“Recipes” – or, “Food ideas for when your brain isn’t braining good.”
I wanted to compile a list of easy food recipes for when you’re not feeling well, or your ADHD/sensory overload is going ham, etc. Please keep in mind, I’m not a nutritionist ~at all~ but it doesn’t take specific training to know that when we’re not eating well, or barely eating at all, we don’t function well. You can’t force a car to leave its parking spot if its tank is empty, and what is a human if not a flesh car? (Perfect metaphor, nailed it.)
Some of these will require a little bit of prep, but there are workarounds for most things. Obviously please make adjustments as needed for your food allergies/sensitivities and preferences. Some of these will require an instant pot which I *highly* recommend because it’s so easy to throw stuff into and have a good soup/meal in an hour or less. Most of them have meat, but could be made without it if you don’t eat meat.
(Kitchen items you might need: a stock pot for soup; Instant Pot [highly recommend, it can pressure cook fast but can also do slow cooking]; blender of some kind [powerful ones work best and cause the least rage in my experience – so check out Black Friday deals or collect amazon gift cards at birthday/holiday time, or Facebook marketplace for a strong Ninja brand or even Vitamix]; small pot or saucepan; hands or forks/spoons)
1. Congee: this is an Asian rice porridge! I forget where I learned about this originally, but my favorite recipe is from Budget Bytes: https://www.budgetbytes.com/instant-pot-congee-jook/
You need an Instant Pot for this recipe. Changes I’ve made: Most congee recipes I’ve come across have a large water/broth to rice ratio (7-9 cups of liquid to one cup of rice), and that’s too much for me. I’d rather it be on the thicker side since I can water it down if needed, so I normally will only use 4-6 cups of chicken or vegetable broth. I prefer using boneless skinless chicken thighs because it’s less work than having to remove the thighs and pull meat off the bone and add it back into the pot.
Great for: Executive Dysfunction Overload days, burnout days, sick days with a cold or nauseated tummy (be mindful of what your own limits are re: nausea & various foods)
Overall I like this recipe because it’s relatively simple and comforting. It reminds me of chicken and dumplings, without the dumplings.
One recipe I haven’t tried yet because it’s way more involved and has more complex and expensive ingredients, but sounds super delicious: https://healthynibblesandbits.com/basic-congee-recipe-jook/
2. Kitchari: https://realandvibrant.com/healing-ayurvedic-kitchari/#recipe a tasty Indian dish! You just need a big stock pot for this one. It’s got a variety of carbs between rice & mung beans. I think this one is great for when you have a cold because of the turmeric and ginger which have anti-inflammatory properties and are usually gentle on your tummy. I prefer using powdered cumin to cumin seeds, but that’s just a personal preference because I don’t care for the texture of cumin seeds.
Great for: general burnout days where you can’t think of what to eat.
3. My personal favorite is to mix the two recipes above: the kitchari and congee. I basically just follow the Instant Pot Congee recipe, but I use half to ¾ cup of mung beans and half to ¼ cup of jasmine rice. This way I’m getting some fiber in (great for feeling fuller a little longer), as well as protein from both the mung beans and the chicken! I highly recommend the cilantro and green onions to garnish, as well as a splash of soy sauce or coconut aminos if you have them.
I like this and the Kitchari above because they’re also simple (or can be made simple- i.e., just using ground cumin instead of sautéing cumin seeds, etc), and comforting.
4. Taco soup. https://www.thediaryofarealhousewife.com/taco-soup/#recipe Y’all. Taco soup. Come on. There are a ton of recipes out there. This is one I’ve loved over and over. You decide how spicy to make it according to your tastes. If your tummy is really sensitive, go easy, use ‘mild’ taco seasoning, salsa, and chiles, or skip this recipe.
Great for: “I want good food but I don’t want to do a ton of cooking.” You just need a big pot.
5. Sweet potato & white bean smoothie: https://www.youregreat.com/blog/2022/5/4/warm-sweet-potato-white-bean-smoothie
You’ll need a decent blender for this one. This recipe honestly sounded a little ‘no, thanks’ to me at first, but I ended up really liking it. You can just pop a sweet potato in the microwave for a few minutes and you’ll have a couple smoothies’ worth of sweet potato in no time. Great for: “I want a good breakfast but not a ton of effort and I’m tired of cereal.”
It can be a pain in the ass for neurodivergent brains, but it can help to cook the sweet potato and rinse your canned beans the night before. Or honestly, just make the smoothie at night and put it in the fridge for the morning. Or eat it for dinner. It’s your life, do what works best! I never have oranges or orange juice on hand, so I make this without those. If you don’t already have all those spices on hand and/or don’t want to buy them, just use or buy a bottle of pumpkin pie spice. You’d still need to add turmeric though – or leave it out if you want but turmeric is potentially good for inflammation.
