Mindful Foodie

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Exercise Your Right

Today is Election Day in the U.S.  All across the country, people are standing in lines at the polls, pulling levers or pressing buttons or working touchscreens, selecting the person who they want to lead us and represent us to the world for the next four years.  (Some have already cast their ballots, either absentee or in early voting.)  But it’s not just the presidential candidates on the ballot: there are Senate and House races, state and local government races, and ballot initiatives to consider as well.  There’s a lot to think about.

Hubby and I are prepared with our plan for the election: hubby will vote in the morning on his way to work, and I’ll head out in the evening when he gets home and relieves me of baby care duties.  I know who I’m supporting for the White House and Senate races, but I’m still undecided when it comes to the House, so I’ll be doing a bit more research into the candidates today and tomorrow before making my decision.  (I’m not going to tell you who I vote for, as I firmly believe that our votes are private information.)

I don’t usually post on Tuesdays, but I wanted to pop in here and just say this: please vote.  I don’t care who you support or what your position is on the issues, just please vote.  Make an informed decision.  Vote sensibly, vote based on issues, not party lines.  From who you want sitting in the Oval Office to who you want to make your community more bike-friendly or make sure that your local library has funding, stop, think, and then please, please cast a ballot.  And remember the people who sacrificed much more than an early wake-up call and a little extra gas to detour to the polls in order to give you this opportunity to have a say in your own future.  Think of the very first Americans, the Founding Fathers, the rogues who demanded that minorities and women should be able to vote, and make them proud by exercising your right.

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In Honor of Easter and National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month, and yesterday was Easter Sunday; those two facts are reason enough for me to share a poem with you today.  Here’s another piece I love, by my all-time favorite poet.

i am a little church(no great cathedral)
far from the splendor and squalor of hurrying cities
-i do not worry if briefer days grow briefest,
i am not sorry when sun and rain make april

my life is the life of the reaper and the sower;
my prayers are prayers of earth’s own clumsily striving
(finding and losing and laughing and crying)children
whose any sadness or joy is my grief or my gladness

around me surges a miracle of unceasing
birth and glory and death and resurrection:
over my sleeping self float flaming symbols
of hope,and i wake to a perfect patience of mountains

i am a little church(far from the frantic
world with its rapture and anguish)at peace with nature
-i do not worry if longer nights grow longest;
i am not sorry when silence becomes singing

winter by spring,i lift my diminutive spire to
merciful Him Whose only now is forever:
standing erect in the deathless truth of His presence
(welcoming humbly His light and proudly His darkness)

~by e.e. cummings (source)

To my friends who celebrated yesterday, I hope your Easter was as full of light, laughter and joy as mine was.

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Thrifty Marketing Tips

Three months and change ago, I set a goal to save money at the grocery store.  I was tired of standing at the checkout counter, cringing at the bill.  I knew that there had to be a way to whittle down grocery costs without sacrificing the taste or quality of our meals.  Last week I recapped the results of my Thrifty Challenge – overall, success! – and promised to share some tips with you based on what I learned.  Some of these tips are common sense things that most people already know, but my experience with the Thrifty Challenge reinforced that they are really TRUE.

1. Make a LIST and check it twice!  The biggest thing that you can do for your grocery bills is to plan out your purchases for the week, and then stick to it.  Each week I sit down and create a menu before I go to the grocery store.  First, I look in my crisper drawer to see what perishable produce I still have on hand, and then I incorporate it into my planned meals for the week (trying to use up the older produce earlier in the week before it goes bad).  I then make a grocery list based on what items I know I will need based on my menu, always making sure to add things like fruit and lunch items for hubby and myself.  I go to the store with my list and a pen in hand, checking off each item as I go along and not deviating from the list.

2. Use coupons.  This is an area where I still need improvement!  There were a few weeks where I was really gung-ho, checking coupon blogs and websites, my grocery store’s website, and my favorite product pages for coupons and discount codes.  I then printed them off, cut them out, and kept them clipped to my grocery list.  The weeks that I did that bit of legwork (usually the morning of my grocery trip) I noticed some actual savings in my bill.  Oh, I wasn’t about to be featured on “Extreme Couponing” anytime soon, but a few dollars shaved off my bill made me very happy.  Of course, there’s an important caveat – don’t buy an item just because you have a coupon!  If you wouldn’t normally buy chips or cookies, then a coupon isn’t an excuse – it’s just a waste of money and calories.  I make a point of only using coupons for items that I would buy anyway.  That way I’m not being lulled into actually spending more money when my goal is to save, and I’m not blowing my calorie budget on processed foods that I wouldn’t otherwise consume.

