From Ben's Kitchen

Eat Steady, Feel Steadier

Eight things worth making in a hard week. Not superfoods, and not a cure for anything. Mostly they are food that keeps your blood sugar level, which turns out to be the part of this that is actually well established.

100% VegetarianNo EggsNo PineappleLow-GI Focus

On the Menu

  1. Matcha Latte, Unsweetened (morning)
  2. Steel-Cut Overnight Oats with Almond Butter (breakfast)
  3. Avocado, Spinach and Pumpkin Seed Salad (lunch)
  4. Spinach and Walnut Soup (meal)
  5. Kimchi Tofu Bowl (meal)
  6. Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups (small sweet)
  7. Tart Cherry Cooler (evening)
  8. Chamomile and Lemon Balm Tea (bedtime)
Bright green matcha latte in a ceramic cup with a bamboo whisk beside it Japanese · Morning

1. Matcha Latte, Unsweetened

Caffeine that arrives without the lurch.

~110 kcalper cup
~9 gcarbs
Very low GIno added sugar
5 mintotal
1cup

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Sift the matcha into a bowl. It clumps, and no amount of whisking fixes a clump you could have sieved out.
  2. Add the hot water and whisk briskly in a W shape for about 20 seconds, until a fine foam forms.
  3. Pour in the warm milk and stir.
Tip: Matcha does carry more L-theanine than steeped green tea, because you drink the whole leaf. Just do not expect a trial dose from one cup. Treat it as a nicer way to take your caffeine, and drink it before noon.
Jar of overnight oats topped with almond butter, berries and seeds Breakfast · Make Ahead

2. Steel-Cut Overnight Oats with Almond Butter

The anti-skipped-breakfast. It is already made.

~290 kcalper jar
~21 gcarbs
GI ~55Low
5 min+ overnight
2jars

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Stir the oats, milk, chia and cinnamon together in two jars.
  2. Swirl a spoon of almond butter through each rather than mixing it smooth, so you get pockets of it.
  3. Refrigerate overnight. Top with berries and pumpkin seeds in the morning.
Tip: Steel-cut, not instant. Instant oats are milled fine enough to behave almost like sugar; steel-cut sit around GI 55 and the almond butter and chia pull the whole bowl lower again.
Spinach salad with sliced avocado, pumpkin seeds and lemon dressing Lunch · No Cooking

3. Avocado, Spinach and Pumpkin Seed Salad

Ten minutes, and it does not need reheating at a desk.

~440 kcalper bowl
~7 gcarbs
Very low GIfat and fiber
10 mintotal
2servings

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Toast the pumpkin seeds dry for 2 minutes until they start to pop.
  2. Whisk the oil, lemon, salt and pepper, then toss the spinach in it with your hands.
  3. Lay the avocado on top and scatter the seeds and cheese over. Dress it last if you are carrying it somewhere.
Tip: Spinach and pumpkin seeds are two of the better food sources of magnesium, which is the nutrient most often sold as a stress fix. The honest version: worth eating, not worth expecting much from on its own.
Bowl of deep green spinach soup swirled with cream and topped with walnuts Soup · Meal

4. Spinach and Walnut Soup

Something warm to hold, on a day that has earned it.

~190 kcalper bowl
~9 gcarbs
Very low GInon-starchy
25 mintotal
3servings

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Soften the onion and garlic in the oil for 5 minutes without browning them.
  2. Add the stock and walnuts and simmer 10 minutes. The walnuts are what makes it creamy, so no cream is needed.
  3. Add the spinach and cook only 2 minutes, then blend. Longer than that and the color goes army green.
  4. Season with nutmeg, salt, pepper and lemon. Top with chopped walnuts.
Tip: Blend it while the spinach is still bright and it stays a vivid green. This is the whole difference between a soup that looks appetizing and one that does not.
Bowl of tofu cubes with red kimchi, cucumber and sesame seeds Korean · Meal

5. Kimchi Tofu Bowl

Sharp, hot and cold at once, and ready in fifteen minutes.

