Combative mode...

Like most people, I have my good days and my bad days. Fortunately, my good days far outweigh my bad days. But I do know what it's like when the bad days keep piling up and everything becomes too much of a chore. When a couple of bad days turn into a week of bad days, into a month of bad days and all of a sudden you find yourself in a spot where nothing matters anymore. For me, that stopped when I said to myself 'enough is enough' and started talking with people, started taking more interest in the things around me. It wasn't easy; I had to force myself to do it.

Some people still think that depression is trivial and not a genuine health condition. They are wrong. Depression is a real illness with real symptoms, and it's not a sign of weakness or something you can 'snap out of' by 'pulling yourself together'. Sometimes it takes a concerted effort of medication and therapy but there are things you can do to help yourself. If you are feeling depressed, don't struggle on. Talk to someone, anyone. You have nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to fear. It's important to seek help from your doctor if you think you may be depressed. If you've been feeling low for more than a few days, take this short test to find out if you're depressed. Depression is quite common and affects about one in 10 of us at some point. It affects men and women, young and old.

Trying to find a diet to ease depression? Unfortunately, there's no specific diet that works for depression. No studies have been done that indicate a particular eating plan can ease symptoms of clinical depression. Still, while certain diets or foods may not ease depression (or put you instantly in a better mood), there is something to be said for a healthy diet in relation to mental health, as much as in relation to physical health. The healthier you feel, the more likely you are to go out and do something, which is the first step in dealing with, and overcoming, depression.

Damaging molecules, called free radicals, are produced in our bodies during normal body functions and these free radicals contribute to aging and dysfunction. Antioxidants such as beta-carotene and vitamins C and E combat the effects of free radicals. Antioxidants have been shown to tie up these free radicals and take away their destructive power. Studies show that the brain is particularly at risk for free radical damage. Although there's no way to stop free radicals completely, we can reduce their destructive effect on the body by eating foods rich in antioxidants as part of a healthy diet. Below is a list of foods that can help because of their antioxidants:

Apricots, Broccoli, Cantaloupe, Carrots, Collard Greens, Peaches, Pumpkin, Spinach, (Sweet) Potatoes, Blueberries, Grapefruit, Kiwi, Oranges, Peppers, Strawberries, Tomatoes, Nuts, Seeds, Wheat Germ, Whole Grains, Beans, Pulses, Peas, Lean Meat, Cheese, (Fatty) Fish, Milk and Yoghurt, Poultry, Soy, Seafood.

A bowl of yoghurt with some wheat germ, seasonal fruit (apricots, peaches, blueberries, strawberries) and flaxseeds or crushed brazil nuts makes a tasty breakfast. Top it with some grated dark chocolate (75% cocoa) for an extra boost in endorphins (the 'happy' hormone). Or replace the yoghurt with some cottage cheese or ricotta and whole grain bread or cracker bread. Have it with some freshly squeezed orange or grapefruit juice (with pulp) for an extra little lift.

For a light dinner try mixing some smoked mackerel with crumbly feta or young goats cheese, finely cubed red pepper and tomato, quinoa, couscous or chickpeas and some spinach that has been sauteed with one finely chopped onion and two cloves of minced garlic. Add loads of fresh herbs such as basil, thyme, oregano or mint to taste. For something that looks more filling, try adding a soft boiled egg or fried mushroom.

Fancy a snack, a pick-me-up, or a refreshing drink later on in the day? Try making a smoothie/milkshake with some fresh strawberries or blueberries, bananas, vanilla ice cream and some finely chopped pieces of dark chocolate (70% cocoa). Add in some wheat germs for a more filling drink.

This drink is full of antioxidants and endorphin increasing properties; brilliant if you are feeling 'a bit low'. Make sure that you drink plenty throughout the day (1.5 to 2 litre per day) but try to avoid great quantities of coffee and alcohol.

For a simple and quick tea, try this One Pot Pasta: add 350 gram pasta, 350 gram chopped tomatoes, chopped yellow pepper and finely sliced leeks, 1 finely chopped onion, 3 cloves of grated garlic, pepper and paprika and oregano or thyme (to taste), 2 sprigs of basil, a good splash of olive oil, 1 stock cube (vegetable or chicken) and 750 millilitre of water to a large pan. (Yes, one pan.) Bring to a boil on medium to high heat, stirring regularly. Once it comes to the boil, cook for a further 10 minutes whilst stirring. By the time the pasta is cooked it will have taken on all the flavour and the water should be reduced to form a nice sauce. Serve with some grated cheese and fresh basil. If you want to use wholemeal pasta, cook the pasta for slightly longer.

No meal is complete without a dessert and there are some wonderful options out there. One of my favourites combines sweet potato and pecans but you could substitute the sweet potato for pumpkin, if you want.

