Low Carb Cucumber Lox Bites

For all my lox bagel lovers out there, this one's for you. These cucumber lox bites are low carb, beyond easy to slap together, and full of protein and healthy fats. We love that! When I was in NYC one weekend, I discovered a place called Black Seed Bagels. Turns out this is where heaven resides too. I was chomping at the bit to finally have a bagel that was gluten free and a schmear that was dairy free because unfortunately these things rarely exist in the south where I live. I was presented with an everything bagel and tofu scallion cream cheese lox style, complete with the salmon, capers, and red onions. I inhaled it. And then I thought, I've gotta make this at home - but without all the carbs. Enter cucumbers!

This recipe comes together super quickly and can serve as a light lunch, snack, or even appetizer. But first, a few things:

• Smoked salmon - I cannot express enough how important it is to not buy this farm raised. Even if they say it's sustainable. Please just don't do it!! I would highly encourage you to find wild caught salmon, preferably from the Atlantic ocean. Farm raised is full of all kinds of stuff you don't want to consume. They are fed weird stuff and purposefully colored/fattened up to make it look more appealing at the super market. No thanks. I bought the everything bagel flavored, wild caught smoked salmon from Whole Foods and it was very affordable

• Cream Cheese - I wold give anything to make this recipe with real cream cheese, but unfortunately I have an unrequited love for dairy. It simply hates me. I'm still on the hunt to find the perfect vegan cream cheese, but for now I've settled on Violife. It comes pretty stinking close to the real thing with the exception of the extra tartness of real cream cheese. I found mine at Whole Foods and its pretty affordable compared to other vegan brands. It often comes on sale too!

Coconut Tofu Soup

Tis soup season!!! I felt like it was almost criminal to not post a soup recipe at some point this winter, and I finally feel motivated to now that the temps are becoming normal. I mean how am I supposed to talk about soup when its 70 degrees outside? I'm looking at you, global warming. Anyways, I'm too excited to share this recipe because it's pretty comparable to a coconut tofu soup that is served at my favorite local Thai restaurant. It's warm, comforting, and comes together in about 15-20 minutes.

Truthfully this started off as a Thai green curry recipe, until I used way too much green curry paste and my insides nearly caught on fire. I also realized that I didn't want to give anyone or myself cholesterol issues so I cut the amount of coconut milk I was using, and thats the story of how it turned into a soup! Now most traditional recipes for this call for many ingredients and some of them are not really kitchen staples (lemongrass, ginger, fish sauce). While I'm sure it is worth the additional effort, sometimes you just want something quick and simple to throw together. Well more like all the time for me. I wanted to come up with a recipe that would allow you to just throw a few things into a pot and call it day, and I think this one fits the bill!

• Green curry paste can be found at most major grocery stores, I used this one - found it at Whole Foods. It's only good in the fridge for about 30 days since it has no preservatives so highly recommend freezing the rest. You don't need a lot so it should last you for some time :)

• If you find that the recipe doesn't call for enough tofu and mushrooms, feel free to add more as you please. I just enjoy this type of soup to be more brothy than chunky!

Chocolate Peppermint Banana Nice Cream

First of all, does anyone know why this is called nice cream?? So strange.. When I first saw this on an instagram reel, I could not believe someone threw a banana in a blender and pretended it was ice cream. The crazy thing is, it looks like exactly like the real thing. Even though I'm a little late on this trend, I still wanted to share how I turned this into such an easy holiday treat. And since it's almost Christmas it is totally appropriate to make everything chocolate peppermint flavored. It's basically a law!

Now if you're expecting this to taste like Blue Belle, don't. But if you're looking to stop feeding your ice cream addiction everyday like me, this will do just fine. The thing I have come to realize about switching to better-for-you alternatives is that you will never quite get exactly what you are trying to imitate. Instead, just appreciate it for what it is - ingredients that you can feel good about and that won't leave you pimply and bloated. Screw you, dairy!

• I made my own whipped topping from scratch, because most store bought non-dairy whip creams come with added sugars, preservatives, and fillers. Here's a recipe for homemade coconut whipped cream, or you can see if your local Whole Foods has any good options. I unfortunately did not see any at mine :(

• The more ripe your bananas are, the better. Ripe bananas are more sweet, if it's not ripe it will have a slightly sour/funky taste to it

• I recommend going with cacao powder if possible as its just better quality in terms of nutrients and processing, but cocoa will still work just fine if thats what you have on hand!

• I was able to find organic candy canes at Whole Foods that are free of artificial dyes