Feel good food

Food is very much a part of our life in many unique ways, from family get togethers, to tv shows, we all look forward to our next delicious meal. We eat when we’re happy, we eat when we’re sad and often use food as a copying mechanism to deal with our current emotional state. Stress, anxiety and depression caused by many different factors may lead to the bad habit of over eating to numb your feelings.

Making the right food choices can improve the way you feel about yourself and break the cycle of emotional eating. Eating healthy foods can also help elevate your mood and ease you out of the blues. Here are 10 tips for healthy eating on a budget.

Your fridge and pantry are filled with a wide array of mood boosting foods that are healthy, satisfying and delicious.

Here are 10 foods to add to your menu:

1. Nuts and seeds
2. Avocado
3. Fruits
4. Matcha
5. Fish
6. Dark chocolate
7. Green Tea
8. Beans and lentils
9. Fermented foods
10. Vegetables

Some great benefits

Fish is a great source of vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids which can improve your mood, self-esteem and help you cope with stress.

Leafy green vegetables such as spinach are rich in folate and magnesium, nutrients that are important in helping to reduce anxiety and boost your mood.

To get started, try out this herby hake and veggie stack that’s big on nutrients and flavour to help you incorporate these mood-boosting foods into your diet.

Ingredients:

Fish & Sauce

• 4 hake fillets, skin on
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 50grm garlic butter
• ½ lemon
• 1 tbsp mixed herbs
• Salt and pepper for seasoning

Vegetables

• 3 cups spinach
• 2 carrots, thinly sliced
• 1 baby marrow, thinly sliced
• 1 cube garlic butter
• Salt and pepper for seasoning

Directions:

Vegetable stack

• Add a half cube of garlic butter in a wide pan
• Melt in low flame
• Once melted, add spinach, seasoning and sauté for 1 minute. Don’t overcook the spinach
• Remove the spinach and transfer to a warm plate. Arrange as a bottom layer
• Now melt the remaining butter and add the sliced carrots and baby marrow
• Sauté for 30 seconds, remove and arrange on top of the spinach as a middle layer on your plate

Fish

• Wash the fish fillets in cold water. Rub with kitchen towel to remove access water
• Season with salt and pepper
• Heat olive oil in a wide pan and place the fish, skin side down
• Fry for 2 minutes on a medium or low flame until the skin is crispy
• Now add knobs of garlic butter around each hake fillet and fry for another minute
• Turn the hake fillets over and cook for another 3-4 minutes until cooked thoroughly
• Once done, transfer and place over the vegetable stack

Sauce

• Add the rest of the butter to the frying pan.
• Once melted, add a squeeze of lemon juice and mixed herbs.
• Mix to combine and season it.
• Drizzle your sauce over each fillet and enjoy!

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