Our mashed potatoes are getting a special addition for Christmas dinner this year. These little olive penguins are easy to throw together with just three ingredients. Continue Reading →
Candied Almonds on Roasted Pears
Making a dessert healthy doesn’t mean making it completely sugar and fat free, instead using fresh and nutrient dense ingredients guarantees that your body will benefit from it. I really like to make baked pears or apples and top them with granola or candied nuts and finish it off with some full fat plain Greek yogurt (it is so thick and creamy that it looks like ice cream in the photos). Here I roasted some pears in the oven and toasted almonds on the stove with a mixture of honey, butter , spices and palm sugar (it is lower GI than most sugars and a deep brown color with lots of flavor), which come together to taste like rich caramel sauce. Continue Reading →
Roasted Chestnuts
Chestnuts are soft, dense and sweet, tasting kind of like yams but a bit more mild. Warm, fresh out of the oven they are a really delicious and hearty snack all on their own, with no seasoning or dips required. They are lower in fats and higher in complex carbohydrates than other nuts, as well as high in fiber, vitamin C, several B vitamins and the essential minerals manganese, copper and potassium. All of these nutrients play different roles in the body from stabilizing energy levels to improving digestion to helping red blood cell formation to boosting the immune system to acting as antioxidants. Continue Reading →
Cranberry Maple Pecan Yam Rounds
Many fruits and vegetables can provide a base to eat off of, as a replacement for crackers but roasted yams are one of my favorites. When cut thin enough and roasted they start to crisp up around the edges and the inside becomes soft but still sturdy enough to hold its shape and keep the toppings from toppling off. Many yams are thin and long but for something like this the best ones are almost spherical, being nearly as thick in diameter as they are long. Continue Reading →
Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
One of my first choice for treats is the dark chocolate peanut butter cups from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory but they are huge and not the kind of thing you only eat part of and save for later, so I made these mini ones to keep my indulgences in check. These are very easy to make, require only a few ingredients and do not require any baking. Chocolate and peanut butter is a pretty classic combination but almond or any other nut butter would work just as well. Continue Reading →
Poached Eggs on Avocado Toast
Avocado on toast has become quite a food celebrity, endorsed by human celebrities and healthy foodies far and wide. If you are not yet on the bandwagon I suggest you give this a try, and if you’ve “been there, done that” it can be brand new again with some additional toppings. Continue Reading →
Fresh Yam Spring Rolls
If you think that fresh, non-deep fried spring rolls look kind of gross and potentially slimy, I get you. I have watched friends snack on these for years without any desire to try them myself, even though they are a very versatile way to eat more vegetables and use up scraps and leftovers. Then, the other day in the grocery store I saw the wrappers and had an uncontrollable urge to try them. Since there is pretty much no healthy food that I don’t like I realized my affront to these is probably unwarranted. Well, they turned out to be ever better than I expected! Continue Reading →
Pear Polenta Squares
Polenta is a hearty dish made from cornmeal (ground corn) that thickens up to a consistency similar to porridge. From there any flavorings can be added and then if it has some time to set in the refrigerator it will firm up and become quite dense. Then it can be sliced and baked or grilled and used as a base in place of bread or crackers. Polenta hails originally from Northern Italy where it was a staple dish among the poorer classes but on this side of the ocean it is considered a more fancy foodie option. Polenta is mainly composed of complex carbohydrates with lots of fiber and iron and it has very little fat, making it a healthy substitute for the more processed and refined breads used in appetizers like this. Plus, its nutrient profile balances out the richer food usually served this time of year. Continue Reading →
Coconut Snowballs
These no bake treats offer a lot of flavor in a small package. Coconut is mostly fat with some carbs and a bit of protein; the fat in coconut, unlike in the vast majority of plants, is mostly saturated. Here’s where it gets complicated- saturated fat is not bad, in fact it is necessary because we do need it to make cholesterol to make hormones that keep our metabolism and everything else balanced and in working order. The trick is we do not need too much of it, so no, unfortunately that 36 ounce steak does not get a free pass. Saturated fats get even more complicated when we break down the different types. There is one type in particular, which makes up a large percentage of coconuts’ fat called lauric acid and it is special and beneficial because it has antifungal, antimicrobial, antiprotozoal and antiviral properties. Continue Reading →
Roasted Za’atar Cauliflower with Tahini Dressing
Eating the rainbow is a good way to ensure that you are getting a wide range of different nutrients, but don’t forget about the plain old white produce. Different colors of fruits and vegetables generally have higher concentrations of specific vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. White, and shades of white produce contain potassium and magnesium, two important minerals that can be deficient in western diets. Cauliflower has the added bonus of being a member of the cruciferous family, boasting special sulfur compounds that have been found to fight cancer. It also offers high levels of vitamins C, K and some of the B vitamins. Continue Reading →