Meatless Monday Week 2

I hope you tried and enjoyed the meatless recipes last week. Today's main recipe is amazing, hearty and full of flavour I served it to my husband recently along with Indonesian Cabbage Salad and he said it was one of the best meals he had eaten in a while.

The Answer to last weeks question is Dairy.....go to last weeks post if you want to know the question.

This weeks question. How much water does it take to raise a lb of beef ?

Breakfast

Banana Wrap

One Medium Banana

Peanut or Almond Butter

Wrap - I use Brown Rice Wraps they are gluten free and lower on the glycemic index.

Just spread the Peanut or almond butter on the wrap place banana on top and roll the wrap. Yum. Enjoy with a cold glass of almond milk or freshly squeezed grapefruit juice.

Lunch

Indonesian Cabbage Salad with Red Curry Almond Sauce - From the book Eat & Run, Scott Jurek

1/2 head of green cabbage, coarsely shredded

4 stalks bok choy or 1 head baby bok choy, sliced into 1/4 inches pieces

1 carrot, peeled and cut into thin rounds

1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 2 -inch long thin strips.

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

1/2 to 1/4 Red Curry Lamond Sauce (see recipe below)

Toss all ingredients to combine and let sit for 10 to 20 minutes or more before serving.

Red Curry Almond Sauce

1/2 cup almond butter

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup fresh lime juice or rice vinegar

2 tablespoons agave nectar or maple syrup

2 teaspoons Thai red curry paste, or to taste 

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl or blender. Mix well until smooth. Keeps refrigerated for 2 weeks or frozen for several months.

Thrive Black Bean Salsa - Looooooooooove this recipes (From Brendan Braziers Book - The Thrive Diet

Juice of 1/2 lime

2 cloves garlic minced

1 tomato diced

2 cup cooked black beans

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp hemp oil

1/2 tsp cayenne 

 1/2 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients together, will keep in fridge for up to a week.

Nutritional information provided - makes 4 servings - Each serving Calicoes 107.5, Fat 4 grams, Carbohydrates 15.0, Protein 4.5grams

Serve in a wrap, or with crackers or sometimes I eat it on a bed of greens, so no additional salad dressing is required. Enjoy some raw veggies on the side, try something different like sliced sweet potato's they are delicious raw.

Dinner

Minnesota Winter chili - From the Book Eat & Run by Scott Jurek

This is the best chili I have ever eaten. Freeze half or make a double batch for later meals, and for burritos.

Minnesota Winter Chili

1 tbsp coconut or olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup finely chopped onion

8 to 10 medium mushrooms, chopped

½ cup finely chopped green bell pepper

½ cup finely chopped green bell pepper

½ cup finely chopped carrots

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced (optional)

1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 tsp sea salt, or more to taste

½ tsp black pepper

1             28-ounce can diced tomatoes

1             15-ounce can of tomato puree

1             15 -ounce can kidney beans, drained

1             15 –ounce can black beans drained

1             15 ounce can red beans drained

2 ½         cups water

½            cup dry Bulgar wheat

Hot sauce or cayenne pepper (optional)

¼            cup minced fresh cilantro for garnish (optional)

Directions

Add oil to a large pot. Saute the vegetables and spices in the oil over medium to medium-low heat for 10 minutes or until tender. Add a few tablespoons of water if the veggies being sticking to the pot. Add the remaining ingredients except the cilantro and simmer over medium-low heat, covered for 30 minutes.

Stir and simmer for an additional 30 minutes until veggies are cooked through. Season with salt and if more spice is desired, hot sauce or cayenne pepper to taste.  Serve, sprinkled with the cilantro if desired.

Freezes well, no nutritional info was provided.

Serve with  veggies. Try roasted cauliflower, I just toss cauliflower with some olive or coconut oil, sea salt to taste and roast in the oven at a higher heat around 450

Why Are you Not Happy ?

So if you have it all then why aren’t you happy? Why is there that desire for more? Yoga philosophy would teach us it the Klesha’s, and these 5 Klesha’s are cause of all suffering. 

