Until last night. It is no secret that MEH once was an "if it grows, it goes" eater. He has improved significantly - as DMsS and I have discussed, I'm bringing him over to the greener side of life - in that he now will eat veggies, has bought a greenie car, and wholly supports my decision of veganism not just as a diet, but as a lifestyle. However, he's made it amply clear in the past that he hates several things, not necessarily vegan, but food related: nuts in salad, the smell of cumin or turmeric (basically, anything remotely currylike), chunks of tomato, lemon juice, sweet citrus, and tofu. He won't go near any of those things. Oh! And large pieces of spinach.
Given his finicky food nature, I have had to very gently bring him into the world of fruit and vegetable eating. On last night's menu: Orzo Veggie Spicy Peanut Sauce, inspired by Full Circle Farms' recipe for peanut sauce. I added a grilled, chopped chicken breast to MEH's serving. (No pictures, I was lazy).
Ingredients:
1 vidalia onion
1 red pepper
1 roma tomato
roughly 4-5 tablespoons peanut butter (I like really peanuty sauce)
2-3 tsps sriacha sauce
1 bunch of baby spinach
1/2 bunch (4-5 leaves) chard
Spike added to taste.
1-1 1/2 cup water
I simmer the onion and pepper together in olive oil, then add half the peanut butter and sriacha sauce. Simmer simmer simmer.
Separately I boil the orzo (rice works fine, too).
Halfway through the orzo cooking (you want it to be al dente when you strain it), add spinach and chard to the peanut stuff. Put on low heat, cover, and let the greens wilt.
Finish off the orzo, strain it, add to the peanut sauce. Leaving it al dente allows for it to soak up the sauce and finish cooking with some serious flavor.
For Meat eaters: chop your chicken into small pieces, add to a small saute pan with oil of choice. Cook on low heat. When both sides are just white, add the peanut sauce stuff to it, put on medium - low heat. This way, the chicken also soaks up some flavor. Cook until chicken is done through.
(Side note: I used to be very insistent about not cooking meat. Then I realized that MEH would never eat anything other than frozen pizzas because he insists that while I don't eat the stuff, I cook it well, and therefore he rarely cooks on his own. He is good with breakfast though, and can do a mean pancake. Anyway, when I determined that cooking in our household would be very difficult without me cooking meat, I took it on, and am now determined to bring in more veggies to everything, while decreasing the meat content. So far, he's none he wiser :) ).
Verdict: MEH did not like the larger chunks of spinach. I should have chopped them smaller. But the flavor is excellent! I'm in a groove with peanut sauce, and it's nice because I know I'm getting my protein in there, too. Yum!
What is an entree you've gotten into the groove with? A dip? A sauce? A veggie?
Yesterday was Yoga Thursday (not that I only go once a week, but I like the title). And yesterday was the day I started that have to really face my, potentially, biggest fear. It's kind of a pithy one, when I think about it, but it's rather all-consuming: Inversions.
You know, normal people are afraid of being mugged, killed, drowned, airplanes, open ocean. Me? Getting upside down. If freaks the freak out of me. I don't know what it is. I'm sure I'm strong enough to do them, but for some reason when it comes to take dolphin to the next level into forearm stand, or do any inversion other than shoulder stand (where my head is still safely on the ground, and the rest of me is not upside down) I feel my breath change (as in turn near non-existent) and my muscles tense, and my anxiety factor go BOOM.
I've attempted fixing this fear before. When I was in Kauai I had a beautiful instructor named LuLu. I adore her. She once said "Love is the letting go of fear." I do not love inversions. She also said "get upside down, it's the best way to change your perspective." I, apparently, am just fine with my current perspective, thank you very much. But seriously. After that class (she said both of those things in one class), I made a genuine bout to try and get past this. I wrote down every fear - pithy to intense - down in a journal, and made attempts every morning and different inversions. I began to acknowledge a lot of the "silly" things I developed anxiety over, but I really didn't get too much more comfortable with my inversions. And then I stopped going to yoga regularly for quite some time.
