Guacamole is a favorite for many. The best thing about it is probably that it’s not only incredibly tasty it’s also incredibly health. Since avocados and olive oil both  are full of monounsaturated fats guacamole qualifies as a  MUFA-food. The wonderful type of food that actually help us remove belly fat.

On top of that guacamole is a great snack to help you get a flat belly this recipe also contains garlic and jalapeno. These spices are a great help in keeping you healthy in the flu season .

Tomatoes are known for their antioxidant lycopene. The cilantro herb is not only a anti-oxidant, it’s also a good source of minerals like potassium, calcium, iron, and magnesium. And it is richest herbal sources for vitamin K.

Here is a recipe that makes about 3 cups of the worlds best guacamole.

Ingredients

2 cups of avocados
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced jalapeno
1/2 cup chopped tomato
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 lime juice (freshly squeezed)

Mash avocado and olive oil with a wooden spoon. Add the other ingredients and, if you wish, mix smooth.

If you prepare the guacamole in advance, leave the avocado pits in the  guacamole to keep it green.

 Image by crd

Fruits are always great, coconut gives you fat burning fat and chocolate is full of antioxidants. This is one of the fantastic recipes that the Isabel gives you in her diet solution program. She has plenty of free fat burning tips that I find really good.

Anyway, whether you want to lose weight or not this recipe is really yummy and very healthy.

Ingredients
*4 teaspoons of organic cocoa powder
*4 teaspoons of toasted, unsweetened coconut
*2 small bananas, sliced on the bias

Directions
Place cocoa and coconut on separate plates. Roll each banana slice in the cocoa, and shake off the excess. Then, dip banana in the coconut.

This soup is a pure antioxidant bomb. Rose hips are one of the best plant sources of vitamin C and the almonds add the vitamin E you need to keep biological age young.

Wild roses can be found all over the word so the best thing you can do is get out there a pick them fresh.  If you don’t feel like going outside most health food stores sell dried rose hips.  The soup is sweet, creamy and very well suited as dessert or snack. However, with it’s high levels of vitamin C serves great an immune system booster when you feel that you’re coming down with something.

When I was a child my mom would serve this soup hot on cold winter days or when I was sick. As a special treat she would add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I loved it.

Here is how to make healthy homemade rosehip soup:

Ingredients:
3 cups fresh rose hips or 2 cups dried rose hips
6 cups water
½ cups sugar
1,5 tablespoon potato starch or cornstarch
10 slivered blanched almonds (optional)

1.    Rinse the rose hips, if you are using dried rose hips crush them carefully without crushing the seeds.
2.    Boil rose hips for about 10 min in a covered pot.
3.    Mash with a fork and strain thoroughly.
4.    Heat the strain stirring while adding sugar and starch. Heat until the soup thickens and set aside to cool.
5.    Serve the rose hip soup hot or cold with slivered blanched almonds.
If you’re looking for a treat serve the soup hot and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yum.

Image by jenny downing

Don’t through away the pumpkin seeds. They are both healthy and tasty.

Pumpkin seeds are high in magnesium, a mineral in which most Americans are deficient. They are also high in zinc, that make pumpkin seeds a natural protector against osteoporosis. Other health benefits of pumpkin seeds are  their anti-inflammatory properties, that they help lower cholesterol and that they can be used as natural treatment for tapeworms and other parasites.

Most people toast them for best taste. Just follow this toasted pumpkin seed recipe and enjoy more of your pumpkins.

Ingredients:

• Fresh pumpkin seeds
• Olive oil
• Seasoning: salt, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper or paprika.

Here is how to Oven Toast Pumpkin Seeds:

Rinse pumpkin seeds and remove all the pulp with your fingers.

Spread out the seeds on a flat surface  and dry overnight.

Preheat oven to 250 F.

Toss pumpkin seeds in olive oil and seasonings of your choice for example: salt, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper or paprika.

Bake in oven for about 1 hour, tossing every 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Let the pumpkin seeds cool before eating.

Store the toasted seeds in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 months or refrigerate up to 1 year.

Image by WordRidden

Banana Muffins are so moist and so tasty. I always make them when I have a bunch of bananas that have become overripe. The riper the bananas the sweeter muffins. The other day I had 4 very very ripe bananas so I omitted the sugar. Even without the sugar the muffins are so tasty.

These muffins are healthier since the bananas compensate so you need less fat and added sugar.

This must be one of the easiest recipes that was ever made. You make them from scratch in just a few minutes.

I usually make mini muffins since I think a bite size really should be enough. Sometimes it’s not.

No matter how you eat them I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!

Banana Muffin Recipe

Ingredients (makes about regular 12 muffins)

3 or 4 large bananas, preferably overripe

1/2 cup white sugar (use less or omit if bananas are really ripe)

1 slightly beaten egg

1/3 cup unsalted butter

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Mash the bananas and melt the butter. Mix the mashed banana, sugar, egg and melted butter together. Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix together baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour.
Mix wet and dry ingredients together. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Pour into greased muffin tins, and bake in 350 degrees F oven for approximately 20 minutes for regular muffins and 12-15 for mini muffins.

