The Anti-Anxiety Food Plan: How to Reduce Stress and Improve your Mood

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In today's fast-paced world, stress and anxiety have become common. Poor eating habits and a lack of exercise can exacerbate stress and anxiety levels. Fortunately, there are foods that can help reduce stress and improve your mood. Here are some ideas for meals that can help you relax and feel better.

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1. Salmon: Omega-3 fatty acids in salmon are known to help improve mood and reduce anxiety. The brain is made up of about 60% fat, and consuming omega-3s helps maintain its structure and function. Additionally, salmon is rich in vitamin D, which helps fight depression.

2. Leafy Greens: Leafy greens such as spinach, kale, and Swiss chard are high in magnesium, which has been shown to help reduce anxiety. Magnesium helps regulate the body's stress response and may help calm the nervous system.

3. Berries: Berries, such as blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries, are rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants protect the body from free radicals, which can cause inflammation and oxidative stress. Studies have shown that consuming berries can improve mood and cognitive function.

4. Dark Chocolate: Dark chocolate contains flavonoids, which are powerful antioxidants that can help reduce stress and anxiety. Flavonoids increase blood flow to the brain, which can help improve mood and cognitive function.

5. Greek Yogurt: Greek yogurt is high in probiotics, which are beneficial bacteria that help regulate the gut microbiome. Studies have shown that a healthy gut microbiome is linked to lower levels of anxiety and depression.

6. Avocado: Avocado is rich in healthy fats and contains B vitamins, which help support healthy brain function. Additionally, avocados contain potassium, which can help lower blood pressure and reduce the symptoms of anxiety.

7. Oats: Oats are high in fiber and contain complex carbohydrates, which can help regulate blood sugar levels. Fluctuating blood sugar levels can cause mood swings and increase anxiety levels.

8. Chamomile Tea: Chamomile tea is known for its calming properties and can help reduce anxiety levels. Chamomile contains an antioxidant called apigenin, which binds to receptors in the brain that help promote relaxation.

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By incorporating these foods into your meals, you can help reduce stress and anxiety levels and improve your mood. These foods not only taste great, but they also provide numerous health benefits. So why not give them a try and see how they can improve your life?

In addition to the above foods to reduce anxiety and stress, I also recommend the Mediterranean Diet e-book, which you will receive as part of the Destroy Depression system.

Destroy Depression: Mediterranean diet

Other Recommended Readings

How to Overcome Anxiety: 10 Effective Strategies to Cope with Stress and Worry

9 Proven Strategies for Managing Anxiety: Tips and Techniques to Overcome Worry and Stress [+20 Journal Prompts]

How to Strengthen Your Emotional and Physical Health for a Better Quality of Life

Breaking the Stigma: How to Increase Mental Health Awareness and Well-Being

Red Velvet Cool Whip cookies

Cool Whip cookies

Ingredients

• 1 box of cake mix - whatever flavour floats your boat; I obviously used Red Velvet
• 1 egg
• 4 ounces of Cool Whip (about ½ a container or a heaping 1 cup)
• Powdered Sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In large bowl - mix the cake mix, Cool Whip and egg. A large bowl will give your plenty of room to fold the mix and make sure everything gets mixed together evenly.
3. Pour powdered sugar into a small bowl (refill as needed). Pinch off a small portion of dough - about a teaspoons worth and roll it into a ball.
4. Roll the ball through the powdered sugar until it has an even layer of powdered sugar.
5. Place cookie dough about a ½ inch apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If you don't have parchment paper just grease the baking sheet.
6. Bake for 10 minutes. Once out of the oven let them cool off on a wire rack. These will keep in an airtight container for up to a week- if you manage to make them last that long. They're delicious, though, so if you're like me, they will be gone well before then.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

I have been so busy with work lately that I haven't had time to maintain this blog. I've gotten several new recipes lately though so hopefully I'll have time to share some of them here soon. I'll start today with a dessert recipe.

This pie recipe is now my go to dessert recipe! It is easy to throw together and can bake while you are eating dinner— perfect for a last minute company is coming dessert! It's so incredibly simple to make.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

2 eggs
½ Cup flour
½ Cup sugar
½ Cup brown sugar
1 Cup chocolate chips
1 regular pie crust- not deep dish

½ Cup butter (melted)

Preheat oven to 325°. Melt butter then set aside. Beat two eggs in a mixing bowl until foamy- I beat with a whisk just well enough to see a few bubbles. Mix in sugars and flour. Slowly stir in butter and then chocolate chips. Pour mixture into unbaked pie shell. Bake for about 1 hour.

