My Mediterranean tuna salad was a HUGE hit for my meal prep business! It’s unlike any tuna salad you have ever had, I promise! This dish is greek-inspired and packed with nutrients! Give this recipe a try. Furthermore, check out my post about the Mediterranean lifestyle and how healthy it can be to start eating like a European!
You can mix the ingredients quickly and serve it with crackers, on bread, or in a lettuce wrap. On the other hand, you can scarf it up with a spoon.
Here’s what you’re going to need to make the Mediterranean tuna salad:
4 cans albacore tuna drained
1 can quartered artichoke hearts drain and remove hard parts
½ red bell pepper chopped
3/4 cup greek olives halved
½ small red onion chopped
¼ cup fresh parsley chopped
1 Tbsp partially dried basil
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 tsp dried oregano
lemon juiced
1 tomato sliced
½ cup mayo
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
The 411 On Artichokes:
Did you know that artichokes are packed with nutrition? One artichoke contains approximately 7 grams of fiber. Additionally, artichokes contain vitamins such as C & K and minerals your body needs, like magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and iron! Because of its array of health benefits, this plant has been used for thousands of years in the Mediterranean for its medicinal properties. There are scientific claims that artichokes can help support your heart, liver, and digestive health.
The directions are simple.
First, combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. You can then serve right away if you like. You can also store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a few days. Still, I prefer to eat this Mediterranean Tuna Salad the next day after the flavors have had an opportunity to combine! It’s a treat my whole family enjoys!
1canquartered artichoke heartsdrain and remove hard parts
½red bell pepperchopped
3/4cupgreek oliveshalved
½small red onionchopped
¼cupfresh parsleychopped
1Tbsppartially dried basil
2clovesgarlicfinely chopped
1tspdried oregano
lemonjuiced
1tomatosliced
½cupmayo
¼teaspoonfine sea salt
¼teaspoonground black pepper
Instructions
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and gently fold together until well combined.
Serve on gluten-free pita cut in half (1/2 cup of tuna salad in each half) with a slice of tomato and 1/4 romaine lettuce leaf in each half. You can also serve it wrapped in lettuce instead of the pita.
Brain dumping is a technique meant to take what is in your head and put it on paper, freeing up thought space.
The idea is that endless ideas and overwhelming mental to-do lists can harm productivity. Being a person with many ideas is a fabulous quality – if you are able to actually stay organized and implement them.
How To Do A Brain Dump
Start by getting your self a notebook paper or opening a blank document on your computer.
You are going to want to open your mind to the endless thoughts, tasks, ideas, to-dos that are taking place.
Start writing them down.
Don’t try to prioritize right now, or over-think each idea’s importance; just write.
Write until you can feel the pressure in your mind starts to ease.
Please don’t worry about holding on to your ideas. They will be on this paper and out of your mind.
Be specific. This can be household tasks, personal calls you need to make, conversations you need to have, work tasks, grocery items, it can be wanting to make time to spend with kids, it doesn’t matter. Whatever the thought is weighing on your mind, write it.
Now that the thoughts are out of your head and onto paper, you can simply stop here and use that paper as a checklist. Or, you can move on to my scheduling technique.
Here’s an example of my own brain dump (everything that came to my mind in 5 minutes):
Get caught up on laundry. Create spicy superfood chili recipe on blog. Carson golf clubs. Golf schedule. Dog hair. Floors. Book signing. Wrestling camp. Pedicure. Meal plan.
Schedule It All Out
I personally have to take the brain-dumping a step further. If I use notes, then looking at the “checklist” is almost as overwhelming as what was going on in my brain.
I start by breaking things down into smaller tasks that will need to occur and placing each task on my calendar. Once the task is scheduled, I mark it off the list. This tells my brain I no longer have to think about it or dwell on it. It’s on my calendar, so it’s part of the plan. This works for me because if I put something on my calendar, I stick to it as with any other appointment. I then get to throw the paper away and feel a million times better. Here’s a look at how my brain dump looks on my weekly calendar. ***keep in mind this is not what a day in my life actually looks like, and this is not the accurate amount of time it would take for each task.
