Healthy Comfort Food
With stress levels running high this week, I’m choosing recipes that look delicious and comforting. They also need to be full of anti-inflammatory, anti-stress, health boosting ingredients.
Living through times of extreme mental and emotional stress places extra demands on our bodies. This means that we need extra vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to cope with stress.
Stress can affect the appetite and make simple, healthy foods seem unappealing. That’s why I chose recipes that are vegetable packed versions of the foods I normally crave during stress. The vitamins and minerals that are naturally found in plant foods will help me to feel calm and grounded, while protein, fat, and carbohydrates will help keep my energy levels stable and avoid sugar crashes, fatigue, and irritability. This isn’t all I’ll eat this week, but it will provide a nice foundation.
The Recipes
This recipe has many of my favorite fall foods. It will be a really easy lunch to pack, as well.
I’ll probably sub cabbage for the banana peppers and make it more like a stuffed cabbage roll soup. I’ll also probably use fresh tomatoes instead of canned. Gotta get those cruciferous veggies in!
More cruciferous veggies! And a combination of my two favorite comfort foods, pizza and tacos. I’ll find an appropriate goat cheese for the topping since that seems to work better for me. Sub ground turkey since beef is in the soup.
Shopping List
Here is the shopping list. I don’t do meal plans, I just pick out a few recipes. I make a shopping list and if I have time I arrange it in the order that I shop in. Sometimes I cook a week’s worth of food on Sunday, and other times I’ll cook throughout the week and already have what I need.