Great for: when you don’t feel like chewing but know you need a little veggies and fiber.
6. Overnight oats: https://feelgoodfoodie.net/recipe/overnight-oats/#wprm-recipe-container-8144
This one is great for doing some prep at night, and waking up to breakfast. This website recommends a “base” of oats you can add different ingredients to. I make the base with regular full-fat vanilla greek yogurt which has sugar in it, so I omit the maple syrup/honey to keep it from being overly sweet (and I love sweet stuff, so that’s saying a lot). Personally, I just make the base and sprinkle in pumpkin pie spice and top it with cashews or other nuts. It’s also good with blueberries! But you should experiment and see what you like best.
Great for: “I don’t have time to make breakfast in the morning” – cool, so front load the effort before bed, and blammo, you’ve got breakfast when you wake up.
7. Ramen, but make it extra: make your usual favorite ramen, but add some vegetables to it. I like to sauté bell pepper and broccoli and add some garlic powder, but you can use whatever veggies you prefer. You could probably also just nuke some frozen veggies in the microwave and toss them in at the end, if the idea of sautéing something is too overwhelming. Protein bonus points: add an egg to the ramen during its last minute or so of cooking. You can stir it up immediately so that it blends in with the broth, or let it sit and cook in the boiling water for a bit. Or, add some rotisserie chicken meat to it. Broad City once referenced the delight of a Costco rotisserie chicken, and after trying one myself when Little Rock got a Costco — I have to agree. If you have a Costco nearby and a friend with a membership (you might have to go with them or ask them to pick one up, if you don’t have a membership), I highly recommend it, and it’s only like $5.
8. Crockpot ‘dump’ meals: I hate the phrase “dump” related to food, but those are easy peasy ones – google ‘dump dinner’ and see what you get. You can just dump ingredients into a crockpot or instant pot in the morning, and come home to hot food. Thank jod for electricity.
9. Instant Pot Mississippi pot roast: This is a great example of a dump meal. Most recipes call for searing the roast in the instant pot before you add everything else in, but this recipe has instructions for just tossing everything in and cooking. I’ve always done the just-toss-it-in method, and it comes out GREAT every time. Microwave some frozen veg, or cook some mashed potatoes, etc., to go with it. Delish.
Lastly, don’t forget the power of a good adult Lunchable – aka, a random assortment of protein, veggies, and other snacky things. If you don’t have the brainpower to make a whole ass sandwich, just eat some deli meat right out of the package and pair it with some baby carrots. Eat bites right off a whole bell pepper as if it’s an apple. Bite off chunks of cucumber like it’s a banana. Eat a banana. Etc. Pour some ranch on it if that helps get more veggies in. Whatever. Remember, the car isn’t going to get far if it’s out of gas – fuel up!
(See also: protein shakes, Soylent, other snack bars, etc. Those things aren’t meant to be dietary replacements so don’t live on them forever, but they can get you through a rough patch!)
Recipes
/in Uncategorized /by Holly Scott“Recipes” – or, “Food ideas for when your brain isn’t braining good.”
I wanted to compile a list of easy food recipes for when you’re not feeling well, or your ADHD/sensory overload is going ham, etc. Please keep in mind, I’m not a nutritionist ~at all~ but it doesn’t take specific training to know that when we’re not eating well, or barely eating at all, we don’t function well. You can’t force a car to leave its parking spot if its tank is empty, and what is a human if not a flesh car? (Perfect metaphor, nailed it.)
Some of these will require a little bit of prep, but there are workarounds for most things. Obviously please make adjustments as needed for your food allergies/sensitivities and preferences. Some of these will require an instant pot which I *highly* recommend because it’s so easy to throw stuff into and have a good soup/meal in an hour or less. Most of them have meat, but could be made without it if you don’t eat meat.
(Kitchen items you might need: a stock pot for soup; Instant Pot [highly recommend, it can pressure cook fast but can also do slow cooking]; blender of some kind [powerful ones work best and cause the least rage in my experience – so check out Black Friday deals or collect amazon gift cards at birthday/holiday time, or Facebook marketplace for a strong Ninja brand or even Vitamix]; small pot or saucepan; hands or forks/spoons)
1. Congee: this is an Asian rice porridge! I forget where I learned about this originally, but my favorite recipe is from Budget Bytes: https://www.budgetbytes.com/instant-pot-congee-jook/
You need an Instant Pot for this recipe. Changes I’ve made: Most congee recipes I’ve come across have a large water/broth to rice ratio (7-9 cups of liquid to one cup of rice), and that’s too much for me. I’d rather it be on the thicker side since I can water it down if needed, so I normally will only use 4-6 cups of chicken or vegetable broth. I prefer using boneless skinless chicken thighs because it’s less work than having to remove the thighs and pull meat off the bone and add it back into the pot.
