Easy Healthy Recipes

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.

I've long maintained that pasteurized dairy products should be avoided whenever possible, as eating them regularly is associated with a number of health challenges, the most common of which are: chronic ear infections, nasal congestion, acne, eczema, a variety of autoimmune illnesses, and even cancer.

I almost never eat dairy products, but like a lot of people who follow a dairy-free diet, I find myself craving different types of cheese from time to time. I mean, come on, nothing provides a mouthful of flavor like a nice helping of cheese, right?

On days when I feel like having an all-raw and relatively light meal, I turn to some type of salad with a handful of raw nuts. Yesterday, I found a recipe for baby spinach salad with pecans and Bosc pear in a wonderful raw foods cookbook called Living Cuisine. I tweaked the recipe a bit, taking into account the ingredients that we had on hand in our kitchen, and proceeded to have a truly memorable salad meal.

If you enjoy healthy salads that provide a number of contrasting textures and flavors, I encourage you to give the following recipe a try. Did I mention that it's really good for your health? It's rich in calcium, iron, folate, healthy fatty acids, healthy protein, and complex carbohydrates, including fiber.

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 you want to significantly lower your risk of developing cancer, consider eating cabbage at least a few times a week. Cabbage belongs to the Cruciferous family of vegetables - other vegetables that belong in this family include broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collards, Brussels sprouts, Bok Choy, watercress, and arugula.

Phytonutrients found in cabbage and other Cruciferous vegetables stimulate your genes to increase production of enzymes that detoxify your cells, resulting in elimination of free radicals, toxins, and potential carcinogens from your body.

When eaten together, carrots and avocado provide a combination of nutrients that can strengthen your immune system and support your vision.

The carotenoids in carrots and healthy fat in avocado can contribute to healthy vitamin A status, and vitamin A serves your immune system in the following ways:

1. Vitamin A and its metabolites help to maintain the structure and function of your skin and the mucosal cells that line your respiratory tract, digestive tract, and urinary tract; your skin and mucosal linings are barriers that act as your body's first line of defense against harmful microbes and substances.

2. Vitamin A plays an important role in the development and differentiation of your white blood cells, which play essential roles in your immune system.

Earlier this month, I shared a Sweet Potato and Pecan Salad with Lime Recipe on this blog that generated several enthusiastic reviews. One appreciative reader even left a phone message of thanks for that recipe! Among the reviews were several requests for more recipes that call for sweet potatoes.

I hope that this recipe for homestyle sweet potato soup is appreciated as much as the last sweet potato recipe was. It's one of the first healthy recipes that I shared on this site, and it remains one of our family's favorite healthy soups.

In Japan, expensive varieties of mushroom like maitake and matsutake have long been thought to contain more health-promoting nutrients than the humble white mushroom. A new study, conducted by a government research institution in France, indicates that the white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) has at least as much antioxidant power as more expensive varieties like maitake and matsutake.

White button mushrooms are the youngest form of Agaricus bisporus. If left to grow, white button mushrooms turn into Crimini mushrooms. When Crimini mushrooms are left to grow another 2-3 days, they turn into Portobello mushrooms.