REAL FOOD IS DISGUSTING (Plus, 3 Tips on Making Healthy Eating and Cooking Less Painful.)

Recipe: Eric’s Mom’s Homemade Asian Greens

As many of you know, I’ve been promising a guest post from Eric Wang over at healthdemystified for a few weeks now. Eric, who is studying to be a pharmacist, decided to take a stand against so much of the disempowerment that is perpetuated in the healthcare system. In his words, “Health Demystified started with the belief that it’s time for us to stop blaming others and to start taking responsibility for our own health. Taking responsibility for our lives is the key to success.” Needless to say, we speak the same language! He’s real, he’s got an amazing heart, and he can work that sarcasm to make a point about anything! Without further ado–here’s Eric!

REAL FOOD IS DISGUSTING

Real food goes bad. It decomposes and goes rancid. And, food that’s not laced with preservatives just has a terrible smell of rot after a while. Ughhh… Nasty. My nose is in deep need of recalibration after getting a whiff of that 4-day old lasagna. Yeecch!

And, why are there so many flies flying around here?

Thank goodness for preservatives and chemical additives. And for industrial-grade food, conveniently processed for longer shelf-life and minimal spoilage.

Take a McDonald’s hamburger for instance. It simply doesn’t go bad. Apparently, a McDonald’s hamburger is just as fresh in 6 months as it is when it’s first prepared (Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/mcdonald-happy-meal-resists-decomposition-six-months.html). You don’t need to refrigerate it or do all sorts of random nonsense. You can literally pick up the hamburger at 6 months, and just eat it off the table. No preparation required! Although I do suggest that you microwave it – it tastes better warmed.

Real food – on the other hand. It’s so much WORK!

You have to wash it and peel it or chop it or core it or dice it. There’s always some effort required.

And, sometimes you even have to COOK it (although some raw foodists would disagree).

Let’s talk cooking. The people on the Food Network make it look entirely too easily. Seriously, cooking is way easier said than done.

First, you have to turn on the stove. Then you have to get a pot or pan. Then you have to put some ingredients in the pot or pan. And, then you have to watch the stove to make sure your food doesn’t burn.

And just when you thought you were finished, there’s yet another step required: you have to turn off the stove or else your house might go down in flames.

And the marinating process. Who the heck has TIME for that. We’re busy people. We don’t have time to cook or eat healthy or do other things that are good for us. Geez, people, I haven’t even… I haven’t even gone on Facebook for 2 days! 2 whole DAYS. Geez, my family is probably wondering if I’m still alive.

And, it’s not only the cooking process that’s strenuous. Let’s backtrack a little bit. Let me remind you that, in order to cook, you had to first individually pick out each ingredient. It’s not like Lean Cuisine, people. You had to individually pick out each and every carrot, onion, red pepper, broccoli, parsley, etc – painstakingly inspecting each one for flaws, getting a bag, bagging the produce, and putting it in your shopping cart or basket. And, by the way, when you’re shopping, you quickly realize another problem with real food. It’s full of flaws – insect bites, mushed corners, little brown smudges.

Anyway, after you’re done the arduous task of going to the grocery store, and picking up a shopping cart or basket, and inspecting the groceries, and bagging them, and putting them in the cart or basket, and purchasing them, and putting them in the trunk, and closing the trunk, and returning the shopping cart/basket, and driving back home, and putting what you don’t need away, and then washing, and peeling, and dicing, and marinating, and turning on the stove, and sautéing, and watching, and waiting, and stirring, and simmering, and turning off the stove, and plating, and serving, and eating, YOU ARE NOT DONE. Not yet.

Because another problem with real food is that you have to refrigerate it after you cook it. Otherwise, it goes bad. Life is a bitch.

And, then you have to clean up the scraps and mess that you’ve made while cooking. Seriously. I’m hungry! I just want to eat some food, people!