Great for: Executive Dysfunction Overload days, burnout days, sick days with a cold or nauseated tummy (be mindful of what your own limits are re: nausea & various foods)
Overall I like this recipe because it’s relatively simple and comforting. It reminds me of chicken and dumplings, without the dumplings.
One recipe I haven’t tried yet because it’s way more involved and has more complex and expensive ingredients, but sounds super delicious: https://healthynibblesandbits.com/basic-congee-recipe-jook/
2. Kitchari: https://realandvibrant.com/healing-ayurvedic-kitchari/#recipe a tasty Indian dish! You just need a big stock pot for this one. It’s got a variety of carbs between rice & mung beans. I think this one is great for when you have a cold because of the turmeric and ginger which have anti-inflammatory properties and are usually gentle on your tummy. I prefer using powdered cumin to cumin seeds, but that’s just a personal preference because I don’t care for the texture of cumin seeds.
Great for: general burnout days where you can’t think of what to eat.
3. My personal favorite is to mix the two recipes above: the kitchari and congee. I basically just follow the Instant Pot Congee recipe, but I use half to ¾ cup of mung beans and half to ¼ cup of jasmine rice. This way I’m getting some fiber in (great for feeling fuller a little longer), as well as protein from both the mung beans and the chicken! I highly recommend the cilantro and green onions to garnish, as well as a splash of soy sauce or coconut aminos if you have them.
I like this and the Kitchari above because they’re also simple (or can be made simple- i.e., just using ground cumin instead of sautéing cumin seeds, etc), and comforting.
4. Taco soup. https://www.thediaryofarealhousewife.com/taco-soup/#recipe Y’all. Taco soup. Come on. There are a ton of recipes out there. This is one I’ve loved over and over. You decide how spicy to make it according to your tastes. If your tummy is really sensitive, go easy, use ‘mild’ taco seasoning, salsa, and chiles, or skip this recipe.
Great for: “I want good food but I don’t want to do a ton of cooking.” You just need a big pot.
5. Sweet potato & white bean smoothie: https://www.youregreat.com/blog/2022/5/4/warm-sweet-potato-white-bean-smoothie
You’ll need a decent blender for this one. This recipe honestly sounded a little ‘no, thanks’ to me at first, but I ended up really liking it. You can just pop a sweet potato in the microwave for a few minutes and you’ll have a couple smoothies’ worth of sweet potato in no time. Great for: “I want a good breakfast but not a ton of effort and I’m tired of cereal.”
It can be a pain in the ass for neurodivergent brains, but it can help to cook the sweet potato and rinse your canned beans the night before. Or honestly, just make the smoothie at night and put it in the fridge for the morning. Or eat it for dinner. It’s your life, do what works best! I never have oranges or orange juice on hand, so I make this without those. If you don’t already have all those spices on hand and/or don’t want to buy them, just use or buy a bottle of pumpkin pie spice. You’d still need to add turmeric though – or leave it out if you want but turmeric is potentially good for inflammation.
Great for: when you don’t feel like chewing but know you need a little veggies and fiber.
6. Overnight oats: https://feelgoodfoodie.net/recipe/overnight-oats/#wprm-recipe-container-8144
This one is great for doing some prep at night, and waking up to breakfast. This website recommends a “base” of oats you can add different ingredients to. I make the base with regular full-fat vanilla greek yogurt which has sugar in it, so I omit the maple syrup/honey to keep it from being overly sweet (and I love sweet stuff, so that’s saying a lot). Personally, I just make the base and sprinkle in pumpkin pie spice and top it with cashews or other nuts. It’s also good with blueberries! But you should experiment and see what you like best.
Great for: “I don’t have time to make breakfast in the morning” – cool, so front load the effort before bed, and blammo, you’ve got breakfast when you wake up.
7. Ramen, but make it extra: make your usual favorite ramen, but add some vegetables to it. I like to sauté bell pepper and broccoli and add some garlic powder, but you can use whatever veggies you prefer. You could probably also just nuke some frozen veggies in the microwave and toss them in at the end, if the idea of sautéing something is too overwhelming. Protein bonus points: add an egg to the ramen during its last minute or so of cooking. You can stir it up immediately so that it blends in with the broth, or let it sit and cook in the boiling water for a bit. Or, add some rotisserie chicken meat to it. Broad City once referenced the delight of a Costco rotisserie chicken, and after trying one myself when Little Rock got a Costco — I have to agree. If you have a Costco nearby and a friend with a membership (you might have to go with them or ask them to pick one up, if you don’t have a membership), I highly recommend it, and it’s only like $5.
