Live Well With ADD

A diet that is filled with healthy foods gives your body the chemicals that it needs to enhance brain chemistry. Eat plenty of pesticide-free fruits and vegetables. Nourish your body with healthy proteins from plant or animal sources. Eat fats that are good for you. These include olive oil, coconut oil, and fish oil. Some studies have indicated that fish oil can help with the symptoms of depression. Reduce your intake of highly processed foods, artificial coloring, and sugars. Drink plenty of water.

 

Highly processed foods are made using many different processes and have added salt, sugar, fats, starches, coloring, and preservatives. With ADD brain chemistry, adding snacks like chips, sugary granola bars, crackers, candy bars, and bakery goods made with white flour just exacerbates the problem.  Eating these foods will rapidly raise blood sugar. A huge insulin response causes the blood sugar to crash. That's  terrible if you have ADD.

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Try these instead, when you want something sweet! 

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GF Eggless Milkless Carrot Muffins

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Ingredients:

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3 cups gluten free flour (I used Namaste)

2/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon (optional)

1/8 teaspoon allspice (optional)

Pinch ginger (optional)

Pinch nutmeg (optional)

2 cups (packed) coarsely grated carrots

Liquid from one can of canned garbanzo beans

Sugar free applesauce

1/4 cup olive oil

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Directions:

In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and your desired spices together. To measure the flour, I spooned it into a 1-cup measure and leveled it off. Add the grated carrots to the flour mixture and stir.

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The recipe does not need salt, since the garbanzo bean liquid has salt. If you  use beans without salt, add a teaspoon of salt.

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In a 2-cup measuring cup, pour the liquid from one can of garbanzo beans (about ¾ cup) into the cup and then pour the sugar free applesauce in with the garbanzo bean liquid to fill the cup up to the 2-cup line. 

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Stir and dump the liquid into a large bowl. Measure 1/4 cup olive oil into the bowl.  Stir the dry and liquid ingredients together until it is just mixed. Let stand for about 10 minutes.

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

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This recipe makes 24 muffins. Spray the muffin tins with non-stick spray or use cupcake liners and divide the batter evenly. Bake for 26-28 minutes, until the edges are brown and the muffin pulls away from the tin.

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This recipes will make very moist, tender muffins! They are slightly sweet.

 

Olive oil is ancient oil. It is pressed from olives, and the favored olive oil is cold pressed. Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is prized by cooks. This oil helps with tissue inflammation in the body.  Olive oil contains Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Omega-3 fatty acids,  and Omega-6 fatty acids.

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These fatty acids help to regulate appetite, mood, and tissue inflammation. Use salad dressings made with real olive oil, rather than soybean, canola, or sunflower oils.

Salad dressings and sauces made with real olive oil cost a bit more. They are better for your body.

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Many of these commercial salad dressings and sauces also contain ingredients like calcium chloride, soybean oil, soy lecithin, and loads of sugar or high fructose corn syrup.  These aren't great in helping with the negative symptoms of ADD. Olive oil is good for ADD. Don't these bottled sauces have olive oil? Many of them advertise extra virgin olive oil, but it's toward the bottom of the ingredients. There's very little of it. Buy real extra virgin olive oil!b

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Olive oil is such a versatile ingredient! You can slather it on bread or drizzle it over baked potatoes to add some extra flavor.

I recently picked up an oil sprayer and it's been a game changer! For grilling sandwiches, just spray the bread with olive oil before you pop it on the grill. It adds a delicious touch! Plus, if you give your cooked broccoli a quick spray and sprinkle on some garlic salt, you’ll have a lovely, flavorful side dish. Just toss it gently to mix everything together.

When it comes to roasting veggies, olive oil is your best friend. One of our favorite tricks is to halve baby potatoes, give them a spray of olive oil, sprinkle on some garlic salt, and toss them to coat. Then, pop them in the oven at 400 degrees F until they’re crispy and golden.

And don’t forget about that bag of baby carrots sitting in your fridge! Give them a roast too. Just spray them with olive oil, and you can either sprinkle garlic salt on them or try out my homemade Orange Vegetable Seasoning. It’s seriously delicious on any orange vegetables! Enjoy getting creative with your olive oil!

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Orange Vegetable Seasoning
Mix together:
3 tablespoons Lawry’s garlic salt
2 tablespoons Lawry's Seasoned Salt
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 ― teaspoons Penzey's Berbere/Ethiopian seasoning (Please do not substitute another spice.)
ž teaspoon ground black pepper

This blend is especially good on vegetables that are colored a deep orange. Sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and carrots are delicious when you season with this. Store it in a closed container. 
 

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If you are planning a Mexican food buffet, or sandwiches for meals, there is no better side dish to make than Three Sisters Corn Bean Salad. What makes it so great? This is one of the most versatile dishes for sandwich meals. Once made, it is a basis for many quick and easy meals.

You can top tacos, tostados, quesadillas, or fill burritos with this salad. Use it as a stand-alone salad side dish to complement your choices of Mexican foods. You can also use the corn bean salad as a topping for lettuce salad. Stir in some guacamole as a dressing and you have a healthy salad that goes with any Mexican food or sandwich meal.

People with vegetarian diets enjoy making wraps with Three Sisters Corn Bean Salad. Melt a little cheese on a flour tortilla. Add the corn bean salad and some shredded lettuce. It's faster than fast food! That's what we need when we have ADHD! Nutritious, quick, and tasty! Use that ADD/ADHD creativity with this recipe!

Three Sisters Corn Bean Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
1 can sweet corn-drained (I use Green Giant Niblets. Mexicorn works, too.)
1 can black beans-drained and rinsed in a colander (I use Kuner’s)
1 cup coarsely chopped baby zucchini or summer squash (This needs to be a small squash with a tender peel.)
2 cups coarsely chopped fresh tomatoes (In the winter, I use Sunset Campari that I get at Costco)
1 ½ cups coarsely chopped red onion
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
¼ cup chopped pickled jalapeno slices
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon black pepper
Juice of 1 ½ lime (about 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice)
2 tablespoons of jalapeno vinegar (from jalapeno slices)

Directions:
In a large bowl, mix the corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, onion, cilantro, and jalapeno. Add the olive oil, salt, pepper, lime juice and jalapeno vinegar. Stir to mix. Put the salad in a large refrigerator container. Refrigerate for at least three hours before using to allow the flavors to mix.

You can also mix cooked rice into this salad. That works well in wraps and stuffed into a pita.

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For a casserole, add some chicken or carnitas, rice, and some shredded cheese of your choice. Bake at 325 degrees F. until the casserole is bubbly.

If you have leftover Three Sisters Corn Bean Salad, drain it and add it to vegetable soup. Serve your soup with a melted cheese sandwich for a complete sandwich meal.