All posts by Lauren Bolanos

Salads

Thai Cucumber Noodle Salad

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Thai Cucumber Noodle Salad - Healing and Eating

I attempted recreate a cucumber noodle salad from my favorite thai restaurant. This salad is paleo and raw vegan friendly, so it’s super healthy, and I was pleasantly surprised at how close to the original it tastes. This is something that I crave all the time and now I can make it at home! Can you tell I’m excited? This is so yummy, I might make it in bulk and chop the ingredients instead of peeling them. I used a julienne peeler to make the noodles, and although it’s convenient for one, it would be a lot of work to do in bulk. But sooo worth it. Definitely quicker and cheaper than delivery.

Thai Cucumber Noodle Salad
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 carrot
  • 2 cucumbers
  • ¼ cup fresh chopped cilantro
  • juice from 1 lemon
  • 1 tbsp of finely minced jalapeno
  • ½ thinly chopped red onion
  • 1 tsp of sea salt
Instructions
  1. Peel carrot and cucumbers, then use a julienne peeler to create noodles.
  2. Rough chop fresh cilantro and add to noodles.
  3. Thinly slice red onions and add to noodles.
  4. Remove all seeds from jalapeno and finely mince 1 tbsp.
  5. Squeeze lemon juice over noodle salad. Be careful not to get lemon seeds in salad.
  6. Then, add sea salt and mix all ingredients together.
Notes
Use a fork to hold cucumbers and carrots, when using the julienne peeler for safety.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1-2

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Sides

Roasted Lemon and Paprika Cauliflower

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Roasted Lemon and Paprika Cauliflower - Healing and Eating

This side dish was easy to throw together for a week night dinner. Cauliflower is a pretty mild tasting vegetable, which means you don’t need a heavy hand when it comes to seasoning. I decided to lightly sprinkle some Hungarian sweet paprika over the cauliflower with a little bit of lemon juice to switch up the taste of basic roasted cauliflower, which is something I make often.

I like to keep a careful watch on cauliflower when I roast it in the oven, tossing the cauliflower frequently so one side doesn’t get overly brown or worst case scenario – burnt. This can make the cooking time inaccurate, so I recommend poking your cauliflower with a knife periodically, to see how firm it is. Whether you like your veggies on the firmer or mushier side is up to you. I actually like my cauliflower pretty soft, but I was crazy hungry, and the sausage was cooked, so I decided to take them out of the oven when they were firm this time. It really just depends what you are in the mood for, and I was in the mood for food, immediately. Patience isn’t really my thing.

Roasted Lemon and Paprika Cauliflower
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 head of cauliflower
  • The juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 tsp of Hungarian sweet paprika
  • 2 tsp of sea salt
  • 1 tbsp of coconut oil
Instructions
  1. LIne a baking sheet with foil, and grease it with coconut oil. Preheat oven.
  2. Chop cauliflower into cauliflower florets.
  3. Squeeze lemon juice over cauliflower, then lightly sprinkle paprika over cauliflower.
  4. Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for an hour, or until desired level of firmness.
Notes
Turn cauliflower over frequently when cooking in the oven to avoid one side burning.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 2

Salads

Red Onion and Beet Salad

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Red Onion and Beet Salad - Healing and Eating

For a vegetable, beets are pretty sweet. Pun intended. Their glycemic index when cooked is 64, but their glycemic load is only 6.3. That means that when you are craving something sweet, but still want to stick to veggies, beets are a great choice. For this reason, I love adding them to vegetable juices, and eating them in a salad. At my local Whole Foods, they have this amazing beet salad that I attempted to recreate with this recipe. It’s pretty basic, but I love the taste of beets and they really shine, as the main ingredient. Plus, it tastes delicious as leftovers, which lets face it, most salads don’t.

