My 8 year old daughter is in serious need of a “mood regulator”.  She can swing from laughing to crying from the simple touch of her younger brother, or the call to get into bed.  She must need some Serotonin!  Our bodies natural mood regulator and depression fighter is Serotonin!

To naturally raise serotonin, our body needs the essential amino acid, tryptophan!  Being an essential amino acid, we must get tryptophan from food. And a great source of tryptophan: Almonds and raisins.

What a perfect snack!! I add some chocolate chips in to sweeten it up (the HFCS free kind of course).  My kids love this snack just out of the bowl, but they also like to put a bag full in their lunch for school.

There are a million ways to eat almonds.  Here are some other ideas:

• Place on almond inside a date!  Eat together.
• We add slivered almonds to salads
• Crushed almonds make a great coating on french toast.
• Added to granola.
• Puree for homemade almond butter.
• Trail mix
• And lastly, OUR FAVORITE WAY: Christmas candied almonds!  I’ll be making this soon!

You ready for some nuts??  Or dried fruit? Or other delicious foods?   Click over to my giveaway page to win a $25 gift certificate to Oh Nuts!