The Connection Between Therapy, Feelings and Food
In therapy, my clients and I often process how food holds strong emotional connections for us. These connections, are often formed at an early age, and play a significant role in shaping our current relationship, feelings and behaviors surrounding food!
Why Food is Emotional
Some of my earliest memories surrounding food were of my father’s cooking. After his retirement, he enjoyed spending his days quietly tending to his garden and creating meals out of the foods that he grew with love. I remember my family never being at a loss for fresh fruits and vegetables that included cabbage, sweet potatoes, turnip greens, corn, tomatoes, and apples from his mini orchard. In fact, I remember us having so many fresh fruits and vegetables, that our freezers where often packed beyond capacity, not leaving room for anything else, much to my mother’s dismay.
I remember my father sharing with others and often giving away surpluses of fresh fruits and vegetables to local shelters, food banks, friends, relatives or just random people he ran into around town! In fact, everybody who knew my father, also knew to never buy any fruits or vegetables because they were welcomed to come into our yard with their grocery bags and pick whatever they needed!
Collard greens were one of his favorite vegetables to prepare! I can remember watching him as a child, and observing him spend what seemed like an eternity soaking, cleaning and rinsing his freshly picked greens.
Today, the deep, warm smokey aroma of a simmering pot of southern collards prepared with love, still holds a strong emotional connection
for me, as my brain has learned how to automatically associate it with those early childhood memories of love, warmth and safety! And while I don’t always have the time, patience or energy to prepare fresh greens, one of my favorite semi-convenience meals to make for family and friends is a southern collard green quiche! This quiche uses 1/2 can of drained Glory brand collard greens, and you can have it for breakfast, lunch, brunch, supper, or just a snack! This quick recipe is very fast to throw together and it can easily be prepared ahead of time, frozen and reheated whenever!
So, Let’s Get Down to It!
This particular recipe makes 1 deep dish quiche or fills 2 shallow pie shells. You can always bake and freeze what’s leftover for for up to 3 months!
Here’s what you’ll need…
Ingredients:
- 1 refrigerated pie crust (9-inch)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 (14.5-ounce) can of Glory Brand Collard Greens, thoroughly drained and chopped (lightly rinse to remove excess sodium if needed and then thoroughly drain- You can always freeze the remaining greens for later!)
- 6 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk or heavy cream
- 1/2 cup shredded smoked gouda and cheddar cheese (however, any cheese you have on hand will work just fine!)
- 1 cup diced smoked turkey sausage (feel free to substitute with any meat you have on hand because it’s not that serious)
- Season to taste – I recommend either Soul Food Seasoning or Kinder’s brand Caramelized Onion Butter seasoning
Instructions:
- Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C). Place the refrigerated pie crusts on a baking sheet and set aside.
- In a skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the diced onion and red bell pepper, and sauté until softened, about 5-10 minutes.
- Add in your diced smoked turkey sausage to the skillet and thoroughly cook until lightly browned.
- Stir in the chopped Glory Brand Collard Greens and cook for another 3-5 minutes until heated through and any left over liquid in the greens is cooked out.
- Add your Soul Food seasoning or Kinder’s to taste (remember that your smoked turkey sausage will already be somewhat salty).
- Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together your eggs, milk, shredded smoked Gouda cheese, and cheddar cheese.
- Spread the cooked collard greens, red bell pepper, onion and smoked turkey sausage mixture evenly over the bottom of the prepared pie crust.
- Pour the egg and cheese mixture over the collard green mixture in the pie crust.
- Using a baking sheet or tray, carefully transfer the quiche to the preheated oven and bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the center of the filling is set and the top is golden brown.
- Insert a toothpick into the center of each quiche, and if it comes out clean it is ready!
- Allow your quiches to cool for at least 10 to 20 minutes before slicing and serving to ensure that they holds their structure once sliced!
- Have this quiche by itself, or pair it with an arugula salad topped with sliced tomatoes, roasted chickpeas, and an apple cider vinaigrette dressing! (Pro tip: if you’re unable to find this dressing at the store or make it yourself, you can ask for an extra apple cider vinegar at dressing the next time you go to Chick-fil-A)
- Enjoy!
Struggling with Compulsive or Emotional Eating? Here’s What you Can do to Help!
For many of us who live with compulsive, binge eating, there is often a genetic an biological component where the part of our brain that is responsible for things like impulse control and even decision making (the cerebral cortex), doesn’t function in the same way as it would in somebody who’s not living with compulsive or binge eating! When you combine this with the fact that foods often hold a strong emotional connection for many of us, this may lead to situations where we use food as a means to self-sooth or to meet our emotional needs!
There are things that you can do to help manage this!
1. Process Uncomfortable Feelings and Emotions without Self-Soothing with Food
First, make sure you are processing uncomfortable or distressful feelings and emotions. This can be through talking with a trusted friend, a family member, your therapist, or even writing down your feelings in a journal. The important thing here is that you’re getting it out! Have you ever been in a situation where you were facing some troublesome feelings and emotions, and after talking with someone else, you noticed that you immediately began to feel better?
Even if the person you shared your feelings with only listened without providing advice, you likely noticed that just the act of talking about the feelings, and processing them in your mind, helped you to feel better! Talking with a licensed therapist can be beneficial in helping us to manage those especially difficult feelings and emotions that cause us to experience more severe forms of distress.
Before a meal, check in with your body to see how you’re feeling emotionally. Is your body feeling centered, or are you experiencing an urge to eat as a way of regulating your difficult emotions? If so, ask yourself where these emotions are coming from. Are you sad? Are you anxious? Are you feeling stressed out?
From here, allow yourself to pause, take a few deep breaths, and if you’re able to, process these feelings either with somebody else or through journaling. As long as you’re just giving yourself permission to do so!
Check out 3 more tips on ways to manage emotional eating here!
2. Sit Down at the Table and Plate your Food!
Earlier I talked about how some of our impulsive urges to binge or emotionally eat are neurobiological in nature. By intentionally plating our food and sitting down at the table while mindfully eating, we are initiating behavioral changes that force us to slow down, and in a lot of cases help us to disrupt the compulsive eating behaviors that are rooted in our brain’s neurobiological urges! Not only that, plating our food also:
- Helps us to better engage in mindful eating by being fully aware of our eating behaviors in the present moment, and reduces any external distractions that contribute to mindless or compulsive eating behaviors.
- It also helps us to develop interceptive awareness and get better connected with our body’s hunger and fullness cues!
Learn more about how plating your food can be can help reduce binge or emotional eating here!
Do you need guided support surrounding recovering from compulsive, emotional or Binge eating? The Mindfulness Space is here to help!
Stefanie Lawson is a licensed therapist with nearly a decade of clinical experience and owner of The Mindfulness Space therapy in Greensboro North Carolina, where she maintains specialized education and training in treating the underlying depression, anxiety, stress or unresolved trauma that often leads to eating disorders and issues concerning body image dissatisfaction (i.e. Body Dysmorphic Disorder) in adults and transitional aged teens (older teenagers who are transitioning into adulthood).
Schedule your free 30 minute consultation call with The Mindfulness Space today to learn more about how we can help you!
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