The first Klesha is Avidya (ignorance).  Specifically, it means not truth (a-vidya). It is ignorance to what is real. The other 4 Klesha’s are related to Avidya, so it  is said that this Klesha is often referred to as the trunk of the tree.

Asmita (I-am-ness) is the identification of ourselves with our ego. We create an image of ourselves that we believe is us, but it is not us. We become trapped within the projections we have created of our life. We think I am a teacher or I am an accountant, these are not what we are, they are things we do. We forget that we are divine in nature.

Raga (attachment) is the attraction for things that bring satisfaction to oneself. Our desire for pleasurable experiences creates mindless action. Each time we buy a new car, that new name brand yoga top, a pair of shoes or take another great trip. we feel great, but this feeling is fleeting. We become like a hungry monster always needing things to fill us but we are never full for long. We suffer and feel empty and wonder what next? We can become so attached to pleasurable things such as food that we die of diseases caused by the food we eat. We become addicted to pleasure.

We can also become attached to people and old ways of thinking. We forget that things do not bring us happiness that the true path to happiness is through contentment, gratitude and understanding our divine nature.

Dvesha (repulsion) is the opposite of raga, aversion towards things that produce unpleasant experiences. We try to avoid unpleasant things, we are not disciplined in our food, exercise or life. We avoid things that seem hard and seek always for an easy softer way to. We suffer because of this as it dampens our will to evolve and we get trapped in a cycle of failure.

Abhinivesha (will to live/fear of death) is the deepest and most universal Klesha, remaining with us until our death. We know that one day we will die, yet our fear of death is a deeply buried in our unconsciousness. Fearing death often prevents us from living our life, taking risks and interferes with the spiritual freedom we seek.

The first stage of working with the Klesha’s is to simply acknowledge them in ourselves, yes we suffer from all of the Klesha’s in varying degrees, that like the waves of an ocean can fluctuate. To begin we just need to reflect on this and become awareness. Awareness of our nature is the first step to freedom.

The practice of asana (postures), pranayama and mediation taught in yoga classes can help us delve deep within ourselves and begin this path to freedom.

 For more information or to attend a yoga class contact sheree@livewithspirit.ca. At livewithspirit.ca we offer well taught yoga as a path to peace, physical ease and happiness.

My Life to Date

  I've heard it said that life has it ups and downs that it can be like a roller coaster ride, and old friend of mine used to say "hang on to your hat on the way down", as she would laugh. I have always loved that analogy as life can be very much like that.

In my corporate career as a sales person I was once the best sales person a company ever had, in fact 10 years after I left that company, no one had beaten my record. At another company I was fired for not meeting my target, in fact I got nowhere near my target that  year, it was like I had fired my arrow in the opposite direction. So, was I a good sales person or a horrible one, and more importantly what did those experiences teach me.

Each one was a great teacher. To be the best carries a burden, trying to stay there is hard and the praise that comes with being on the top can be giddy at times, at times you wonder how you got there, can you stay there, will they see through you, do you deserve this success. When on top I learned to stay calm, not to take myself to serioulsy and most of all, to enjoy the brief time in the limelight with grace and humilty. To be the top salesperson means you have a seriously good team behind you, you don't get to the top on your own.

Ah. but to be on the bottom that's a whole different feel, constant pressure from sales managers, unreturned phone class from clients, loss of income, with this comes a whole different kind of pressure. Can you be in this situation and still truly believe that you are doing your best, that you are good enough, that things will (and they will) turn around. Can you stand tall when everyone knows you are on the edge of losing your job ? Can you feel equal too the people around you who are on the top

My career in sales was such a great teacher for me, I am so glad I had that experience, often today when things are happening in my business I can look back to a past experience and know where I am. On the way up or on the way down, or even just coasting for awhile.