–

I dare say the reason why many of us are struggling with weight loss is because unhealthy stuff like McDonalds, Burger King and Hungry Man TV dinners are convenient, easy, and even fun. Cooking and eating healthy on the other hand is, well, inconvenient, hard, and NOT fun.

If we somehow made this whole process of eating healthier less painful and more fun, we’d be more successful at our efforts to lose weight.

So, how can we make eating healthy and cooking fun and enjoyable?

HOW I MAKE COOKING FUN AND AS PAINLESS AS POSSIBLE.

1. Music. Grab my stereo and put on a little Hall and Oates or some John Mayer. Sometimes, when I’m feeling adventurous, I put on a little Kanye, and, dare I say, Nicki Minaj
2. Grab a partner. My girlfriend and I love cooking together. Find someone you love cooking together with. It might be the start of a “healthy” relationship. Get it? Ok, fine – don’t laugh. Jerk.
3. Just relax and take in the experience. I remind myself I deserve to not worry about things 24/7. Cooking is my “me time.” Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh says that when we do the dishes, we should think only of doing the dishes. Similarly, when I’m cooking, I’m not thinking of anything else but the experience of cooking. I am mindful of every sensation from chopping the carrots to smelling the fragrance of the herbs and spices. Cooking is a really sensual process. And, you don’t even have to be Giada.
4. Invite people over and entertain. The more the merrier.
5. INSERT YOUR TIP HERE. Got a question for you: How do YOU make cooking and eating healthy “fun”?

[BRY note] True to form, Eric has served up a recipe for BeReal. With only a handful of ingredients, this healthy recipe can be a triumph for culinary neophytes everywhere! Eric’s Mom says so!

Mom’s Homemade Asian Greens

Ingredients: Vegan Oyster sauce, Sesame oil, some type of greens (spinach,

Yu choy, etc)

-Boil water

-Add greens. Don’t overcook. In fact it’s better to undercook.

-Drain.

-Plate it. Drizzle about 3 tablespoons of oyster sauce and 1.5

tablespoons of sesame oil on top. Serve warm!

-Eric

It’s been a long day.

Recipe: Three Cs Salad

Sometimes cooking is the only thing that will do it for me. Cooking, creating, it’s all the same. I come home, and if the day has been long (especially if it’s been long!), I cannot wait to get my hands in the kitchen! I just get in the zone, and before you know it, I have three or four things on the go at once! I mean if the oven’s on anyway for those cookies, may as well roast some almonds for some almond butter! Or if the food processor is already dirty, what the heck—let’s make hummus! It doesn’t matter. My kitchen is where I ground myself. It’s where I mellow out, dabble, explore, create. If I’m sad, anxious, or restless, it is here where I just let go. It’s an act of pure flow. I’m not thinking, I’m not worrying, I’m focused. As you can see, I’ve been busy:

3 Cs: comfort meets colour meets crisp!

This cornbread bows to nobody’s jam!

This could be yours (if you own a ridiculous oversized donut mould!)!

So I’m just curious – where is it that you find your flow? What is your way of release or unwinding? How do you get lost in creativity? Just wondering…… Stay tuned for next week when the ever-amusing Eric Wang from healthdemystified treats us to a guest post (and recipe!)! Eric, by-the-way, recently added me to his list of Nine Rising Stars in the Health and Fitness Blogosphere. Check it out!  For now, I’ve posted my 3Cs salad recipe, pictured above. And no, this salad does not involve John Ritter. Enjoy!

3 Cs Salad

(serves 2)

2 cups red cabbage, sliced in food processor

1 cup carrots (sliced in food processor or cut thinly)

1/2 cup chickpeas (cooked and rinsed)

1/2 cup fresh dill (chopped)

1/2 cup fresh parsley (chopped)

1/2 tsp herbamare (herbed sea salt but regular sea salt will do)

juice of 1 lemon

1 tbsp olive oil

Directions: Heat a small amount of water (just enough to cover the bottom of the pan) over medium high heat. Add cabbage and cover for two minutes. Add carrots, and cover for 1-2 minutes more. Still want some crisp left in those Cs. Turn off heat, stir in chickpeas, herbs, salt and lemon juice. Drizzle with olive oil and serve. Simple but marvellous!

