Watch What You Eat

It's a daily struggle getting my kids to eat anything but meat and simple carbs, but this blog came across my desk, and it reminded me of why it should be a priority to get five servings of fruits or vegetables into your diet each day. We're going to be doing a lot of traveling soon, which usually means a stash of granola bars. But I think we need to up the ante a bit.

Our Bodies

Over the years, so many of my students have expressed varying levels of self-loathing. They're not strong enough, flexible enough, skinny enough, dedicated enough, etc., etc. So many come to yoga to lose weight and look pretty. So many don't come, because they want the same thing, but don't think yoga can do that for them. I came across this fantastic menagerie of human bodies today and had to share.
Yoga makes you confront yourself, and - with practice - it helps you become more introspective. You have to confront the shame as well as the hubris. You also have to confront change. I've had two babies. My body looks different, feels different, and acts different. So be it. It sounds flippant, but I do the work that gets me to that place of acceptance.
Since having kids, I'd forgotten how amazing it is to drag yourself out of bed and get to an early-morning practice. The act of not hitting the snooze button again is another step toward confronting yourself and charging forward into the day. And, gosh, it sure is lovely to hear the splashing water and the opera of the birds. Monday, I reached up toward the crystalline sky to demonstrate trikonasana (triangle), and not only saw clear lavendar and blue, but white flower petals falling upon me from the trees lining the steps. MAGICAL. This morning, four Mallard drakes chased a female across the sky in a cacaphony. LIFE.
I wish there was a cure all. I wish I could say a few words of support that would allow people to love themselves unconditionally. The fact is that practice is the only way. In the words of Guruji, "Yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory.” or "Practice and all is coming."

Looking for a Studio

Well, here it is.
I'm teaching Sunrise yoga on Cravath Lakefront in Whitewater, WI from 5:30-6:45 a.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.
I'm teaching Hot Vinyasa Yoga at Ivy's Holistic Arts from 5:30-6:40 p.m.
And, I'm teaching a TGIF 1:00-2:15 p.m. class at Cravath Lake on Fridays. I suspect the Friday class will change a bit, as I'm taking over another teacher's class. It's hard for me to imagine that will be a popular one, since most people still work in the summers. But we'll see.
My husband wants me to open a studio, since there is a ton of space downtown. He thinks I can get something cheap. We'll see. It'll be bare bones.
But then this article popped up today and got me thinking about how yoga used to be back when I started practicing 20 years ago.
The wheels are turning.

A Great Post about the Benefit of Inversions

Judith Hanson Lasater is one of the originals in American yoga. This woman knows her stuff. My students ask me often what pose they should practice if they only have five or ten minutes, and my answer would be an inversion.

Yoga Dork is also a great resource.

Sharing a lovely piece of advice that is worth going back to again and again. Though I disagree that yoga is not for everyone. The practice of asanas is different for everyone and differs greatly throughout the different branches of yoga. Yoga asana is about moving consciously and mindfully, and everyone needs that.

Dystopia

Just had to share this URL.
http://myscienceacademy.org/2013/04/14/the-33-most-beautiful-abandoned-places-in-the-world/

Just a quick update. I've been placed in a "cabin" with some other writers in the aforementioned Camp NaNoWriMo writer's workshop. One of my cabin mates has some of her work posted on this really cool tool for getting short pieces written. It's essentially the Twitter of short stories; you have a limited amount of space to write a piece, which makes you hone your skills and pick only the necessary words. L.O.V.E.

I've been doing my requisite RFP search this morning, and though I stay off the time waster known as Facebook as often as I can, I needed to see if someone had answered a message of mine regarding grant writing and fundraising. And, as FB would have it, I got sucked in ... in a good way. A friend posted this amazing article written by a 90-year-old woman named Phyllis Sues called "Loving Life at 90." Like her, what inspires me is the love of learning. Sure, yoga is an amazing tool for that, but that's all it is a tool. (Full disclosure - my preferred tool)

I'm not trying to be a super woman or a super mom; that creates unnatural expectations. But I don't want to spend the majority of my life working miserably and lamenting what I never tried to do. I just want to create and learn new things. I've been making homemade sourdough breads for the last week, last night's baguette of sourdough rye with flaxseed was amazing. Again FB sucked me into reading about someone else who loves to practice the basics of sustainable and healthy cooking. Florencia Ramirez has got a great blog called Eat Less Water that I'm going to check on a regular basis. I need this when I get the stink-eye from other moms who think I'm bragging when I talk about what's on the menu at our house.

