Christmas Survival Tips

Christmas is coming, there are only - how many? - more 'shopping days', presents to be wrapped - or should that say bought' - cards to be written, food to be planned, bought, cooked; traffic, people, queues' sorry to sound negative, but is it surprising you're tense as a coiled spring and feel you're fast running out of steam? What you need is to be both energised and relaxed. No, that's not contradictory - think about it - and as usual, help is at hand in the kitchen.

First of all - and we hate to sound like your mother here, but she was right - are you getting enough sleep? Not easy at this time of year, we agree, but worth making an effort to nurture yourself a bit in this respect: grab those early nights when you can! Remember 'balanced rest helps balanced output'. Think about it and try it. You'll notice a difference.

You're too tense to sleep well? Then try these foods which are particularly helpful for both energy and relaxation. Incidentally, if you're wondering how two such apparently contradictory things as energy and relaxation can be achieved at the same time, we'd like to remind you that this is exactly what natural healing ingredients do, because they affect the whole system to bring balance.

Anyway, one of the best foods for energy and relaxation is oats - ordinary porridge oats. They give slow-burn, constant energy - oats balance the functions of the pancreas which helps to stabilize blood sugar levels - and they also feed and renew the nervous system. This soothing and restoring of the nerves is achieved because oats contain phosphorous, silicon and many of the B vitamins which are all capable of growing and renewing parts of the brain. As well as all this, oats also help remove cholesterol from the bloodstream which means it flows better, bringing increased oxygen which boosts energy. So eat lots!

Other foods which help the circulation, bringing more blood to the brain and boosting energy are the warming herbs and spices: cayenne, chilli, mustard, ginger, horseradish, cloves, cinnamon and garlic.

These are all tonics which hone the whole body and we like to eat some of them every day. Try adding a pinch of ground ginger, a clove or two and a small piece of cinnamon stick to a cup of tea to perk you up when you get home. Or try grating fresh ginger (about a tablespoonful) then squeezing it over a cup to extract the juice and topping this up with hot water for a wonderfully warming and invigorating drink.

Now we're going to sound like your mother again, because the other thing you need to do is to make sure you eat regular meals. How can you achieve balanced energy output if you don't have regular energy in-put in the form of food? So aim to eat three meals a day, nicely balanced, not too big so that your stomach and digestive system are weighed down and have to waste extra energy processing the food. Or, if it suits you better, try having six little meals.

The best foods to choose for constant energy are the ones which release their sugar slowly into the bloodstream: these are foods which are said to have a low 'glycemic index' (GI) and include porridge oats, as we've already mentioned, baked beans, butter beans, lentils (indeed, all the pulses), whole wheat pasta, most vegetables, apples and apple juice, oranges, grapes.

These are much better than the high glycemic foods which give you a sugar-induced 'high' then drop you down, so you want more of them and the vicious circle repeats. Examples of high glycemic foods are sweets and sugary drinks, white bread, potatoes, cornflakes, croissants, pasta. Wholemeal bread (100 per cent) has a medium GI. It's also best to keep off foods and drinks which contain caffeine because these also encourage the energy peaking and dropping effect and generally upset your natural rhythms.

Other good foods to include for energy-boosting are organic dried apricots which look brown but taste divine, especially the little whole Hunza apricots (eat as they are or soak then simmer for a few minutes until tender); and brazil nuts, which are a good source of the trace mineral selenium which gives that 'feel good' factor - and you can't get too much of that at this time of year!

Restrict or avoid sources of caffeine
Make sure you're getting enough sleep
Eat regular, not too large, meals: little and often might be best
nurture yourself with all the slow-burn foods
Enjoy some warming spices as a pick-me-up (see above)

Spicy Apricot Flapjacks

If you can get rapadura sugar - from really good health shops - use that for these because it has a lower GI than other sugars, and a wonderful toffee-like flavour; otherwise use a real Barbados sugar. This combination of sugar, oats and spices gives 'slow burner energy and relaxation'.

Makes 20 pieces

120ml rapeseed oil
150g/5oz rapadura or Barbados sugar
200g/7oz rolled oats
50g/2oz brazil nuts, chopped
50g/2oz dried apricots, chopped
1/2teaspoon ground ginger
pinch of ground cinnamon
1-2 pinches of chilli flakes or powder
2 tablespoons water

Set the oven to 200C(400F)gas 6, then simply mix all the ingredients together and press into a lightly-oiled 19 x 29cm (9 x11in) Swiss roll tin.

Bake for 10 minutes, until golden brown.

Cool in the tin but mark into slices while the mixture is still warm.

The mixture is quite crumbly so don't try to get them out of the tin until they're completely cold, then use a spatula.