Sweet & Crunchy Quick Snack

This recipe couldn't be any easier.  If you find yourself in a pinch for time or just too hungry to wait, try this out for a palette-stimulating, energizing, tasty AND healthy treat!

Sweet & Crunchy Quick Snack

1 chilled banana

5-10 raw pecans

5-10 raw cashews

a few strawberries, rinsed
1 cacao goji energy nugget (or other energy nugget** of choice)
1 T virgin coconut oil

*We recommend use of organic ingredients where possible.

Peel the chilled banana and put it on your plate.  Get one tablespoonful of coconut oil and pour it over the banana, covering the length of the fruit.  Toss the nuts, strawberries, and energy nugget onto your plate and... Voila!

**In case you're not familiar with energy nuggets, take a look at this website for reference: http://chunksofenergy.com/product-information/.  Energy nuggets can often be found in the bulk product section of your local health food store.

Pumpkin Coconut Split Pea Soup

Pumpkins (Curcubita pepo) are another one of those amazing plants, member of the squash family (Cucurbitaceae).  Myriad varieties are cultivated across the globe, and since they are native to North America they tend to be fairly easy to grow in the USA (as compared to, say, our mango friends to the south).  If you've never grown a pumpkin, we highly recommend you give it a try.  Growing pumpkins is an adventure; they like to creep and crawl all over the ground, produce big leaves and beautiful flowers.  Once the pumpkins start forming in autumn you may feel like you have a few new pets you enjoy watching grow to carving- or baking size maturity.  More fun is had once harvest comes around; just a few pumpkin plants should produce enough pumpkins for you to host Halloween themed pumpkin carving parties and to make all sorts of pumpkin themed recipes such as pies, breads, and soups!  What's more: both the flesh and the seeds of pumpkins are edible; the flesh is recognized for its high beta-carotene content and the seeds are recognized as good sources of protein, zinc, magnesium, and copper.

We hope you enjoy this recipe; it's a hearty, rich soup full of flavor and perfect for one who is seeking comfort food and warmth on a chilly night.

Pumpkin Coconut Split Pea Soup
1 14 oz. can low-fat coconut milk
2 15 oz. cans puréed pumpkin
1 cup split peas soaked overnight
1 white onion (sweet or not), diced finely
2 garlic cloves, diced finely
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp red chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp paprika
dash of dried red pepper
salt & pepper to taste

*We recommend use of organic ingredients where possible.

Boil the split peas separately in a medium-sized pan until thoroughly soft.  Once the split peas are cooked, assemble all ingredients together in a soup pot.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat to let simmer for 1 hour.  You may want to add a little extra coconut milk or water to thin the soup.  Slurp up!

Pesto Kelp

Whether you're inclined to traditional Italian cuisine or not, pesto is an incredibly flavorful sauce for a wide array of dough products, including pasta.  One of the reasons we like pesto is it gives us the opportunity to eat basil, a wonderful plant and culinary ingredient whose many varieties are found in cuisine across the globe in countries such as Italy, Thailand, Laos, and Taiwan.  Purportedly possessing antioxidant, antiviral, and antimicrobial properties, basil is also aromatically pleasant and a wonderful companion plant for your garden!

Our version of pesto definitely differs from the norm; it doesn't contain Parmesan cheese.  Our noodles are different too; we prefer to top raw kelp noodles with our pesto.  Kelp?  Yes, kelp.  Kelp is a type of seaweed or brown algae.  Like basil, kelp has earned a reputation for being rich with vitamins and compounds that may benefit humans.  Iron, iodine, vitamin C, fucoidans, and a variety of other compounds are known to reside in kelp.  Fucoidans in particular may be associated with anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anticoagulant, and anti-thrombitic effects.

Pesto
3/4 c water
3 T olive oil
2 c fresh whole leaf basil
2 cloves garlic
1 medium zucchini, peeled and chopped
1 avocado, pitted and scooped
salt & pepper to taste

*We recommend use of organic ingredients where possible.

Blend all ingredients in a blender for about 1 cup of pesto.  Feel free to substitute 2 large crimini mushrooms for the zucchini, though be sure to expect an associated color change.

Kelp noodles may be purchased from your local health food grocery.  They usually need to be rinsed before serving; extra kelp should also be stored in water in a refrigerator.

Thoroughly coat the kelp noodles with a bit of pesto.  Accompany the final dish with diced roma- or cherry tomatoes, and pine nuts or sprouted walnuts if you like!  Enjoy!

Rainbow Salad with Tangy Tahini Dressing

The latest nutritional thinking goes that the more color you have in your diet the more vitamins you're ingesting.  Whether you like to focus on the many ways you can enhance your diet nutritionally or you're just a fan of color, either way you can consider salad a great way to paint with food.  This salad is rich with color, nutrients, and flavor; we hope it makes your taste buds pop!