I'm trying to finish up an intricate baby blanket that I started before my 4.5-year-old was born. And it's finally coming together. Grant writing is flying. Yoga will always be there and the teaching is languishing only because my husband's tight schedule won't allow for teaching 8-10 classes a week the way it used to. But no worries, I practice, I teach three classes a week. And, I'm about to cut the teaching down by one class, because I'm enrolling in a re-upholstery class. I still need to fit in that novel-writing more than once a week; I'm working on it.

Errr, the baby is waking up. Time to play and have a dance party. Maybe we'll even do some asanas! Everything Counts! Do what you love and what you can - plan, but don't be insufferable about it.

"Your future lies before you
Like a shining path of snow.
Be careful how you tread,
For every step will show."

Re the above quote, I ran into a cute little book published in 1950 called "Yours Till Niagara Falls: A Book of Autograph Verses." We just got a foot of snow here in Wisconsin. I'm new to this area, but the locals say so much late snow is unheard of . I love the snow, but not driving in the slush and ice.

I've finally moved onto the writing path for good, I hope. I'm doing professional grant-writing and consulting. I'm also moving forward on my novel. Yoga is another love, but it's a lifestyle. I still teach - and love every minute of it - but yoga is showing me myself, and it's time to write and do other kinds of good in the community, like bringing money to this adorable little Wisconsin town that I love so much.

If you want to write, I urge you to join Camp NaNoWriMo for the online support. It's free. So many people want to write, which makes sense. Part of our heritage - the caveperson in us - wants to relay stories and experiences. We want to sit around a campfire and relate, commiserate, teach. And, I suspect that this brave new technological world that we're moving into will make it more possible for us to get our stories out there. Not that I want the big publishers to go out of business, but too often our important stories are held in disregard.

Yoga Guerrilla

So we're living in Wisconsin now.
I've been working on a yoga experiment for the last 4 months ... teaching yoga for a suggested donation of 5 dollars, but free if you can't afford it. Yoga shouldn't cost a lot, it should be part of your daily practice, whether or not it's a few minutes or an hour and a half. Everyone who sticks with it notices the benefits. The problem is that it's hard to re-prioritize. Such is the lesson of life, the changes you want to make seem good in theory, but that means you have to shunt something in order to make room for those changes.
What I have found is that about 5% stick with it. But, BOY, do they stick with it.
So now on to the next phase. I'm going to start teaching yoga wherever there is a space and doing guerrilla marketing for it. Can't wait to share with everyone what happens, lessons learned, etc.

Notes from a Reluctant Housewife

(Scroll down to see recipes for Split Pea and Ham Soup or Garlic Butter Croutons)

So the clarity is crashing down with a sharpness I didn't ask for. But that's what yoga gives us, more vision than we usually care to see.

We found out my husband had a teaching gig in Harrisonburg, VA. Soon thereafter, I found out I was pregnant with our second child. So, I left my full time job and yoga community in Austin, TX and became a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM). No point in finding a job in Virginia for just a year, if I'm planning on quitting to have a baby. And, honestly, childcare is so expensive, it wouldn't have made much sense to work. I had all of those niggling fears from the first child, should I leave her in someone else's capable hands while I advance my career? Am I going to miss everything, all of those firsts? Thankfully, the decision wasn't so hard then, because we really were lucky enough to have her spend her time with a much-loved best friend, nanny, neighbor, goddess.

But we don't have our goddess in H'burg. So now that I've finally gotten into the groove of SAHM-hood, I don't want to leave it. I have an extensive to-do list that I want to accomplish. I want to cook more, write more, read more, knit more, practice more yoga, and giggle more with my children while teaching them how to make things. I don't want to go back to a full time job at a desk. So now I've decided to share more. What DOES a mom do at home with her kids, besides laundry? Well you're about to find out. 

So, mommy wars aside ... the biggest lesson I've learned moving from two incomes to one, is that my extravagant taste in food needs tweaking. I used to traipse through the local upwardly mobile grocery store and grab my fig jam, goat cheese, citrus-brined olives, pâté, freshly-baked French bread, and a bottle of Prosecco. See, I'm so bourgeois that I spell pâté with its diacritical marks. I'm so bourgeois, I know how to spell bourgeois.

Anyway, I have a refined palette and need to make a good meal on the cheap. So after we came back from Passover at the house of Vegetarian friends in NYC, my husband went shopping for food to restock the house. He came home with an Easter ham that had been put on sale for $10.

