Let's just say I'm very apologetic for not actually writing that blog post I promised, okay? But here's a nice short and sweet one for y'all. Every year, towards the end of the winter term and the beginning of spring term, I go through a health phase where I start cooking and baking healthy recipes, and trying all new things. This golden milk recipe is my new favorites. I make a cup every evening, and it's the perfect thing to help me settle down. (Which 
Golden milk is a trend I'm quite behind on, it seems like everyone and their mother have already tried and become obsessed with it, but if you're like me and apparently living under a rock, here's a quick explanation of what it is. 
Golden milk is a milk infused with a blend of superfood spices such as turmeric, cinnamon and ginger. That means it has quite a number of health benefits, which include but are not limited to having anti-inflammatory  and joint relieving properties, being filled with antioxidants, perhaps aiding in memory and brain function and mood, protecting against heart disease, and lowering blood sugar levels and risk of cancer. If you're interested as to why that is, I may make another post, or it's pretty easy to look up, but I promised a quick post and explanation, and I'm going to try and stick by that promise. 
Just a a few more quick side notes about the recipe.  if you're wondering about the pepper, it helps to bring out the health benefits locked inside the turmeric so your body can actually absorb them. 
You can use any sort of milk in the recipe, even cow's, and heat that milk any way you wish. I use a milk frother, but I am aware not everyone has those so use whatever you prefer: microwave, stove, etc.
You can sprinkle cardamom and clove on top of the milk to add more flavor and health benefits, but I personally am not a fan of those flavors and do not use them. 
There are a ton of recipes, all differing from each other, on golden milk, but this one has been my favorite of them all because it makes a paste that you can make once and use for a long time-- that means not having to heat milk up on the stove every night = making my life and level of dishes so much easier. 
The most difficult part of the recipe is making the paste, which simply involves sitting by the stove for 5-10 minutes, whisking some spices and water so not really all that difficult. Without further adieu, here's the recipe. 

Paste: 
Ingredients: 
1/2 cup water
2 tsp turmeric (ground spice) 
1 T + 2 tsp coconut oil 
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper 
1/4 tsp ginger root
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 

Recipe: 
1) Place all ingredients into saucepan. 
2) Put on medium heat and whisk until a thickened paste. 
3) Place in a container and keep in the fridge. (Will keep for a long time as none of the ingredients are particularly perishable). 

Milk: 
Ingredients: 
1 tsp paste
1 cup milk (coconut, almond, soy, hemp, etc.) 
Maple syrup or honey to taste
1/4 tsp cardamom (optional) 
1/4 tsp cloves (optional) 

Recipe; 
1) Heat milk. 
2) Stir all ingredients in a mug until well mixed. 
2b) Throw ingredients into a blender to make a frothy latte. 
3) (The hardest step of all) Enjoy! 

Thanks for reading, hope you all love this recipe as much as I do. <3 
​Anji

Popcorn is a great snack. It's got that crunch that cures cravings AND is pretty healthy. Especially if you have an air popper (which I don't). So in this post I'll giver you all a good method to cooking popcorn-- and no, I'm not talking about microwave popcorn, this is cooking kernels on the stovetop. Oh yeah, another pro for popcorn? It's cheap yet it makes a TON. Though, if you're really in a time crunch, and still want to eat a healthy snack, you can buy some ready-to-eat popcorn like the ones made by SkinnyPop.  My sister, Zia loves the ready-to-eat stuff, she's always munching on it. 
I used to love to experiment with popcorn flavors-- making things like sushi flavored popcorn (using soy sauce along with a few other ingredients). It was something I enjoyed to to when I came home from school. But my all-time favorite recipe has to be the honey mustard popcorn, which is the recipe I'll share here along with a siricha popcorn recipe. YUM! The honey mustard popcorn is a little sticky, but the flavor is so worth it. They also have few ingredients that you probably already have-- so jump into the kitchen and get popping! (Sorry, that was really cheesy. I'm just in a good mood because exams just ended).

First, before the true recipe, I'll give you instructions on how to pop popcorn on the stovetop perfectly every time.

1/3 cup popcorn kernels
3 T Coconut Oil

In a sauce pan over medium heat, melt coconut oil and throw in three popcorn kernels-- when these pop you know it's time to pour the rest of the kernels into the pan. Once all the kernels are covering the bottom, take the pan off heat and count to sixty. This will make sure they'll all pop at the same time. After 60 seconds, put the pan back on with the lid slightly cracked. Once the popping slows, remove from heat and add in your seasonings.

