Recipes
Recipes for foods and drinks to promote sleepiness
To live a well balanced, rewarding life of our dreams by day and sleep restfully at night.
Juicing to help alleviate insomnia and anxiety
Published November 11, 2011 | 
Insomnia
Juicing can help improve our diet and benefit our health in many ways. If you are challenged with insomnia, you may be experiencing a hormonal imbalance. juicing may help the overall health of your endocrine system which is responsible for hormone production and regulation.
Three juices to try:
1. Juice 3 medium carrots, 1-2 celery stalks, and 1/2 head lettuce. Makes 12 ounces. Consume one hour before bed.
2. Coconut milk with passionflower fruit (equal parts). Consume 8 ounces before bed.
3. Juice 6 ounces cantaloupe, 4 ounces blueberries, and add one tablespoon noni juice. Makes 4 ounces. Drink before bed.
Anxiety
Even though anxiety is considered to be primarily a psychological condition, improving our nutrition can be an important part of treating anxiety. Juicing supplies us with a rich supply of nutrients which can help our bodies restore proper nutritional balance.
Three juices to try:
1. Juice 2 medium carrots, 2 celery stalks, 1/2 bunch parsley, and 1/2 head lettuce. Makes 12 ounces. Consume once daily.
2. Juice 6 ounces cantaloupe, 1/3 medium papaya, and add 1 tablespoon noni juice. Makes 6 ounces. Consume twice daily.
3. Juice 2 medium apples, 12 ounces cantaloupe, 4 ounces blueberries, and add 2 capsules or 1/2 dropper of passionflower extract.
Makes 12 ounces. Consume once or twice daily.
These juice recipes and many more can be found in this wonderful book by Steven Bailey, ND and Larry Trivieri, Jr, Juice Alive The Ultimate Guide To Juicing Remedies.
Don’t own a juicer? Here’s a lot of good information about juicers from Consumer Reports.
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Foods to calm us down and get us sleepy
Published June 5, 2010 | Here is a list of things we can eat or drink to calm our nerves and get us in a relaxed, sleepy state:
- Berries: It is June and it is berry season! Any berry is good. The carbohydrates turn to sugar slowly so you won’t have a blood sugar crash. The vitamin C in berries helps fight the stress hormone cortisol.
- Oranges: Another good source of vitamin C which returns blood pressure and cortisol levels to healthier levels.
- Avocados: Vitamin B is an essential nutrient for nerves and brain cells. Stress depletes our bodies of Vitamin B. Avocados are filled with B vitamins. Guacamole has a nice creamy texture that makes for a good comfort food.
- Nuts: Another good source of Vitamin B and Zinc. Almonds also have Vitamin E which will help fight cellular damage that comes from chronic stress.
- Oats: Like berries, oats are carbohydrates which are absorbed slowly. This enhances the serotonin-producing abilities of the brain. Serotonin helps to relieve our bodies of stress. Other slow burning carbohydrates to try: barley, rice, and beans.
- Salmon: Has omega-3 fatty acids which help keep cortisol and adrenaline levels in check (not to mention are also very good for our hearts and skin).
- Skim Milk: The calcium and magnesium in milk helps calm us and relieves PMS symptoms.
- Chamomile Tea: an herb that calms and soothes
- Turkey: has tryptophan, an amino acid, which makes us sleepy
- Peanut Butter
- Bananas: magnesium and potassium relaxes us
- whole-grain, low sugar cereal or granola with low-fat milk or yogurt
- Broccoli, kale, and any green vegetables- has calcium and vitamin B
- Eggs: rich in Vitamin Bs
- Sesame seeds: calcium
- Kelp and seaweed: calcium source
Avoid: alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine too close to bed time.
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5 tips for eating and drinking smarter to cure insomnia
Published June 1, 2010 | A recent article in Woman’s World magazine has some good tips for helping us get to sleep.
- Drinking coffee before 11:00am. Caffeine takes up to 12 hours to be broken down by our livers. So if we drink it too late in the day, it could have an adverse affect on our sleep. So, enjoy our morning cup or two and then give our bodies time to process and get rid of the caffeine in our systems.
- Eat nuts in the afternoon. Nuts, especially almonds, have a lot of calcium and magnesium which relaxes our muscles and nervous systems which promotes good, deep restorative sleep. For best results, they need to be in our system for at least six hours. A good portion to eat: 1 oz. daily.
- Drink enough water during your day- just not too close to bedtime. We do not sleep our best if we are dehydrated. Being dehydrated stimulates our bodies to produce stress hormones. Try drinking 75% of our daily fluids before 4:00pm to prevent a lot of middle of the night waking up.
- Enjoy a “sleepy” snack. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports that eating a bowl of buttered jasmine rice right before bed will promote good sleep. Jasmine rice is a unique long-grain rice with a nutty flavor and a fragrant, soothing aroma which increases our body’s production of serotonin and cytokinins, brain hormones that calm our nerves and induce drowsiness in just 20 minutes.
- A supplement to try: try supplementing with 200 mg. of L-theanine. Japanese researchers found that stressed people who take this amino acid at night feel relaxed and ready to sleep within 30 minutes. L-theanine boosts production of calming brain waves that help us drift off. Please always check with your doctor before starting a new supplement.
