"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." ― Virginia Woolf

A few weeks ago I took part in a project with Tilda to see if it was possible to 'eat your way to happiness'. This involved monitoring regular food intake for a week along with mood, energy, stress levels and happiness. Then for the second week, I followed a specific meal plan from Tilda's new Mood Food Manual and again monitored my mood levels.

The meal plan has been developed with clinical dietitian Dr. Sarah Schenker and Dr Christy Fergusson, a doctor of psychology and nutritional therapist. Both experts in the field of how food intake affects our performance, mood and wellbeing.

Tilda have kindly permitted me to reproduce a few of my favourite recipes from the meal plan to share how I got on with them, so I hope to blog about those soon - If you can't wait, then they are all available in a free download from the Tilda website here.


Today, I'm going to give an overview of how I got on and give a little mention of some of my favourite recipes from the meal plan.

Overall the meal plan was easy to follow and I plan to carry on including some of the meals and certainly some of the mood boosting ingredients in my diet on an ongoing basis.

Herby scrambled eggs with wholegrain toast

Eating eggs for breakfast seemed to come as a bit too much of a shock to my body and made me feel a little queasy but I loved the other breakfast ideas including Blueberry brown rice porridge, Oat berry smoothie and Bircher musli.

Blueberry brown rice porridge

The meals were all filling and nutritious and I definitely felt like I was fuelling my body in a good way. Monitoring my food intake made me recognise that I have more of a sweet tooth than I had realised. So that's something for me to keep working on. I was pleased to see an idea for Chocolate Bean Brownies in the final version of The Mood Food Manual to help with those sweet cravings so that will be one to try in future.


One of our favourite meals was Tuna fish steaks with mango salsa. We had never tried Tuna steaks before and were delighted that they didn't taste too 'fishy'. The salsa contains yummy mango and also avocado which 'is one of the highest sources of tryptophan, which is converted into serotonin, promoting feelings of happiness and relaxation. Avocados also contain omega-3 fatty acids, which can reduce your risk of depression' according to The Mood Food Manual.

Harissa Chicken

Another big hit for all the family was the Harissa chicken. This was served with a pouch of Wholegrain and Quinoa Steamed Basmati rice. Quinoa being renowned as a superfood as 'quinoa is a complete protein. As well as being vegetarian it is gluten free and has a low glyceamic load, making it an ideal food for boosting your mood.' 

A lot of the recipes were quite quick and simple to put together and using Tilda basmati rice pouches made things even speedier.

Using Tilda pouches made meals so speedy and quick

We did need to stock up on some specific ingredients like Chia seeds. But once you've got them at home, you can add a sprinkle to salads, smoothies and meals for a nutritious boost. There is so much to say about the benefits of Chia seeds that I'm just going to point you in the direction of The Mood Food Manual to find out more. The manual gives details of how various foods are good for us and the benefits of having them in our diet - both nutritional and mood boosting benefits are explained.

Chia seeds in yogurt along with other mood boosting foods flaked almonds and pomegranate

I'm so pleased to have taken part in this project as it has really opened my eyes to just how much the food we eat affects the way we feel. I was really encouraged to see my scores increase across the board during the second week when I was following the meal plan versus the first week with my 'normal' food intake.


It has also given me lots of ideas for incorporating these healthy mood boosting ingredients into my diet. It was brilliant that the recipes were also filling, warming and comforting which is a must during this time of year.

We've always enjoyed Tilda Basmati rice but it was previously only the white basmati rice that was regularly on our shopping list. Now we will be including Tilda wholegrain basmati rice as well as some of the delicious flavours of Tilda basmati pouches like Coconut basmati and Tilda Mexican Chilli & bean rice.

Thank you Tilda for helping us eat our way to happiness. Look out for some of my favourite recipes from the mealplan here soon and find out more in the meantime on the Tilda website here. 

We were sent a selection of Tilda products to use for this challenge along with a supermarket voucher towards a small part of the cost for the additional ingredients. All opinions are our own.