Seasonings:
Honey Mustard
3 T Honey
3 T Mustard
1 T Vegtable oil
1 tsp Salt (optional)

1) mix these ingredients together until homogenous.
2) pour over popcorn & toss to coat.

Siracha:
4 T Butter
2 tsp Siracha
1 tsp salt (optional)

1) in a pan melt butter, whisk in Siracha and salt
2) pour over popcorn & toss to coat.

Hope you all enjoy! Thanks for reading,
​Anj


​

Yup, I'm on another diet. Am I technically cheating by making these? Yep. But the key word there is technically. Technically the only rules I'm breaking are no recreating an unhealthy dish, and using coconut flour. Okay, and I guess using vanilla, but the only reason vanilla is banned from the diet is so no one can get drunk off of it, and I promise there's not enough vanilla in these to get drunk off of, even if there was, it'd be cooked off before these are in an edible state anyway. 
Well, these brownies are absolutely fantastic, you wouldn't even know they were healthy brownies if you just ate them. I promise. They're so good, I highly encourage everyone to try these. They're honestly... I can't even describe it. Last time my staple "goodie" was the healthy twix bar recipe (which I already shared), this time? I've probably been eating too many of these... well, haha let's not think about it. Here's the recipe. 

Ingredients: 
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cocoa powder (or cacao) 
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate 
3/4 cup honey 
2 eggs 
1 tsp vanilla 
1/4 cup coconut flour 
1/2 tsp salt 
1 tsp espresso powder (optional) 

Directions: 
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and line a 9x9 inch baking pan with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper. 
2. In a medium saucepan, combine coconut oil, cocoa (or cacao) powder, and unsweetened chocolate, whisking constantly over medium heat. Whisk until mixture is smooth and without any lumps. 
3. Remove from heat and stir in honey, this should thicken the mixture. 
4. Whisk in eggs and vanilla, mixing quickly so the eggs do not scramble. 
5. Add in coconut flour, salt, and espresso powder. Mix until no dry pockets remain. 
6. Pour into the prepared pan, and spread to corners. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the middle can be poked. 
7. Store in the fridge after the first day to keep fresh. 

Thanks for reading! 
​-Anj

Quite possibly one of the tastiest healthy recipes that is so EASY. Honesty, all you do is just throw all the ingredients into a bag, shake it up. Pour them out onto a tray and cook it. That's it. 
It's a really good recipe for if you've been super busy like me lately. See, that's my excuse as to why I haven't updated my blog. In reality, yes, I am very busy (NaNoWriMo and school), but when I am free I've been procrastinating my free time away. So yeah, sorry, we're probably not going to see too many, if any more updates out of me this month. So here's a wonderful recipe to hold you over.

Sweet and Spicy Cauliflower 

Ingredients: 
 4 cup cauliflower, cut into pieces
2 T maple syrup
2 T sriracha 
2 T olive oil
1/2 tsp soy sauce / tamari 
1/2 tsp black pepper 

Instructions: 
1. Preheat oven to 400, line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper
2. In a large bag (or bowl) throw all the ingredients and shake until evenly coated
3. Spread out on baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until cauliflower is tender (Make sure the sheet isn't over crowded so the vegetable can cook correctly). 

Yay. Done. Thanks for reading, 
​Anj

During the month of January, I participated in a diet called The Whole30. While on this diet, I ate some pretty weird food, but I also discovered some pretty amazing recipes that not only taste delicious, but are also healthy. Some of my favorites are the Twix Bars and Caramel Milkshake. (If you haven't noticed, I really like recreating unhealthy foods because I kinda love those kinds of foods. (technically that's not allowed on the whole30, but whatever, I technically stayed in the guidelines.)) This is also another recipe that I absolutely fell in love with, and definitely intend to be using after the diet (and I have been.) 
These banana pancakes are gluten-free, sugar-free and nut-free. So most dietary restrictions, but they are certainly not vegan, haha. They taste fantastic, and if you don't think about it too hard, they are actually a bit like pancakes. Plus, for those who don't like bananas much (like me), these will still work 'cause they don't taste like bananas. 
Anyway, here's the recipe. It makes about enough for one (the picture has a double batch in it), and is easily doubled or tripled. Oh, and just warning you, they are a bit hard to flip, since they're thinner, but you just have to wait until they're cooked enough on one side to be stable. (these are delicious with maple syrup!) There are a lot of mix ins, I personally find the baking powder, salt and vanilla extract are perfectly fine. You add the blueberries and chocolate chips in while they're cooking, which are also good mix ins.

