VEGAN FOOD TALK

One handful each mung beans and medium grain brown rice

1:3 ratio of black mustard seed and cumin seeds, pan toasted, to taste.

Carrots, spinach and mushrooms

Place mung beans, rice carrots and seasoning in pressure cooker with generous amount of water.  Cook until water is absorbed and steam stops coming out of the cooker.  I’d leave about an hour.

Slice mushrooms and place in marinade of tamari and sesame oil.  Soak well.  They make a reat condiment in lieu of traditional salting.

When beans are done or about done, place rinsed spinach in pressure cooker, put the cover on aain and let the spinach wilt.

Blades of grass shoooting up from the earth…new love…animal babies, Easter.  Spring is all about newness, growth from the seeds we planted in the winter through our contemplation, and new beginnings.

In five element theory spring is associated with wood energy, the color green and rising energy.  You may hear your voice change with the rising energy….there may be a tendency to sound like you are shouting.   All green foods support this energy and cleanse the liver and gall bladder:  spinach, sprouts, leafy greens.

In addition, in ayurveda the traditional cleansing legume is the mung bean, which is also green.  A wise cleansing choice then would be mung bean kitcharee.

Our holy lamas were visiting the yoga center where I work the past two weeks…this involved much chaos, many late nights, quite a few days eating nothing but smoothies.  I’m feeling it now.  So I ask myself, do I throw in the towel on my self appointed role as the whole foods lady?  No way.  Times like this make my commitment even stronger.  It’s always hard to pull oneself back into healthy things after a lapse, but somewhere in the back of our minds we remember what it was like to feel better….

So I looked ahead on my schedule and set aside today after work for food reorientation.  I cleaned up the kitchen.  Took stock of what was there…realized we had a changed of season upon us…new foods coming, new issues arising.  I’m aware that the next week will require renewal of discipline as my tastebuds reacclimate to what is pure.

Just an aside…you may find that after any intensive spiritual training that the body will be ready to upgrade to the next level of pure food intake.  Meaning it’s a reat time to make positive changes.  Plus making these changes at this time will assist in makin the change in consciousness that occurred over the course of the training you were participating in.

 To transition back, and plus to assist the body of expelling fats it was storing during the winter the next few weeks will be emphasizing cleansing foods….lots of leafy greens, mung beans and sprouts.

Chopped onion to taste (1/2-1)

Ginger, to taste, but also for medicinal reasons…use more to induce sweating or to bring heat

Half pound carrots

Oil (if your in cleansing mode use olive oil….for nourishment use sesame oil)

 A sheet or two of raw nori 

Saute onions and ginger in oil, add carrots and cover generously with water.  Sing a beautiful song to your soup to in fuse it with postive energy and set it to boil.

Now your timing here is pretty flexible….if you want more vitality cook it less…if you want to be warmer…cook it more…

When you are decide you are done….put the whole thing through a blender..I like to heat it again then before eating…

Shred nori and use as topping.

 Great for Stomach and Spleen, First and Second Chakra and grounding.

NOTES ABOUT NORI

It’s thought that toasted Nori contains B12 analogues that block the reuptake of true B12….but raw nori does not…so if you are interested in upping your B12…use it raw.

Everyone has been very accomodating about not having measurements….but I sense some left brain distress….

 So I thought I would offer this little tidbit…..

 The traditional way of measurement is with your hands…and you still have those…so if you cup your hands together with pinkies touching…this will be about a cupsize personalized to you…after you’ve worked with this awhile you will come to know it by sight…

A teaspoon would be about what you would pinch between you thumb and three fingers…

Probably your favorite dishes are those that you create without the rigidity of a recipe….maybe at one time you followed one…b ut then took off on your own to make it your own….this is no different!  

What would life be without mistakes?  That most dreadful example of your first love is always useful….if the relationship wasn’t allowed to run its natural course you might have never learned what you liked and didn’t like.  And you might not have been present in future relationships the same way…..

 I think cooking works much the same way as relationships…we need to learn to be present, we need to gently add seasoning without charging full speed ahead, and we have to make a few mistakes along the way.

 A relationship created with a formula will have a much different quality than one created spontaneously and with active participation.  A meal the same way.

 And to the argument of who has the time, I respond…who has the time?  What could be a more important thing to spend you time on than the nourishment that will be assimilated into your physical body and to the folks who curently are, or soon will be very important to us.

This is one of my old standards…..

Add equal parts red lentils and brown rice to a saucepan and cover generously with water.  Add shredded coconut to taste and a heaping teaspoonful of Thai curry seasoning.    Set to boil….for 2 cup saucepanful, expect it to take about 20 minutes.

This is so easy and so yummy.   Tonight I shredded some raw nori on top for added zing.

Not the most glamorous recipe, but an important one.  Why?  Because very often vegetarians and vegans get sloppy about their oils.  They crave grounding and so eat bad oils (over cooked, hydrogenated, too many saturated etc.).  Or, they avoid the whole thing, and don’t get enough.  Either way the liver and gall bladder are taxed and you may wonder why you feel heavy when you are eating “light”.  This recipe is great for a winter gradual gall bladder cleanse.  The raw flax seed oil will flush your gallbladder out, and so will the radishes.  The veggies and rice are  to provide warmth.  You can fast on this for a few days if you like, snacking on apples and radishes and see if your symptoms don’t clear up.

Possible symptoms of congested liver/gallbladder:  Tight tendons and ligaments, tense shoulder and upper back, pain under the right side of the rib cage, allergies, burning itchy eyes

• Handful Sem-Chii Brown Rice
• One Daikon Radish, Cut in matchsticks
• Flax Seed Oil
• Tamari, to taste - n omore than a teaspoon

Toss that handful of rice into a pot, cover generously with water, and in your steamer basket toss your daikon.  Cover Wash a few dishes, about 15 minutes worth.  Take the pot off just before the water boils away.  When slightly cooled, toss all ingredients together.

The idea that food has energy and that that energy should be utilized to facilitate our well-being has been recognized by some of the most successful alternative healing modalities in the world, namely Ayurveda, Oriental Medical Theory and Macrobiotics. 

It is my belief that for those transitioning to a vegan or vegetarian diet that this is one of the key’s to success.    I’ll explain this in more detail in subsequent posts….but for now let’s just consider the common complaint among non-vegetarians that vegetarians tend to be flaky and ungrounded.  I have known companies to refuse to hire  vegetarians for this reason, and I myself have struggled with the challenges of gorunded both of in corporate career and and entrepreneurial one.

When we lack focus and grounding it’s hard to focus and get done what we need.  In addition we are likely to compensate by reaching for those energy depleting culprits, sugar, caffiene and table salt. We do this a few times to many, and we’re thinking that vegetarianism isn’t such a good idea.  The problem isn’t that we aren’t eating meat, it’s that we aren’t eating what we need that isn’t meat.

February 7, 2007

COMFORT AND GROUNDING