So here I am. I want to do a forearm balance. I want to be able to lift into inversions, not make attempts to kick up into them (which is dangerous) and I want to be excited about them. They are meant to be restorative and for me so far they only restore my "oh god no" factor. What is a girl to do?
Well, this girl is to practice Dolphin oh so much more. Dolphin, dear dolphin, one of maybe 5 poses in yoga that I have yet to, well, love. The list include Crescent, standing split, Bikram's version of tree pose, and dolphin. It's just uncomfortable to me. How else to beat discomfort than by practicing it constantly? I need to get to a point where I'm comfortable with my shoulders balancing over my elbows, engaging my core while upward, and getting friendly with my dear hips being pulled apart not in left-or-right fashion. Hence why standing splits and I don't get along.
I've had the incredible blessing of three specific yoga instructors who truly have changed my life: Loren, Svia, and LuLu. That is not to say that every other instructor (AJ, Debbie, Kim, Star, Sarah, Sarah, the list goes on) hasn't made an impact, but these three have literally caused change in who I am and how I operate.
Loren: Loren was my instructor in Las Vegas at It's Yoga!, an Ashtanga based studio. This is where I truly fell in love with my yoga practice. Loren (aka Bum) is about my age, had just come back from India, and was (clearly still is) floating in a totally blissed out state. To this day, if you can find someone else who equals this man's happy level, I applaud you and them. I attended his classes 6 days a week for the 3 months I was there. Never has my practice been as strong or helpful as it was then. I learned how to do a quality chataranga , about Om, about breath, and living in light and beauty. He closed every class by saying "have a beautiful everything." He hugged every student. And when I got my Om tattoo, he was absolutely elated. For my time there, and now, I consider him a friend and a truly transforming being.
Svia: The first class I attended at Laughing Lotus changed my life. Literally. I went vegetarian without pause after I walked out of the studio. This is not to say that Svia is overbearing, but her class discussed ahimsa. I had never heard of ahimsa until this class. And I also never thought a yoga class would make me feel that exhausted from work until then. Svia's classes are level 2/3 for a reason: The woman makes you work. But her kindness helps you through the work and encourages you to get to the meat (haha, vegan pun) of your practice. Anyway. This class was the hardest I'd ever been to. And then, while we are in a 3 minute wall sit, she talks about ahimsa. A practice of non-violence to the self and to others. The others part stuck with me - it included, for me, animals - and from that very real light bulb turning on in my head, I have never looked back. The self part took a very long time to sink in. We must be kind to ourselves. It would be in a later class that she would say "Your hands are an extension of your heart - be mindful when touching the world around you." Being kind to yourself will equate to kindness to others.
LuLu: There is no end to good things I can say about this woman. I remember her words clearly, and her sincerity in her teachings. There were days when I was the only student to her classes (11am on a Thursday isn't exactly convenient for people all the time) and she always insisted on staying with class. In essence, I got a private session more than once and my practice grew immensely because of it. She helped me approach my fear of inversions. She gave me a phrase I will always remember, and who can say they don't adore someone who once called them "her promised student." Also, she got me to plant my forefinger on the ground firmly in downward dog always, a feat that is not really all that easy when you try to maintain it for an hour or more. She is delightful and true.
It may be a bit much for some people when I say those three instructors changed my life, but with my yoga journey being so important, so much more than a work out, they did. I changed my diet and therefore my lifestyle, the way I do yoga, and how I approach it and incorporate it into my life. Mindfulness, breath, stillness, action, I gained all of these things from them.
Who are some of your most influential teachers or mentors?
Mantra of the Day: Sat Nam. Translation: Truth is my identity. On the inhale one is to sat "sat," on the exhale, "nam." We are truth. Once you get to the core of that, everything becomes just a tiny bit easier. Worries fade some. And we open up to so much more possibility. We get away from things we are not but identifying what we are.
Question of Gratitude Who, or what, are you grateful for today? I am grateful for my teachers. All of them. Even Mrs. Thompson, my mean 2nd grade teacher. Every one of them have and will continue to influence me. They taught me how to write, do math, breathe, seek knowledge, and love. Not to mention, one in particular, gave birth to me, so many props to VeggieMama, teacher extraordinaire.
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