Sweet Potato Pie with Pecan Crumble

Ingredients:
For the pie crust

• 150 gram self-raising flour
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 115 gram butter
• 2 tablespoons ice water

For the filling

• 700 gram (2-3) sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 5 centimetre chunks
• 2 large eggs
• 60 grams of light brown soft sugar
• 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 175 millilitre double cream

For the topping

• 100 gram light brown soft sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 125 gram pecans
• 1 tablespoon double cream

Method:

For the pie crust

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and butter and mix until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs (it's okay if some of the butter is still slightly bigger in size)
2. Add the ice cold water and bring the dough together, add some more water if necessary (one teaspoon at a time) until the dough is crumbly but holds together when you squeeze it
3. Turn the dough onto some clingfilm, pat it down to a disk, cover with more clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for at least one hour
4. After one hour, place the dough on a floured piece of baking paper and roll the dough out to a 35 centimetre circle
• use your knuckles to press the edges of the dough firmly to prevent the dough from cracking when you roll it out
5. Pick up the baking paper and flip it over onto a 23 centimetre pie plate or flan dish and gently fit the dough into the bottom and along the sides of the dish, being careful not to stretch or tear the dough, before removing the baking paper
6. Trim the dough to a 2½ centimetre overhang and crimp this to form a rim
7. Prick the bottom of the pie crust all over with a fork and place in the fridge to cool for another hour
8. Preheat the oven to 180ºC, place the pie crust in the centre of the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the crust is firm and golden and leave to cool completely

For the filling

1. Cover the sweet potatoes with water in a large pan, bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are tender (about 15 minutes)
2. Drain the potatoes, puree in a food processor until completely smooth and leave to cool completely
3. Preheat the oven to 190ºC
4. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, the brown sugar and maple syrup until smooth
5. Add the sweet potato puree, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cream and whisk until completely smooth
6. Pour the filling into the fully cooled pie crust and bake on the lowest rack in the oven for about 50 minutes or until the filling is set
• transfer the pie to a cooling rack after baking to cool for one hour, then place in the fridge to cool completely

For the topping

1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat and add the sugar and pecans
2. Cook the mixture until the sugar is fully dissolved and the mixture is 'smooth' (this will take about 3 minutes)
3. Stir in the tablespoon of cream and leave to cool for a couple of minutes
4. Pour the pecan mixture over the cooled pie and spread it evenly out with a knife or spatula
5. Leave the pie to cool for about 30 minutes until the topping has hardened
• Do not place the pie back into the fridge but leave it in a cool place for up to 6 hours (if you last that long...)

You might feel as if you are all alone in the world, but trust me when I say: 'You are not, there are people who know and understand exactly how you feel. Talk to them.'. The food I have mentioned will not magically 'cure' your depression but it might help you to feel better, more capable, more energetic. It will not happen overnight but stick with it.

Tea made from St John's Wort has been proven to help with depressions and might be helpful for you. If you would like to try this, make sure to discuss it with your doctor as the herb does affect some medications. It might also be a good idea to discuss a drastic change in your diet with your doctor as this could have implications for people with certain illnesses such as diabetes.

I won't end this post with my usual 'Enjoy' (although the food is very enjoyable) but with this: If you are feeling depressed, or have been diagnosed with clinical depression, talk to people about it. There is nothing to be ashamed of.

Be safe, take care of yourself, trust in your abilities.

MIY

Whenever in the past I wanted to lose weight I was told to stop eating cheese because it contains too much fat. A better alternative would be low-fat cheese, if I was really opposed to cutting cheese out of my diet all together. But, that means eating processed food (remember my article from the third of April?) and eating a lot more of it to at least give the idea of eating something full of flavour. The problem, you see, is that to remove fat from cheese it requires a lot of work and in the process you lose texture and flavour. I tried it. I loathed it. And went back to proper, I-don't-care-if-it-is-bad-for-your-health-and-waistline, full-fat cheese. And then I wrote the article on processed foods...

A dear friend of mine asked me about cutting processed foods as much as possible out of my diet. More precisely, she asked me if I had finally given up on cheese as this is a processed food as well, and one that is not easy to make yourself... Not a fair question, I thought, as life would be not worth living without cheese (in my humble opinion). She had a point though, making cheese at home isn't the easiest as you need all kinds of equipment, the right environment and rennet (a complex of enzymes found in the stomach of baby mammals that allows them to process mother's milk, which is used to coagulate, or thicken, milk during the cheesemaking process). But, I thought, it wouldn't be impossible. After all, it has been done for millennia... Even the ancient Egyptians had tomb murals depicting the activity. And, until the industrialisation, cheese has been made in homes and farms all over Europe and the Middle-East.

