Heavenly Healthy Christmas Archives - Heavenlynn Healthy

21 Heavenly Healthy Holiday Recipes

Lynn — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 07:33:33 +0000

Those of you who have been following my blog already know about my little “Heavenly Healthy Christmas” series, where I shared some delicious and healthy Christmas recipes with you. Even though my blog is only a few months old, I was already able to pile up many delicious recipes that will be perfect for the upcoming Holidays, so I thought I’d post a little medley of my favorite ones.
There are also a few words that I needed to say before I am wishing you all a Merry Christmas. This past year has been such a eventful and exciting year for me. I’ve started this blog during some shaky months and I would have never imagined that I’d receive so much support from all of you. Yes, if you are reading this, then I am directly talking to you. Reading your comments or personal emails makes me beyond happy. Every time I read some of your kind and inspiring words, I get the chills, and I am deeply, deeply thankful to everyone who reads this blog, cooks my recipes or simply likes to look at my pictures. I am so excited to continue this blog in 2016 – there will be so many delicious and healthy new recipes, maybe a bit more fitness articles or whatever else comes to my mind. If you have any suggestions for recipes that you’d like to see healthified, if you have any critique or simply want to talk to me, feel free to email me at heavenlynnhealthy@gmail.com or just leave me a comment below. I love to hear from you!

Now, I am wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

SIDES

Honey Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranate Seeds

“I love Brussels sprouts! Roasted is definitely the best but I’ve never thought of pairing them with pomegranate. I’m excited to try these!” – Kathleen

Spiced Apple-Cabbage

“This looks absolutely fabulous!! Such a beautiful rich color! Thanks for the recipe.” – Erin

SOUPS

Carrot, Coconut and Mango Soup

“Wow. So good. Never tried carrots + mango before. This recipe will enter my soup hit list. Thank you. PS: Even my little 3year old friend liked it.” – Annika

Sweet Potato and Beetroot Soup with Blood Oranges

“This combination is just great. It tastes sweet and fresh, velvet and soft…surprisingly amazing. It is really filling and so easy to make! Loved it! Thanks very much for sharing this recipe!” – Zibe

Roasted Red Pepper and Cannellini Soup

“Love this soup, Lynn. The combination of the smoky roasted red peppers with cannellini sounds great. I’ve made a tomato and cannellini soup before but think that the roasted red peppers are a great alternative. Love all the spices you’ve added also. Looking forward to trying this!” – Geraldine

SALADS

Massaged Kale Salad with Roasted Pumpkin Squash

“Loved this salad so much, Lynn. Honestly, I never thought I’d like kale in a salad, but this definitely changed my mind. The dressing is also a keeper. Thank you so much for this recipe!” – Sophie

Red Cabbage and Pear Salad with Walnuts

I don’t have readers’ feedback on this salad, but it’s absolutely delicious. Why not try red cabbage raw this Christmas?

Watercress, Beetroot and Avocado Salad with Beluga Lentils

“Ah, now this, Lynn. So delicious and packed with goodness! If only I could get Rob to eat watercress… or arugula. Beets are comfort food IMHO. Love them roasted, pickled, juiced or raw… and they’re just a perfect salad companion. There’s so much going on in this salad to make it hearty enough for a main. I love salads like this… Thank you Lynn!” – Traci

Sesame-Roasted Sweet Potato & Quinoa Salad with Pistachios & Date-Dijon-Dressing

“Wowwww! This combination is screaming eat me! …” – Megan

Mains

Stuffed Sweet Potato with Cashew-Chives-Chutney and Beluga Lentils

“How do you continuously develop such genius recipes? I HAVE to try this, it looks so delicious! Thank you for the inspiration!” – Farina

Lentil-Loaf with Cranberry Sauce

“I’m going to try and make something similar very soon! Looks so good!” – Amelia

Healthy Cauliflower Lasagna

“Looks fabulous, Lynn! I love lasagna and like how you’ve lightened this up with lots of veggies. Great idea to do a cauliflower bechamel, too! Xo” – Julia

Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Curry

“Your recipes are simply amazing! Not only your ideas but also the descriptions are on point, not to mention the pictures that always inspire me to try a new recipe. I love your blog!” – Laura

One-Pot Eggplant, Pumpkin and Chickpea Curry

“Lynn, this is beautiful, cozy, winter perfection – yum!” – Kate

COOKIES

Healthy Gingerbread Cookies

“Looks like your first attempt a healthified cookie was a huge success! They look so delish! And I love how you styled your photos. Want to come to Northern California and do that for all of mine? Happy Holidays my friend!!” – Katie

Healthy Almond and Cinnamon Christmas Stars

“Adore these! Pinned!” – Aimee

Healthy Vanilla Crescent Cookies

Gingerbread Granola

DESSERT

Damson, Apple and Blackberry Crumble

Instead of Damsons you can use pears or any other fruit that you have in stock.

“Lynn, this crisp is absolutely divine! I’ve never seen damsons around here, but I think I can sub italian plums or maybe plouts for them? I couldn’t agree more about Fall. As much as I love Summer, Fall is my favorite season by far. For the same reasons as you. Cozy sweaters, cuddles on the couch and copious amounts of hot chocolate and movie watching! Indoor activities rule around here! Thank you for this delicious recipe my dear!” – Traci

Spiced Carrot Cake Cookies

DRINKS

Beetroot and Apple Glögg

“Lynn, I just made this yesterday and my whole family loved it. We made one batch with red wine and the other one without. It was fantastic. Thank you for this recipe and Happy Holidays!” – Minna

Happy Holidays Everyone!

