Desserts

Coconut Cream “Cool Whip” with Strawberries

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Coconut Cream "Cool Whip" with Strawberries | Healing and Eating

 

This recipe would be perfect for Valentines Day! Plus, it was really easy so you will have plenty of time to do other romantic gestures.

Coconut Cream “Cool Whip” with Strawberries
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 can of coconut cream (I used trader joes)
  • seeds from 1 vanilla bean
  • ¾ cup of powdered sugar (aka confectionery sugar)
Instructions
  1. Whip together ingredients in hand blender.
  2. Then refrigerate for a few hours until solid.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 4

Dinner

Vegan Butternut Squash Chili

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Vegan Butternut Squash Chili | Healing and Eating

 

This tasted delicious, and had just the right amount of heat. Trust me, the heat builds the more you eat. Plus, it was easy to throw everything in the slow cooker, and have a ton of leftovers! I will definitely be making this again.

Vegan Butternut Squash Chili
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 1 medium white onion
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 2 jalepenos
  • 1 tbsp of tomato paste
  • 3.5 cups of chopped butternut squash
  • 1¾ cans of kidney beans
  • 1 tbsp of cumin
  • 1 tsp of chipotle powder
  • 1 chopped tomato
  • 1 tsp of sea salt
  • 1 tsp of black pepper
  • 3 cloves of minced garlic
  • 2 cups of organic vegetable stock
Instructions
  1. Chop onions, tomato, red bell pepper, and mince garlic cloves
  2. Add chopped vegetables including pre-chopped butternut squash and vegetable stock to slow cooker.
  3. Finely dice jalepenoes and scoop out most of the seeds (which is where the heat is). Add to slow cooker.
  4. Then add rest of the ingredients, and stir so they are mixed.
  5. Set slow cooker on high and cook until butternut squash is soft 6-8 hours. Stir occasionally since the slow cooker will be full and vegetables on top will cook slower.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 8

Desserts

Cacao and Coconut Cream Pie

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Cacao and Coconut Cream Pie | Healing and Eating

 

Aren’t these tulips beautiful! Shameer got them for me for my birthday yesterday. We’re having a little house party today and I made a cacao and coconut cream pie. It’s gluten and dairy free, and the only sweetener is with whole dates. (Although I did use a lot of them) If you are watching your sugar just reduce the amount of dates and amount of cacao powder. I used a lot of both because I like the bitter flavor of dark chocolate and wanted that flavor to stand out, but I had to balance it out with a lot of dates so it would be sweet enough to serve to a group of people expecting dessert.

Cacao and Coconut Cream Pie
 
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Serves: 8 slices
Ingredients
  • 30 medjool dates
  • 1 cup of cacao powder
  • 1 14 oz can of coconut cream
  • 1 cup of light coconut milk
  • 1 tbsp of great lakes gelatin
  • ¼ cup of water
Instructions
  1. Prebake a pie crust 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit. I like the Paleo Pie Crust from Elana's Pantry.
  2. Blend dates, cacoa powder, coconut cream, coconut milk in Vitamix.
  3. Dissolve gelatin in water slowly. Heat it over the stove until you see steam, don't boil or you will destroy the gelatin.
  4. Mix mixture from blender into pot with gelatin. Pour into pre-baked pie crust and refrigerate until solid. I would give it a couple hours at least.

This is in the Sunday Social Blog Hop.

Reviews

Mindful Living Menu Review at Veggie Grill

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Mindful Living Menu Review at Veggie Grill | Healing and Eating

I’m really excited to have another place to eat healthy. When I cook at home, I normally follow paleo rules, but when I can’t stand to do another set of dishes, I prefer to dine out vegan style. I do this for two reasons, the first one is for my dairy allergy. I don’t even have to ask if it was cooked in butter since they don’t have any animal products in their kitchen. The second reason, relates to the low quality of animal protein at restaurants. There are exceptions, but most of the time you just don’t know what you are getting or where it is coming from.

Shameer and I tried out the Veggie Grill in Santa Monica, and I can easily see why they are so popular. The prices were very reasonable for food that tasted fresh. I also saw a lot of locals getting take out, so I can see how this would be popular for people after a long work day. My favorite part of the mindful living menu was the portions. Even though they have to list calories, they still gave you a decent size dinner. I absolutely hate it when you order something healthy and you’re hungry and then they bring out a small portion. The great thing about truly healthy food is that you can eat a lot of it, and not have to worry about calories or gaining weight. So big props to Veggie Grill for that.