Ingredients: 
1 medium ripe banana 
2 eggs 

Oil (coconut or olive) 

1/4 tsp vanilla extract (optional) 
1/8 tsp baking powder (optional) 
1/8 tsp salt (optional) 
1 T cocoa powder (optional) 
1 T honey (optional) 

chocolate chips (optional) 
blueberries/fruit (optional) 


Instructions: 
1) In a bowl, mash the banana with a fork until it has a mushed, pudding-like consistency 
2) In another bowl, whisk together eggs until thoroughly combined
3) Add any extra ingredients for the batter into the bananas (this would include the vanilla, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder and honey) 
4) Mix together eggs and bananas 
5) Heat pan over medium low heat, place oil in the pan 
6) Drop about 2 Tablespoons of batter on the pan and press in any other mix ins
7) Cook for about 1 minute, or until the bottom is golden brown or the top seems stable enough to flip
8) Flip, and cook the other side for about a minute
9) Cook rest of the pancakes  (I like to keep them in the oven on warm to keep them, well, warm until they're all done) 
10) Serve warm with your favorite pancake toppings 

Enjoy! Love y'all,
Anj

For those of you who don't know, I've been on the Whole30 for the month of January. 2 weeks in, 2 weeks left to go. The Whole30 is a diet that is meant to get you in the habit of eating healthy. It basically just cuts out all carbs (except for fruits & vegetables), dairy & any processed foods and added sugars. While I am determined to actually finish off the whole 30 days of clean eating, it seems I am not entirely built to go a whole 30 days without something sweet (aside from the abundance of fruit I've been shoveling down.) Over the summer, I made these "Healthy" twix bars, and they'd been sitting in my freezer ever since. After a week of being on the Whole30 I remembered having these, so I got them out. Now my sister and I have been unable to keep our hands off of these little cookies. They've been lifesavers. While they may not be entirely Whole30 compliant, they are almost. The only ingredients that are not compliant are maple syrup (no added sugar is technically allowed on the diet-- not even honey), oats (but in my opinion, oats aren't nearly as bad as regular flour), and vanilla (the whole reason vanilla isn't allowed is because of the alcohol in it. Yeah. It's not like I'm going to get drunk off of 2 teaspoons of vanilla.) 
These bars are great because they're gluten free, sugar free and vegan. Basically they fit all kinds of diets. Also they're pretty filling, so while you may not be able to stop yourself from eating more than one, you most certainly won't find yourself eating an entire batch and cursing your hungry stomach. 
Anyway, I got and slightly altered the recipe from here.
I like to use 1/4 cup cacao and 1/4 cup cocoa, because cacao is a superfood and is really good for you, but it's so bitter. I have a sweet tooth. If you're doubtful about the candies, yeah, so was I. But they're actually pretty good. 
The chocolate is decadent, the caramel delicious and the cookie has a great crunch. It's doubtful these could be this good because of the loss of gluten, sugar & all animal products, but they actually are really tasty. You have two options for keeping these bars. In the fridge or the freezer. The freezer is great because they're kind of ice cream-y (not actually but it's hard to explain. And in the fridge? They're less crunchy, but the caramel is so ​goey.  I love it. 
And now, here is the recipe for these wonderful "candy" bars.

Ingredients: 
Crust: 
2 cups oats
1/2 cup + 2 T coconut flour
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla

Caramel:
1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 cup maple syrup 
1/3 cup coconut oil 
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Chocolate:
1/4 cup cacao powder 
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
​4 T maple syrup

Directions: 
​Preheat oven to 350F/180C. 

1. In a food processor, process oats until they are powdered into oat flour. 
2. In a bowl, mix together the oat flour, coconut flour, coconut oil, maple syrup & vanilla until well combined. 
3. On a greased pan (I use coconut oil), spread the cookie dough out into a rectangle of about 1/2 an inch, or so. Poke with fork
4. Bake for 12-20 minutes, or until the crust if golden brown. Let cool completely. 
5. In  a saucepan over medium heat, whisk together all the caramel ingredients until fully combined and the mixture has thickened some. 
6. Pour "caramel" over the crust, spreading it out to the sides. Freeze 30 minutes. 
7. Mix together the chocolate ingredients. 
8. Pour over and spread out the chocolate on top of the "twix" 
9. Allow to harden in the freezer for about another hour
10. Cut apart and either freeze or keep in the fridge. 
Enjoy! 

