In Support of Home Cooking

Have you ever heard the phrase, "to a hammer, everything is a nail"? Well in a similar way for me, "to a yoga teacher, every lesson is about yoga".

As I leaf through The Sacred Kitchen, I've started making lists of recipes to try, food to buy, things to clean, and stuff to toss or rearrange. I remember the passion and fun I once had for cooking and think of how my food choices have changed, my body lighter and stronger. Gone are the days when I planned for three but was prepared for unexpected guests. These days, I cook for one and eat when I'm hungry and unless I'm having dinner guests, I usually don't shop with a list or menu in mind.

But just as I will often use a yoga prop for a novel approach to a pose, I've decided to go back to using meal plans and shopping lists in my search for a Centered Cuisine, one that's healthy and delicious. When fitness writer Stefan Pinto wrote an article titled 10 Healthy Poor Man's Food for When You Have Nothing to Eat, I got a kick out of it because it lists the organic staples in my kitchen:

1. peanut butter
2. oatmeal
3. brown rice
4. chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
5. tuna
6. black beans
7. lentils
8. corn
9. frozen spinach
10. sweet potatoes

It's a great list of basic foods which will make it easy for me to stay Centered. I looked through a few of my favorite cookbooks and websites yesterday, wrote up a few menus, made a shopping list, and traipsed through Island Naturals in Kailua-Kona with a plan for once.

It was one of the biggest shopping hauls I've made in a long time.

Three bags, spent and down for the count.

I rolled them up and put them back in the case, ready for my next trip. Hopefully, not until the weekend.

Do you have a Top 10 List of your own?