The Direct Route

Recipe: Platform-for-your-jam Corn Muffins

As odd as it may sound, a binge can often be the quickest way back to self-care. It’s the big white flag that waves “surrender!” It’s the moment where we decide to either continue shutting our self out, or to bring compassion to our self and our situation, and shift into curiosity.

Binge Road is not a dead-end street! If we’ve gone down Binge Road, there’s a reason why: we had to have been switched off enough that going into autopilot with our food didn’t even register. So while it would be great if it would register and we could course-correct before the damage was done (and all that remains is an empty cookie bag and a big bloated belly), the reality is that this isn’t always the case. When this happens, the next pivotal moment is how we respond.

You may have already written yourself off and decided you’re a failure (What’s the point? Why not keep eating? I can’t believe I did this to myself….AGAIN). Or maybe your mind is busy devising a strategy of how to counter the calories: No food until dinner? Laxatives? Two hours on the treadmill? But there’s always that THIRD option: the “love yourself through it” option. This is the one where you choose to cuddle up with yourself and stay present with your physical and emotional discomfort and ride it out. Because it passes—it does. It’s about saying, “Okay, this happened. What’s going on for me? Can I just be with it, breathe with it?” Think of the binge as your thru road home, your gateway back to safety.

I am not a “southern Belle.” I don’t have memories of waking up on a Sunday morning to the smell of freshly baked “cornbread and beans” or of helping my grandma make her “special recipe.” In fact, I don’t think I’d ever even tried cornbread until I was well into adulthood. So don’t ask me WHY I’ve been craving the stuff like it’s going out of style….I decided to make cornbread muffins only to realize I was fresh out of cornmeal. “No problem,” I thought. “I’ll substitute with corn flour.” I made a few other modifications (see below) and popped them in the oven. It was only then that I started to google people’s horrendous experiences doing exactly that. “It will taste like a door stop” wrote one individual. And while I wouldn’t go as far as to say that, they are definitely a muffin you will want to eat slathered in Earth Balance and a lot of strawberry jam! But I actually like them–enough to post the recipe. The cornbread craving continues, but for now here’s a slightly plainer, denser version of a morning muffin. Think of them as a platform for your jam.

Platform-for-your-jam Corn Muffins

Modified from this recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 cup corn flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 2/3 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 3 tbsp agave nectar
• 1 tbsp canola oil

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Stir all ingredients together in a large bowl. Pour into a lined or greased muffin pan. Bake for 12 or so minutes, or until springy. I made about 8 small muffins with this recipe.
3. Serve with Earth Balance and a nice thick strawberry jam.

Trying times

Recipe: Pleasing Tomato Pesto Pasta

Do you say yes when you want to say no?

Do you invest more in people than you get in return (and then keep investing in those people)?

Do you over-identify with other people’s feelings, and take it upon yourself to look after them?

If you answered “yes” to two or more of the above questions, you might be a people pleaser—a phenomenon that involves a constant de-selfing process whereby we fail to vocalize our own needs for fear of hurting another person’s feelings and not being liked. But fear not, oh weary pleaser—there is help: YOU!!!

We typically fall into the people pleaser role when we fear not being liked and require the approval of others. But here’s something else I’ve noticed about us food-stuffers. Many of us are incredibly sensitive people. We are empathic and we often feel in ourselves what others are feeling around us (hence our ability to take such care in our dealings with others-—a lovely quality, by the way); it’s this heightened sensitivity in combination with our own insecurity that can create in us a misplaced sense of responsibility for a feeling we are experiencing/aware of that isn’t actually our own! We are not responsible for how others feel!