The post 21 Heavenly Healthy Holiday Recipes appeared first on Heavenlynn Healthy.

Healthy Vanilla Crescent Cookies

Lynn — Sat, 19 Dec 2015 08:00:03 +0000

Healthy vanilla crescent cookies for your Christmas bakery.

Baking cookies for Christmas is a huge German Christmas tradition. We have a special name for it: Weihnachtsbäckerei (Christmas bakery, and there’s even a famous children’s song with the same name, that every German kid and grown-up knows by heart. Everyone has his or her own favorite kind of Christmass cookies, mine is gingerbread and these delicious Vanilla Crescent Cookies. In fact, every region in Germany has its own favorite kind of Christmas cookies and many of them are even named after the city that they were invented in. Vanilla Crescent Cookies are commonly eaten across the entire country and there are not many people that do not like them. At least I haven’t met anyone.

Vanilla Crescent Cookies get their name from their half moon shape, but their exact historical background is highly debated. Rumor has it, vanilla crescent cookies were invented by Austrian bakers many hundred years ago. Nowadays, vanilla crecent cookies are known all over Europe, and people of all age love them. The dough is a very fine mixture of delicate ground almonds, buckwheat and oat flour as well as coconut sugar and the paste of a real vanilla pod. Trust me, the cookies won’t taste as good with dried vanilla powder. There’s something magical about real vanilla pods (beans) and their taste is so heavenly and delicate, that you won’t even believe how good these taste. Of course the cookies will taste vanilla-like, but only a real vanilla pod (bean) will give them the unique and amazing taste.

I made these delicious vanilla crescent cookies with my best friend two weeks ago when I visited her in Nuremberg. We had the best girls weekend, and we absolutely loved baking these. Vanilla is such a Christmassy flavor, which is why we struggled not to eat them all at once. If you didn’t have time for Christmas baking yet, then you really need to make these cookies this weekend.

This will be the last “new” recipe of my Heavenly Healthy Christmas series. I’ll be sharing a Christmas dinner idea next Wednesday, with all of my favorite recipes on the blog that are perfect for the upcoming Holidays.

I am sorry, but as I made these cookies in my best friend’s kitchen, so I don’t have the measurements in American cups. You will need a scale to make these.
Makes about 30 healthy vanilla crescent cookies

Healthy Vanilla Crescent Cookies

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

30 mins

Author: Lynn

Serves: 30

Ingredients

50g of buckwheat flour
50g of oats
50g of almonds
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
70g of of coconut oil
1 tablespoon (15g) of almond butter
1 teaspoon of chia seeds
3 teaspoons of water
30g of coconut sugar
1 vanilla pod
a pinch of salt

For the coconut "snow":

4 tablespoons of shredded coconut
1 tablespoon of coconut sugar
½ teaspoon of ground vanilla

Instructions

To make the chia egg: Place the chia seeds into a small bowl and add the water. Let the mixture thicken in the fridge for about 10 minutes.
Place the almonds into a food processor and process to a fine flour. Be careful not to blend it too long as it might turn into almond butter. Set the almond flour aside and process the oats into a flour as well. Set aside.
Mix the coconut oil, almonds butter, coconut sugar and maple syrup in your food processor for a couple of seconds. You can also use a conventional hand mixer to do this. Using a sharp knife, split the vanilla pod lengthwise into two halves. Scrape the pod halves with the dull side of the knife to extract the precious vanilla seeds.
Add the vanilla seeds, chia-egg, ground almonds and oats, buckwheat flour and salt to the coconut mixture and mix everything well using your food processor or hand mixer. Roll the batter into two logs (about 20 cm (8 inches) long) and cover them with plastic wrap. Chill for at least one hour.
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line two baking sheets with baking paper.
To prepare the coconut "snow": Place the ingredients into a small bowl and mix well with a spoon.
Cut the logs into 30 pieces and roll each piece into a crescent shape using your hands. Put the vanilla crescents on the lined baking sheets, about 2 cm (1 inch) apart. Bake until the cookies are browned, but not dark, about 14 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes. Place the cookies, while still warm, into the coconut "snow" and cover completely. Be careful as they are very fragile. Transfer the crescents to a rack to cool completely.
Stored in an air-tight container, the cookies last for about 2 weeks.

Notes

Notes:
- If you don't have a food processor, you can use almond meal instead of whole almonds.
- Use 200g of buckwheat flour, if you don't have a food processor or strong blender to blend the oats into a flour.
- Make your own almond butter. It's a lot cheaper than store-bought.
- If you don't have almond butter, use a total of 90g of coconut oil in the recipe.
- If you don't have chia seeds, use ground flaxseeds in the same ratio. In this case, 1 teaspoon of flaxseeds.

Healthy Vanilla Crescent Cookies Video:

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE OR HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS, QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

Feel free to leave a comment below, and don’t forget to tag your creations on social media using #heavenlynnhealthy.

I’d love for this blog to be a dialogue.

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