This technique works wonders with some of my clients that come to me and say, “I really want to do XYZ, but I don’t have the time” I simply tell them, SCHEDULE IT! Then I ask, “if you had a doctor’s appointment on your calendar, would you say “no, I don’t feel like doing that today?” No, you would go because you have made a commitment. The same needs to apply to your thoughts, ideas, and tasks.
What happens if I write it down and realize it isn’t a good idea or it’s someone else’s job?
If you brain dump something that needs to be done by someone else, or a task that you should be delegating, all you need to do is schedule the correspondence. If the garbage was full and on my mind, I could put on my calendar, “remind Carson to take out the trash” If I simply decide that my thought was a bad idea, I can mark it off the paper, not put it on my schedule, and the bad idea ends up in the trash – not my brain.
Have you ever heard someone say that they moved to Italy or visited Greece for a prolonged period of time and their intolerances for certain foods simply vanished? They were all of a sudden able to enjoy bread and pasta? There are countless stories of people leaving America and also leaving behind food intolerance and all of the sketchy symptoms that come along with it like …. ADHD.
What is this phenomenon?
Well, it’s no phenomenon or strange occurrence at all.
It has to do with the fact that Europe and other Mediterranean countries have much stricter regulations on chemicals that go into the food, and their processes are different. They are using fewer pesticides, GMOs, and even different processing techniques. In the USA, many chemicals, such as sulfites that are used in bleaching processed grains, aren’t even listed on the ingredients because it’s considered part of “processing.”
Here are 5 American “Food” ingredients that the USA claims are “safe” but are banned in other countries:
But don’t get discouraged, you can still live a healthy Mediterranean lifestyle, right here in the US. Here’s how:
Focus your attention on eating REAL food. There’s a saying that goes: “If it doesn’t have a mother, or grow naturally on the earth, then you shouldn’t eat it”
When eating animal products, be mindful of how they are fed and raised.
If you must eat processed foods, use the 5 ingredients or less rule.
If you cannot pronounce an ingredient, don’t eat it.
Watch out for “Natural Flavors or Natural Ingredients” on a label. Many lab-created chemicals derived from a small amount of “natural” products can be disguised on food labels.
Avoid dangerous trans fats and incorporate as many healthy fats into your diet as possible. Mediterranean cuisine focuses more on healthy fats from olive oil, avocados, and nuts rather than trans fats that occur in highly processed foods.
I was never a huge fan of sweet potatoes until I learned that a bit of cayenne, salt, and pepper could make those bad boys delicious! I always thought of sweet potatoes as the gross candied side dish at every thanksgiving covered in processed marshmallows and brown sugar. Yuck! Seemed to be more of a dessert to me than a vegetable.. but.. to each their own. We can still be friends if we disagree on the thanksgiving side dish, but you have got to give spicy sweet potatoes a go at least this one time.
This chili isn’t much like chili at all.. but it’s a spicy soup jam-packed with superfoods, but it combines tomatoes and chili powder, so we’re calling it chili. It includes some of my favorites like tomatoes, bell pepper, and red onion!
Here’s what you’re going to need to make this:
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion chopped
1 Large Tomato diced
1 bell pepper chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp dried oregano
½ tsp garlic powder
0.25 tsp cayenne pepper
0.5 tsp ancient fine sea salt
0.25 tsp Freshly ground black pepper
4 large sweet potatoes peeled and cubed into 1″ pieces
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 tbsp Parsley Freshly Chopped
1 lb. Italian sausage cooked
Directions:
In a large pot over medium heat, heat oil.
Add onion and bell pepper and cook until soft.
Add garlic and cook until fragrant.
Add tomato paste and stir until well-coated.
Add sausage and cook, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon until no longer pink. (or add in already cooked sausage)
Add chili powder, oregano, garlic powder, and cayenne, and season with salt and pepper
Add sweet potatoes, broth, and tomatoes, and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and let simmer, covered until sweet potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.
Garnish with parsley before serving.
Spicy Superfood Chili
Here's a delicious recipe that is amazing right off the stove, and just as amazing as left-overs!