And then I remembered a venture in making my own cheese several years ago. I love cheese on all of its guises; from very young through to 3-year-matured, from cheddars to blues, from soft to hard, and everything in between (except low-fat). But one of my favourites has got to be the herbal fresh cheeses such as Boursin. They are, however, extremely expensive for what they are (anywhere from £4 to £18 per kilo); thickened milk with herbs... I love these kind of cheeses because of their many uses: be it on toast or crackers, as a dollop in soups, as a quick stir-in-sauce for pasta. Years ago I had a blast at making it myself. I drained thickset yoghurt overnight and stirred in salt, herbs and garlic. It worked a treat but was slightly more sour than the well-known fresh cheeses and not everyone was as enamoured with it as I was. The result was that I stopped making it. Until now, that is. Because I have an easy recipe to make one kilogram of fresh cheese for less than £2... And that will taste like the real deal... And that you can adapt to your own preferences and requirements... Life is sweeeeeeet!!!

Fresh Cream Cheese

Ingredients:

• 2 litre whole milk (unpasteurised would be best, so if you know a local farmer...)
• juice of 1 lemon, or little splash of a neutral vinegar or apple cider vinegar
• 200 gram buttermilk

Method:

1. Pour the milk into a large enough pan and heat slowly on low heat
2. Slowly stir the milk until little bubbles appear at the sides of the pan, making sure the milk doesn't boil
3. Turn off the heat and pour the lemon juice or vinegar and the buttermilk into the milk
4. Leave the milk for about ten minutes

• the milk will start to separate into curds and whey
5. Pour the whey and curds into a sieve, lined with a tea towel and placed inside a bowl to catch the whey
6. Leave the curds to stand for half an hour until they whey has drained off and only the curds are left
7. Pick up the four corners of the tea towel and tie them together of the handle of a wooden spoon
8. Place the tea towel with the cheese into a high bowl (for instance a large mixing bowl or the jug of the blender) making sure the towel does not touch the bottom of the bowl and let the wooden spoon rest on the rim
9. Leave this to stand for several hours for all the remaining liquid to drain out of the curds
10. Remove the cheese from the tea towel and place in a dry tea towel
11. Place the cheese into a bowl and leave to rest in the fridge, overnight would be best
12. Remove the tea towel and serve

Herb cream cheese

Ingredients:

• One recipe of cream cheese, as above
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons fresh herbs, chopped finely, to your taste
• 4 cloves of garlic
• a drop or two of olive oil
• a drop of honey

Method:

From step 6 above

1. Add a little salt and pepper, 3 tablespoons of finely chopped herbs, 4 cloves of minced or pureed garlic, a couple of drops of olive oil and honey and stir this into the curds 
• Be careful with the amount of salt you add: start with a little and keep tasting to make sure the flavour is to your liking
• The more garlic you add, the more pungent the flavour (and smell) will be so add this to your liking, or leave it out
2. Follow from step 7 above

As stated earlier, you can make this with Greek yoghurt: Spoon 1 tub of yoghurt into a tea towel and follow from step 7 above, adding the ingredients after it has been left to drain overnight. You will need a little more olive oil because this has a risk of becoming slightly too dry otherwise.

For those who are lactose intolerant, you could use sheeps or goats milk or kefir in much the same ways as above.

As you Make It Yourself, you can change the flavours of the cheese to your liking, requirements and desires. Try for instance:

• Smoked Paprika and very finely chopped Shallots
• Honey and Thyme
• Herbes de Provence and Garlic
• Lemon and Chives (can only be kept for a day or two)
• Coriander and very finely chopped Green Peppers
• Chilli Pepper and Horseradish
• Mint and Rosemary
• Anchovy, Olives and Capers (leave out the salt)
• Garlic and Parsley
• Cinnamon and grated Apple (can only be kept for a day but is perfect on fresh toast)
• Ginger, Coriander and Black Pepper
• Carrot Cake (grated carrot, chopped walnuts and raisins)
• Wild Garlic and Thyme Flowers

The list is practically endless (which is perfect as there are so many uses for cream cheese) and is only limited by your own imagination. I do type that sentence a lot but that is the principle of cooking: You can make anything your imagination lets you.

So, next time you are invited for a dinner party and are trying to think of what to bring for the host but don't want to bring the obligatory bottle of wine, bring them some MIY cream cheese... Use half the recipe, place the cheese (when you come to step 10) inside the tea towel into a nice little bowl, leave it to rest overnight, remove the tea towel and place the cheese back into the bowl and press it gently down with the back of a spoon. Cover the bowl with some clingfilm, a nice piece of checkered cloth and tie with a ribbon...

Now all I need to do is think of something to eat with my cream cheese, because I've been told I am no longer allowed to just use my fingers...

Enjoy