6 Simple Good-Mood Recipes: Ideas for Dinner Tonight

Want to boost the feel-good benefits of your yoga practice? Try these six good-mood recipes (including a few from our friends at Vegetarian Times and Clean Eating) that boast foods shown to keep your brain balanced.

Updated Sep 2, 2021 YJ Editors

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Want to boost the feel-good benefits of your yoga practice? Try these six recipes (including a few from our friends at Vegetarian Times and Clean Eating), boasting foods shown to keep your brain balanced.

1. Alexandria Crow’s Salmon al Forno Salad

This salad features wild salmon, which is rich in omega-3 fatty acids that partially make up brain cells. If your dietary omega-3 levels are low, your brain cells can suffer and not signal each other properly.

Recipe: Alexandria Crow’s Salmon al Forno Salad

See also Best Way to Build Bones

2. Kiwifruit and Yogurt Parfait With Toasted Coconut

With this sweet yogurt treat, you can enjoy dessert while maintaining brain health. UCLA researchers recently found that eating a fermented yogurt with probiotics twice a day for a month led to increased activity in areas of the brain that process emotion and sensation.

Recipe: Kiwifruit and Berry Yogurt Parfait With Toasted Coconut

See also Make Your Own Yogurt

3. Spicy Spinach and Sunflower Seeds

Kick up your practice—and brain health with spicy spinach. Depressed patients often have low levels of folate (vitamin B9), found in spinach as well as asparagus and black-eyed peas. As a result, experts have concluded that folate is important for brain and mental health.

Recipe: Spicy Spinach and Sunflower Seeds

See also Dissolve Depression

4. Shaved Asparagus and White Bean Salad

Asparagus and white beans are “prebiotic foods” (others include Jerusalem artichokes, bananas, oatmeal, unrefined wheat, and chicory root). Prebiotics support gut bacteria, which keep the gut lining intact. This gut lining acts as a barrier to toxins and aids digestion so your brain is protected from bad stuff while still getting needed nutrients.

Recipe: Shaved Asparagus and White Bean Salad

See also 8 Poses for Better Digestion

5. Blueberry-Spinach Smoothie

Dark berries contain antioxidants that have been shown to help prevent and repair oxidative stress, which can lead to brain-cell damage.

Recipe: Blueberry-Spinach Smoothie

6. African Peanut Stew

A tantalizing combo of potentially protective brown rice, Swiss chard, and sweet potatoes, this dish could do wonders for brain health. Studies have found that those who ate the most whole foods like whole grains, veggies, and fruits were less likely to be diagnosed with depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder than those who had a less healthy diet.

Recipe: African Peanut Stew