Red Onion and Beet Salad
 
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Ingredients
  • 4 beets (medium to large)
  • 1 cup of thinly sliced red onions
  • 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp of sea salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.
  2. Chop off beet greens leaving about 1 inch attached to root.
  3. Wash dirt off beets, then wrap them in foil individually.
  4. Line a baking sheet with foil, in case juice leeks from foil wrapped beets
  5. Bake at 400 degrees fahrenheit for an hour. Beets are done when they are soft and you can easily slide a knife or fork in.
  6. Let beets cool enough so you can handle them. With a paper towel, wipe off the skin.Then chop them.
  7. Thinly slice red onions.
  8. Then, mix red onions, beets, apple cider vinegar, and sea salt in a large bowl and serve.
Notes
You might want to make this ahead, so it can cool in the refrigerator. I prefer my beets and my salads cold.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 2-4

Source: Glycemic Index vs. Glycemic Load by Food Renegade

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Desserts

Cantaloupe Popsicles

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Cantaloupe Popsicles - Healing and Eating

I love cantaloupe, but it contains a decent amount of sugar and should be eaten in small portions for dessert. I also love how cantaloupe popsicles don’t need additional sweetener to taste sweet. Plus, they make a refreshing summer snack and are great for staying hydrated by the pool, or for cooling down after a workout. I know you’re likely sick of all my popsicle recipes, but it’s crazy hot in LA this summer, and they are soooo easy to make. So, I always have some ready to eat in the freezer. You never know when you are going to get a sugar craving, and sometimes it’s best if you have something already made, so you don’t go out and buy something processed you’ll later regret.

Cantaloupe Popsicles
 
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Serves: 10 popsicles
Ingredients
  • 1 cantaloupe
Instructions
  1. Chop up a cantoloupe and put in Vitamix. Use plunger to blend without water.
  2. Pour into popsicle molds.
  3. Freeze overnight.

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Dinner

Pesto Zucchini Pasta

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Pesto Zucchini Pasta - Healing and Eating

I recently got a new kitchen gadget that makes zucchini noodles! I have a spiralizer that doesn’t work very well, and have been meaning to get a more expensive one that hopefully will work. In the mean time, I got this awesome Kuhn Rikon Julienne Peeler, which was less than $20, and I thought it worked great. The reviews on amazon said it was really sharp, so you should hold your vegetable with a fork. Overall, I’m happy with my purchase.

As you can see, I put a ton of pesto on my zucchini. I love pesto, and I don’t love the taste of raw zucchini, so I thought, what the hell, and put all the pesto I made into the “noodles”. I’ve been known to eat pesto outside my fridge with a spoon, you know, like normal people do with ice cream. So I figured why not? It’s healthy, and I haven’t had Italian for awhile, so I’m going to eat every last bit…immediately. I hope you guys enjoy this recipe as much as I did.

Pesto Zucchini Pasta
 
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Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • 2 zucchinis made into noodles
  • 1 cup of raw pine nuts
  • ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • juice from 1 lemon
  • 3 cups of fresh basil
Instructions
  1. Make zucchini noodles with julienne peeler. Hold down zucchini with a fork for safety.
  2. In food processor, combine, pine nuts, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, black pepper, fresh basil and lemon juice.
  3. Blend until smooth, then toss with zucchini and plate dish.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1-2

Reviews

The Gelatin Secret ebook Review

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Gelatin Secret Review - Healing and Eating

So, I finally finished this ebook. Hooray!!! For a long time now, I’ve been a big fan of gelatin and bone broth. I’ve written  a couple of posts about bone broth including, The Top Ten Reasons to Drink Bone Broth, and What I Put in my Bone Broth, so I considered myself pretty knowledgeable about the subject. Well, I’m happy to say that I learned some new information about bone bone in this ebook, and I thought it was definitely worth my time.

I was worried it would be overly long, since I’ve read a lot of lengthy health books and this ebook doesn’t feel that way at all. It was beautifully designed, which as a former graphic designer is important to me, and although it had lot of technical information, it didn’t come across as dry reading. In fact, her writing style felt honest and genuine, and the author, Syvie McCracken, conveyed her research in a clear and concise way, that’s accessible to people even with the busiest of schedules.

Some of the topics she covers in depth are gelatin for:

  1. Bone healing
  2. Joint health
  3. Gut health including leaky gut syndrome
  4. Autoimmune diseases
  5. Allergies and food sensitivity
  6. Weight loss
  7. Chronic Inflammation
  8. Muscle Formation
  9. Brain health and mood disorders
  10. Skin health including acne, wrinkles, and cellulite
  11. Healthy hair and nails
  12. Dental health

Sylvie also provides in her ebook directions for making bone broth and gives advice for making it regular part of your diet. If you’re interested in learning more about the health benefits of bone broth click here to visit Hollywood Homestead, to purchase your own copy.

Disclaimer: Since I’m such a huge fan of this ebook, I decided to become an affiliate for this product. Purchasing this ebook book will support both this blog, and Sylvie’s blog, The Hollywood Homestead.