3. Don’t shop hungry.  Another obvious one, but in my experience it’s really true.  If you go to the grocery store hungry, you’ll be tempted to throw all kinds of snacks and processed food into your cart.  Not only is the food you grab while shopping hungry generally less healthy than what you would put on your list, but it’s often more expensive too.  If you need to, have a small snack before shopping so that you’re not tempted to deviate from your healthy and thrifty meal plan.

4. Don’t over-plan.  It sounds counter-intuitive, but I find that making my menu and cooking schedule too rigid is actually bad for my budget.  If I plan 7 meals in a week – which I used to do – I invariably end up jettisoning one or two of them.  Maybe I get home late from work one evening and don’t have time to put together an elaborate dinner.  Maybe I decide I’m just really, really in the mood for scrambled eggs.  (That happens on a weekly basis.)  Maybe I forget to pull something out of the freezer, or hubby wants veggie burgers on the grill.  If I’ve planned and purchased the ingredients for seven dinners, and two or three don’t get made, the fresh stuff ends up going to waste.  But if I plan 4 or 5 dinners, I will usually end up making all of the planned meals; nothing gets edged out by egg or burger nights and no ingredients are wasted.

How do you save money at the market?

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Thrifty Challenge Recap

Earlier this fall, I posted about a goal I set to save money on groceries.  I had become very discontented with the amount of money that we seemed to drop every week at the market and wanted to do something drastic.  I decided to try to cut my grocery costs in half from Halloween until New Year’s.  Over time I’d noticed that I seemed to spend within a range of $A and $B, so I set a goal of keeping my grocery costs between half $A and half $B for the rest of the year, in hopes of starting some new thrifty habits that would last me into 2012.

So how’d I do?  Not bad!  With only a couple of exceptions, I managed to stay within the budget I had set for myself.  Even the weeks that I went over-budget, I still spent less than I otherwise might have.  The weeks I fell short of my goal?  Hubby’s birthday week (the dinner I prepared for him involved an expensive ingredient, but it was worth it to make him so happy); one random week that I can’t really explain, except to say that we were low on a lot of staples that week; and the week leading up to New Year’s, when I was preparing to host guests.  Those “over-budget” weeks balanced out with a number of weeks that I came in well under-budget, and a few weeks that I didn’t buy anything at all because we were traveling.  So, overall, I’m calling the experiment a success.

Here’s what I did well: I was generally very good at sticking to my list and saying “no” to treats.  I managed to save a lot by making my own hummus – we eat a lot of it in this house and it’s significantly cheaper for me to buy the chickpeas (I always have tahini and lemons on hand) than it is to buy prepared hummus.  I was particularly proud that I managed to rein myself in when it came to produce – we even ran out of fruit and salad greens at the end of the week a couple of times – that’s a good thing; it meant we didn’t throw anything away!  I also did a good job of checking the crisper drawers on market days to see how much produce I had left over from the previous week and making recipes that used those items first.

Here’s what I can still improve on: I didn’t always make my own hummus from scratch; there were weeks when I caved to the convenience of having hummus already made for me.  And while I clipped coupons a few times – and noticed some real savings when I did – I went without coupons for the majority of weeks.  I will definitely try to improve upon that in 2012 and hope to see more grocery savings as I do better at creating a habit of using coupons.  (Again, and as I mentioned in my post setting the challenge, I only use coupons on items that I buy anyway – like Greek yogurt, legumes and low-sodium veggie broth.  While I may stock up on lentils when I don’t really need them because I have a coupon, they keep and we eat them.  I don’t use coupons as an excuse to buy chips – that’s not saving money or calories.)

So, overall, I’m happy with the results of my thrifty challenge and am planning to continue mindful marketing in 2012, in the hopes of saving even more money!  Stay tuned next week for some tips on saving money at the grocery store, based on my experiences of the past three months.

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Have a Healthy Holiday

No recipe today, kids.  Sorry about that.  I was planning to post a delicious cabbage frittata that I made this week, but… well… hubby and I were hungry.  So hungry that I completely forgot to photograph it before we attacked.  I’ll just have to make it again and post… maybe next week.  Because it was defnitely good enough to eat twice in two weeks.

This is that time of year when things are just that crazy and busy, that photo-forgetting happens.  Oh, I’m no stranger to the holiday anxiety.  And even though I am really, really looking forward to Christmas at my in-laws’ place, I’m currently experiencing varying levels of panic when I think about all of the things I have to do before I get to relax with the fam.  Things like decorating the Christmas tree (we still haven’t)… painting my living room (I might be insane)… touching up the paint in my downstairs half-bath… deep-cleaning the kitchen… writing Christmas cards… shopping for Christmas gifts (I haven’t bought a single one yet)… and assembling and mailing off packages to the family and friends that I won’t be seeing in person.  It’s enough to make a girl go haywire.  No wonder I forgot to photograph that frittata.