8. Crockpot ‘dump’ meals: I hate the phrase “dump” related to food, but those are easy peasy ones – google ‘dump dinner’ and see what you get. You can just dump ingredients into a crockpot or instant pot in the morning, and come home to hot food. Thank jod for electricity.
9. Instant Pot Mississippi pot roast: This is a great example of a dump meal. Most recipes call for searing the roast in the instant pot before you add everything else in, but this recipe has instructions for just tossing everything in and cooking. I’ve always done the just-toss-it-in method, and it comes out GREAT every time. Microwave some frozen veg, or cook some mashed potatoes, etc., to go with it. Delish.
Lastly, don’t forget the power of a good adult Lunchable – aka, a random assortment of protein, veggies, and other snacky things. If you don’t have the brainpower to make a whole ass sandwich, just eat some deli meat right out of the package and pair it with some baby carrots. Eat bites right off a whole bell pepper as if it’s an apple. Bite off chunks of cucumber like it’s a banana. Eat a banana. Etc. Pour some ranch on it if that helps get more veggies in. Whatever. Remember, the car isn’t going to get far if it’s out of gas – fuel up!
(See also: protein shakes, Soylent, other snack bars, etc. Those things aren’t meant to be dietary replacements so don’t live on them forever, but they can get you through a rough patch!)
the grief of leaving
/in Uncategorized /by Holly Scott‘deciding to leave church or faith can trigger grief’
Deciding to leave a faith community can really feel like you’re pulling the rug out from under yourself.
It can cause grief, a sense of loss – of the community, and also part of your identity.
Here are some things that have helped other people:
Be patient with the process, and patient with yourself during the process.
Connect with other people.
Connect with a therapist (hi! it me). (See also: drariellemarston.com).
Most importantly, connect with yourself. Take some time to find out what your needs are apart from the group you left. What do you like doing, because it’s interesting, relaxing, rewarding, or just silly and fun? Find ways to do more of that. And if your fun things involved the group you left – uh, cry about it if that’s what comes up. Leaving a community is like a group breakup. No wonder there’s anger and sadness and wondering ‘what if’ but also relief, and then maybe guilt for being relieved?? Grief is a constellation of emotions and thoughts, and it doesn’t always make sense. It can be helpful to treat big feelings like upset kids who are suspicious of us – the more we can just hang with and get curious about weird/dumb/annoying/inconvenient/heavy emotions, the more relieved we are of them, and the more they begin to make sense (or the less we need them to make sense).
Boundaries without guilt
/in Uncategorized /by adminIf your goal is being able to set a boundary without guilt, that’s a great goal! Spoiler alert, though: it’s a goal that probably won’t be met the first time you give it a go. Which is very normal.
Probably, you’ll have to go through a few steps. Maybe…
And eventually,
over time,
you’ll set a boundary, and not feel guilty.
You will have set a boundary without feeling guilty.
The Eye of the Beholder
/in Uncategorized /by adminBitch is in the eye of the beholder.
I hope you get the drift, but as we therapists like to say, humans aren’t mind readers, so I’ll break it down rather than assume you can read my mind.
Okay, the saying is technically “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” It means that whether something is considered beautiful varies depending on who you’re asking. I might think mountains or Adam Driver are ugly, but you might think they’re gorgeous. And you’d be right.
Have you ever had the experience of asking for something to be done, or stopped, and someone gets mad about it? Maybe they say you’re blowing it out of proportion. Or like a lot of my clients fear, maybe they’ll think you’re a bitch. Well, I I have a different perspective to offer: if setting a boundary makes you a “bitch,” so be it.
To use myself as a hypothetical, if someone tells me that I’m wrong, that the sky isn’t blue but is, in fact, twelve!- guess what? That doesn’t make the sky less blue. They can think the sky is twelve all damn day, and that doesn’t change the fact that the sky is blue, or at the very least that my (and generally most people’s) retinas perceive it as blue (side note- in a way, color is technically “not real” because color depends on how our eyes perceive the light waves that make the color, but that’s a different story. Ask Dr. Sobel in the UCA psych department about it).
The truth is, when someone benefits from me *not* having a boundary or limit, they may not respond pleasantly to a boundary being set. Someone being upset about my boundary or limit, isn’t about me. It IS good information for me, though.
HOW?
