Go Ahead, Eat Your Feelings
Irritable, tired, confused? You may be afflicted with the condition known as it’s-not-quite-spring blues. While the only known cure is sunshine, there are things to do to make the next few weeks a little more bearable.
One easy way to change your mood is to eat. No, we’re not talking about spending quality time with a pint of rocky road. Instead, turn to foods rich in the kind of nutrients that can help put you back on the happy track.
- Feel less anxious: Choline
Related to B vitamins, choline is key to regulating anxiety, mood, and memory. Studies suggest that it can protect you from cognitive decline and dementia. Get your fix from eggs, beef, seafood, and Brussels sprouts. - Think more clearly: Folate (Vitamin B9)
The natural form of folic acid is necessary for the production of major neurotransmitters including dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine, which regulate your mood, your sense of pleasure, and mental clarity. Low levels of folate are a risk factor for depression. Give your brain a boost with leafy greens, avocado, and citrus. - Experience more pleasure: Iron
This element transports oxygen to every cell in your body. And like folate, it’s also a key ingredient in producing the neurotransmitters responsible for pleasure and focus—dopamine and serotonin. Iron deficiency can lead to moodiness, fatigue, apathy, and depression. Animal protein contains more iron in a form called heme that allows bodies to absorb it better than they do the iron from plants. Adding an acid such as lemon juice to iron-rich plant foods like spinach increases iron absorption two to six time. Pump up your iron intake with beef, lentils, and dark meat poultry. - Be less irritable: Magnesium
Photosynthesis, that magical process that plants use to turn sunlight into sugar, begins with magnesium. In your diet, it can change your mood from stressed out to relaxed. This key element is directly related to brain growth and is known to ease irritability, confusion, and fatigue. Next time you’re feeling edgy, reach for magnesium-rich foods rich like salmon, pumpkin seeds, and cheese. - Improve your memory: Omega-3s
Your brain loves omega-3s. Low levels of these fatty acids are linked to depression, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and Alzheimer’s disease. The best sources are found in fatty fish like sardines and salmon, seeds like chia and flax, and brassicas like kale and cauliflower.
Illustration by Rob Levin
Come On, Get Happy
Short days, long, dark nights and bone-chilling temperatures take their toll on even the most resilient winter-loving souls. But there’s no reason to be a victim of the season. Here are six prescription-free recommendations that can change your mood for the better, not only during the winter but also year-round.
Get outside
Yes, it may be cold out there, but even a few minutes of sunlight every day can lift your mood and boost your energy level.
Keep moving
This is not the time to pause your workout routine. The connection between exercise and mental health is strong. Your gym membership has the ability to ease both short- and long-term depression. Use it.
Never underestimate the power of song
Music is one of life’s most reliable mood-altering substances. Turn up the volume and sing out loud. It’ll do you a world of good.
Spend time with friends
Resist the urge to hole up at home alone. Make time for the people you love. Laugh, hug, and talk about the things that matter, and the things that don’t. Do it in person, not in a text or Facebook message.
Experience awe
Look at the sky and see the clouds. Consider the leaves on trees, the wonder of a newborn baby’s tiny fingers, and the persistence of the weeds that push through the cracks in the sidewalk. The world is vast and beautiful. Make time each day to really see it.
Say thank you
Gratitude is powerful. Being thankful can make you kinder, less aggressive, and less anxious. It can help you sleep better and experience greater overall satisfaction with your life.
What’s up with the Dirty Pan?
If you cook many Sun Basket recipes, you’ve likely come across an instruction midway through that asks you not to clean the pan. We do that in recipes for pork steaks, skin-on chicken thighs, and steak. Cook your protein, and letting it rest while you cook the remaining ingredients in the same pan is a great way to ensure maximum flavor and minimal clean-up. It’s not that we don’t like washing dishes. (Well, we don’t actually like washing dishes, but that’s not why we don’t clean the pan.)