My career in sales taught me the following about myself, I am tenacious, hardworking, generous, persistent to a fault, I care about my clients, and need to love what I do and the team to perform well, I can't fake it. It also taught me I am horrible at conflict resolution, I avoid conflict like a turtle, and only deal with it when someones rips the shell off me, I can be impatient and impulsive and need to slow down a bit. I can also not appear gratetful to the team because I am already on to the next project, it can be hard to keep up with my fast mind.

But what a blessing to know myself so well as  it is the truth that sets you free and until you know who you are you are still imprisoned. So off into the world  I go generous, impatient, loving, impulsive, passive, tenacious, hopefully you will meet me when one of my good qualities is shining but if you don't come back tomorrow as I could be a totally different person.

Lifting the Veil

Life is not easy for anyone, or maybe I am wrong, maybe it's been easy for you. In my life I have faced many challenges, some of them brought on by other people, "random acts of badness"  you might call them, some brought on my own difficulties in dealing with people. My fears rubbing up against your fears can sometimes make for bad relationships.

 Years ago I took a yoga course and the facilitator asked us to look around this room, she explained that each person in this room has survived an event or situation so horrible that if you knew what it was, you would wonder how they had coped with it. It is for this reason that acting out of compassion is always the best choice, we know not what the person next to us is struggling with. We also don't always know how these events have affected us and continue to affect our actions day in a day out.

We not only wear a mask to hide our true selves from each other, but we often wear the veil of the lies we tell ourselves, our self justifications and our denial.  It really is a lifelong journey to get to know yourself, even just a bit.

I believe that the mask is  the Armour we have created one to protect ourselves from others and that  we wear the  veil to convince ourselves that we are not the problem. We say to ourselves things like,  I'm okay it's other people, we can even find friends to validate this thinking, they will lie to us, saying exactly what we want to hear.

Lifting our veil is not so easy, we are a society that honors masks and veils. Yet, my studies of yoga and other spiritual traditions would tell me that deep down I am perfect, I have no ill intentions, I am good, in fact I have a piece of the divine in me that just needs to be revealed. But getting to that inner goodness is often a maze of lies, self denial, and protective thinking.No one wants to feel vulnerable or exposed.

So why are we so afraid to be real to ourselves to say hey I have a problem with anger, or why does envy keep making my relationships so difficult. I believe we fear the unknown so we cling to our habits as they keep us in the safe box of our lives. What would happen to us if we change ? Fear of change is huge for most people including myself, we lie to ourselves and say we like change but really it frightens us, we stay in bad jobs, and relationships way too long, clinging to the sameness of it, telling ourselves well intentioned lies.

I have told myself many so many lies over the years that when I first began my spiritual studies, I wasn't sure what was the truth and which were the lies.

I can honestly say that getting through my veil has been an amazing journey, I know who I am and I like who I am. I have stuff I need to work on ( more stuff is always being revealed to me),  but at this stage of my journey I have enough past experiences to know that cleaning out the debris brings fresh energy, new ways of thinking and new directions. 

Recently a phsyic  told me husband that my lack of trust has caused me to miss many opportunities, and that the lack of trust stems from my past. I was stunned, I said no way, I have dealt with my past, I am open. My husband looked at me with a kind smile.

So as I end this blog I am going to meet a stranger for coffee, one who thinks he has a great business opportunity for me, normally I wouldn't trust someone who said this to me, but today I am going to stay open to new people and new ideas as I discover how to trust more and most of all trust that I can handle any situation.

It is said that a person's eyes are the gateway to their soul

It is said that a persons eyes are the gateway to their soul, by looking deeply into someones eyes you can often feel that soul connection. Often too you can feel their sadness .   I sometimes see great sadness in the people I know and love and I wish I could wave a magic wand and take it away from them, but the truth is, happiness is and always has been a choice you have to make. It's like the game show The Price is Right, when you wake up in the morning which door are you going to  choose ? The one that leads to happiness or the door(s) that lead to resentment, anger, envy or some of the other afflictions of the mind.