Thanks for reading <3
Anj

As I've made quite clear on this website. I have a sweet tooth. A major one. And at the moment, I am on a diet that has (unfortunately for my sweet tooth and fortunately for my health) cut out all sugar. Not that I eat much sugar regularly, but the lack of sweetness is noticeable. Especially since this recipe also says no adding sweeter of any sort-- including honey. Honey is one of my staples in life, so I had to politely ignore that rule of the diet. 
Another thing about me? I like finding loopholes. This "milkshake" recipe follows my diet (save for the added sweetener rule because that rule is stupid-- honey is good for you), and is simultaneously delicious. It literally just tastes like caramel ice cream. I love it. Then again, that might only be from me being unable to eat anything unhealthy for the last two weeks, but hey, I'm enjoying it now. 
Not only is this shake delicious, but it's also filling. I actually just made some when I got home from school. It'll hold me over until dinner, a feat not easily accomplished. Why is this shake so filling? My diet approved caramel contains almond butter, an extremely filling ingredient. So this shake does more than just satisfy your sweet tooth! It also fills you up so you won't feel a craving for any more food. 
The most difficult part about this recipe is the caramel. The rest is just throwing a bunch of ingredients into a blender. While the caramel isn't particularly hard, it does take a few dishes. I actually had just made a jar of this caramel and kept it in the fridge before I even came up with the idea for this drink. The caramel is lovely and thick when stored in the fridge-- a nice little treat to snack on. Anyway, this is the same caramel that I used in my Healthy Twix Bars, which I haven't posted yet, so I'll share it here again. 
You have two options for milk in this shake, either coconut or almond. I've used both, and they both turn out fantastic. I'd say don't worry too much about the milk-- just use what you happen to have. Personally though, I've always preferred coconut milk. 

Caramel: 

Ingredients:
1/2  Cup Almond Butter
1/2 Cup Maple Syrup 
1/3 Cup Coconut Oil 
2 Tsp Vanilla
1/4 Tsp Salt 

Instructions: 
1) In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients. 
2) Whisk until thickened (about 5 minutes) 
3) Store in the fridge

Milkshake 

Ingredients:
1 Cup Milk (Almond or Coconut) 
4 T "Caramel" 
10 Ice Cubes 
2 Tsp Honey (or to taste) 
Splash of Vanilla (optional) 

Directions: 
1. Combine all ingredients in a blender, blend until smooth. 

Easy, right? Anyway, thanks for reading :) 
​-Anj

This recipe is both delicious and fairly healthy. It's also very easy to make. If you're also dairy free, you could also use a dairy free yogurt, or just leave the yogurt out entirely. The yogurt just adds a nice tangy flavor to the recipe, but it still has the texture of soft serve ice cream without the yogurt. The texture is due to frozen bananas. When frozen bananas are blended up, they make a texture that matches that of soft serve, It's quite handy when making frozen desserts. You can really just blend up frozen bananas for one ingredient soft serve, but I usually like to add flavorings to it. 
If you eat this immediately after blending it up, it will have a soft serve texture, but if you freeze it, the dessert will have more of a regular ice cream texture. Either way it tastes delicious and quite decadent. I highly recommend this recipe as a good, cold guilt free dessert for the summer. 

Ingredients: 

• ⅓ cup Cocoa Powder
• 4 tbsp Honey
• ⅓ cup Plain Greek Yogurt
• 3 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 3 Frozen Bananas

Directions: 

In a food processor or blender mix together all ingredients until no lumps remain. (You may need to stop and mix several times due to the frozen bananas and lack of liquid)

Place into an airtight container and put into the freezer for 8 hours or more preferably, overnight.

For more of my recipes visit: 
https://sortedfood.com/profile/227655

*Sorry for the lack of updates, the last bit of school was really stressful and overwhelming. Hopefully I'll post more now that it's summer

Yum! This is basically like an avocado pasta, and it is totally delicious. I love pasta and this sauce makes it extra tasty. You can use any kind of pasta, I usually use regular noodles, but last time I tried using rice noodles and it tasted just as good.

*Side note 
Sorry for posting so many recipes lately, nothing really interesting or worth blogging about has occurred in my life

​Recipe originates from here. 

Anyway, here's the recipe:

Avocado Pasta

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb pasta 
• 1 avocado 
• 3/4 cup spinach 
• 1/4 cup fresh basil (use a couple tablespoons of dry, but the fresh makes it taste extra good) 
• 1/2 cup pasta water (I like to use either coconut water or some kind of milk (almond, coconut or hemp) because I always forget to get the pasta water. Also, using the milk makes it creamy, which is great) 
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 clove garlic (can be substituted with 1 tsp of garlic powder) 
• 2 T slivered almonds 
• salt to taste 

Instructions: 