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One goal for this summer: to try lavender ice cream!
Published May 26, 2010 | Last night I watched “It’s Complicated” with Meryl Streep. In this movie, Meryl Streep’s character runs her own dessert restaurant and makes and eats honey lavender ice cream when she can’t sleep. I have not yet tried lavender ice cream but intend to do so.
When I do, I will certainly let you know. I think it sounds delightful. Something to satsisfy our sweet tooth and make us calm and sleepy…
If you want to try to make some honey lavender ice cream, a wonderful looking recipe can be found at www.epicurious.com
Some good ideas and information on homemade ice cream makers can be found at: www.softerserveicecreammaker.com
Another great site I found, all about lavender: www.lavenderfarms.net
Good night
Debra : )
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Hot Bedtime Drinks
Published May 1, 2010 | In general, hot drinks have a calming effect at bedtime. It is best to avoid caffeinated drinks past 3:00pm.
Here are some warm bedtime drink ideas:
- warm milk with nutmeg and honey
- warm almond milk
- warm soy milk
- warm egg nog
- herbal tea, such as chamomile or chicory
- Brandied Lemon Drink: combine 2/3 cups lemon juice, 2tbsp honey, 2tbsp brandy, 1 cup boiling water, 1 cinnamon stick
- Mulled cider: in saucepan heat 3 cups apple cider, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 cinnamon sticks, and five cloves. Bring all ingredients to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and barely simmer. Serve warm in mugs with cinnamon stick to stir with if desired
- Orange and Apricot Drink: combine and boil 2 cups orange juice, 2 tbsp apricot jam, 2 tbsp, 1 tsp nutmeg. then add 2tbsp Grand Marnier.
(Brandied Lemon Drink, Mulled Cider, and Orange and Apricot drink recipes found at : http://www.eatingwell.com)
9. Sleep Happy Smoothie: blend 1 cup unsweeted almond milk, half a banana or 2 tbsp of unsweetened applesauce, 1 scoop of vanilla flavored whey protein, 1 tbsp of ground flax seeds (this recipe found at http://www.thatsfit.ca)
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Posted in Recipes | 
drinks to promote good sleep, nightcaps, smoothie, warm beverage recipes, warm milk | 
3 CommentsFoods that contain calcium and tryptophan promote better sleep
Published April 25, 2010 | Anything high in calcium is good for promoting sleep; especially for women.
Foods with the amino acid tryptophan which gets converted to serotonin help us to sleep as well.
Some foods to try which are high in calcium and /or tryptophan
- milk
- cottage cheese
- yogurt
- hard cheese
- turkey
- fish
- bananas
- plantains
- dates
- avocados
- eggplant
- walnuts
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Posted in Recipes, Tips to help insomnia | calcium, dairy, foods that help sleep, sleep aids, tryptophan | Leave a commentFood and Drink to make us sleepy
Published April 9, 2010 | Are there foods and drinks that really will make us sleepy? I have been doing some research on this subject. There are a lot of old folk remedies and recipes out there. There are foods such as milk and turkey that have an amino acid called tryptophan that is supposed to help induce sleep if consumed in sufficient amount of quantities.
“Experts” out there will suggest that it would be difficult to get enough tryptophan, say, in one glass of warm milk to have any real effect. I think that if we believe it will help, it will help. The placebo effect does work. If we consume things that we associate with comfort(again, such as warm milk or chicken soup) it certainly could not hurt. In the case of warm milk, I think we can go way back to when we were infants when mother’s milk was our main source of nourishment.
Some folks will tell us not to eat anything before bed for our bodies will be busy digesting and that will affect our sleep. Then there are those who suggest we have a little snack before bed (such as cheese and crackers)to help us get sleepy.
There are those who say absolutely no alcohol consumption before sleep time and those who swear by a little night cap.
Who to believe? Like anything else in life, I truly believe the real “experts” our ourselves. Only we know what works and does not work for us. So experiment a bit. Personally, I have found a warm cup of almond milk with a spoonful of flax seed oil to be delicious and comforting right before bed. During really rough nights of anxiety and insomnia I have found a banana, a piece of toast or small bowl of cereal to be just the thing to help me go back to sleep.
As I hear about or encounter recipes or food and drink suggestions to try I will mention them in future posts here at the Warm Milk Journal.
Here’s a few to start with:
This suggestion was given to me by a darling man, our local librarian, at the check out desk (as he was helping me check out my rather large stack of books on insomnia, anxiety, and sleep disorders). He is Jamaican and he says this is what Jamaicans do when they can’t sleep: sip on lime water and sugar. That’s it. Simple. I happen to know that citrus becomes very alkaline in our bodies (I highly recommend drinking lime and lemon water throughout your day for good general health). The sugar is a very simple carbohydrate that perhaps has a relaxing effect? I am not sure on that but it would be worth a try.
A delicious sleepy time smoothie (I found this recipe at: http://medicmagic.net)
Blend: ripe mango, banana, 2 tbs sugar, 2 tbs low fat ricotta cheese, 1/2 tsp mint
Enjoy!
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Posted in Recipes | almond milk, insomnia, lime water, placebo effect, sleep, sleep remedy, smoothie, sugar, tryptophan, warm milk | Leave a comment 
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