I’d love to say to you, “The holiday season doesn’t have to cause panic attacks!  You can have a fun and relaxing holiday, and here’s how!”  But I’d be lying if I said I had those kinds of answers.  As much as I love Christmas, I have yet to experience one where I wasn’t in a heightened state of anxiety for the month leading up to it.  The best I can hope for is to get out of the month still smiling and relatively sane, with my energy levels intact and my goals for the past year not completely derailed.  Okay, that’s a fairly modest endeavor, but it still feels like a tall order this time of year.  Here’s how I (try to) stay healthy at the holidays:

Prioritize exercise.  I’m someone who gets cranky if I go too long without a good sweat session, but taking long breaks also makes it harder for me to get back on the wagon.  I learned that the hard way during my summer funk this year, when I knew that a good run would make me feel better but couldn’t seem to motivate myself to get out there.  This time of year, it’s way too easy to let your workouts fall by the wayside in favor of tasks that seem more pressing at the time.  But don’t!  Get up early if you have to, or schedule a sweat session into your calendar like an appointment, and stick to it.  It IS an appointment – and an important one at that.  It’s an appointment with yourself.  Sure, this time of year is all about giving selflessly, but you also need to take time for you.  You’ll have more energy for giving if you keep to your exercise routine, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll be much happier and more in the “holiday spirit” if you do.  I’m generally a morning exerciser – I like to get it done before the day butts in and tries to distract me – and I stick to that schedule as much as possible.  This month I’ve been working my way through a boot camp challenge and running on the weekends and if I have extra time in the evenings.  I always feel energized and ready to tackle my to-do list if I’ve gotten some Me Time in, in the form of a workout.

Indulge, but only when it’s worth it.  December is SO tempting when it comes to treats.  If you try to eat healthy most of the year, as I do, it can seem as though the entire month is rigged with land mines.  The cocktail parties, the cookie swaps, the treats that people feel compelled to leave in the office kitchen… and then there are the big holiday meals themselves.  It’s no wonder people start January on a major “clean up the diet and hit the gym” kick.  I’ve personally swung back and forth on the pendulum.  One holiday season I might be totally insane about calorie counting, and refuse to eat anything with a single fat gram in it.  And then another year I might say “It is what it is, can’t avoid it, so I’ll just have anything I want and then pay for it in January.”  Neither attitude is healthy.  So for the past few years I’ve committed to keeping up with my healthy eating for the most part, but indulging when it’s worth it.  The key is to recognize when it’s worth it.  “Worth it” means something different to everyone – it’s a personal decision.  For me?  Well, for example, store-bought red and green food coloring-dyed cookies that someone left out in the office kitchen?  Not worth it.  My mother-in-law’s delicious homemade dessert on Christmas Eve?  Worth it.  So I focus on eating “close to the Earth” for most of the month – lots of vegetables and lean proteins – and indulge only when I get the chance to have a really delicious treat that was made with love.  (This works with time, too.  An hour spent cleaning a closet that absolutely no one will see over the holidays?  Not worth it.  An hour on the phone with my best friend, who lives halfway around the world?  SO TOTALLY WORTH IT.)

Don’t go nuts at parties.  This is similar to the above.  We all have multiple parties to attend this time of year, but they don’t have to ruin our eating for the month!  I like to have a small meal before a party so I’m not tempted to make “dinner” out of fattening appetizers.  Then I just have a few bites of the party treats and I’m happy because I’ve gotten to taste the goodies but not gone crazy.  And when it comes to drinking, I sip red wine because I can make a glass last for awhile.  I’m not really a big drinker (regardless of the impression that the multitudes of wine posts on here may convey) and I like that I can enjoy a glass or two of red wine over the course of an entire party.  Oh, and the next day I don’t wake up unable to remember seeing friends that I only see once a year or so or worried that I might have regaled my entire office with an off-key rendition of “O Canada!”  Think of it this way: if you need to be drunk to enjoy a party, then you clearly aren’t having much fun.  So bail and go to a movie.  If you really want to be at the party, you’ll have a good time without needing to suck down seven margaritas.

Plan active ways to get in your family time.  As fun as it is to snuggle on the couch with your special someone or park your tush in front of the TV for hours on end with the fam, there is another way!  You can get in family time and movement at the same time.  For instance, last Thanksgiving I ran a Turkey Trot with my sister-in-law, and two years ago hubby and the sisters-in-law and I all took a wintry hike together over the Christmas visit.  This year, I’m already brainstorming… a snowy run through the park?  A yoga class with my sister-in-law?  No matter what, I’m sure we’ll find new, fun ways to be active together as a family.  (And if you really want to get away from your family?  Go for a run solo or hit the gym on your own.)

