Skip to main content

3 Recipes to Make When You Feel Super Stressed

[brightcove:5116093205001 default]

When you’re feeling frazzled, it’s easy to be tempted by a handful of M&Ms, a couple of cookies, or an entire pint of ice cream. Stress and anxiety are known to trigger cravings, and not necessarily for a grain bowl or kale salad.

But it is possible to harness those cravings for good: Turns out a handful of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients can actually help relieve negative feelings. The magnesium, zinc, and omega-3s in nuts, for example, may help stabilize cortisol levels and keep your mood steady. Even dark chocolate (in moderation, of course) could help calm your nerves on harried days. "Research has shown that it can reduce your stress hormones," Health contributing nutrition editor, Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD, said in a prior interview. "Also, the antioxidants in cocoa trigger the walls of your blood vessels to relax, lowering blood pressure and improving circulation."

That's why we love these three simple recipes from the new book Eat Your Feelings: The Food Mood Girl’s Guide to Transforming Your Emotional Eating ($16, amazon.com) by Lindsey Smith. They all star mood-stabilizing ingredients (including chocolate!), which makes them sweet treats you can feel really good about. 

RELATED: 12 Superfoods for Stress Relief

PB Banana Chip Muffins

Serves: 12 to 14

2 large ripe bananas

1/3 cup coconut oil

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup peanut butter

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 egg

1¼ cups nut flour, gluten-free flour, or whole grain flour, sifted

Pinch of sea salt

Dark chocolate chips, to your liking

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large food processor or blender, combine the bananas, coconut oil, maple syrup, peanut butter, vanilla extract, and egg. Blend until smooth. In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt with the liquid mixture until mixed thoroughly. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour the mixture into lined muffin tins. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

RELATED: 17 High-Protein Snacks You Can Eat On the Go

Cookie Dough Contraband

Serves: 12 to 16

½ cup almond butter

1/3 cup honey or maple syrup

1 cup almond or cashew flour

1¼ cup dark chocolate chips

Combine the almond butter and honey or maple syrup. Add the nut flour and mix until a ball of dough forms. Add the chocolate chips. Roll into bite-size balls and freeze for 30 minutes.

To get more nutrient-packed recipes delivered to your inbox, sign up for the HEALTH newsletter

Pistachio Chocolate Bananas

Serves: 6

3 bananas

6 popsicle sticks or cake pop sticks

Coconut oil

½ cup dark chocolate chips

½ cup pistachios, crushed

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Peel the bananas and cut in half crosswise. Insert a stick halfway into each banana half. Place in freezer. Add a little coconut oil to a small saucepan, put on low to medium heat, and add in the dark chocolate chips. Stir until melted, but make sure it doesn’t burn. Take the bananas out of the freezer, dip in the chocolate, and sprinkle the pistachios on top. Freeze for at least 30 minutes or more before serving.

From Eat Your Feelings: The Food Mood Girl's Guide to Transforming Your Emotional Eating by Lindsey Smith. Copyright © 2017 by the author and reprinted with permission of Wednesday Books, an imprint of St. Martin's Press, LLC.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Intermittent fasting and BMI

BMI and Intermittent Fasting Diet (IFD) Intermittent fasting diet (IFD) is one of the most effective ways of reducing your BMI. Among the different types of Intermittent fasting diets 5:2 s the most common one. In this diet you only have to consume around 500 calories (600 calories for men) in two days of the week and eat whatever you want on the rest of the five days in the week. Intermittent fasting is different from prolonged calorie restriction and starving. In these methods the body is deprived of the healthy nutrients required for normal functioning of the organs. IFD involves taking in fewer calories, but only some of the time. Most of the nutritionists are now suggesting that prolonged starvation can deprive the body of essential nutrients which can result in muscle loss. So IFD is one of the convenient ways of losing weight and lowering the BMI while maintaining a healthy nutrient level in the body and consequently enjoying a healthy lifestyle. Intermittent fas
Post a Comment
Read more

6 Sneaky Ingredients That Are Really Just Added Sugar

[brightcove:5365774388001 default] Trying to cut back on added sugar? It may require a little more sleuthing than you think. That's because the sweet stuff is hiding in countless foods (from soup to tomato sauce!) under sly aliases like "brown rice syrup" and "evaporated cane juice." But with some basic knowledge of food label lingo, you can start picking out those sneaky ingredients—and slashing your daily intake. From now on, whenever you pick up a packaged product, turn it over and scan the label for any of the code words below. While some of the sweeteners are slightly better for you than others (hi, molasses), at the end of the day, they all count as added sugar. Coconut sugar and date sugar These terms often pop up on the labels on natural foods. Coconut sugar is made from sap extracted from the buds of coconut palm plants. And date sugar is typically made simply from dried, ground dates. But don't be fooled: While a whole food source may seem lik
Post a Comment
Read more