What you eat really does make a difference to whether you approach the day with gusto or fall at the first hurdle. Try these recipes and put a spring back in your step

• Cranberry & Orange Muffins
• Eggs Florentine
• Chicken, asparagus & avocado salad
• Tuscan bean and pasta soup
• Tuna and apple open sandwich
• Spicy sweet potato soup
• Veggie stir fry with cashews
• Roasted salmon with salsa picante
• Baked figs
• Chocolate rice pudding

Blast-off breakfasts

Cranberry & Orange Muffins
Packed full of fibre and omega 3, these muffins will give you plenty of energy for that long commute and help your brain tick over until lunch. Freeze on Sunday and defrost and warm throughout the week.

175g wholemeal self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
5 tbsp wheat bran
2 tbsp linseeds
3 tbsp sunflower and/or pumpkin seeds
75g soft brown sugar
Grated zest of a large orange
75g dried cranberries
3 tbsp sunflower oil
2 large eggs
250ml low-fat natural yoghurt
1 tbsp rolled oats

1. Preheat oven to 170C/Gas 5
2. Place nine large cases in muffin tin. Stir together the flour, baking powder, wheat bran, linseeds, sunflower and/or pumpkin seeds, sugar, orange zest and cranberries.
3. Add the oil, eggs, yoghurt and mix.
4. Spoon into cases and scatter with oats. Bake for 25 minutes or until the muffins have risen and are cracking slightly on top.

Eggs Florentine
If you've got a big presentation, it's worth making time for this breakfast. The iron-tastic eggs and spinach will make sure you've got superhuman powers of concentration while the vitamin B in spinach is great for energy and confidence.

55g defrosted frozen spinach
2 slices ciabatta
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 egg

1. Squeeze excess water from the spinach before shredding finely.
2. Fill a small pan with water, stir in vinegar and allow to boil before gently poaching the egg.
3. Meanwhile, drizzle the ciabatta with oil and lightly toast, and place spinach in pan to warm.
4. Arrange spinach on the ciabatta and top with the egg.

Wonder lunches

Chicken, asparagus & avocado salad
Chicken and dairy encourage the body's production of dopamine and norepinephrine, associated with improved alertness, while the potassium in avocados averts that post-lunch slump. Added vitamin A is a healthy skin bonus while folate in asparagus helps alleviate a bad mood.

250g trimmed asparagus
2 chicken breasts
Pinch chilli flakes
25g chopped flat leaf parsley
200g natural yoghurt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 chopped avocado
100g young leaf spinach
50g rocket
2 tbsp hemp seed

1. Simmer asparagus for 2-3 minutes, drain and cut in half.
2. Rub chilli flakes into chicken before frying in the oil until cooked through.
3. Slice chicken then toss with the asparagus, avocado, spinach and rocket. Drizzle over pan juices.
4. Mix parsley in to the yoghurt and season before pouring over the salad.

Tuscan bean and pasta soup
Feeling anxious about a meeting with the boss? This carbohydrate-rich lunch helps the brain release serotonin, the feel-good chemical which also reduces anxiety.

225g dried cannellini beans (soaked overnight in 3 pints water)
110g macaroni
2 tbsp olive oil
1 chopped onion
2 crushed cloves garlic
2 ½tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary

1. Heat oil in a large pan and cook onions for 10 minutes.
2. Add garlic, cook for a further minute before stirring in the rosemary and tomato puree.
3. Stir for another minute then add beans together with the soaking water.
4. Simmer for an hour before seasoning and blending half of the soup.
5. Return everything to the pan, add the macaroni and allow to cook for 10-12 minutes.

Post gym pick-me-ups

Tuna and apple open sandwich
With protein to repair those overworked muscles and our perky friend dopamine, tuna is the ideal post-workout food. Apple, meanwhile, is a slow-release carb and its boron content helps co-ordination.

4 slices wholemeal bread
55g low-fat soft cheese
1 medium apple
1 tbsp lemon juice
200g drained tuna in brine
2 chopped spring onions
1 trimmed & chopped stick celery with leaves

1. Spread cheese on to bread.
2. Core and finely chop the apple, toss in lemon juice and mix in to tuna with onions and celery.
3. Pile on to the bread.

Spicy sweet potato soup
Low GI wonder-food, sweet potato has a calming effect while a little bit of spice lifts the mood. Just what you need after sweating it out on a treadmill.

40g butter ½ sliced onion
1 crushed clove garlic
4 tsp cumin seeds
½ peeled & sliced sweet potato
250ml boiling water
1 chicken stock cube
1 tbsp yoghurt

1. Melt butter in a pan and soften onion and garlic over heat.
2. Dry fry seeds in another pan for 2 minutes then add to onion along with potato, water and stock.
3. Simmer for 10 minutes or until potato softens then puree in a blender.
4. Serve with a spoonful of yoghurt.

Dynamite dinners

Veggie stir fry with cashews
Broccoli fights illness but, more importantly, nuts can really improve your sex life.

1 tbsp groundnut oil
1 sliced onion
1 crushed garlic clove
1 each sliced red & yellow pepper
100g broccoli
175g halved baby sweetcorn
2 sliced courgettes
50g sliced water chestnuts
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp arrowroot
2 tbsp light vegetable stock
5cm piece grated root ginger
1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
50g toasted cashew nuts

1. Heat oil and fry garlic and onion for 3 minutes, add peppers and fry for three minutes more.
2. Add broccoli, sweetcorn and courgette, fry for five minutes, add chestnuts and toss.
3. Mix together soy, arrowroot, stock, ginger and sweet chilli then move veg to one side of the wok and pour in the sauce to boil and thicken.
4. Toss together then sprinkle with nuts.

Roasted salmon with salsa picante
Research has shown that omega 3, as found in salmon, can prevent depression and other mental health problems.

25g pumpkin seeds
1 tsp sesame seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
8 sunblush tomatoes
4 tbsp cider vinegar
20g fresh mint
juice of 1 lime
2 deseeded red chillies
1 tbsp dried oregano
4 salmon fillets

1. Toast seeds in pan until golden, then put in a food processor with everything except the salmon and roughly chop.
2. Preheat oven to 200C/Gas 6 then sear salmon in hot frying pan until golden.
3. Transfer to oven and bake for 5 minutes.
4. Serve with salsa.

Puds that pack a punch

Baked figs
Figs are filled with potassium which should sort you out if you're feeling irritable after a bad day or you're looking for a second wind for a big night out.

10g butter
12 figs
75g caster sugar
Juice of ½ lemon

1. Preheat oven to 200C/Gas 6, smear butter on base of a baking dish.
2. Snip off stalks and cut figs in half, place in dish (cut side up) and sprinkle with lemon juice and half sugar.
3. Bake for 15 minutes then baste and sprinkle over remaining sugar before baking for further 5 minutes.

Chocolate rice pudding
The ultimate comfort food, endorsed by queen of cream Nigella Lawson, this has chocolate to release mood-boosting endorphins and rice for that relaxed feeling.

3 tbsp cocoa
1 litre milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
125g Arborio rice
100g caster sugar

1. Preheat oven to 150C/Gas 2.
2. Dissolve cocoa with 4 tbsp boiling water then pour in the milk, stirring all the time.
3. Add vanilla and pour in to a buttered dish.
4. Add the rice and sugar, stir then cook in the oven for two hours.