When we were there, we tried the Bombay Bowl which was my favorite, the Quinoa Power Salad which is what the picture above is, the All Hail Kale Salad with Blackened Chickin’ and the Chill Out Wings with BBQ Sauce. Normally, I’m not a fan of fake meat, but I wanted to try it out since it was organic and non-GMO. Would I order it again, probably not. Did it taste good? Surprisingly yes. The Chill Out Wings were uncannily close to fast food chicken fingers, so I could see why they might be a yummy alternative when you have a craving, but I still prefer to eat as unprocessed as possible. I loved the Bombay Bowl, because the curry sauce had a ton of great flavor which made the roasted veggies and steamed kale taste delicious, plus the fat from the coconut milk in curry sauce made me feel satisfied. For the same reason, the Quinoa Power Salad was awesome because it gave you plenty fat from chopped avocados and almonds.

We went to dinner early … about 5:15ish to avoid parking issues. They have a small lot in the back in their Santa Monica location, but it was full and difficult to maneuver when we left, so I’d avoid the rush if possible. Santa Monica parking can be hellish, but it’s the closest to us. They have plenty of other locations if that is a concern for you.

If you liked this article, check out my List of Healthy Restaurants in Los Angeles.

Breakfast

Grain Free Breakfast Taco Pie

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Breakfast Taco Pie | Healing and Eating

 

I experimented with an egg free crust, but that will not be happening again. When I make this again, which I will because it tasted awesome, I will use my favorite paleo pie recipe from Elana’s Pantry. I love recipes with a small ingredient list and hers only contains almond flour, sea salt, coconut oil, and egg. We served this with mango salsa Shameer picked up at whole foods, while I started cooking. They make it there fresh so it saves me some effort, plus the dish is heavy and needs something fresh and sweet to balance it out.

Grain Free Breakfast Taco Pie Filing
 
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Serves: 1 pie 8 slices
Ingredients
  • ¾ lb of grass fed ground beef
  • 3 tbsp of taco seasoning (I used Frontier Chili Powder Blend)
  • ½ white onion
  • ½ red bell pepper
  • 1 tsp of sea salt
  • 8 local grass fed eggs
  • a handful of fresh cilantro
  • 1 tsp coconut oil
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • (optional) serve with mango salsa
Instructions
  1. Cook ground beef in coconut oil, when brown add taco seasoning, add sea salt to taste. Transfer out of juices and set aside.
  2. In same pan, saute chopped white onion and bell pepper with leftover ground beef juices, then remove from liquid and set aside.
  3. Whisk eight eggs with 1 tsp of sea salt and baking soda. Add in some fresh chopped cilantro.
  4. Chop fresh cilantro and mix into white onion and bell pepper mix.
  5. After spreading out paleo pie crust, add ground beef to bottom of uncooked pie.
  6. Then add veggie mix to top, then cover with egg mixture.
  7. Cook at 350 degrees fairenheight for 45 minutes.
  8. (Optional) serve with mango salsa.

Soups

Butternut Squash and Parsnip Soup with Bacon

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Butternut Squash and Parsnip Soup with Bacon | Healing and Eating

 

Since I love any soup that includes butternut squash, I wanted to try Joe’s recipe from the Winter Soups: Community Cookbook. Joe has an awesome site at the Wellness Punks that I highly recommend you check out. I’m really looking forward to catching up on his youTube channel. Most people don’t know this about me, but I love watching youTube especially for cooking and makeup tutorials. It’s also a great resource for health related lectures and interviews with health living authors. So, I’m happy to have some new material to watch. I’ve altered his recipe a little to be dairy free, since I have an allergy and I used bagged butternut squash that was already chopped so it would be less effort on my arms. Then I reduced the amount of ingredients to fit in my dutch oven.

My Version:

Butternut Squash and Parsnip Soup with Bacon
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 package of nitrate, gluten, and casein free bacon
  • 1 medium white onion
  • 4 bags of butternut squash (1⅔ cups)
  • 2 medium parsnips
  • 4 cups of water
  • 2 cloves of garlic roughly chopped
  • 1 chopped granny smith apple
  • 1 tsp of sea salt
  • ½ cup of coconut milk (I like Native Forest organic and unsweetened)
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • ½ tsp of ground cardamom
  • ½ tsp of paprika (I used hungarian sweet paprika since that was what I had in my pantry)
  • ¼ tsp of cayenne pepper
Instructions
  1. Dice and saute bacon until crunchy in a large dutch oven. No oil needed bacon has saturated fat which is great for cooking. Remove bacon bits from pan.
  2. Chop onion and carmelize in bacon grease.
  3. In same pot add butternut squash, parsnips, garlic, apple, sea salt, coconut milk, and water. Water should just cover ingredients in pot.
  4. Then add ginger, cardamon and paprika.
  5. Bring pot to a boil, and let ingredients soften.
  6. Add spices but remember to go slowly and start small, you can always add more and this soup has a nice kick, or you can wait until after blending to add in spices so you can monitor them by taste testing.
  7. Then use an immersion blender or transfer to blender in batches.
  8. Then garnish with bacon bits.

For more delicious soups and awesome blogs check out:

 

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