Sleep!  This last tip is huge.  I have always been someone who needs a lot of sleep – it’s probably the single most important thing to my well-being.  If my bedtime is delayed or if I have an interrupted night, I’m sluggish and cranky all the next day.  So I won’t be burning the midnight oil addressing envelopes or ordering gifts on Amazon.  If you’re like me, and you need your sleep, DO NOT worry about being selfish or boring.  If you have to tell the fam, “I’m tired, see you guys in the morning,” then tell them – they’ll understand.  If you’re worried about getting it all done, then jettison something else.  Maybe you only need to make one dessert for the neighborhood cookie swap, not three.  Or maybe you could keep one eye on the hockey game while you write out cards.  The absolute last thing I sacrifice is shut-eye.

So there you have it – my favorite tips for staying sane, healthy and fit over the holiday season.  Now it’s your turn to share, because I’m always looking for tips and tricks!

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A Thrifty Challenge

As a foodie… and as someone who loves fresh produce… my grocery bills can get pretty high.  Between the piles of fruits and veg, the nice cheeses that we bring home, and treats like fun spices that somehow find their way into the cart, I often find myself with teeth on edge, wondering how I managed to spend so much money at the grocery store checkout on any given completely normal week.  It also doesn’t help that hubby and I shop at Whole Foods (for the time being, but we’re anxiously awaiting that blessed day when Wegmans opens its next northern Virginia store, which will be tantalizingly close to our house).  All of this combines for some unacceptably high grocery bills.

 I’m not going to give exact numbers, because I prefer to keep financial information off the blog.  Just take it from me when I say that for quite some time now, I’ve been unhappy with my inability to economize at the market.  That’s why I’m getting serious about cutting back.  My lofty goal is to cut my grocery spending IN HALF for the remainder of the year.  (What I mean by that is this: I naturally spend somewhere within a range, say between $A and $B, on a weekly basis.  Each week until December 31st, I am setting a goal to spend within a range of between half $A and half $B.)  I started this goal a few weeks before we left for our vacation and I’m glad to say that so far, so good.  In fact, I’m pleased to report that on our big “return from vacation stock-up” trip, while I was fully expecting to blow the budget, I still came in $25 under my upper range.  Woo to tha hoo!

 This could get interesting.  Here’s what I’m going to do:

  •  Keep the pantry clean, organized, and clutter-free.  I am usually good about keeping an organized pantry, but lately I’ve let it get a bit out of hand.  The first step in cutting back on grocery bills is going to be cleaning out the pantry.  There’s no better way to figure out exactly what I already have!  I’m usually pretty well-stocked on canned and dried beans, brown rice, vegetable stock and soup in cartons, and oats (both old-fashioned and steel-cut).  Part of my money-saving strategy involves using those staples more.
  • Use coupons!  Whole Foods has a page of current coupons – and they’re coupons for things I already buy on a regular basis, like plain Greek yogurt.  Every so often, in a burst of thrifty inspiration, I print a page of coupons (and you can select only those ones that you want to print – so cool) and then promptly lose them.  Not anymore, though.  I’m going to go to the grocery store armed with coupons.  But – and this is a major but – I’m ONLY planning to use coupons for items that I would have bought anyway.  Coupons can cost you more money (and extra pounds on the tush) if you use them for overly-processed foods, like chips, that you wouldn’t have bought without the coupon.  I’m not into buying things just because I have a coupon – but if it’s an item that I buy anyway and I can save a dollar, I’m going for it.
  • Stock up on staples when they’re on sale.  I used to do this all the time when I ate chicken – I would only buy it when the organic chicken was on sale.  If we ran out between sales, we didn’t eat chicken again until the next sale.  But as a vegetarian, I find I’m terrible about this.  I buy the staples I need instead of waiting for sales and then stocking up.  If I need tofu, I buy tofu – even if it’s not on sale.  Same goes for beans.  Last week at the market I started to put this idea into practice – I bought three cans of lentils because they were on sale.  Now I’ve got them in my pantry and I can use them in meals anytime – and the next time I need lentils, I won’t have to buy them full price.  I need to be better about stocking up on staples when they’re on sale, and not buying them when they’re full price.
  • Control myself in the produce department.  My biggest money drain at the market comes from getting too excited about all of the pretty fruits and vegetables and buying way more than hubby and I can eat in a week.  I invariably end up throwing stuff away and it just kills me.  I need to either learn to preserve, or I need to be better about not throwing stuff into the grocery cart just because it looks good.  I have to get real about exactly how much veg two people can actually eat in seven days.
  • Get back in the menu-planning habit.  I used to do this and it did save me some money – although not as much as I’m aiming to save here.  I’ve fallen out of the habit and just gotten into whipping up whatever interests me in the moment, which is fun and all, but it’s an expensive habit that I need to kick.

