This will work with coconut water, but will be thinner and you can add pureed fruit or small fruit chunks to thicken.

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Healthy Donut Is a Peach Donut

Healthy donut does exist in a donut peach. These are a new kind of peach.

Saturn peach donuts baked and glazed. — These peaches are glazed with egg white, honey, unsweetened coconut, and melted dark cacao.

Taking a bite in, this is clearly a peach and not a floured donut (in case you were in doubt)! 😊

These peaches are also known as Saturn peaches and flat peaches. 🪐

Overhead, they look the same as regular peaches. You can eat these as plain whole fruit too!

Have you seen these before at the grocery stores?

You may have seen them come in a package of four.

I think they’re slightly sweeter than most peaches I’ve had. And have less juicy pulp.

But make no mistake, they still taste sweet like peaches.

And if you want to kick it up a notch, I have a neat way to prepare them so they can be a baked and healthy low-sugar “donut” dessert and sweet snack (instead of reaching for a real heavy donut! 🍩).

The first step is to cook the donut peaches.

If you skip this part and only bake them, the skin on the peach donuts will dry out some and they will be darker in color because the peach naturally starts off darker in color.

When cooking is added as a step, the peaches lose their vibrant peach skin color and turn warm-ish brown color (more like a Krispy Kreme donut or a whole wheat donut color).

…Which btw, if that distracted you and donuts are a missing hole in your life, try a healthier and traditional donut that you can make as a low-sugar donut hole made with whole wheat flour.

And getting back to the peach healthy donut, after cooking you can set-and-forget bake for a few minutes until it’s time to glaze.

To glaze, I like the opaque look of egg white and water. They remind me of cinnamon swirl donuts I had when I was younger. Plus egg whites are healthy.

Tip: When separating your egg, do it first when it’s easier out of a cold fridge temperature. Refrigerate your yolks and save to make bearnaise sauce, ice cream, and/or lemon curd are some of my faves.

These peaches are glazed with egg white, honey, unsweetened coconut, and melted dark cacao.

Baked Peach Donuts (Low-Fat Whole Fruit Dessert)

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

donut peaches
1 egg white
1 tsp water
maple syrup or honey for zhugh (optional)

Instructions

Let peaches ripen at room temperature until they're about a day away from soft eating. Then cook in simmering water to soften. Time will vary depending on how ripe your peach is to begin with. The original peach color will change. This step can take about 20-30 minutes.
Bake on 300°F for about 20 more minutes. Again time will vary based on ripeness and how long you cook from the first step.
Make the glaze: Whisk egg white and water together at room temperature.
Use a brush to coat the peaches in the oven and then about 10 minutes in, re-coat. Keep adding glaze coats until you get the opaque white color you like.
Add any zhugh like sprinkles or crumbles when the top coat is still wet. You can also add maple syrup or honey after they cool and then zhugh (or zhugh again).

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