~220 kcalper bowl
~4 gcarbs
Low GIprotein forward
15 mintotal
2bowls

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Press the tofu between two plates for 10 minutes to squeeze the water out, then cube it.
  2. Sear the cubes in a hot dry pan until golden on two sides.
  3. Take the pan off the heat before adding the kimchi, so the live cultures are not cooked out.
  4. Dress with sesame oil, soy and vinegar, top with cucumber, spring onion and sesame seeds.
Tip: Check the jar. A lot of kimchi is made with fish sauce or salted shrimp, so buy one labeled vegetarian or vegan. And add it off the heat, since heat is what kills the cultures you bought it for.
Dark chocolate cups filled with almond butter and topped with flaky salt Small Sweet · Freezer

6. Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups

One of these is the point. Keep them in the freezer so it stays one.

~130 kcalper cup
~6 gcarbs
Low GI85% chocolate
15 min+ 1 hr freeze
Makes 8cups

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Melt the chocolate with the coconut oil gently, over water or in short bursts.
  2. Spoon a little into each case and tilt to coat the base. Freeze 10 minutes.
  3. Add a small spoon of almond butter to each, then cover with the rest of the chocolate.
  4. Sprinkle with flaky salt and freeze an hour. Keep them in the freezer.
Tip: The freezer is doing real work here, and not just setting them. Something you have to wait two minutes to eat is something you eat one of.
Deep red tart cherry cooler over ice with a sprig of mint Drink · Evening

7. Tart Cherry Cooler

The evening drink that is not another cup of coffee.

~35 kcalper glass
~8 gcarbs
Low loadsmall pour
3 mintotal
1glass

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Pour the cherry juice over ice.
  2. Top with soda water and stir once.
  3. Finish with lime and mint.
Tip: Measure the juice, do not pour it by eye. Cherry juice is still fruit sugar, and the reason this works as an evening drink is the quarter cup pour. A full glass is a different drink entirely.
Glass cup of pale gold chamomile tea with dried flowers beside it Herbal · Bedtime

8. Chamomile and Lemon Balm Tea

Caffeine-free, and mostly it is the ritual.

~2 kcalper cup
~0 gcarbs
No GIno carbs
7 mintotal
1cup

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Put the chamomile, lemon balm and lemon peel in a cup or small pot.
  2. Pour over the water and cover it. Covering matters, since the aromatic oils leave with the steam.
  3. Steep 5 minutes, strain and drink.
Tip: Chamomile has more supporting evidence than most herbal teas, though still from small trials. The larger effect is probably the twenty minutes away from a screen that making it buys you.
A quick note: Calorie counts and glycemic index (GI) values are estimates. Actual values vary with ingredients, portions, and preparation. GI under 55 is considered low, 56 to 69 medium. This page is for general guidance only and isn't medical advice; please follow your doctor's or dietitian's recommendations. Where a recipe offers a choice of milk, the calories and carbs assume whole milk; unsweetened almond milk is lower on both.
What food can and cannot do here, honestly: the sturdiest link between eating and mood is not a magic ingredient, it is steadiness. Swinging blood sugar is well documented to push people toward irritability and low mood, and in diabetes that link is stronger still. So the most useful thing on this page is simply eating at regular times, with protein, fat and fiber in the meal. That is the whole reason these recipes look like the rest of the site.

The popular nutrient claims are much thinner than the internet suggests. Magnesium is the one you will see everywhere; reviews of the actual trials describe the evidence as poor quality and mostly drawn from people who were already anxious. L-theanine, the calming compound in green tea, does show modest effects, but the trials use 200 to 400 mg and a cup of tea gives you a small fraction of that. Fermented foods are genuinely interesting and genuinely unsettled, with trials pointing in both directions. None of it is a reason not to eat these things. It is a reason not to expect a pill.

If stress is persistent or heavy, that is a conversation for your doctor, not a recipe page.
The two easiest wins are about timing, not ingredients: keep caffeine to the first half of the day, since it has a half-life of about five hours and a 3 p.m. coffee is still working at bedtime. And do not skip meals on your busiest days. A skipped lunch followed by a large late dinner is the exact pattern that produces the swing you are trying to avoid.
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