 So there you have it – my strategy for saving some major cash at the grocery store.  I’ve exempted one item from my money-saving strategy: beer.  I personally don’t drink beer, with the exception of the occasional Blue Moon – the only beer I like.  (I’m such a girl.)  But hubby is into artisan beers, especially IPAs, and they add up.  I’ve spent a lot of time gritting my teeth over the grocery receipt, looking at how much money goes to expensive beers.  But you know what?  It makes him happy.  I could say “no” or tell him he has to reign it in, but I’d be a nag, and I’d be taking away something that he enjoys.  I’m just not willing to do that.  So for purposes of this money-saving challenge, I’m considering beer as a separate item that I won’t count toward the “grocery costs.”

 So there you have it: I’m challenging myself to chop my grocery costs in half for the rest of the year – through December 31st.  And I’m hoping that when I get into 2012, my thrifty strategies will become habits that will continue to save us money.  I’ll report back regularly to let you know how it goes!

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Detox Week

Dudes, I feel icky.  Nothing seriously wrong, of course… just… icky.  It’s been a busy month in Casa Messy, between work, earthquakes and hurricanes, and I’ve been resorting to convenience foods more than I like to.  I’ve been overwhelmed and stressed out and pretty angsty for awhile.  I also feel like recently I’ve had a few too many glasses of wine… and I know I’ve indulged in a few dinners out.  (Well, hubby and I had an anniversary to celebrate!  But we tried to work it off by hiking and kayaking.)  I don’t regret a single glass of wine or a single bite of the amazing food we’ve enjoyed.  But I’m ready to shift my focus to clean living for a little while.  I want to treat myself to fresh, whole foods – hydrating fruits and veg, “real food” vegetarian protein, and nourishing whole grains.  So I’m declaring this week Detox Week at the Messy house.  Now, what does that mean?

  • No coffee and no alcohol… duh.  I don’t expect to have much trouble with this.  I rarely drink coffee as it is (maybe once a month, and when I do I’m usually thinking about how I’d rather have tea).  And although I love wine, I’m not a big drinker and I generally only have a glass or two on the weekends, and no booze at all during the week.  I’d rather drink a little of the really good stuff than a lot of the cheap stuff.  So avoiding alcohol for a week doesn’t concern me at all.
  • No cheese.  I’d say no dairy altogether, but I think that nonfat Greek yogurt is very healthy and I also happen to like it.  A lot.  This isn’t about deprivation – it’s about eating the foods that make me feel the best.  And while I adore cheese, hubby and I try to keep it out of the house because it’s not great for you.  As long as I can stay away from the gorgeous cheese plate at The Grape and Bean, I should be okay.
  • No processed carbs.  Unless I process them myself!  So that means no bread, crackers or pretzels – just whole grains that I cook from scratch.  Millet, quinoa, brown rice, barley… all on the menu.  Pasta and Walker’s shortbread… not.
  • No sweets.  I am going to go the week without the white devil.  Obviously natural sugars, like those in fruit and whole grains, don’t count here.  But I don’t need, nor do I particularly want, to eat sweets on a regular basis.  Every so often as a treat is fine, and I won’t be made to feel guilty about the occasional indulgence, but not during Detox Week.
  • No convenience foods.  As much as it will pain me to go a week without Quorn chik’n – which I really, really like the taste of – I’m going to get my hippie protein the old-fashioned way, from beans and legumes, tofu, tempeh and seitan.  I’m making an exception for Field Roast sausages, because they’re made with real food.  (Actually, Quorn has a pretty good ingredient list too, but we’re trying to do something substantial here.)
  • YES tea!  Especially green tea.  Plenty of it.  But as usual, no caffeine after 3:00 p.m., because it makes me hyper.
  • YES water!  A glass in the morning, three Sigg bottles (I have the 2-cup variety at work, so it’s not completely insane) during the day, and a glass with dinner.  That works out to about eight cups per day… although if I’m thirsty for more that’s A-okay too.
  • YES produce!  Back to eating giant fruit salads for breakfast and giant green salads for lunch.  As much fruit and veg as I want.  Nom nom nom.
  • YES sweat!  Some sort of exercise every day, even if it’s just running a mile or two in my neighborhood or doing ten Sun Salutations.  I’m going to get moving in some manner every single day this week, and hopefully get back into the habit of exercising 5-6 times weekly like I was up until this summer.
  • YES meditation!  I love meditating.  I feel so at peace and I am always rejuvenated after I finish a meditation practice.  It doesn’t have to be long, but I want to spend at least ten minutes every day this week in meditation.  It can be a sunrise meditation before I leave for work or a walking meditation on my lunch break… just so long as I take time to slow down and reset myself every day.

