Lessons in Balance

Reverb 10 - Try

 

Reverb 10, The Prompt:

December 18 – Try. What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn’t go for it? (Author: Kaileen Elise)

My Response:

I've been edging my way toward this one. Several times throughout the last two years I announced that I would get back into the kitchen and start cooking again. Cooking with the same passion and joy that I had for it over 20 years ago.

I don't miss cooking for a crowd or being responsible for the meals of others, but I do miss skimming through food magazines and cookbooks, planning meals for the week, and trying new dishes. The photo above is a page from a Bon Appetit recipe binder that I kept in the 80's with magazine clippings and recipes, now brown and worn. They remind me of the joy of cooking I once had, although I only focused on main dishes for dinner.

I think I'll try this instead: make something in the kitchen everyday. It could be an appetizer, salad dressing, salad, main dish, dessert, condiment, sauce, etc. I'd like to plan it so that I'll have a constant supply of homemade dishes for myself and for company. I would like that a lot.

“You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need." - Rolling Stones

 

My Own Food Rating System

Breakfast for me is often a drink as shown above, which is easily my first serving of:

• 1 Mango
• 3 bananas (frozen, whole)
• 2 Tablespoons ground Flax seeds
• 1 Tablespoon raw hemp protein
• 1 cup Lemon/Ginger juice with echinacea
• 1 teaspoon Flax Oil
• 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries
• 1/2 cup ice cubes

Into my Vita-Mix, I first pour the juice, add the ground flax seeds (also done in the Vita-Mix), protein powder, fruits and flax oil. Ice cubes on the top seem to work best with the blender turned on low and slowly accelerated to full power. In less than 30 seconds, my smoothie smothers my taste buds with cold, natural sweetness.

As I looked at my blended food this morning I thought, "It looks good, tastes good and does good. That would be a great way to rate and grade what I consume." No matter how beneficial something is for me, if it looks and tastes awful, it's not getting past the taste bud patrol very often. (Wheat grass juice, I'm talking to you).

On the other hand, a beautiful hot, melting chocolate souffle will definitely taste good, but lose out in the "Do Good" category, even if the waiter comes back to retrieve my empty plate and says, "You did good!"

From now on, 3 Goods is the rating I'd like to be able to give my food. Now for the rating icons. Suggestions anyone?

It's Simply a Pot of Soup

If there's a philosophy behind the making of soup, I believe it's a simple one. I used to love the allegorical tales of Nathaniel Hawthorne and D.H. Lawrence and now, find more joy in the messages that stream from my 8 quart pot. I crave simple answers.

I once asked artist Tadashi Sato what his lifetime goal was for his art and he said, "I'd like to paint one broad brush stroke and have people understand everything I have to say in that one stroke." I learned that it takes practice to make it simple.

That is why the whole concept of  43 Things  appeals to me. It narrows everything down to 43 Things and with practice, I'd like to pare it down to just 1 Thing. I'm already beginning to see the way everything interrelates. Of the suggested 43 categories, I'm focusing on these 5 Things as I plan, cook and eat a bowl of Lentil Soup:

      #2. Learn New Things. I've been cooking soups and stews for years but never diced the vegetables or held off on the salt until just before serving as the recipe (linked below) instructs. The result is a quick-cooking soup with all the vegetables retaining their flavor.

     # 8. Cook More. I'm trying to be more mindful of what I eat, to eat regularly and be sure that I'm getting enough of the right nutrients. I love the freedom of cooking for one but I need more incentives to cook. Since this soup was so easy and quick to prepare I've made it 3 times in the past 2 weeks with different ingredients.

     #13. Be Healthy. I've decided to make my way back to a plant-based diet, free of animal products but I don't want my iron levels to fall back to where they were 5 or 6 years ago. Anemia is not the animated-Asian picture I have in mind for myself. The lentils in this soup are high in iron.

     #19. Have More Friends. Twitter has introduced me to a lot of interesting people and as long as they're real and courteous I like to follow people of assorted political, religious and career interests. Still operating though, as in face-to-face relationships, is the law of attraction and I thank Twitter for bringing me Stefan Pinto's 10 Healthy Foods article along with Leslie Ashburn's Easy Lentil Soup recipe.

     #27. Be More Organized. The foods on the list provided by Stefan (@stefanpinto on Twitter) are things you'll always find in my kitchen (lately though, no tuna):

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

Since those foods are always in my pantry, I must like them and I've started to look for new recipes containing those ingredients.  Leslie's (@MacroHawaii on Twitter) Easy Lentil Soup recipe, calls for lentils and corn and I've also used sweet potatoes and cooked brown rice.

Everything around me is conspiring for me. It's as simple as that. The hard part is getting over the belief that it's supposed to be hard. That's where practice fits in. As I continue to add to my list of 43 Things, I want to hang on to these thoughts:

• What's the One Thing that I want?
• Everything is interrelated, just connect the dots
• Rest assured that everything works for me
• Believe in the simplicity of it all

Try making the Easy Lentil Soup and see what profound message appears for you. Then please come back here to tell me what it was.

Photo: Real Simple