Tag: cooking

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Taking on a new self-care challenge

I’m fairly challenged around self-care in many forms — getting enough sleep; making time to meditate; getting regular exercise; etc. But a self-care area that I’ve only tuned into recently is how little real cooking I do.

Usually when I make food at home it’s a super easy dish that is so habitual that I don’t even have to think about it. Like the exact same oatmeal breakfast every single day. Maybe scrambled eggs with toast for lunch. Occasionally pasta with broccoli.

Most of the time I still feel the compulsion to “eat out” — just like I did growing up in the Bay Area and later as a freelance musician living in San Francisco — even though there are virtually no restaurants within a ten miles of where I live now.

But a few months ago I happened upon a healthy eating program that caught my attention. It felt really different, largely because of its emphasis on getting back to cooking one’s meals at home.

The emphasis on “eating for nourishment and satisfaction” resonated deeply though it’s taken a long time to actually put it into practice.

But today was the day! So, here’s my “Skillet Lasagna,” which was quite delicious! (I’m patting myself on the back.) 💯

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Making pizzoccheri

For today’s adventure we joined Fulvio in making pizzoccheri for lunch. It was great fun and turned out delicious.

The pasta is made from 80% buckwheat flour and 20% wheat flour
In America we’re used to measuring cups; in Europe they weigh ingredients instead
Fulvio adding water to the flour
First the pasta gets a good stir
Then it gets worked by hand
Ramesha begins the process of rolling out the dough
Fulvio rolls it out even thinner and also flips it over
Dividing the rolled out dough into sections, then cutting it into strips
This is what you end up with
Next step was cutting up potatoes…
…and coste (or bietola)…
…which we know as Swiss chard
Meanwhile Ramesha was grating cheese
Lots and lots of cheese!
First the potatoes are added to boiling water, then the Swiss chard
Next comes the pasta
Time to melt some butter, to which is added garlic
The view from the kitchen while all this was going on
Akuna hung out in the kitchen with us, hoping someone would drop some food on the floor
The cheese and butter are mixed in with the (drained) potatoes, chard, and pasta (definitely NOT a low-calorie dish)
Ramesha dishes it up; boy oh boy was it good!
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On and off and on again

Artwork by Matilda Heindow @crazyheadcomics

So, I took a bit of a break from my healthy eating program for a while.

I chose not to write about it as it was happening. Basically, I was feeling the truth of “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

But now I’m close to finishing my first weekly fast in almost a month, grateful that it hasn’t been any harder than usual (phew!), and feeling ready to look at what happened.

Some of it was due to the (not unusual) “perfect storm” of stress, emotional eating, and going on vacation. But I realize another factor is that I got a little bored with my eating routine.

And that’s due not so much to having lots of restrictions, but rather to the fact that I don’t really want to be bothered with creative cooking. I mean, other people in my program post these awesome photos of delicious, tasty meals which I would gladly eat — if they just happened to magically appear on my table!

I think it’s a lingering side effect of my decades as a freelance musician in San Francisco.

My “at home” eating habits back then were pretty darn boring and routine (I could eat pasta and broccoli 4-5 times a week for months on end), but that was balanced by the fact that I ate out a great deal of the time.

Chinese food, taquerias, coffee houses, favorite breakfast spots…these and so much more were a huge part of what made living in San Francisco so fun. Then there was the fact that I was frequently eating on the way to gigs or at gigs.

There’s definitely not that kind of constant interest and variety around food in my life now, which is fine! I’m not really a “foodie” and I truly don’t want to go back to eating out constantly.

But I’m also not going to sweat the fact that, after seven months of being amazingly consistent, I felt the urge to cut loose for a time.

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Service (through cooking) is joy!

Cooking with Nandadevi.

A while ago I signed up to cook dinner for the Village internship program…and then promptly forgot about it. (I have no idea why I didn’t put it on my calendar — duh!)

A couple of days ago I got a reminder about it, and I have to confess that my first thought was, “Oh no! Do I really have time to do this?!?”

Well, tonight was the night, and (as usual) I’m soooo glad I didn’t bail.

Why? Let me count the ways…

  1. My “helper” was Nandadevi, one of my favorite people on the planet. It was lovely chatting with her while cutting veggies; plus Sundara came and helped as well.
  2. Being in the Expanding Light kitchen was great fun, especially since it meant running into people I don’t see in my usual daily flow (like Ana and Darshana) and also getting to visit with ashram residents Matthew and Janaka.
  3. I got to experience anew the truth that “Service is joy!”
  4. And finally, I got to meet a bunch of new interns, a sweet group of souls who’ve come together from all over the country — including Texas, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Florida, and various parts of California.

All in all, an extremely satisfying evening.

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Thanksgiving leftovers

I have to confess that one thing I love about living in community is not having to cook holiday meals! Did it more than enough times in the past and now I don’t miss it one bit.

Except for leftovers!

So I was grateful to find leftover nutloaf at Master’s Market. Today for lunch we added some easy mashed potatoes and had ourselves a very satisfying Thanksgiving leftovers experience.

I now feel entirely done with Thanksgiving 2020.

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Balancing act

I’m actually happy to report that today was not only about productivity!

To be sure, I “got things done”.

But I also spent time immersed in the beauty of Crystal Hermitage Gardens, sat on our patio in the sun, and cooked a delicious meal.