Brain boosting recipes and foods

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Eccentric
Posts: 738
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2014 8:58 pm

Brain boosting recipes and foods

Post by Eccentric »

I thought I would start a thread on Brain boosting recipes and foods because what we eat really does make a difference to clarity of mind, concentration, ability to memorise, stamina etc. as well as future health.

I thought I would start with breakfast Any other ideas would be brilliant I am always looking for ideas myself:

Protein at breakfast time is really important so here are a couple of yummy suggestions:

Boiled egg and soldiers (wholemeal) followed by a piece of fruit.

Scrambled egg on spinach and toast (wholemeal)

Berries with Yoghurt topped with oatmeal, nut and seed crumble and a drizzle of honey.

Chocolate smoothie - Almonds, chia seeds, water, banana, spinach, oats and raw cacao powder.

Feta cheese and courgette omelette.

Kipper on toast with grilled tomatoes.

Pancakes made with chestnut flour. Lots of fillings for these - raw cacao mixed with nut butter and honey - spinach and feta, mushrooms cooked in a small knob of butter - coconut cream and banana….

Homemade breakfast muffins - these can be kept in the freezer - kids love making muffins, lots of recipes on the net, use wholemeal flour, ditch the sugar and make them green by chopping spinach and feta into them with a bit of tarragon. Yum Yum. Or apple and almond muffins or banana muffins (you don't need sugar)

Did you know that the taste buds renew themselves every 10 days! So if you reduce sugar and salt it takes 10 days to get used to it. Research also shows that if you offer food to a child 15 times (they don't have to eat it), they will normally accept it.

Just editing this post to say please, please do not take this post as a criticism of the way that anyone feeds their children. We all do the best that we can in the time that we have, with the knowledge that we have and what suits one family may not suit another.
Last edited by Eccentric on Mon Aug 10, 2015 7:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
Eccentric
Posts: 738
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2014 8:58 pm

Re: Brain boosting recipes and foods

Post by Eccentric »

Some foods that are good for brain function:

Coconut oil and coconut
Fish oil
Olive oil
Avocado oil and avocado's
Raw Cacao
Nuts (not peanuts)
Vegetables especially red cabbage, spinach and broccoli
Grass fed meats
Oily fish
Pumpkin seeds
Blueberries
Blackcurrants
Chia Seeds
Quinoa
Rosemary
Sage
Garlic
doodles
Posts: 8300
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 9:19 pm

Re: Brain boosting recipes and foods

Post by doodles »

I make my own granola using the recipe in Alex Hollywood's book "My Busy Kitchen". It's a very quick, easy base recipe you can tweek to your own taste.

Use honey instead of sugar as it's an excellent natural anti-inflammatory, especially good if you suffer from any joint problems.
Eccentric
Posts: 738
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2014 8:58 pm

Re: Brain boosting recipes and foods

Post by Eccentric »

doodles wrote:I make my own granola using the recipe in Alex Hollywood's book "My Busy Kitchen". It's a very quick, easy base recipe you can tweek to your own taste.

Use honey instead of sugar as it's an excellent natural anti-inflammatory, especially good if you suffer from any joint problems.
Yes honey instead of sugar it is mainly glucose which is a good source of sugar and has lots of enzymes (shop bought is pasteurised into submission though, so buy local and sign the petition to make the government stop using bee killing pesticides.) It is fructose that we want to eat less of so not too much fruit. Your Granola sounds yummy. There is a company called Ugg foods that do ready made packs to make healthy cakes and Granola, they have lots of recipes on line (I have no affiliation, just use them occasionally myself when I don't have time.)
Yamin151
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Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2013 8:30 am

Re: Brain boosting recipes and foods

Post by Yamin151 »

I wish wish wish mine would eat all this.

I have never short order cooked, never. We set a good example, I love most of these examples, I adore spinach, eggs, wholemeal toast etc etc. I have become a past master at sneaking things in to their food (chia into choc smoothies, spinach into pasta tomato sauce, beetroot into cake, protein powder and egg into wholemeal breadetc etc). However, my fussy boys are also genetically small (not too small but dh and I both 5'4") so there is no 6 ft potential driving them to eat, so they eat very little. They are healthy and active and slim. I guess it will eventually get better but it's so frustrating when people assume we just don't offer them the right stuff.
It's also totally and regularly shafted by the obsession with offering children sweets. Every sleepover they are invited to seems to be traditional to turn up with sweets (I don't) and even a couple sweets puts em off what little appetite they have. Aggghhhhh!