Almost a year ago, I had a huge struggle with anxiety due to a never-ending series of traumatic events. Looking back now, I can see that what I struggled with was so much more than anxiety. It was my ADHD (racing thoughts and brain fog) mixed with a little PTSD (traumatic-event-related stress) topped off with depression and over a million ruminating thoughts that took control of my life. Now that’s a lot of acronyms, but to sum it all up, I was miserable! A dear friend of mine brought over a book about tapping. While I was extremely grateful to her for thinking of me and trying to help, I don’t think I was ready to heal yet. I wrongfully thought at the time that if I took steps toward healing, then it meant I had to become okay with what happened. I wasn’t okay. The book sat on the side table for the next few months as I sat in my misery.
We finally decided to take a trip as a family to Jamaica for some fun and healing. Knowing that I had several hours of driving, airports, and flying, I gathered up all of the self-help books that had been gifted to me! I spent all of our travel time reading each page word-for-word. I’ll later make a new post about the entire Jamaican healing journey and review the books I read. (Here are some of my travel stories) Tapping was the one that had the most significant and immediate effect. As I sat alone one morning on our balcony having coffee, a negative thought took hold and would not let go! I thought to myself, “Oh hell no, not here. Not in paradise!” I did about 5 minutes of a tapping technique, and I found INSTANT relief.
While this has not been the end-all, cure-all for me – it’s most defiantly a tool that has helped tremendously. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, dear friend!
Okay, So what the heck is “tapping?”
Not a new concept, but totally new to me (the book I read was actually published in 2008)! Better late than never!
Tapping, also known as Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), is a simple technique to alleviate trapped negative emotions. It involves using your fingertips to tap the body’s nine specific meridian points (energy points) while addressing your negative feelings, thoughts, memory, or emotions. Scientists and other professionals claim this process can release the negative energy connected to those thoughts, emotions, or memories. It has definitely helped me!
Here’s the specific technique I use:
I focus on my issue, such as a ruminating thought, bad memory, or simply being angry and hurt for something someone did to me. I rate the intensity of that negative feeling (this is important for later).
I try really hard to remember what I am grateful for and what I am capable of (this is difficult when I’m in a victim mindset, but I try my best to power through the hopelessness and find at least one thing that I know I’m capable of, or thankful for, or love about myself).
I then start tapping on my body’s meridian points (beginning with the karate chop point on the side of my hand).
While tapping the hand, I repeat what is known as the “setup phrase.” This phrase acknowledges the issue while simultaneously acknowledging what I’m thankful for. Here’s an example: “Even though I am experiencing the pain and trauma of (insert memory or thought) and I’m really angry, I deeply and completely accept myself and my feelings.” or “Even though (insert name) did (insert event) and it hurt me, I am beautiful and worthy of love.” A great ADHD example is: “Even though I lost track of time, I accept myself. I am unique and powerful!”
I then move on to each of my body’s meridian points as I state what is known as a “reminder phrase.” Example: “I am experiencing pain and trauma from this memory, but I can release the grief, and I can experience happiness. The meridian points include the top of the head, eyebrow, side of the eye, under the eye, under the nose, chin, collarbone, and under the arm. I repeat the reminder phrase several times with each meridian point.
I repeat the entire process 2-3 times.
I then rate the intensity of the emotion or thought again. If the intensity has not decreased, I begin the sequence again.
Sometimes I tap to address a painful memory, and sometimes it’s as simple as regaining focus on my work after a distraction. This technique doesn’t have to be used for only deep painful stuff. It can be everyday crap like “Even though my kids are climbing the wall and the laundry has piled up, I accept that I am a good mom.”
Resources:
I am so happy to have found this tool and the specific technique that has worked for me. To me, this technique is all about accepting things that you cannot change, releasing the negative energy connected to those things, and instilling a tremendous love for yourself. I cannot promise that tapping will work for you, but If you’re interested in learning more, here are some resources that I have found helpful:
The information I have provided in this article is of my own personal experience and is not meant as medical or mental health advice. I am not a doctor and I am not making claims that this tool will heal you or even work for you. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis please visit your nearest hospital or call 911.
If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) any time, day or night, or chat online. Their Crisis Text Line also provides free, 24/7, confidential support via text message to people in crisis when they dial 741741.
I am not affiliated with or paid by Gaia or the Tapping Solution Foundation, but I have included links to Amazon products that are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you. This helps fund my work and research. I appreciate your support!
My posts contain affiliate links, so I may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you. There are also a few ads from google placed throughout my site. This helps fund my work and research. Thank you for your support!