And yes, I'm a yogi, and my family eats meat occasionally. When we do eat meat, we are thankful for the sacrifice that animal made for us. Fabulous, filling vegetarian recipes also coming your way.

Grocery Shopping Tip #1
Be aware of holidays (that you might not celebrate) so that you can buy cheap meat (and veg) to cook and store.

Grocery Shopping Tip #2
When buying a ham (or turkey or other large meatstuff) make sure you have at least a week's worth of recipes in your cooking arsenal.

Grocery Shopping Tip #3
You can grow almost any herb outside in the ground or in a pot during the spring and summer months.Do yourself a favor and plant some chives, parsley, mint, thyme, rosemary and basil.

Eco Village International Network posted this pic on their Facebook page. Beautiful way to grow herbs!

So now we come to the recipe for ... drumroll ...

SPLIT PEA AND HAM SOUP

Whaaaaat, you ask? Seriously? Didn't you just say something about a refined palette, Brienne? Yes, if done well, even the most pedestrian of meals can be exquisite ... and cheap.

So here's a picture, and I'll take you through the process of making a Split Pea and Ham Soup to die for - with a bonus recipe for Garlic Butter Croutons.

Split Pea and Ham Soup with Garlic Butter Croutons and Fresh Mint

Ingredients
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion, rough chop
5 or 6 garlic cloves, minced (I LOOOOVE garlic, if you are not a garlic lover, drop this down to 2 cloves)
5-7 cups of water, enough to cover the ham bone from the spiral ham
2 cups of split peas (or add in red lentils, brown lentils, or mung beans)
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
handful of fresh mint leaves (or anything else you've got growing outside)
salt and black pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (I like it spicier, but my 3.5-year-old doesn't)
1/2 teaspoon of chipotle pepper flakes
4 bay leaves
2 carrots, 1/2-inch pieces
1 celery rib, 1/2-inch pieces

This recipe serves about 8 people

1. Put the ham bone (with meat on it) in a large pot and barely cover with water, place 2 bay leaves, red and chipotle pepper flakes, and 2 sprigs of thyme in the water in order to make the stock. Simmer covered on low for about two hours. You can do this a couple days ahead of time, if you can't make the stock the same day. It'll keep in a tightly sealed container. On this bone, there was a lot of fat; I had to use a slotted spoon to sift it out and dump into the trash.

The Stock

1/2 tsp chipotle flakes, 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, 2 bay leaves, 2 sprigs of thyme

2. Heat butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onion, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and cook, stirring often until onion softens - 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant - one minute or less. Add dry peas, 2 sprigs of thyme, and bay leaves. Cook for a few minutes until peas are fully coated with the butter.

Rough chop on onion, garlic to taste - to be minced

This time around, I only had a cup of split peas, so I added mung beans and brown lentils to make 2 cups.

3. Remove ham bone and any other gristle from stock pot. Dump contents of frying pan into stock pot. Increase to high heat and then bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until peas are tender - about 45 minutes.

4. Add carrots and celery, cover and cook another 20 minutes. (For those who feel "meh" about celery, it really does add a necessary umami aspect to lots of dishes. These days, I always have a bag of it in the bottom drawer of the fridge.)

5. Serve with Garlic Butter Croutons and mint.


GARLIC BUTTER CROUTONS 


You can also make the croutons a few days ahead, if you have some stale bread going to waste. Just put them in a tightly sealed container.

Ingredients

6-8 slices of sandwich bread (I used a multi-nut 10-grain, but anything will do)
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
pepper, salt, and minced (or pressed) garlic to taste

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat to 350 degrees. Melt butter (microwave in a pyrex). Cut crusts off of bread and cube.

2. Combine bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and minced (or pressed) garlic. Pour butter into bowl and toss gently with a wooden spoon, so bread gets coated lightly.

3. Spread bread cubes in a single layer on to a baking sheet (or dish) and bake until golden brown or crisp. I usually give them a stir about halfway through. About 10-15 minutes total.

I suppose you can use oil for this dish, but I'm a firm believer in the health benefits of butter. And, for a basic meal like this - that can taste bland very easily - garlic and butter are what takes it to the next level. Stay tuned for an upcoming rant about the myth of butter being bad for you. Obviously, anything is bad for you in large amounts, but your brain needs fat to work, and butter (produced correctly) provides the perfect fat molecules.