Sorry, can you tell it's a big bug bear??

Not asking for advice. I don't believe in skirting from one idea to the next, we have settled on constant quiet offering of good foods and nothing else, combined with setting a good example, sneaking in extra goodness where we can and waiting for time to put it right. Sigh.
Yamin151
Posts: 2405
Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2013 8:30 am

Re: Brain boosting recipes and foods

Post by Yamin151 »

I love mushrooms sautee with a little spray oil and served with baked beans and wholemeal bread (boys don't eat baked beans)

We also have granola with 0% greek yogurt and fruit I chuck nuts and seeds into the granola.

A large field mushroom cooked with chopped rasher of lean bacon, a cube of frozen chopped spinach and a bit of grated cheese also lovely.

Good old poached eggs on toast.

Hollow out the doughy bit of a bought bagel (wholemeal ones are still a bit yammery, but although I've made my own they are a bit of a pain to make) and fill it with scrambled egg.

Fishfingers. I love these and can't see why they have such a bad name. A good quality but yes, commercial fish finger, is a great breakfast choice and one of the few better things my boys will eat.

One son eats home made american pancakes which I make wholemeal with ground linseed and protein powder sneaked in!
Eccentric
Posts: 738
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2014 8:58 pm

Re: Brain boosting recipes and foods

Post by Eccentric »

Yamin151 wrote:I wish wish wish mine would eat all this.

I have never short order cooked, never. We set a good example, I love most of these examples, I adore spinach, eggs, wholemeal toast etc etc. I have become a past master at sneaking things in to their food (chia into choc smoothies, spinach into pasta tomato sauce, beetroot into cake, protein powder and egg into wholemeal breadetc etc). However, my fussy boys are also genetically small (not too small but dh and I both 5'4") so there is no 6 ft potential driving them to eat, so they eat very little. They are healthy and active and slim. I guess it will eventually get better but it's so frustrating when people assume we just don't offer them the right stuff.
It's also totally and regularly shafted by the obsession with offering children sweets. Every sleepover they are invited to seems to be traditional to turn up with sweets (I don't) and even a couple sweets puts em off what little appetite they have. Aggghhhhh!

Sorry, can you tell it's a big bug bear??

Not asking for advice. I don't believe in skirting from one idea to the next, we have settled on constant quiet offering of good foods and nothing else, combined with setting a good example, sneaking in extra goodness where we can and waiting for time to put it right. Sigh.
There is definitely an art to sneaking healthy foods into things, it is amazing what you can do :D
doodles
Posts: 8300
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 9:19 pm

Re: Brain boosting recipes and foods

Post by doodles »

Yamin, with one of my DS I am so with you, like your dc he's naturally slim, active and petite - his brother is a natural enormous giant :shock:

However, he just can't eat "3 square meals a day" as his appetite is too small, he's one of life's natural grazers. I just make sure that in his lunchbox and at home he has access to a range of healthy foods. Oh, and he's also a non-meat eater (the rest if us aren't) so ensuring he has a good supply of alternative sources of protein is an ongoing project!

Pasta with pesto, spinach and feta
Banana muffins with bran, honey and seeds
Houmous
Falafels
Home made mackerel pate
Lots of fish - Nigel Slater had a great recipe for marinated salmon with sesame seed crust.

All have lots of brain boosting elements.

I truly believe what you eat affects how you feel and how you perform.
aswapna5
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Oct 22, 2013 5:19 pm

Re: Brain boosting recipes and foods

Post by aswapna5 »

Hello all,

What is the best snack to give in between the exam break? What do you all give to your kids?

Thanks,
S
kenyancowgirl
Posts: 6738
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:59 pm

Re: Brain boosting recipes and foods

Post by kenyancowgirl »

Sorry, I know this goes completely against the "healthy eating for a healthy mind, quinoa is queen" thread!

A friend of mine who has the dubious honour of 4 boys in a super-selective swore by packets of "mintos" for them to eat during the exam and a Mars Bar (with water to drink) in the break - this is to do with giving the brain bursts of energy throughout and a big burst in the middle when they do get very tired (expect your child to be exhausted at the end and do not fire loads of questions at them!) We used the "mintos"/mars bar formula and it worked both times for us.
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