Good question. The amount of closeness and safety I have with people varies greatly. I have close-knit friends that are truly in my “inner circle,” and I have acquaintances I like to hang out with sometimes but we aren’t necessarily so close that I’m going to call them to rant about a bad day, and there are people who I’ve maybe passed on the sidewalk but would never think twice about what they think of me.
Now, let’s say I need to set a boundary that protects my time and energy because I’ve been feeling way too busy, for example. A person who gets pissed that I won’t go out with them or go pick up their dry cleaning or [other example], may not belong in my inner circle! Perhaps their getting mad is a one-off, and we can talk about it. That’s fine. But for a lot of my clients, they worry about (and sometimes have actually experienced) people in their inner circle getting really bent out of shape when my clients have needed or tried to express their boundary. They feel they can’t do anything about it because, well, the other person got mad. And they “don’t want to be a bitch!”
If setting boundaries is new for you, it might feel super uncomfortable. You might feel guilty or ashamed. It’s okay to feel these things! Let them ride. Sometimes new stuff is painful. Remember being a kid, and GROWING? That shit hurt. They literally call it “growing pains.” Your bones are getting thicker, stronger, longer- and it’s not cozy! But if we didn’t grow, … we’d be …. I mean, a world full of infant-sized adults, basically? Talk about never getting anything done.
Anyway.
The same applies to the growth that happens when you practice saying out loud what you don’t like, can’t do, or won’t tolerate. It can be painful, and it’s okay if it is. But you’ll get there, and unless you’re smacking people or name- calling in the process like you’re on a reality show, then guess what? You’re not being a bitch.
Bitch is in the eye of the beholder.
Keep the good stuff, take out the trash
/in Uncategorized /by adminA lot of my exvangelical clients want to reach into their metaphorical hearts and rip out all the toxic church bullshit that still lurks in the background. For the most part though, love and hope and similar things were very much a sincere part of their faith – and are still values they want to respect and pursue in their lives. So we approach the process in a similar way that you might manage packing and sorting your house when you move: have a pile for trash, a pile to donate, a pile to keep. As a now-exvangelical, what parts of your former faith feel important to hang onto?
More important, and this can take some time to sit with and sort through, how were those values distorted by toxic elements of faith practices? Many evangelical faiths have a common practice of prying into the deepest parts of people’s private experiences, with an expectation of full transparency and vulnerability for the sake of “accountability” to the church’s standards of how faith should be lived and expressed. Of course, it’s framed as being accountable to Christ, not the church or the pastor (nevermind that the pastor/church and whatever denomination they belong to, are the ones interpreting and teaching the proper standards). This expectation of full transparency with little regard to consent for the individual creates a perfect opportunity for manipulation, forced adherence to standards that often require denial of humanity according to xyz interpretation of an infallible text. Further, the churches often have either zero tolerance for questioning, or a false tolerance for questioning – meaning, the questioning is okay as long as you’re not deviating from the doctrine!
But back to the present-day sorting: It’s up to each individual to determine how they want to sort through their old values. It’s my role as a therapist to help my clients slow down their busy thoughts and create mental & emotional space for understanding what they want to keep. A lot of the time it’s helpful to practice noticing thoughts that come up, and then checking in with any emotions or sensations that come up with the thoughts. Slowing those experiences down and paying attention to the different elements (the thought, the emotion, the sensation, the memory, the mental picture, etc) shines light on their meaning, and gives my clients direction toward deciding what needs to stay in the past and what they want to come with them into their future.
Some examples of things that may need sorting:
Accountability:
Then: previously defined and monitored by your church and its leaders, with an assumption of ‘safety’ built in because it’s church, and built on ‘sound doctrine’ according to a specific interpretation of the Bible.
Now: perhaps accountability would still be helpful – checking in with a friend about keeping a commitment to doing some exercise a few times a week, or reading a book, or about whether you finally had that hard conversation.
Service/Volunteering:
Then: service in many evangelical/conservative churches means donating your time and energy toward various church-related activities or ministries. Volunteer for setup, teardown, greeting/ushering, kid ministry, etc. Just don’t forget to be there any time the doors are open! Ready to serve! I once attended a retreat for teenagers where we were taught that if it’s true “service” as God intended, it will be uncomfortable and inconvenient- and if it’s not, then it isn’t service. Lol wut
Granted, this over-giving of time and resources is not at all restricted to churches – it’s common in the nonprofit world in general, as well.
Now: giving your time or energy to causes that you care about is something you can determine on your own, what amount you have to give. You are the person inhabiting your body, in charge of your time, energy, and finances. You decide when and where and how much to give.
Make sense? Cool! Which elements of your former faith are coming with you into the future?