We live in a society where people go to great lengths to look great, and spend very little time nurturing their soul, developing happiness, contentment and other positive attributes. Mostly because I believe we have not been taught how to live a spiritual life. The schools don't offer it and for many the churches don't offer it either.

I recently heard on a radio  and advertisement for a website, the commercial was suggesting that you could hold a door open for someone to restore their/your faith in humankind. I listened to this incredulous commercial I  remember thinking as  that I have never lost my faith in human kind, i have doors help open for me all the time by the young, old. men, women and children. I am always grateful when someone holds a door for me, it is an act of kindness that I love. I would personally think if you need to restore your faith in mankind you need to look within and find out why you are so negative, there are kind people all around us, the world has it's problems no doubt, but look at all the great people trying to do something about it. 

The world has never been perfect, there is no going back to a better time, we are living in better times. This is why I love the quote "We are the people we are waiting for", it is a reminder to me that I/you can make a difference right here and now, we don't need a saviour or some great hero to do it. It is our responsibility, look at the story of Rosa Parks and know that anyone can make a difference.

I love the times we are living in, yes there is war but war has existed for a long time, but we live in a time of better acceptance, I get excited when gay couple gets married or when I see them being affectionate on a street, I was raised in a time when gays hid who they were, I have lived in a time when racism was rampant and open, men were allowed to hit their wives and children were beaten as a form of discipline. I for one, do not want to go back to the those days. Maybe rather then thinking we need to go back to family values we need to focus on the new family and what values we currently hold as important.

Every time I see a mixed race couple I remember how hard it used to be for mixed race couples, when I was 18 I dated and fell in love with someone who was not Caucasian, it was 1978 and I was  taunted on the streets and stared at on the transit system,  some family members and some of the parents of close friends shunned me. I remember being told I didn't  have to date him, as I wasn't fat or ugly, as the common belief back then was that only ugly white girls dated men of other nationalities. We were just two teenagers in love. Today I live in a community full of mixed race couples.

So it makes me happy when I see how far we have come, and I love that more and more people are becoming spiritual seekers, they are looking for something deeper, a better connection and they are flocking to Yoga and Buddhism, 12 step groups and more. Recognizing that you need a deeper connection is I believe one of  the first step towards happiness.

First you must realize that you are not alone, we are all connected and we are not meant to be islands of self sufficiency, we are meant to work, live and be together helping each other. It is when we think we are separate that we  become selfish and selfishness is a disease of the mind that wrecks havoc in relationships.

I have had a spiritual director for about 19 years now, and this relationship is one of the most important ones that I have, this man helps me walk through the maze of my mind and come out with clear, loving thoughts. I trust this man and love him, sometimes he is tough and other times gentle. To be honest he helps me cut through the bullshit of my mind. This important relationship is one of my keys to being happy.

Thirdly I love to read about great people, spiritual books and read quotes. i like to start my day reading something positive, something that will set my day on the right path.

I also work hard at forgiving myself and others, I try not to cling to the stuff that has hurt me, I talk about it, and then let it go.

I eat well, eating crappy food makes me tired and lethargic. I exercise, yoga, running, walking and more, my fit body moves easier, takes less energy and I love how I feel and look. What more can I say, exercise is awesome.

I am openly loving and affectionate with the people in my life, I tell them I love them and show it too.

When life gets busy I plan a retreat, I take time to pull away and be still and connect with God. 

I connect with God every day, I spend time in prayer and or mediation and feeling grateful.

I love my life.

Some ramblings on Acceptence

Many years ago I had a mentor, who used to tell me that the key to happiness was acceptance. Accepting people and situations for what and who they really were. She would tell me over and over again that I needed to accept people for who they were. She often sounded  like a broken record. Could I always be in the wrong ? Was I always my problem ? And yes most of the time I was wrong, I was a serious whiner back then.

Acceptance can be confusing. At that  time in  my life I was married to my first husband and  I wasn't happy. I thought that to accept  my husband for who he was meant I would have to stay married to him.  But I was wrong, acceptance meant that I took a long hard look at the marriage for what it really was, I had to accept myself for who I was and accept my ex-husband for who he was. When I accepted all these things I made the tough decision  to separate. So acceptance was not some sort of prison. it was actually freedom.

