Two Easy, Healthy Holiday Recipes (both gluten- and dairy-free)

Happy Holidays!

I’ve been doing lots of super easy healthy holiday recipes, both to take to dinners/get togethers, and also to have freezer-friendly meals to have at home when I’m a bit rushed.

Here are two of my new recipes - both stuffed veggies with creamy mixtures. One is a vegan appetizer (stuffed mushrooms) and the other is more of an entree using animal protein (stuffed squash). Both recipes are gluten-free, dairy-free, but delicious and balanced - containing tons of fiber, healthy fats and protein.

Note: For both recipes I use my 2 variations of vegan cheese from Balance Food (the creamy and parmesan version, both of which are cashew and nutritional yeast based), but if you’re in the US or elsewhere, you can use any vegan cheese that you find, such as Kite Hill cream cheese, and for parmesan you can either use pure nutritional yeast or this VioLife parmesan). For the seed crackers to crumble on top, I use my gluten-free balance food seed crackers, but in the US I like Ella’s Flats, otherwise Marys Gone Crackers also work well!

Here are my 2 creamy, delicious “stuffed veggie” holiday recipes, that I hope you’ll try and love!

RECIPES:

Stuffed Mushrooms with spinach & vegan cheese (view video & spanish recipe here)

Ingredients:

  • 1 tray of whole mushrooms (baby bella or white, both work) 8-10oz

  • ½ cup onion and 2 cloves of garlic

  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (or avocado oil or ghee)

  • 3 cups spinach (option to mix with chard and kale), leaves chopped and stemmed

  • 3/4 - 1 cup vegan cheese (in Nicaragua, I recommend Balance Food cheese, in the US either Kite Hill or Violife).

  • for topping: handful of seed crackers crushed + 2 tablespoons vegan parmesan cheese

Instructions:

  1. Crush seed crackers and set aside.

  2. Remove stems from the mushrooms and place on a baking sheet: add pinch of salt and pepper.

  3. In a pan over low heat, heat olive oil (or avocado oil or ghee) and add onion and chopped garlic. Cook for 5 mins while stirring, then add spinach. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook for 5 mins stirring and turn off heat. Add vegan cheese to spinach.

  4. Preheat oven to 350 F. Stuff mushrooms with vegan creamy spinach, top with vegan parmesan cheese, then top with crushed seed crackers. Bake stuffed mushrooms for 20-25 minutes and enjoy!

Squash stuffed with turkey, quinoa, greens & vegan cheese (view video & spanish recipe HERE).

Ingredients (serves 2*):

  • 2 small (or 1 large) winter squashes (ex. 2 small acorn squash or 1 larger kabocha squash) cut in half, removing seeds and core

  • ½ pound ground turkey (or you can use ground beef or chicken)

  • 1 teaspoon ghee (or extra-virgin olive oil)

  • ½ onion, chopped and 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced

  • 2-3 cups leafy greens (I used 1.5 cups chopped spinach leaves + 1 cup chopped kale leaves)

  • Pink salt and pepper to taste

  • ½ cup cooked quinoa

  • 1 cup vegan cream cheese (in Nicaragua, I recommend Balance Food cheese, in the US either Kite Hill or Violife).

  • 2-4 tablespoons vegan parmesan cheese (in Nicaragua, I recommend Balance Food cheese, in the US either Violife or I prefer just Nutritional Yeast).

Instructions

  1. Cut the squash in half, remove seeds, then scoop out the “squash meat”, leaving only 1cm thick (from the edge of the squash). Finely chop the squash that you scooped out, and set aside (to add to the filling).

  2. Cook ground turkey: In a medium skillet, over low heat, put the ½ pound of ground turkey, and stir with a spatula until it is no longer pink. Set aside.

  3. In that same skillet, add ½-1 tsp of ghee, then the chopped onion. Cook for 3 mins, then add chopped garlic. Cook for 5 more mins and add chopped squash (that you scooped out of the 2 halves), cook for 3 mins, then add chopped green leaves (spinach and kale) and stir, cooking for 5 mins. Add salt and pepper to taste, the already cooked quinoa, the ground turkey; stir.

  4. Turn off the heat, add the vegan cheese to the mixture, and mix well to combine. Preheat oven to 350 F.

  5. Fill the squash halves with the mixture of ground turkey, quinoa, green leaves and vegan cheese.

  6. Top with vegan parmesan cheese (and optional crubled seed crackers), and bake for 20-30 mins at 350 F. Enjoy with a green salad!

*serves 2 to 4 depending on size of your squash!