Serve warm with ice cream. So delicious!

Thick and Chewy M&M Cookie Bars

The day my sister came to visit me in South Carolina I made some M&M cookies before picking her up at the airport. I made them cookie bar style using a 9x13 cake pan. They were thick and somewhat buttery, therefore soft... especially while they were still warm. They were soft, chewy, and chock full of M&M's. What more can you ask for? They were delicious! Between 5 people, over half of them were gone in no time that evening. I meant to take a picture but forgot- sorry. Trust me, though, they were very tasty.

Thick and Chewy M&M Cookie Bars

Yield: 1 9x13 pan

 

Prep Time: 15 min

 

Cook Time: 30 min

 

Total Time: 45 min

Ingredients:
2 1/8 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
12 Tbsp butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted and cooled slightly
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 tsps vanilla extract
1 12oz bag M&M's, divided

directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Adjust the oven rack to lower-middle position. Grease a 9x13 pan and set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the melted butter and sugars until combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and mix well. Using a rubber spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture until just combined; do not overmix. Fold in 1 cup of M&M's and turn the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the spatula. Sprinkle remaining M&M's on top and press in slightly.

Bake 25-30 minutes, until the top of the bars is light golden brown, slightly firm to the touch, and edges start pulling away from sides of pan. Cool completely before cutting.

Enjoy!

Hawaiian Chicken Version 2.0

After David returned from Japan, I told him about the Hawaiian Chicken I made while he was gone. He thought it sounded amazing so he decided to invite another friend over and make it one day. We changed the recipe just slightly. We again used the crock pot and this time had 6 pieces of frozen chicken breast. We used regular BBQ sauce this time- I believe it was Sweet Baby Ray's Sweet and Spicy BBQ. We then used a can of Pinepple Chunks, juice and all. Cook on high for about 6 hours. I'm sure you could use Low for 10-12 hours, if you want to cook it while you are at work. We decided we wanted more pineapple so ended up adding another can of Pineapple Chunks, juice and all, about an hour before it was done. If you're making about 3 pieces of chicken, I think one can would be enough, but for 6 pieces, I definitely recommend 2 cans. Then again, I love pineapple, so the more the merrier for me.

We served it with some Long Grain Wild Rice from a box and a bag of frozen vegetables. It was a great meal! David and our friend Nate both thought it was phenomenal. We also gave some leftovers to another friend who said it was delicious as well.

While my first version was quite good, this is more of what I had in mind, simply because it had much more BBQ flavor than the Hawaiian BBQ sauce from Target did. Feel free to try one or both of these recipes! I think you will enjoy either one of them.

Root Beer BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Sorry I am behind a little on my cooking adventures. The person I live with spent 24 days in Japan. I wanted to have dinner ready when he got home, but wasn't sure what time that would be exactly. Therefore, I pulled out the trusty crock pot once again. We had several pork loin filets. I used Farmland's Oven Perfect Chipotle BBQ Fresh Pork Loin Filet (1.5 lbs). It was still frozen when I put it in the crock pot. I stirred a bottle of IBC root beer and 1/2 cup BBQ sauce in a bowl and then poured the mixture over the pork. I used Sweet Baby Ray's Hickory and Brown Sugar BBQ sauce. I set the crock pot on low for 6 hours and let it cook. When David got home, we shredded the pork and then added a little extra BBQ sauce. We then put the meat on buns and enjoyed. It was delicious!

You can use any pork loin, root beer, and BBQ sauce. This was the easiest BBQ sandwich I've ever made and it was truly amazing tasting. I definitely recommend this. Other ideas would be to serve it over rice or noodles, if you don't want a sandwich.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures, but I found this image of the particular pork loin I used, but again any pork loin would work.

Crock Pot Hawaiian Chicken

Last night I pulled out the crock pot. Whoever invented the crock pot is/was a genius! So easy.  I have also recently learned that spraying it with cooking spray before using it makes for incredibly easy cleanup. Easy to cook a dinner and easy to clean up- this will be even more perfect when I start 12 hour work days in a couple months.