Obviously, this is a short-term experiment.  I just want to see how I feel after a week of totally clean living.  I expect I’m going to feel amazing.  And I hope this will be a jumping-off point for taking better care of myself going forward.  Eating a little cleaner, moving a little more, tearing myself down a little – okay, a lot – less.  Because the fact is, the only person I can really insist on kindness from is… well, me.  It has to start with me.

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Wobbling

Wednesday was a really frustrating day.  Between being in a funk for months and having to deal with a particularly snippy individual, I can’t say I’ve been feeling open or friendly toward just about anyone (except hubby, of course).  I keep on waiting to wake up one morning and my lousy mood will have evaporated, but it hasn’t happened yet.  On Wednesday I was just sick of being irritated and frustrated, sick of one specific person who is driving me crazy, and sick of an irritating situation that is out of my control.  So I did something I haven’t done in months.

I stepped on my yoga mat.

Just a short practice.  I started in Mountain, did some forward folds, some down dogs, some cat-cow… basically, I just went with it and did whatever pose was calling to me.  Midway through my practice, I felt like getting into my favorite pose: Tree.  Now Tree is a pose at which I usually excel.  I’ve been known to do Tree Pose in high heels.  I know, I know I shouldn’t… and obviously yoga isn’t a competition… but sometimes I just can’t resist showing off my outstanding balance, even if it’s just to myself.  But I also love Tree Pose for the presence of mind it gives me.  You see, you can’t really do Tree Pose unless you are 100% present and focused.  I often struggle with being present and focused; my mind is always spinning with to-do lists and possibilities and things I should do and say or should have done or said… basically, I’m a constant whirlwind of mental activity.  But there are times when I don’t struggle with presence: when I read, when I get really absorbed in work, and when I’m in Tree.

So I lifted up one foot and raised my arms to the ceiling – my favorite yoga teacher, Jodi, called that “growing the Tree” – and I wobbled.  I stepped out of the pose multiple times on each leg.  My standing leg shook.  No matter how intently I zeroed in on a focal point, I kept on wobbling.  I repeated to myself, “I am balanced.”  And I kept right on wobbling.  And then came the negative thoughts.  “I can’t believe I can’t do this.  I can’t get my heels to the ground in Downward Facing Dog and I can’t do arm balances or body binds, but Tree is MINE… where did my balance go?  This is because I’ve neglected my practice.  This is because I haven’t been running.  This is because I haven’t been eating clean.  This is because of stress.”

Then I stepped out of the pose, folded forward, hung in Uttanasana for a moment and stepped back into Downward Facing Dog, and I let it go.  It’s okay that I wobbled in Tree Pose today.  It’s not a competition or a performance, and every time I get on my mat, yoga has something to teach me if I am receptive to it.  The fact is, I haven’t been balanced.  I’ve been mentally scattered, stressed out, angry and resentful for months.  I’ve allowed a couple of people to change the way I see myself.  Along the way, I’ve lost my sense of harmony and balance.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.  I can get a sense of balance back.  I can remember to breathe deeply (not sigh) and smile (not scowl).  I can set boundaries and refuse to let myself be pushed around.  And as for the situation that is out of my control, well, it’s out of my control.  Walking around angry isn’t going to change that.  But maybe finding my balance again will.  At the end of my practice I thanked myself for stepping on the yoga mat again.  And I told myself that it’s okay if I’m wobbly right now.  That just seems to be where I am, and it’s not better or worse than where I was in the past or will be in the future.  It’s just me being wobbly right now.  Sometime soon I’ll be able to “grow my Tree” without falling out of the pose, and I’ll find that sense of peace and serenity again.

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Chickpea Soup for the Soul

This is a food blog, not a life blog.  I try very hard to keep this a positive space and to maintain some separation between my life and what I post here.  Although I will use a personal story or anecdote to lead into a recipe sometimes, this is not a space where I air my private feelings.  And while I don’t plan to start now, I will say that I’m aware of the idea that food bloggers’ lives are perfect and we all live in a storybook land of sun-filled kitchens and dreamy apple pie aromas.  Not so.  I’m a real person with feelings, and I hit rough patches like everyone else.  I was recently on the receiving end of some very hurtful remarks and while I’m trying to bounce back, it’s not easy.