Awareness is key, so check in with yourself. It’s one thing to demonstrate caring and respect for others. It’s another thing if doing so is at the expense of your own inner truth and needs. As well, if there is a lack of reciprocation or you are not being met with respect, than it’s probably time to re-evaluate the dynamic of the relationship (and the relationship itself!). That means finding a balance between looking after your own needs and knowing what belongs to you, and what belongs to the other. You are absolutely worth showing up for! So keep showing up for yourself and hold out for those who authentically show up for you too. And just remember—you can’t please everyone! So just please you!

So I’ve been doing some cooking. Some baking. You know, stuff. One thing I made recently that I really enjoyed was a sundried and roasted tomato pesto zucchini pasta dish inspired by the pesto recipes of both Dreena Burton’s and Angela Liddon. The pesto is rather substantial, so I wanted to pair it with a veggie pasta (spiralized zucchini) to lighten it up a bit. I broiled up some broccoli and BAM – dish delish! 

Pleasing Tomato Pesto Pasta

4 tomatoes (roma or other) halved, drizzled with olive oil and roasted face down on baking tray for 1 hour at 400F

3/4 cup sundried tomatoes in oil

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup toasted almonds

2-3 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tsp agave nectar

1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)

pepper

1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup fresh basil (I tried a version without it, and it was still nice)

For the pasta:

2 zucchinis, either peeled into stripped with a veggie peeler, or put through the spiralizer

1 head of broccoli

juice of half a lemon

1/2 tsp red chili flakes

Prepare the pesto by first putting the almonds through the food processor until crumbly and setting aside. Process the rest of the ingredients until smooth, then add the almonds in and pulse until mixed.

In a bowl, toss the broccoli with some olive oil, salt, and chili flakes. Broil for 5-7 minutes until slightly charred (watch carefully so they don’t burn!). Remove from oven and toss with lemon juice. Toss with desired amount of pesto and zucchini noodles. Voila!

Feelings: A Survivor’s Tale

Recipe: Bonzai Spelt Pilaf

A mentor of mine always says to “lean to into your learning” and I always feel like this wisdom can also be applied to our feelings: “breathe into your feelings.” Whatever is there, the breath will take you into a deeper, richer experience – it will take you to a place of surrender, to the flow of your feelings, and ultimately, to your learning.

I like to think of the experience of our feelings much the like sediment at the bottom of a river: Rapids can stir it up and sometimes we have to allow ourselves to be swirled about. Once we move through the rough current (Breathe deep!), our feelings start to settle; clarity arrives, and we can once again see our way to the surface and make sense of what just happened to us. But we have to trust we will be okay (aka SURVIVE!), be present, and breathe our way through.

Now, a little piece of advice from a survivor of a recent emotional pummeling: to be clear, this “feeling our feelings” business is certainly not an enjoyable process. Satisfying and triumphant at the end, yes. Enjoyable? That’s a stretch– I hated every grueling and unpleasant moment of it! But hating the experience was also part of the experience; I gave myself permission to hate feeling my feelings. I acknowledged that I hated it, then proceeded to hate every second! It’s when we resist our experiences that we get caught up in the snags and start creating side stories about what’s going on – instead of just having a really uncomfortable feeling, we start to attached a story to it (I’m fat, I ate too much X so I’m a bad person vs. I have a really uncomfortable feeling right now and it really sucks!). If hating your feelings happens to be part of your experience, live it out honestly. Validate it for yourself, and I assure you that you’ll move through it with a lot more grace than you ever knew you had! Whatever way you find to be present for yourself and your emotions, breathe through. It won’t last forever. It will pass. Go spend time with the discomfort: breathe into your feelings and you will survive!

Unfortunately, not all of us live to tell a survivor’s tale….poor almonds….