Right after browning meat, fat, juices, and bits of meat are stuck to the bottom of the pan. This meaty residue is pure gold in terms of flavor and adds a savory depth to a dish that’s hard to come by any other way. Think about the flavor you get when you fry bacon for breakfast and then cook your eggs in the rendered bacon fat. Oh, you don’t do that? Well, you should.
Browning onions and other aromatics in a pan still dirty from cooking meat adds complexity and flavor. Those meat juices and fat give you a head start on seasoning.
We’ve recently embraced this maximum flavor, minimum cleanup lifestyle by adding more one-pan meals to our menu, so you can keep cooking-in all that meaty goodness. Now you can spend less time manning multiple burners and cleaning up and more time at the table enjoying your meal. Look for the “One-Pan Meal” tag on your menu each week and take it from us: be a little lazy and do the dishes after you eat. Your dinner will be better for it.
Shake off that Sad Face with our Feel-Good Playlist
Life got you feeling a little stressed? Shake it off and kick up some dust with this happy-making playlist. Because music works.
Come on Get Happy with our playlist here.
Six Foods Your Heart Will Love
There are many other steps you can take to reduce your risk of heart disease, and it’s easier than you might think. Simply adding more fish, fiber, vegetables, and nuts to your diet; drinking wine; and going for walks (that doesn’t sound so bad, does it?) can protect you from the leading cause of death and disability in the United States.
These six rockstars of the heart-healthy pantry also happen to be some of our favorite ingredients. Do your heart a favor and enjoy some of our good-and-good-for-you American Heart Association® Heart-Check certified recipes as part of our Lean & Clean meal plan. These meals have been co-developed by our lead dietitian and executive chef, and are designed to help you manage your weight with nutrient-rich, great-tasting food. Don’t forget the wine.
Beans
If you’re looking for an excuse to get more beans on your plate, we’ve got a good one. A twenty-five-year-long study of more than 15,000 middle-aged men across the U.S., Europe, and Japan found that eating beans was associated with an eighty-two percent reduction in risk of death from heart disease. It turns out that beans contain a variety of heart-protective chemicals, which help lower the risk of both heart attacks and strokes.
Cabbage
The brassica family of vegetables—think broccoli, cauliflower, and turnips—is known for being heart-healthy because they’re packed with antioxidants, flavonoids, and fiber, but the star of the group is cabbage. Recently, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that consuming flavonoids can lower the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and that even relatively small amounts of flavonoid-rich foods may be beneficial.
Greens
You already know that greens are delicious, but we’ve got even more reasons to love them. Low in calories, packed with fiber, and rich in vitamins and minerals, including calcium, magnesium, potassium, selenium, zinc, and iron, dark leafy greens, such as spinach, kale, and chard, also contain powerful phytochemicals, which can protect your heart.
Nuts
The unsaturated fats in nuts help reduce bad cholesterol levels while helping to increase the good kind. Nuts are also rich in arginine, an amino acid that eases blood flow. Studies show that people who regularly eat nuts have a thirty to fifty percent lower risk of heart attack, sudden cardiac death, or cardiovascular disease.
Salmon
Eating two or more servings of fish per week may reduce the risk of coronary disease by thirty percent. Fish—especially oily kinds such as salmon, sardines, and tuna—contain heart-healthy omega-3 fats, which can help lower blood pressure and prevent irregular heart rhythms.
Tomatoes
There’s a reason the tomato has earned the nickname “love apple.” Tomatoes are an excellent source of vitamin C, vitamin A, potassium, and fiber, and a good source of lycopene, which prevents the oxidation of “bad” LDL cholesterol and reduces the amount of it in the blood.
Get to Know Keta Salmon, the Fishermen, and the Fish
For our skin-on Yukon River keta salmon, our supplier FishPeople partnered with the Yupik eskimos in Alaska, whose history with the catch runs deep.