I’ve never been a “comfort food” person.  In fact, if you were to ask me what my personal “comfort food” is… well, I don’t actually know.  I’m not one to drown my sorrows in a bowl of mac ‘n cheese or a pint of ice cream.  If I’m upset you’re far more likely to find me at the mall (holla back, DSW!).  But I do know that in times of trouble, it’s especially important to take care of yourself.  My Chickpea Soup for the Soul is a great way to start the healing process.  It’s full of nutrients and fiber, with a great protein hit from the chickpeas.  Because when we’re at our lowest points, that’s when we’re most in need of good nutrition.  After all, we need to be strong so we can stand up for ourselves.

Food is just food.  It’s not a hug or a friend.  Fortunately for me, I have hugs and friends aplenty, and I’ll be fine in the end.  In the meantime, I’m being kind to myself by giving myself chickpeas and leafy greens.  Not because they’re comforting, but because they’re giving me fuel while I try to shake it off, smile, and get back to the business of being my best self.

Chickpea Soup for the Soul

4 stalks celery
3 carrots
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon minced shallot (optional)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon Better Than Boullion vegetable base*
1 cup vegetable stock
4 cups water
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 cups chopped kale
salt and pepper to taste

  • Prep celery and carrots: thinly slice celery, peel and dice carrots.
  • Heat olive oil in large stockpot until shimmering.  Add celery and carrots and shallots (if using), stir to coat, and saute briefly until veggies are beginning to soften.  Sprinkle with thyme and stir well.
  • Add broth, water and vegetable base.  Simmer all together for 15 minutes.
  • Add chickpeas and kale.  Stir to wilt kale and simmer soup together for 15 more minutes.  Taste for seasoning and adjust as necessary (you probably won’t need salt because the vegetable base is salty, but you may want some pepper).

*If you don’t have Better Than Boullion vegetable base, you can substitute 5 cups of vegetable broth instead of 1 cup of vegetable broth, 4 cups of water and the vegetable base.  I just did it this way because I only had 1 cup of vegetable broth in the house!  But you can feel free to sub some or all of the water.

Source: Covered In Flour

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Veg Load Your Life

If there’s one thing I think we should all be doing, it’s eating more… more fruits and vegetables, that is.  Produce should be the cornerstone of our diets, and the vast majority of our food should be whole fruits and veggies in as close to their natural states as possible.  I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t think that veggies and fruits are healthy, or who thinks that we shouldn’t be eating them.  But often we load up on processed carbs, sugar, and meat instead of nutritious and satisfying veg. 

Why do we do this?  Well, it’s my personal belief that we have evolved to prefer higher energy (read: calorie dense and sugary) foods because our ancestors needed to load up on those foods when they were available, to sustain them during famine times.  Of course, most of us don’t experience famine anymore.  Still, many of us are socially conditioned to crave things like bread, steak, cupcakes and pasta with meat sauce… because that’s what we grew up eating.  The good news is, we can retrain our bodies to crave nutrient-dense (not calorie-dense) foods like fresh veg and fruit.  And the even better news is that nutrient-dense foods are often lighter, low-calorie options… so we can eat MORE of them in one sitting.  More crunchy raw veggies, more fresh greens, more fruits?  Awwwww, yeah.

Still, for many, it’s hard to get their full daily allotment of veggies.  Maybe people don’t think about veggies, or they don’t believe they like them, or they think produce is too expensive… but for whatever reason, many of us aren’t eating enough fruits and veggies.  We’re filling up on meat and processed garbage instead of the foods Mama Earth always intended for us.  If this is you, and you know you need to get more veg into your diet, here are some tips and tricks:

  • Drink your veg.  Fresh vegetable juices made in a juicer or high-speed blender (like a VitaMix) are full of nutrients – and fiber too, if you use a blender instead of a juicer.  I’d advocate using both and alternating, because sometimes your body needs a little break from fiber, even though it’s usually great.  And don’t overlook the justiably popular smoothie option!  I love to make myself a protein smoothie for breakfast and include a couple of handfuls of spinach.  I know, it sounds scary – but the spinach doesn’t alter the taste of the smoothie one bit (it’s far too mild in flavor) – so trust me, it tastes good and knocks off a couple of servings of veg right there.  A great resource for green smoothie recipes is The Green Monster Movement.
  • Salad it up!  Pack yourself a gigantic salad for lunch.  Throw together a few cups of a nutrient-dense green (like spinach, massaged kale, or baby romaine) with chopped raw veggies from your crisper drawer – mine is overflowing at the moment, so a salad may be on the menu for lunch! – and top with beans, smoked tofu, seeds, or even your leftover dinner (have you ever tried veggie chili over greens?).  You’ll get several servings of vegetables in and if you include some protein and healthy fats, it will keep you going all afternoon.
  • Load up your sandwiches.  If you’re not feeling a salad for lunch and you really want a sandwich, you can still pile the veg on.  Load your sandwich up with greens (like romaine hearts, my fav!), sprouts (unless my hubby eats them all), tomato slices, crunchy cukes… the possibilities are endless.  And that turkey and cheese sandwich will pack a healthy load of fiber and nutrients that you otherwise wouldn’t have gotten.
  • Get fruity.  Maybe it’s the kid in me, but one thing I absolutely cannot resist is fruit salad.  Seriously, I love that stuff like I love my pillow.  Now that I’m a grown-up, I control the grocery list and as a result, I have fruit salad several times a week.  Mind you, I’m not talking about the sugary, syrupy stuff from the can.  I’m talking about fresh mango, melon, berries, and citrus that you buy whole at the grocery store and chop up yourself.  Yes, it’s a little more work, but it’s so worth it.  Many mornings, if I’m not having a protein smoothie (see above), I’ll start my day with a simple fruit salad of sliced banana, orange, and whatever other fruit I have in the house (usually strawberries, mango or grapes).  I pack it up and eat it at my desk at work – it’s a great way to show myself a little self-love at the start of a long day.  And even though I know I’m knocking off a good chunk of my fruit requirements for the day, I feel like I’m getting a treat.  Win-win.  Win.
  • Doctor up your soups.  While I think homemade soup is da bomb diggity (’90s flashback, holla!), sometimes you just don’t have time for that.  But it doesn’t mean you can’t make canned soup healthier.  In a pinch, I love Amy’s lentil soup, which I bulk up by sauteeing onion, carrots and celery, and sometimes corn, in the pan before I add the soup.  And if you do have some extra time, a big pot of veggie stock or soup, minestrone, or Tuscan ribollita is a great way to use up veggies that might otherwise go sad and limp in your fridge.
  • Vegify your pasta night.  Spaghetti with marinara sauce – cheap and easy dinner, right?  Well, here’s a way to dial it up: grate up a bunch of veg (like carrots and zucchini) and add them right into your sauce.  They’ll cook through and you’ll have a tasty, nutrient rich, fiberrific dinner.  Or whip up a batch of Roasted Vegetable Pasta Sauce – you’ll use up your veggie stash and have an intensely flavorful meal.
  • Freeze your assets.  If cash is your concern, you can still get your veg allotment in the form of frozen veg.  Those bags in the freezer aisle are often cheaper than the produce section, and here’s a little secret – most of the time, they’re fresher, too!  Instead of making the long trip on trucks and languishing in piles in the produce section, these veg are frozen right at their peak of ripeness and flavor.  They can be more convenient, too – why waste your time shelling peas when you can buy those tasty nuggets right out of the freezer case?  So if time or cost is your concern, head straight for the freezer section and load up there.  You’ll have reserves for sauces, soups, and stir-fries, all on a (yummy) budget.
  • Invest.  Time, that is.  Here’s an example: I love to crunch on things.  I know that when I am overwhelmed, I am going to want to chomp down on something crisp.  I could eat pretzels and chips… or I could eat cucumber rounds, sliced green peppers (my absolute favorite!) and carrot sticks.  But let’s face it – crunchy veg are not convenient.  They require time to cut them up and wash the knife and cutting board.  Still, I promise, if you put that time in up front (say, after you get home from your weekly grocery run), you will reap the benefits in the form of a big Pyrex container full of crunchy chopped fresh veg.  Maybe I’m seven years old, but snacking on veggies is infinitely more appealing when they are cut up for me and kept in a pretty glass container in my fridge.  And yes, they lose some nutrients from being cut up and stored in the fridge, but better to eat fresh veggies with slightly fewer nutrients than to eat potato chips (which are not veggies, and I don’t care what your little brother says).
  • Get inspired.  Grow a garden.  Visit the farmers market and ogle the piles of leeks.  Pour over cookbooks and foodie blogs.  Watch Giada eat a gorgeous salad on Food Network.  Keep putting yourself in the position where you enjoy veggies, and I promise you will start to crave them.

Nota Baker: I’m not a nutritionist or dietician.  I’m just a regular girl who loves veggies.  Please don’t take my words as Gospel truth.  Talk to your doctor!

Have you gone from veg-hater to can’t-get-enough-green?  Share your tips and tricks for veg loading your diet!