Food/Mood Shortcuts & A Downloadable Grocery Guide

Something a little different

I’m coming at you on a Wednesday with something a little different.

Compared to my usual essay, what you'll find here will be a bit lighter, personal, and tangible. (Don’t worry—the usual longform post will come out by the weekend).

Below I'll be sharing:

• A detailed pantry guide (what I always keep stocked)

• Food-Mood Shortcuts (simple, flexible ways I enhance my everyday eating)

• A mental and metabolic health tip-of-the-week (what I've found that best supports both!)

I'm all about eating in a way that supports both mood and metabolism.

ButI don't like to spend hours in the kitchen or attempt new recipes every night.

That's why I love what I'm naming Food-Mood Shortcuts—simple ways to make eating well easy while supporting my energy, focus, and mood.

This week's shortcuts:

• Pickled onions

• Homemade mayo

Pickled Onions

I love pickled onions! But I've never had them in my meals at home until recently.

I don't even remember what I came across, but I either saw someone suggest making them homemade or I just thought of it and asked ChatGPT for a recipe 😅.

Either way, I realized they were so easy to make and I already had everything I needed.

Since then, I've kept them stocked in my fridge and even just refilled my jar of the pickling juice with a fresh set of sliced red onions (not sure if you're supposed to do this but it worked!). I've been adding them to everything: random bowls I throw together, steak fajitas, scrambled eggs, stir fries—you name it and pickled onions will probably taste good on it.

Here's how I made them:

1. Thinly slice a red onion and place it in a jar.

2. In a small saucepan, heat up:

3. ½ cup apple cider vinegar (or white vinegar)

4. ½ cup water

5. 1 tbsp honey or maple syrup

6. 1 tsp salt

7. Stir until the salt and sweetener dissolve, then pour the mixture over the onions in the jar.

8. Let it sit for at least 30 minutes (but they get even better after a few hours). Store in the fridge!

Homemade Mayo

I also recently realized how easy it is to make homemade mayo! I can't say the way I do it is the correct way…but it works. This version is fresher and tastier than store-bought mayo (plus, no bad seed oils).

I've used it for making tuna salad, salmon-stuffed portobellos, and egg salad. I make tuna or chicken salad pretty frequently as an easy meal-prep dish!

Here's how I made it:

1. In a tall glass cup/jar (or blender jar, see below), add:

2. 1 egg (room temp)

3. 1 c. avocado or olive oil (I used olive oil but it has a pretty strong taste)

4. 1 tbsp. lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

5. ½ tsp salt

6. Blend…*This is where I did things weirdly. You're supposed to use an immersion blender and start at the bottom of the jar and slowly work your way up. But i don't have one. So I just used my NutriBullet blender. And it worked just fine!

7. Store in the fridge.

Grocery/Pantry Guide

to access the downloadable pantry guide, upgrade to a paid subscription.