Every spring, the Yupik travel from their inland villages to camps along the lower Yukon River, where they spend the next few months harvesting salmon. It’s a tradition that has persisted for a very long time—the Yupik are believed to be among the original inhabitants of North America. For them, salmon is much more than dinner. The fish has played a crucial role in the culture ever since their ancestors first crossed the Bering Strait thousands of years ago.
The Yukon River is considered one of the most important salmon breeding grounds in the world. The fish there travel almost 2000 miles upstream in frigid waters against powerful currents to return to their spawning grounds. It’s not a journey for the weak of fin. Along the way, the salmon build up stores of delicious, heart-healthy omega-3 fats to insulate them from the cold and give them strength to make it home.
Here at Sun Basket, we’re excited to support the Yupik by offering their high-quality keta salmon in our meals. This particular species is firm, with a milder flavor and lighter color than sockeye or king. While some keta salmon can be quite lean, the ones from the Yukon River have been tested and shown to have the highest omega-3 content of any salmon—up to 5.2 grams per 100 gram serving compared to 1.5 grams in a 100 gram serving of other salmon from other waters.
Taste it for yourself in our Thai Style Salmon with Asian Pear Salad and thank a Yupik for your meal.
The Color of a Healthy Plate
One of the easiest ways to make sure you’re getting all the nutrients you need is to eat a wide variety of foods, and a simple way to do that is to fill your plates with colors. Nature’s own color-coding system ensures that different compounds in foods—including vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals—create a variety of colors in fruits and vegetables. These natural minerals and compounds have healing powers to help protect plants from germs, bugs, the sun’s harmful rays, and other threats. And when humans eat them, we can reap the same benefits.
Green
Cancer-fighting antioxidants and vitamins A, C, and E are often found in green foods such as asparagus, cucumbers, avocados, and leafy greens like kale and spinach. Green vegetables and fruits also tend to be rich in iron, folic acid, and potassium.
Orange and Yellow
Grandma was right when she said eating carrots would be good for your eyesight. Orange and yellow foods are a source of lutein, an antioxidant that helps protect the eyes from degeneration, as well as vitamin C. These benefits are not limited to carrots; also try incorporating more sweet potatoes, pineapple, corn, and citrus fruits into your diet.
Blue and Purple
Full of anthocyanins, blue and purple foods contain antioxidants that may help prevent heart disease, support healthy blood pressure, and have cancer-fighting properties. Get your daily dose from blackberries, radicchio, eggplant, grapes, plums, and blueberries.
Red
The predominant pigment in red fruits and vegetables is lycopene, a powerful antioxidant that’s associated with a reduced risk of some cancers and protection against heart attacks. Red foods like beets, cherries, apples, strawberries, and tomatoes also tend to be good sources of vitamin C, folate, and flavonoids, which reduce inflammation.
30 Days of Sun Basket—Pounds Lost, Blood Pressure Lowered, Confidence Boosted
We followed Kira and Brandon on their 30-day journey cooking Sun Basket meals. At the end of the month, they’ve increased their confidence as home cooks and even staved off cravings for sugary foods. The results speak for themselves: They both lost a few pounds and lowered their blood pressure as well.
Basket Hack—Sun Basket Chef Alan Li Turns our Chickpea Stew into a Pizza
Do you ever go “off recipe” with your Sun Basket? We’d love to hear about your favorite hacks. Share them on Instagram with the hashtag #hackyourbasket
Chickpea Pizzas with Kale and Eggs
Ingredients
1 or 2 shallots
Peeled fresh garlic
1 cup cooked chickpeas
½ cup diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
1 bunch kale
Fresh oregano
2 naan
2 pasture-raised organic eggs
½ teaspoon za’atar
Tools
Garlic press or fine-toothed grater, optional, vegetable masher, optional, colander, medium bowl, medium sauce pot
Instructions
1 Prep the chickpea spread
Heat the oven to 400ºF.
- Peel and thinly slice the shallots.
- Finely chop, press, or grate enough garlic to measure 1 teaspoon.
- Rinse the chickpeas.