Anyway, enough with the small talk. Let's talk food! For the past week or so, I have thought some Hawaiian BBQ Chicken sounded wonderful. I have never made such a thing before but figured why not experiment. I was really wanting a Kansas City style BBQ flavor with pineapple flavor included. However, BBQ here in the South is not like BBQ in Kansas. Words can't describe how much I miss the Kansas City style BBQ sauces. However, I was at Target and found a Sweet Pineapple Hawaiian-style BBQ Sauce and decided to give it a try. I bought 1 bottle of this:

I had some pineapple spears that needed eaten before they went bad. I cut the nine remaining spears up into smaller chunks. You could easily use a can of pineapple chunks or pineapple tidbits, but I had fresh pineapple so that's the method I used this time around. I took some chicken breasts out of the freezer. I did not even thaw it out first. Took it straight from the freezer into the crock pot. Three ingredients (sauce, pineapple, and chicken) is all this delicious meal takes. With that being said, this is everything I pulled out when preparing to put it in the crock pot (ignore the Mead in the background):

I only used 4 of the 6 chicken breasts. The remaining 2 will most likely be grilled tomorrow. I also ended up not using the can of pineapple juice at all. I was planning to use 1 cup of pineapple juice, but when I opened and tasted the sauce I decided the sauce and fresh pineapple would be enough.

The Bourbon is not necessary. However, a dear friend of mine here in South Carolina has taught me that adding a little Bourbon to meats helps tenderize meat. If you've never added a splash of Bourbon to a marinaded meat of any sort, I highly recommend it. When we grill steak or chicken here, we always marinade them overnight in whatever marinade sauce we decide we want with a splash of Bourbon. It all ends up getting cooked out, but it really helps tenderize the meat. We once forgot it in a peppered steak meal we occasionally make and it was definitely noticeable because the meat was more difficult to chew and cut apart. We always use this cheap bottle of Jim Beam Bourbon as our cooking Bourbon. Again, you do not have to add it, but if you do, you only need a splash of it.

Anyway, back to the meal. Crock pot out. Spray with cooking spray for easy cleanup- not a necessary step, but it sure was nice afterward. Place frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot- I used 4 because I wanted to take some to work to share at lunch. Pour sauce over all the chicken breasts. I poured a splash of the cooking Bourbon in the empty sauce bottle, put the lid on, and shook it in order to try to get all of the sauce out and then poured the cooking Bourbon into the crock pot from there. I then put my cut up pineapple on top. Here's what it looks like in the crock pot:

Plug in the crock pot and turn it on. I cooked mine on High for 3 hours before I ate it. After about 2 hours, I used a fork to pull apart the chicken a little to allow the sauce to really cover the chicken. After about 2.5 hours of cooking I tasted it. It was done enough that I easily could have eaten it at that point, but I wanted rice with it. I'd have loved brown rice with it, but had none, so white rice it was. Cooked some rice. Put rice on plate and then put the crock pot deliciousness on top. Tada!

You could easily put this on low for 4-6 hours. It was delicious! Two ladies at work tried some of the leftovers today and were highly impressed. They were both asking for the recipe. I loved it served over rice. I have just a little bit left and a couple buns that need to be eaten this weekend so I think tomorrow for lunch I will see how it does as a sandwich.

I would easily make it again just like this. The pineapple sauce was really good. However, I was wanting more of a BBQ flavor so I think next time I will use a traditional BBQ sauce (probably some Sweet Baby Ray's or learn to make my own BBQ sauce) and then use some pineapple juice, along with the pineapple chunks. My sister said she doesn't like cooked pineapple in things so for people like that, I think just regular BBQ sauce and pineapple juice would still be quite delicious.

While the crock pot was doing it's thing, I was busy baking cookies. However, I felt lazy so I cheated a bit. I used a pouch of Betty Crocker Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookie mix. With that being said, I did place a personal touch to them. I added the butter and egg as directed, but I also cut up some chopped pecans into small pieces and added a splash of Rum. Let's just say I ate WAY TOO MANY of these cookies today.

So, in summary, here is the brief version of my Crock Pot Hawaiian Chicken.

Ingredients:

4-6 Boneless Chicken Breasts (mine were still frozen)

1 Bottle Archer Farms Hawaiian Style Barbecue Sauce (from Target)

Pineapple Chunks, drained

Directions:

Spray the inside of your crock pot with cooking spray for an easy cleanup!  Place frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot and cover with sauce.  Place drained pineapple chunks on top.  Cook on High for 2-3 hours or Low for 4-6 hours.  Shred chicken with two forks while still in the crock pot so the chicken will be well coated with sauce.  Serve over rice, if desired.

That's it! Super easy to make. Super delicious. Super easy to cleanup. I hope you enjoyed this post. Until next time, happy cooking!