This may seem like a weird Christmas message but I really think it's an important one. I love my family I just  feel at peace being around them and I hope they enjoy me too. Many families don't have this, Christmas can be a tense time where families come together out of duty but don't really want to be there. I hate to leave, I prolong leaving as long as I can.

I think family is important, I love that my family accepts me for who I am and the choices I have made. In fact they are really quite good at this.

I have a very blended family, divorces have brought us step kids, step grandchildren,  step mothers, step fathers. I am my husbands third wife, I have been married twice, together we have 6 children, I had a daughter with my first husband and my husband had children with both his ex wives. We have been together now 15 years. My parents are divorced and both remarried, my father is now a widow and is dating my friend. On the outside we would seem like a great reality show. Heading the entire family is my 92 year old grandmother who was married to my grandfather for over 60 years, she is kind of like queen Elisabeth, stable and unchanging. Yet my grandmother amazes me as she accepts  as gay  family members "come out" and marry, and other family members divorce and remarry.

Can we take the unique quilt called our family and appreciate it for it's beauty, even if some of the stitches are crooked ?

There is a lot of love in my family so I guess in the end family does not have to be related by blood but by be love and acceptance.

So tonight I dedicate this blog to my Mom, whom I love. Who now joins us at my Dad's place on Christmas day so that now my siblings and I can spend Christmas with both our parents. What a joy it is to be able to share this sacred family day with both my parents.

I am excited about my life, super excited in fact.

I am excited about my life, super excited in fact.

I have done a lot of work on myself this fall, stripping away old habits, losing a ton of weight and really trying to figure out a few things. As a result I feel amazing. I am thinner then I remember being, I am strong emotionally and I have reconnected with some great relationships, my calendar for the next couple of weeks is booked with lunches and hikes with some of the most positive people I know. People who support and ground me, and who like me.

I took an online course by  Robin Sharma and did a ton of writing, both business and personal, it was well worth both the effort and the cost.

The results are as follows; I love what I do, I love yoga, I love running and most of all I love sharing this passion with people. I love  the studio, it attracts such kind and interesting people, my students inspire me to be a better teacher. I love their stories and am grateful for their support of my dream.

I also love my marriage, my husband is aweseome, supportive, generous, and super fun, he makes me laugh almost every day. I would marry him all over again if given the choice. Through his eyes I see myself, both the good and the bad, He has been my greatest teacher.

I have some great relationships and some I need to change, I have some negative people in my life and sadly I have to move away from them. This is never easy and won't be done with out some sadness..


I would like to spend more time with my grandchildren, they are full of unconditional love that decompresses me.

I need to do more yoga, it centers me and connects me to a divine energy that seems to flow through me when I am practicing yoga. I seem to float through life less attached to outcomes, the opinions of others, other various attachments. I hope to float more next year.

I want to run more too, I have loved running this fall, I am strong and  running is an amazing form of meditation. Running clears  old and negative thoughts from my head so that  new creative ideas can float in.

I need to play more, I work a bit too much, the downfall of owning your own business, in just a week I will be away with my husband at a resort. I need to do more of this kind of stuff.

I am going to ask more of the people in my life, both professionally and personally, I will express my voice more often. I will strive to do this in a loving way.


As part of the course I took I did an exercise that I really thought was great.  I wrote out the 5 things that would make next year the best year of my life, one was physical, one was spiritual, one involved my business, one involved family and one involved adventure.  I have already  begun the journey in some of these areas.
 I know that these things may not happen but the exercise along helped me to refocus on what is really important in my life.

I have shared some of these with friends and with their love and support I hope to embark on the  best year of my life, so bring in 2012 becuase I am ready, surrounded by great students, family and friends.

I love being of service to the universe, and I hope more and more I can get myself out of the way and let the flow happen.