 

But this recipe? A hit! This is comfort food at its best! I cannot take credit for this recipe, but I can take credit for devouring eating it and loving every bite! It’s a hearty nourishing dish that uses whole spelt berries cooked at a very low temperature for an hour or so; it turns out as more of a pilaf or risotto with so much flavour! Plus, what’s not to love about spelt berries. They are high in protein, they can hold their own in a pot (they don’t become mush like barley or rice) and they have a lovely chewy texture. Hmmmm hmmmm.

Bonzai Spelt Pilaf

1 cup spelt, rinsed (and pre-soaked in 2 cups of water for a few hours if possible)
3/4 cup canned crushed tomatoes
2/3 cup water (more if needed)
1 small zuchini, sliced
1/2 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 can black beans
1/2 tsp sea salt or to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp rosemary
2 tbsp olive oil
pepper

Rinse spelt and add to a large pot. Heat olive oil over medium heat and brown spelt with onions, garlic and spices. Add beans and zucchini, cook and stir. Add water and tomatoes, stir, cover and simmer for 1 hour on low heat. Stir periodically and add more water if it looks dry. Bonzai!

When those cookies come a’calling

Recipe: The “Tofu Layer” for OSG’s Lasagna

“Oh yooo hoooo…..over heee-eeeere!!!”

I try not to focus too much on food behaviours on this blog, and that’s because so little of why we eat actually has to do with food! But I did think it was time for a reminder that bringing consciousness to how or what we are eating can be an important source of information about what is going on for us emotionally. I’ve had a couple of moments this last week where I came home, felt tired, and wanted a big bowl of cereal to eat or a few cookies (oh yooo hoooo!) rather than a proper dinner. It was one of those times when a bowl of cereal wasn’t just a bowl of cereal. I wanted to sit with my food and find comfort in my “fullness.” Did I know I was using food for comfort? Yep. Did I want to stop? Not ‘til that bowl of cereal was gone!

The thing about developing awareness around our food is that we kinda have to ask some questions, and the more we ask them, the harder it becomes to engage in the behaviour. Whether I ate the cereal or not was irrelevant. I knew I still needed to reflect about what was going on for me and acknowledge that something was. If you are feeling clueless about why you are reaching for food, I can say that for me in many (but not all) instances, it’s often about feeling powerless or not heard. Either I’m not validating my own feelings, or I’m not using my voice to express them. Or, I have used my voice and still don’t feel heard, and need to make an adjustment to a given relationship (which could incite avoidance, dread or other forms of resistance, and possibly another bowl of cereal!).

So what’s going on for you? It’s time to have a check-in and bring some consciousness to what you are experiencing. It’s time to go inside and listen. Ask some questions. Hold a compassionate loving space for yourself, free from judgement or pressure for things to be anything other than what they are. Are your reasons for going for the food the same as mine? If not, what is it about for you?

I could be a brat and post a cookie recipe. But instead, I’m going to write about lasagna. Or I’m going to post a yummy photo and direct you to a great recipe. Angela Liddon’s recipe surpassed my vegan lasagna expectations and will not dissappoint. While she suggests adding a layer of crumbled veggie burger, I added some crumbled tofu that I marinated overnight. So as my meager contribution to this already stand-up recipe, I offer “the tofu layer.” Behold:

On Neutral Ground

Recipe: Angela Lidden’s Sticky Toffee Pudding (say what!?)

What does it mean to be in one’s neutral mind? I busted myself the other day pulling the neutral mind card: falling into the belief that being in one’s neutral mind means not reacting, maintaining composure, and “rising above” those inconvenient and uncomfortable  emotions that blindside us when we least expect it. In other words, my finger was hovering dangerously close to the old NUMB button! Similar to a spiritual bypass, thinking about the neutral mind in this way can pull us out of our authentic human experience in much the same way.