For 1 Serving:

Veggies
2 large leaves red- or green leaf lettuce, chopped
1/2 c diced red cabbage
1/2 c diced green cabbage
1/4 diced red, orange, or yellow bell pepper (or all kinds)
1/8 - 1/4 c flesh of chopped Aloe vera leaves

Layer ingredients on a plate in order listed above, starting with lettuce on bottom.

Dressing
1 clove garlic, finely cut
1 inch ginger root, finely cut
1 lemon or lime, squeezed
2 T tahini
2 T raw agave syrup
1/2 T sesame oil
3 T Tamari

*We recommend use of organic ingredients where possible.

We like to top 1 salad serving with 3 T dressing and a bit of grape seed oil (3-4 T) but certainly use more dressing/oil if you like.  Stir salad, dressing, and oil together to thoroughly coat all the leaves, then gobble up at your own pace.  Enjoy!

Yummy Salad

Salad you say?  Yummy?

Why certainly!  Salad is an easy, scrumptious way to feel awesome about yourself and your day.  Typically we like to have salad at lunchtime; it's full of vitamin-rich raw vegetables and is filling yet light enough to keep you on your feet so you can run around fulfilling all of your duties for the rest of the day.  At Happy Food Living we have composed a number of delicious salad recipes over the years.  We've decided to post one recipe at a time so you can try out each one individually and decide for yourself what you think!  Hopefully there's at least one recipe here that will tingle your taste buds with delicious flavors, enhance your energy, and make you feel great about who you are!

No Grains?!

Yup!  No grains!  "But how do you survive without eating grains?" people often inquire.  We're here to declare we not only survive, we thrive!  As participants in a grain-based culture, we've eaten grains most of our lives.  Through much trial and error over the years we've realized grains make us feel bad.  Can you believe it?  Grains!  Why would they make you feel bad?  Well, there's mounds and mounds of research available on the 'net one can read to learn more, but in sum here's just a short list of symptoms we've noticed associated with ingesting grains:

Fatigue
Brain fog
Achy/painful joints & muscles
Depression
Difficulty breathing
Indigestion
Feeling heavy and weighed down/sluggish
Irritability
Feeling unnecessarily full
Insomnia
Feeling consistently hungry
Weight gain

With symptoms such as these it's sensible we reached a point where we said to ourselves, "Hey, you know what?  Grains just ain't worth it.  After all, why eat something that makes you feel bad?"  That's aligned with our philosophy here at Happy Food Living; why eat something that makes you feel bad when you can instead eat something that makes you feel good?  It's the perspective we abide by, and we try to apply it to all facets of our lives.  Importantly we want you to feel good too!

Delicious Start

Over the years we've been blessed with the opportunity to do a bit of travel across the USA and abroad.  Trips to California, Washington, Arizona, and New Mexico are included in our long list of adventures.  So is Costa Rica!  We can't tell you enough how much we love Costa Rica; if you haven't been and have the chance to go, please visit!  The land is rich with a bounty of fresh tropical plants at every bend in the road, as well as a variety of curious creatures calling from canopies above your head.  The cuisine native to Costa Rica is rich with flavors; it is typically much healthier than fast food in the US yet it is rapidly available just about anywhere in the country.  Local open-air markets ("mercados") exist in many places across the country, often on several days of the week.  Such markets are great places to buy fresh, reasonably priced produce including abundant tropical fruits such as papayas, mangoes, bananas, coconuts, guavas, passion fruits, and much more.

As easy as it is to obtain delicious "Tico" cuisine in a variety of establishments ranging from the bus station to upscale restaurants, one can consume fresh, healthy drinks usually for less than half the price of a smoothie in the US.  They can be made with- or without milk ("leche") depending on your preference.  We often prefer "fruta en agua" solamente (fruit in water solo) because the tropical fruits are so amazingly delicious naturally!

So, try this out for breakfast:

1/4 large, ripe papaya cut from skin into chunks
2 cups of water
3-4 ice cubes
1-2 T raw agave syrup (you may omit syrup if your papaya is very ripe)

*We recommend use of organic ingredients where possible.

Blend all ingredients in a blender and drink up!

Note: while papaya is probably our favorite "fruta in agua," be sure to sample whichever tropical fruits you desire.  One large, ripe mango, 1-2 ripe bananas, a bit of ripe pineapple, and other fruits will taste just as good!  Also feel free to mix and match fruits if you like!

Philosophy

At Happy Food Living we celebrate life!  We possess an active view of life and feel that everyone deserves the chance to live vibrantly, healthfully, and happily every single day!  In so doing we recognize that diet is integral to helping us feel and look beautiful.

We understand that diets should be catered to each individual; no two bodies are alike.  Based off of lifetimes of diet experimentation we've discerned some important approaches to diet that are essential for helping us feel great and think happy thoughts.  Examples include elimination of grains from our diets, emphasis on ingestion of vegetables and fruits daily, replacement of nearly all dairy products with coconut-based foods, and minimal ingestion of animals.  We hope the recipes you see on this blog help you feel wonderful about yourself, and inspire you to creatively invent culinary concoctions of your own!