In a medium sauce pot over medium heat, warm 1 to 2 tablespoons oil until hot but not smoking. Stir in the shallots and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the chickpeas, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, paprika, and ½ cup water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chickpeas start to soften, 4 to 5 minutes.
While the chickpea spread cooks, prep the other ingredients.
2 Prep the other ingredients; finish the chickpea spread
- Strip the kale leaves from the stems; coarsely chop the leaves.
- Strip the oregano leaves from the stems; coarsely chop the leaves.
Transfer the chickpea spread to a medium bowl, using a masher or the bottom of a cup, mash into a smooth paste. Alternatively, blend in a food processor until smooth.
3 Assemble and cook the naan pizza
On a sheet pan, lay the naan pieces side by side, spread the chickpea mixture in an even layer, top with the kale and oregano leaves, and drizzle with 1 to 2 teaspoons oil. Carefully crack an egg onto each naan, sprinkle za’atar on top, and season with salt and pepper. Cook in the oven until the naan is toasted and the whites of the eggs have set, 8 to 10 minutes, or longer if you prefer a more cooked egg.
Transfer the naan pizzas to individual plates, cut into pieces, and serve.
Cook time: 20-25 mins
Nutrition per serving (one pizza): Calories: 590, Protein: 25 g, Total Fat: 16 g, Trans Fat: 0 g, Saturated Fat: 2 g, Cholesterol: 155 mg, Carbohydrates: 78 g, Fiber: 9 g, Added Sugars: 0 g, Total Sugar: 8 g, Sodium: 610 mg
Basket Hack—Sun Basket Chef Alan Li Turns our Chickpea Stew into a Pizza
Do you ever go “off recipe” with your Sun Basket? We’d love to hear about your favorite hacks. Share them on Instagram with the hashtag #hackyourbasket
Chickpea Pizzas with Kale and Eggs
Ingredients
1 or 2 shallots
Peeled fresh garlic
1 cup cooked chickpeas
½ cup diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
1 bunch kale
Fresh oregano
2 naan
2 pasture-raised organic eggs
½ teaspoon za’atar
Tools
Garlic press or fine-toothed grater, optional, vegetable masher, optional, colander, medium bowl, medium sauce pot
Instructions
1 Prep the chickpea spread
Heat the oven to 400ºF.
- Peel and thinly slice the shallots.
- Finely chop, press, or grate enough garlic to measure 1 teaspoon.
- Rinse the chickpeas.
In a medium sauce pot over medium heat, warm 1 to 2 tablespoons oil until hot but not smoking. Stir in the shallots and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the chickpeas, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, paprika, and ½ cup water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chickpeas start to soften, 4 to 5 minutes.
While the chickpea spread cooks, prep the other ingredients.
2 Prep the other ingredients; finish the chickpea spread
- Strip the kale leaves from the stems; coarsely chop the leaves.
- Strip the oregano leaves from the stems; coarsely chop the leaves.
Transfer the chickpea spread to a medium bowl, using a masher or the bottom of a cup, mash into a smooth paste. Alternatively, blend in a food processor until smooth.
3 Assemble and cook the naan pizza
On a sheet pan, lay the naan pieces side by side, spread the chickpea mixture in an even layer, top with the kale and oregano leaves, and drizzle with 1 to 2 teaspoons oil. Carefully crack an egg onto each naan, sprinkle za’atar on top, and season with salt and pepper. Cook in the oven until the naan is toasted and the whites of the eggs have set, 8 to 10 minutes, or longer if you prefer a more cooked egg.
Transfer the naan pizzas to individual plates, cut into pieces, and serve.
Cook time: 20-25 mins
Nutrition per serving (one pizza): Calories: 590, Protein: 25 g, Total Fat: 16 g, Trans Fat: 0 g, Saturated Fat: 2 g, Cholesterol: 155 mg, Carbohydrates: 78 g, Fiber: 9 g, Added Sugars: 0 g, Total Sugar: 8 g, Sodium: 610 mg
Recent Comments