Talk about sneaky. No one would know that I added over 15 garlic cloves to this recipe.

Today I really felt like we needed an anti-virus and immune system boost. Garlic is the easy answer to that. But HOW was I going to get garlic in the kids. Sure I use garlic a lot in my cooking but nowhere near as much as I used in this recipe.

So for dinner today I made my first garlic soup. I don’t even think that I had ever had garlic soup before.

It was so tasty.  It wasn’t spicy and it didn’t taste or smell of garlic. It just had a really full taste. A powerful version of a tomato soup.

We all loved it!

I bet it will give me a calm day tomorrow cause no one will want to talk to me.

This soup will boost your immune system and help you battle nasty viruses.

Ingredients

1.5 whole garlic
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 bouillon cubes
2 cups water
1 can diced tomatoes
1.5 tablespoon paprika powder
and I think it might be a good idea to a a pinch of sugar.

Chop the all the garlic cloves. Saute them in the olive oil.

Add the other ingredients and let the soup simmer for about 30 minutes.

Blend the soup with a hand blender (optional)

I made this bread yesterday as I was on a 24-hour fast. If you’re not used to making bread from scratch you should really give it a try.

It is:

1. easy
2. healthier that store bread
3. cheaper that buying
4. the smell that spreads in the house is heavenly

I fasted yesterday to cut down calories and lose weight . The fast gave me such an energy kick I just had to bake. This is the bread I had for dinner as I ended my fast. Yum.

I never bother with how breads look. It’s the taste that matters. Here it is was my kids who made the rolls and I think they did a pretty good job.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups lukewarm water
• 1,5 teaspoon granulated yeast
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoons syrup (please chose one without HFCS)
• 3 medium sized carrots
• 2 cup whole wheat flour
• 3,5 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons flax seeds (optional)

Add yeast to the water.

Melt butter.

Peel and grate carrots.

Add all dry in a bowl.

Add all other ingredients (except flax seeds)  and mix until the dough is smooth.

Set aside for 40 min.

Split the dough in 15 pieces and make 15 bread rolls.

Put them next to each other on a cookie sheet or oven pan covered with parchment paper.

Set aside for 45 min.

Use a pastry brush to add a little water then sprinkle over the flax seeds.

Bake at 350F (175 C) for 20 min.

When they are done take them apart carefully and let them cool on a rack.

I can’t help myself. I really enjoy well made sweets and cookies.

The sneaky chef  promotes tricking your kids and husband by hiding healthy stuff in their favorite food.

Why only trick them? I’m perfectly happy to trick myself with the foods I like. Here is a recipe with healthy chocolate chip cookies with white beans. Not only does the recipe cut down on fat and flour it adds one if the best foods: beans.

Beans in cookies?

Yeah, I promise you won’t know the difference.

I make mini versions of these cookies,  inspired by one of  The sneaky chef’s recipes, stuff them in the freezer and take the out one at the time. Prefect treat for me or for the kids lunch boxes.

Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup pureed white beans
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

> Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove butter from refrigerator to let soften.

> In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

> In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars until creamy. Beat in egg yolks, vanilla, and pureed white beans. Add dry ingredients and mix on low speed. Stir in chocolate chips.

> Make small cookies by dropping heaping teaspoonfuls, spaced about an inch apart, onto parchment- lined baking sheets.

> Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool on a metal rack.

> Store cookies in airtight container at room temperature.

Image by http://www.flickr.com/photos/lara604/ / CC BY 2.0

According to Madeline Bohannon, a tropical fruit expert from Bonita Springs Tropical Fruit Club, this generous fruit may not be the best known of its kind but it deserves to be. That is because they yield 3 or 4 times as much juice as a regular lemon.

It is even better because they are in season now. They are typically harvested from November through winter. Meaning, they’re just right in time when we need an immune system boost. FYI, vitamin C is known to reduce the growth of free radicals or build up of toxic substances in the body that cause diseases ranging from flu to cancer.

In case you want to try Meyer lemon food recipes aside from the basic lemon juice or lemonade, here are a few of my healthy choices:

Meyer lemon pasta salad with asparagus, almonds and goat cheese
Meyer Lemon ‘Custard’ Island Parfait
Meyer Lemon – Ricotta Muffins

Read the rest of the report about Meyer lemons from News-Press.

Image by alasam.

Oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat present in these nutritious fruits is responsible for lowering cholesterol level. Avocados are also rich in potassium, which is a mineral responsible for regulating blood pressure.

And did you know that avocado or avocado extract is good for the prevention or treatment of breast cancer and prostate cancer? Scientists have discovered an unidentified toxin found in avocados that can kill cancer cells. They believe that the toxin has a great effect on the heart muscle tissue and tissues of the lactating mammary gland.

Other nutrients present in a creamy rich avocado are vitamin K, dietary fiber, folic acid, vitamin B6, vitamin C, copper, and reasonable calories.

So what are you waiting for? Start including this nutrient rich fruit in your diet. You may start with this delicious avocado soup recipe.

Image by devlyn.