Until we take on 100% of every detail of our lives, we can never step fully into our power. The back door of it’s their fault holds the space for victimhood, and as victim, we’ll never know all that is possible when we fully step up.

 

No matter the season, we all enjoy some good old fashioned “Mom’s” kind of meals once in a while. But, I personally do not enjoy how I feel if I do indulge in those old time recipes prepared “old school” style. The fun part is, I often giggle when I make a recipe like this “Raw Vegan ‘Mock” Chicken Noodle Soup because 1), it tastes SO darn good and 2), it’s so darn good for me! I hope you too enjoy it as much as I do! And sure, will it tastes like “Mom’s?” Probably not, but I like to say, “it’s a close enough second,” for how good it tastes and how good I feel after eating it!

Recipe:  

• 1 cup water plus, to thin soup if preferred
• 1 cup celery
• 1 cup cauliflower, chopped
• 1 yellow squash, chopped
• ¼ white onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsely
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon white miso paste or ¼ teaspoon salt
• sea salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 zucchini, shaved into spirals (optional)

Add to blender with (warm) water, cauliflower, celery, squash, onion, parsley, garlic, and miso paste. Blend and add more water if necessary. You can warm the soup with the heat of your blender the longer you leave it in, but don’t make it hot, or you will breakdown the live-enzymes in the vegetables, which defeats the whole goal of making a raw soup!

Add “spiralized” zucchini“noodles”to soup. Finish with salt, pepper and fresh parsley.  Serves 2

You can prepare this soup 2 ways: Creamy or brothy. The less vegetables you add to the blender, the brothier it will be.

Buono Appetito!! 

Any opportunity to add kale to a recipe is a good opportunity! Kale is rated as one of the most nutrient dense foods we can buy today, and a stellar source of Vitamin K, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, B Vitamins, manganese, dietary fiber and wide range of minerals. In this Asian Chopped Salad, we mix the kale with a selection of vegetables to create an Asian flair!

• 1 cup kale, finely chopped
• 1 cup leafy greens, chopped
• 1 cup carrots, diced small
• 1 cup sprouts of choice, chopped
• 1 cup snap peas, chopped (if you can not locate snap peas, substitute snow peas or green beans)
• 3 scallions, sliced thinly
• 1 avocado, chunked (½ for salad and retain ½ for dressing)
• 2 tablespoons sunflower seed butter or tahini
• ½ teaspoon fresh shredded ginger (fresh makes all the difference!)
• ½ teaspoon fresh minced garlic (or powder)
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh cilantro
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Coconut Aminos
• 1 teaspoon honey
• ¼ cup water

Place the kale in a large mixing bowl. Massage with hands until it becomes wilted. Literally “massage the kale” and it will get tender – about 2 minutes. Add greens, carrots, snap peas, sprouts, scallions and cilantro to bowl with kale.

To make the dressing, combine ½ of the avocado, 2 tablespoons sunflower butter or tahini, ginger, garlic, lime juice, vinegar, Coconut Aminos, honey, and water. Toss the salad ingredients in this dressing before serving. Finish with chunks of avocado on top!

Serves 2

Buono Appetito! 

Meditation and loving kindness? Bah! You say, “I’m not doing it!” ” I can’t do it.” You’ve tried, even if reluctantly, because you’ve heard of all the benefits, but it just doesn’t seem to work for you. You’re brain jumps to 10 million-thousand thoughts! Good grief, things you haven’t thought about for years and years come out of the woodwork! So you give up and simply declare meditation is just not for you. That experience is what meditation experts call the  ‘monkey mind” and what you might not know is it happens to everyone. Everyone. Even those who have been meditating for years.

But you remain intrigued. You keep hearing others talk about the benefits they’ve experienced from even just 5 minutes of meditation everyday. You’ve even heard how meditation can improve memory and concentration abilities, so despite your resistance, you remain intrigued.

I offer you three great starting places to experiment with that were game changers for me. Authors and spiritual guides Sharon Salzberg,  Janice Lynne Lundy and Byron Katie introduced me to all three.

