Looking after yourself through this season - and a couple of easy oven bakes
Looking after yourself through this season
Our bodies are designed to mirror nature, not resist it. As we approach the shortest days of the year, we crave quiet, stillness and rest. What we don’t crave is lots of last minute shopping and too many demands on our time!
So it can be helpful to schedule in some boundaries (boundaries are a big theme in autoimmune health).
One way to do this is to get a comforting, restorative meal baking in the oven, then use the baking time to do something nice for yourself while you wait.
There is something deeply relaxing about knowing your meal is on its way (and I don’t mean via Deliveroo!). Our nervous systems down regulate and we feel a little safer. This lowers our inflammation levels and autoimmune activity.
Research shows that our digestive systems work more effectively when we can anticipate our meal by smelling the cooking aromas. We are better able to produce the appropriate digestive enzymes - something those of us with autoimmune conditions can struggle with, and which can contribute to food intolerances, inflammation and poor nutrient absorption.
Below I have put a couple of suggestions for oven bake recipes. They have very little prep involved, which means you could put them in the oven as soon as you get home, then spend the baking time relaxing and winding down.
Here are few suggestions for how you could use that window to soothe and nurture your nervous system.
Take a bath with Epsom salts - the magnesium in the salts is more easily absorbed through the skin than the gut (oral magnesium supplements can irritate the gut). Around half of us are deficient in magnesium, yet it is a vital nutrient for the nervous system and for detoxification. Notice whether you sleep more deeply after an Epsom salt bath. If you do, this may indicate you are deficient in magnesium. If baths aren’t an option, try a hand or foot soak.
Nudge your nervous system into a more relaxed state through soft lighting, having a designated clear space for relaxing (boundaries!), and soft fabrics like a blanket or cosy pyjamas.
Plan ahead for your entertainment - many of us find it hard to switch off. Sometimes it is easier to switch our attention to something we are interested in. Have a list of music, podcasts, relaxing soundscapes, some arts and crafts or a good book or TV program ready to go.
Taste and temperature can also soothe our nervous system. Try making your favourite hot drink (here are a few ideas), or have a look at the Citrus-ade recipe below.
Journal or check-in with your emotions, something we don’t do enough. ‘How We Feel’ is a free app that helps you to track and understand your emotions better. Simply being able to identify your emotional state can be soothing. It can also help us understand what’s really bothering us - and is often something different to what we had initially thought. It’s easier to do this when we feel in a safe space, so this could be a good opportunity to try it. ‘Emotion Wheel App’ is another good option to try.
Take the chance to get some fresh air and go for a quick walk while listening to something (if you are happy to pop out while the oven is on). Our bodies love the soothing rhythm of walking. Allow your panoramic vision to open up by softening your gaze to take in your surroundings to each side of you, rather than just focusing on what is directly in front of you. Research shows this helps your nervous system to down regulate. If you are struggling to find something to listen to, Desert Island Disks is often a good place to start as people’s life stories are absorbing and so help to draw us out of ourselves.
A couple of easy oven bakes
It can be easy to get drawn into the noise around cooking having to be fast all the time. We feel time poor and stressed, and the conclusion can be drawn that we have to find quick food.
But actually sometimes we do have time, we just don’t want to spend it cooking. This is where the oven can do the work for us.
In the winter we benefit from eating well cooked food where the cooking has done some of the digestive work for us. Salads and stir fries can be great, but are not necessarily what our bodies need at this time of year.
So here are a couple of recipes where the meal can be prepped within 10 mins and put in the oven, and you can get on with something else (hopefully relaxing), and let the oven do the rest.
Baked Rice Puttanesca
Prep time 10 mins, cook time 35 mins
Serve 4
This is a good comfort dish for when you feel drained and in need of nurturing. Food doesn’t always have to be brimming with virtuous ingredients, sometimes it can just be made very simply from a few whole-foods.
It’s made from ingredients that store well, so you can have these in your cupboard and bring them out when you need them.
Leave out the tuna and use jarred artichokes instead for a vegan version.
Ingredients
60ml olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
2 tbsp capers
30g preserved lemon, inner parts discarded and skin thinly sliced into strips
70g pitted kalamata olives
1 tbsp tomato paste
400g of passata (no skins so can be gentler on the gut) or tinned tomatoes
250g jasmine rice (or similar)
1-2 plum tomatoes
1 tin of tuna or 1 jar of artichokes
20g parsley, chopped
Method
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
Put 3 tbsps of oil into a large ovenproof sauté pan, for which you have a lid. Add the onion and cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened and browned.
Add the garlic and chilli and cook for one minute more until frangrant.
Stir in the capers, half the preserved lemon, half the olives, the tuna or artichokes if using, tomato paste, passata or tinned tomatoes, rice, 450ml of water, and a little salt and pepper.
Bring to a simmer, cover with the lid and bake for 25 minutes in the oven until the rice is cooked through.
Serve with a little chopped parsley and the remaining preserved lemon and olives scattered on top.
Roast aubergine with silken tofu, tahini and crispy chilli (Meera Sodha)
Prep time 10 mins, cook time 30 mins
Serves 2
This is a good one for those looking for a high protein vegan dish. It only takes 5 minutes to get everything in the oven, and then another 5 minutes at the end to make the easy sauce.
It may not sound that appealing, but it’s one of those dishes that surprises you with how easy and satisfying it is to eat. It’s really high in protein from the tofu and tahini. If you want to boost the protein content further, add some quinoa on the side. You can buy packets of pre-cooked quinoa if you want to keep things really easy.
Ingredients
Olive oil
3 medium aubergines, cut into thin disks
300g pack of silken tofu
2cm thumb of ginger, grated
1 tbsp tamari soy sauce
2 tsp apple cider or white wine vinegar
6 spring onions
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
1/2 tbsp tahini
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line two trays with baking paper.
Put the aubergine slices on a tray and drizzle with the oil, salt and pepper. Put the block of tofu on the other tray. Put both trays in the oven for around 25 mins (check the aubergine slices after 20 minutes) until they are nicely browned.
Relax until the aubergines and tofu are ready, then make the easy sauce. Put 4 tbsp of oil in a pan with the ginger, tamari, vinegar, spring onions, chilli and tahini. Bring it up to a boil, then take off the heat.
Cut the block of tofu into thin slices, then layer on a dish with the aubergine. Drizzle with the sauce. Serve as it is, or with quinoa or rice on the side.
Aromatic Citrus-ade, Dr Rupy Aujla
This can be a good drink to turn to when we want to soothe our nervous system. The powerful flavours help to switch on our taste buds and move us out of fight or fight and into rest and digest mode, preparing us for the meal to come.
It’s full of antioxidants and vitamin C to help manage inflammation and detoxification, as well as regulating the immune system.
Use it as a cordial with still, sparkling or hot water.
Ingredients
300ml water
15g fresh turmeric root, scrubbed and chopped
15 g root ginger, scrubbed and chopped
1 star anise
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
10g fresh mint
10g fresh rosemary
2 lemons
2 red or pink grapefruit
2 oranges
Method
Pour the water into a saucepan and add the turmeric, ginger, star anise and black pepper.
Bring to the boil, then remove from the heat, add the mint and rosemary and allow to cool for 20 mins.
Meanwhile, juice the citrus fruits through a sieve directly into a jug. Discard the seeds.
Pass the cooled aromatic water through a sieve into the jug.
Add 500ml of still or sparkling water to the jug, or use as a cordial with hot water to make a refreshing tea.
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