Healthy Dressings

When I design dairy-free dietary programs for clients, I often recommend eating small amounts of raw, organic cashews on a regular basis, as cashews are extremely dense in health-promoting nutrients, and their natural creaminess and sweetness make them an excellent substitute for many dairy-based foods and snacks.

The following creamy cashew dressing recipe creates a rich dressing or sauce that goes well with vegetable salads and pasta dishes. It's naturally abundant in healthy fatty acids, magnesium, and tryptophan, making it a healthy choice for your cardiovascular, nervous, and musculoskeletal systems.

This all-raw, nutrient-dense dip is an excellent substitute for dairy-based dips that are commonly served with vegetable platters. The creamy substance of this dip is provided by raw, organic cashews, which are naturally abundant in magnesium, healthy fatty acids, copper, and tryptophan.

Try serving this creamy dip alongside a bunch of celery sticks, carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, broccoli & cauliflower florets, raw zucchini sticks, bell pepper slices, and any other raw vegetables that you enjoy.

Sesame SeedsIf you love hummus but have a hard time digesting chickpeas, this chickpea-free hummus recipe is definitely worth trying. It calls for raw organic tahini (ground sesame seeds), but if you can only find tahini made with roasted sesame seeds, it's no problem to use that instead.

This raw hummus is rich in calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, manganese, and tryptophan. Because of its high tryptophan content, when eaten along with a healthy carbohydrate-rich food, it's an excellent evening food choice for promoting a good night's rest.

When made with raw, organic milk, butter can be a healthy food choice, since it's naturally rich in healthy fatty acids, healthy cholesterol, and vitamin A.

If your body can't tolerate high quality dairy butter, you can still enjoy butter by mastering the following dairy-free butter recipes; extra-virgin olive oil and coconut oil are used as bases to create buttery goodness.

If you love spinach dip but your body doesn't love the milk and sour cream that are often used to make most commercially prepared varieties, give this tahini-based spinach dip a try.

Not only is this raw spinach dip out-of-this-world yummy, it's rich in tryptophan, which means that when eaten with a carbohydrate-rich food (like baked, whole grain crackers), it makes for an excellent evening snack that promotes deep sleep.

Though hummus made with chickpeas is a favorite dish in our home, occasionally, we like to mix things up and make different types of hummus that are chickpea-free.

If you're a fan of almonds, I encourage you to give the following almond hummus recipe a try - it's rich in naturally occurring vitamin E, magnesium, and calcium, all of which can help keep your heart and blood vessels healthy as you age.

For most of us, there's no denying that mayonnaise makes everything better. And if you make healthy, homemade mayonnaise using extra-virgin olive oil, organic eggs, and other simple ingredients, you can continue making everything better with mayonnaise without compromising your health.

If eggs aren't your thing, a great alternative to egg-based mayonnaise is the following vegan mayo made with avocados and basil.

If I could choose only one fruit to eat for the rest of my life, avocados would receive serious consideration. Not only are avocados creamy and delicious, they are abundant in healthy raw fat, fiber, vitamin K, folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin C.

If eating avocados straight up isn't your thing, give one of the following easy guacamole dip recipes a try. It's near impossible to mess up a guacamole recipe, and freshly made guacamole is far healthier than commercially prepared varieties, which sometimes don't even contain real avocados.

Chickpeas are one of the least expensive, nutrient-rich foods that you can eat. Chickpeas are rich in a number of nutrients, most notably folate (folic acid), manganese, tryptophan, copper, iron, and of course, healthy protein.

Due to their high folate and tryptophan content, chickpeas are an excellent food choice for women of child-bearing age and people who have trouble getting restful sleep.

Enjoy the many health benefits of chickpeas through our two favorite hummus recipes, found below.

If you want to ensure a program of nutritional excellence, it's essential that you include healthy fats -- like those found in avocados -- in your everyday diet.