In “Real Happiness,” Sharon Salzberg offers up several approaches to meditation and includes a CD with audio guidance. The ‘Breath’ meditation is the one that changed my experience with meditation because Salzberg very lovingly guides her readers/listeners with pointed instruction on how to deal with the seemingly endless thoughts that rise up, which do leave many of us feeling very defeated and inept. The magic happened for me when she suggested that rather than make myself wrong when confronted with a stream of thoughts, that I actually greet each thought as I would a friend who came to visit me, with great kindness and curiosity. To notice why these thoughts keep rising, what lessons they might have to offer and then just let them gently go, with no wrong-making. If you are interested in giving meditation another try, I assure you, Salzberg’s guidance is a game changer.

Janice Lynne Lundy, author of “Your Truest Self,” among many other transformative works, introduced me to metta, the practice of loving-kindness. A Buddhist tradition, metta is considered by many a very supportive consciousness practice akin to traditional meditation, with the intention to cultivate compassion and unconditional love for all beings. With a few short seemingly benign verses, metta offers a transformative and very powerful heart-opening, heart-softening effect.

One breath. One verse. Practiced slowly and consciously. And the magic begins to unfold. Practiced for thousands of years by many, the meditator begins by cultivating loving-kindness for self, and then moves on to teachers, loved ones, friends, strangers, and then even their enemies and then to all living beings. As Lundy personally guided me, the direction for the verses is to stay with self until we feel the softening in our heart. Then we move outward to others. Even if it takes a year or more for you to feel compassion for yourself and your journey, stay with the verses as directed.

To begin, recite for 5 minutes:

• May I be safe.
• May I be happy.
• May I be healthy.
• May I live with ease.

During my Sacred time of personal spiritual direction with Lundy and the many lessons she imparted, she offered up this gorgeous quote from Buddha to impress the power of metta, “You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.”

Byron Katie, author of “Loving What Is” made a profound impact on my meditation experience with one sentence, though everything she has written is a very worthy read. Katie, said “let yourself experience being breathed.” These 5 words stopped me and caused me to pause and really reflect on what she meant. It initially sounded funny, “let myself be breathed.” And under thoughtful reflection, I thought, WOW, right… I am breathing with no effort of my own. I just breathe. That the life-force that sources my breath actually causes my breath to happen. The thought that something beyond me was sourcing my breath in a very real and literal sense caused a profound connection that I had not experienced before with my breath and meditation practice. Katie’s suggestion is a worthy consideration, as you experiment with ways in finding what works best for you. You never know, one of the suggestions I offer may very well move you forward in creating a meditation practice that reaps all the benefits research suggests as possible, such as less anxiety and stress, greater inner calm and creativity, improved memory and focus and a more compassionate heart. Any one of these benefits makes meditation worth trying!

 

 

Tis’ the season for light, bright, refreshing elixirs! And while lemon is in season in my house everyday, my probiotic lemonade will not only taste delicious, it will reduce bloating, boost weight-loss, help clear your complexion, and offer all the excellent detoxifying benefits each ingredient provides! For this wonderful drink, mix:

• 2 liters water
• 1 medium cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced
• 4 capsules of probiotic
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
• 10-12 spearmint leaves

Add 2 liters of water to a container. Add peeled cucumber slices, sliced lemon, freshly grated ginger, and spearmint leaves. Steep overnight in the fridge and enjoy. The taste is so refreshing and delicious. The benefits are so healing. Cheers!

Makes 2 – 4 Servings

Mindfulness bells are the coolest thing. So … in your smart phone, in the clock, set bells to go off all day to empower you in all the ways you are committed to creating! This one daily practice alone can shift your psychology in spite of the ways bad habits and social conditioning pull you out! Ding! 

CHIA SEED PUDDING

(Makes 1-2 Servings)

• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup chia seeds
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (powder or alcohol free vanilla)
• Dash of cinnamon Dash of ground ginger
• Stevia to taste

Mix your chia seeds and non-dairy milk in a bowl or Ball™ Jar. Add the sweetener (optional), cinnamon, vanilla and ground ginger. Mix (and/or shake) thoroughly and allow the seeds to gel. This process begins to happen in less than 2 minutes, but let it set for at least 15-30 minutes for the seeds to fully “hydrate.”

Top your chia pudding with fresh fruit. Serve immediately or store in your fridge.

NOTE: I make this pudding ahead of time and put it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, or overnight. You can also serve this chia pudding warm in the morning on a chilly day. Simply heat and serve with fresh fruit.

Enjoy!