1. Cook pasta according to instructions 
2. While pasta is cooking, blend together avocado, spinach, basil, olive oil, garlic and almonds until smooth.
   1. The mix tends to thicken without liquid, so add your liquid (pasta water, coconut water or milk) a little bit of the time until the mix is thin enough to blend. Only add just enough liquid, you want a thicker sauce, not a thinner one. 
3. Drain pasta and put into a bowl. 
4. Gently mix sauce into the pasta. 
5. Enjoy

If you're thinking, "Oh no, another recipe to satisfy Anji's insane sweet tooth." I will tell you that you are exactly right. For those of you who know me, you may be aware that I have a major sweet tooth. In fact, my love for sweets is a little scary.
I love this recipe and it curbs my crazy sweet tooth, at least for a little while. The best part is, this is adaptable to anyone's preferences. If you like things less sweet than me, then you can totally add less maple syrup/honey. If you like things more sweet (I highly doubt there are many people that are) you can totally add more sweetener and it will still work out fine. 
So, lately everyone's been talking about overnight oats. Finally, I decided I'd pick up the ingredients I didn't have on hand at the store, and try it out. 
And I do not regret it. I usually don't really like oatmeal, but I really love these oats. As soon as I made it, I knew I was going to love this food. Breakfast is usually a pain for me- lately I've been getting up a little too late and end up not have enough to have a good breakfast. As many of you may have noticed, I have been trying to eat healthier. Chia seed pudding (recipe here) is also a great and healthy breakfast slash snack, depending how you prepare it. This also makes a spectacular breakfast as well as a snack. It's super filling, so you don't have to eat a lot of it to be filled up for a snack. For breakfast, I ate about half of what this recipe makes and was full until lunch. There's a lot of protein and nutrients in this. This recipe has greek yogurt, oats, hemp seeds and chia seeds in it. That makes for a pretty filling meal slash snack. 
Anyway, there s a basic recipe, which just makes the oats, and then I'll give y'all the recipe for making maple and chocolate banana oats. Both are quite good, and you adding other things to the basic recipe to make your own flavor combinations. Yum. ​


Overnight Oats

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup Old Fashioned Oatmeal (Instant will not work for this recipe)
  

• 1/4 cup plain Greek Yogurt
  

• 1/4 cup Almond Milk (Any kind will work, hemp, coconut etc.)
  

• 1 T Chia Seeds
  

• 1 T Hemp Seeds
  

Chocolate Banana:
Mix in

• 1 T Cocoa Powder
  
• 2 T Honey (Agave Nectar works also)
  

Toppings

• ½ Banana, sliced
  
• Chopped Pecans or Walnuts
  

Maple Oats:
Mix in

• 3 T Maple Syrup
  

Toppings (Optional)

• Fresh fruit
  
• Slivered Almonds
  
• Cinnamon
  
• Sunflower Seeds
  
• Maple Syrup
  

DIRECTIONS
1) Combine oatmeal, greek yogurt, almond milk and chia seeds in container with lid.
2) Add Mix Ins
3) Mix with spoon, then close and shake.
3) Refrigerate overnight.
4) Eat cold or warm (warm in microwave 30-60 seconds) and add toppings after heating up

If you're thinking, "Oh no, another recipe to satisfy Anji's insane sweet tooth." I will tell you that you are exactly right. For those of you who know me, you may be aware that I have a major sweet tooth. In fact, my love for sweets is a little scary.
I love this recipe and it curbs my crazy sweet tooth, at least for a little while. The best part is, this is adaptable to anyone's preferences. If you like things less sweet than me, then you can totally add less maple syrup/honey. If you like things more sweet (I highly doubt there are many people that are) you can totally add more sweetener and it will still work out fine. 
So, lately everyone's been talking about overnight oats. Finally, I decided I'd pick up the ingredients I didn't have on hand at the store, and try it out. 
And I do not regret it. I usually don't really like oatmeal, but I really love these oats. As soon as I made it, I knew I was going to love this food. Breakfast is usually a pain for me- lately I've been getting up a little too late and end up not have enough to have a good breakfast. As many of you may have noticed, I have been trying to eat healthier. Chia seed pudding (recipe here) is also a great and healthy breakfast slash snack, depending how you prepare it. This also makes a spectacular breakfast as well as a snack. It's super filling, so you don't have to eat a lot of it to be filled up for a snack. For breakfast, I ate about half of what this recipe makes and was full until lunch. There's a lot of protein and nutrients in this. This recipe has greek yogurt, oats, hemp seeds and chia seeds in it. That makes for a pretty filling meal slash snack. 
Anyway, there s a basic recipe, which just makes the oats, and then I'll give y'all the recipe for making maple and chocolate banana oats. Both are quite good, and you adding other things to the basic recipe to make your own flavor combinations. Yum.