In our desire to achieve a neutral mind, we might deny, suppress, or otherwise numb ourselves to our feelings in the name of higher spiritual ground. In doing so, however, we halt the authentic flow of our process. So how can we hold a neutral mind and honour our emotions? Awareness. Did you know I was going to say that? The neutral mind is not about numbing out to our emotional experience. It’s about cultivating a non-judgmental (i.e., neutral) allowance of it and letting it run its natural course. It’s an opening up to flow, not a shutting down or damming up of what is. It is in this awareness, in saying “yes” to each moment as it presents itself, that grace is found. And besides all that, who wants to be a stone anyway?

The word “pudding” conjures up different associations for all of us. It could be the overly sweet chocolate Jello pudding pack your dad used to put in your school lunches without a spoon to eat it with (thanks, Dad!). It could be the rum-laden raison infested dense cake your grandma sets on fire after every Christmas dinner.  Or it could be, it just might be, the single most yummiest dessert you’ve ever tasted when you put the words “StickyToffee” in front of it. I decided to try out Angela’s recipe on 12 non-vegans last week and the table went wild; it was a show-stopper to say the least. A caramelly, moist, warm, gooey, cakey conglomerate nestled up beside a cold scoop of melty ice cream, drizzled with toffee sauce and finished with a sprinkling of toasted pecans. Need I say more? I don’t think that sentence could get any longer. I made a few changes to Angela’s recipe, such as subbing spelt flower and using a mix of brown sugar with raw cane sugar (simply because I ran out of brown sugar), but I think you’d be hard pressed to screw up this cake as its moistness lends itself to a large margin of delicious error.

Deduce, you say?

Recipe: Roasted Garlic Babaganoush

I had the pleasure of meeting someone over a month ago, whose humility and grace remains with me still. A fellow traveler on the road of self love, she asked the question “why is it that we are so quick to believe the negative things people say about us and so quick to write off the positive ones?” Like a detective looking for clues, we collect the evidence that supports our beliefs.

It got me thinking, not just about what I’m quick to believe about myself without evidence to back it up, but what I’m quick to believe about others as well. I was recently humbled when I indirectly implicated an acquaintance for something of mine that had gone missing, only to find the very object in question amongst my things minutes later. Rather than take some time, examine the evidence, and then form a conclusion, my mind instantly jumped to think the worst about that person. I felt horrible.

If we give others, as well as ourselves, the benefit of the doubt and allow for human fallibility or a simple misinterpretation of facts, we find we become much more conscious and neutral in how we approach such matters. When we can hold this space, we treat unsubstantiated beliefs with compassion. When all of the evidence eventually comes to light, this consciousness enables us to evaluate with clarity and choose our actions and our words with care.

What assumptions are you making, both about yourself and of others? Are you collecting objective facts, or are you jumping to a belief and looking for the evidence that supports that belief? Take time to consider where your mind wants to go and open it up for other truths to present themselves.

I like hummus, this is true. But give me babaganoush and the scale is instantly tipped! We had the ingenious idea to have a Mediterranean night, and so I of course got busy on this creation, which was voted “the best babaganoush of my life” by those seated ’round the table!

Roasted Garlic Babaganoush

2 medium eggplants

1 head of garlic

1/2 cup tahini

juice of two lemons

2 tsp sea salt

2 tbsp olive oil + drizzle for garlic

dash of chili powder

dash of cumin

1. Poke holes in your eggplants with a fork and roast for 1 hour at 350 degrees, until collapsed. At the same time, slice off the top of the head of garlic, place it over foil, and drizzle with olive oil.  Wrap foil around garlic and roast with the eggplant (about an hour).

2. Once done, allow garlic to cool, then squeeze out the goods. In a food processor, add the eggplant (I like mine skin and all, but you could just scoop out the pulp) and garlic, and blend together with the rest of the ingredients. Do not add more than a pinch of cumin, or its flavour will dominate. Remove and refrigerate until serving. Adjust salt to taste, but babaganoush should be on the saltier side.

[Fore]Gone Conclusions

Recipe: Baked Apples with Cinnamon Cashew Cream

Just as we have our stories, we also have our endings. Many times we expect certain outcomes before they’ve even happened. Or we may react the same way to the same situation every time, and then be upset with ourselves in the same way for doing so. Our beliefs and actions can sometimes be so ingrained in us that we operate without recognizing that we have other options; it never occurs to us that there could be a different outcome to the same story, or better yet, a free fall – a complete surrender to what is real and true for you in that moment.

Say, for example, that every time you get together with certain individuals, you overeat and then you come home at the end of the evening and binge. This social scene isn’t really a “fit” for you, you feel inadequate, or are being triggered in some other way. As you sit there with these people, all you can really think about is what you are going to be eating once you step foot inside your house. And when you do finally come home, you go into autopilot and the night ends up with you feeling even worse about yourself….again.

Or, let’s say you go out and treat yourself to a massage or a yoga class, but rather than coming home and feeling good in your body and tucking yourself into bed, you come home and have a binge instead. This is because your story doesn’t involve you allowing yourself to feel good – this ending never even occurred to you. The only ending you know is the one that keeps confirming your story (i.e., “I’m fat,” “I have X eating disorder,” “I’m in some way not okay”).

What if we turned our stories into our very own “Choose Your Own Adventure” and we tried to visualize a different outcome to the usual way our predictable stories play themselves out? What if we went down a different path, and experienced a different outcome/reality?

With the above example, for instance, I might think about what a nice night at home after a massage might look like. It might involve curling up with a book and a cup of tea. Or a hot bath. Or maybe just hopping straight into bed, snuggling up under the covers. Can you picture it? We can’t always change our outcomes over night, but we can began to consider the possibility that we can live it out a different way. Even just this simple exercise of visualizing ourselves responding differently can plant a seed of what is possible for you and challenge your beliefs and behaviours around your current experiences. Give it a go and see what kinds of amazing conclusions you can fathom.

Baked Apples – who knew?? I have been baking apples straight for the last week. I love apple pies, crisps, crumbles – but after baking apples and letting the apples stand on their own, all that doe, sugar, and Earth Balance just seems unnecessary. Something happens in that baking process: some might call it “caramelization,” but I call it magic. The apples turn super sweet, which makes them not only a delicious dessert, but a fantastic sweetener to blend into puddings, spreads, and baking (also great for rounding out texture too!). Here’s one way I’ve been enjoying my baked apples lately, but there are many more which I hope to post about soon. By the way, pears are just as amazing!

Askin’ them questions

Recipe: Granolie in the Raw

Can I ask you something so you can ask you something? Are you giving to yourself? Are you actually taking the time to listen to what it is your body needs or what your soul is craving? So often the only way we feel we give to ourselves (and meet our own needs) is via the food that we eat. What’s that? You want a peanut butter pumpkin oat bar (you too??!)? You want some chocolate? Well, since you aren’t going to give yourself what you REALLY want or need, sure, let’s load up the plate.

Now hold on a moment. Before you wolf down that plate of so-called comfort, let’s take a second to ask ourselves some more questions: “What do you really want/need?” And the next one, the juicy one, is “why aren’t you giving THAT to yourself instead?”

In the face of a gazillion obligations, it can be hard to justify taking time out for ourselves to do something that refuels us or makes our heart light up (or lighten up!) – but do you really need to justify it? I mean seriously, how did all of those things somehow get to be more important than YOU!? And, let’s say you think they are, well how productive are you going to be after you consume that plate of whatever that you are using to convince yourself that your needs are getting met? Uh huh. That’s what I thought.

So go there. Ask the questions of yourself. And ask them with love, and care, and a genuine desire to take care of yourself. Your soul is hungry for something. Dig a little deeper and find out what it is, and then engage in healthy self-indulgence — the kind that doesn’t come with shame, guilt, and remorse. Isn’t it time we started allowing ourselves our needs and stepping up to meet them?