1/2 C. raw rolled oats
cashews
walnuts
almonds
sunflower seeds
sesame seeds
coconut
a squeeze of a lemon, lime, orange / a splash of orange, apple, grapefruit juice / a dollop of yogurt
water

Whether you just want the oats or all the nuts and seeds is a personal choice, but soaking grains (etc.) is a great practice to get into. In essence, soaking enables the grain (or whichever) to start a pre-digestion process, allowing the human body to break down the formerly dense material more efficiently and thus access a more pronounced nutritional content. By using a bit of citrus, or an active culture like yogurt, you are activating the cereal and whatever you’ve put in it.

You let this mixture soak OVERNIGHT. So, before you go to bed, take part in the meditative routine of preparing your oats for the next morning: put all the ingredients you choose into a bowl, cover with warm (ish) water, cover, and place in the warmest part of your kitchen – in the morning: delicious, tender cereal!  You’re welcome to add a dash of cinnamon or a teaspoon of honey, and, for us, fresh fruit, in the morn.

Lentil tomato stew :

1 cup lentils, rinsed
7 cups water
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 medium size onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups stewed tomatoes (we stew our own tomatoes)
2 teaspoons unbleached sea salt
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (our cayenne is really powerful so I use a bit less than this)
1/4 cup brown rice, uncooked
1/4 cup lemon juice (fresh)

Place lentils and water in a saucepan and bring to boil. Cover and cook over medium heat for 25 minutes.

In the meantime, in a frying pan, heat oil and sauté onions and garlic until they turn golden brown. Stir in remaining ingredients, except lemon juice, and sauté for another 5 minutes.

Stir the frying pan contents into the lentils and bring to boil. Cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes or until rice and lentils are well-cooked. Stir in lemon juice and serve hot.

(This recipe adapted from an excellent vegetarian soups from the Middle East site.)

This is incredibly tasty. During the retreat we had this served over red quinoa: divine.

Kale chips :

One bunch of kale (lacinato, red, etc.)
Olive oil
Sea salt

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash and dry the kale. Pull the leaf from the stalk into bite size pieces – you can still cook the stalk but it’s much tougher so nice to separate the leaf from it. Put all of the kale into a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt, using your HANDS massage the kale, oil, and salt together, transforming the shade of the leaves. Put the kale on a baking sheet, into the oven, and set a timer for about five minutes; they do not take very long to cook. You know they are done when you can shake the baking sheet and all of them move around, crispy and light!

I can eat an entire pan of these by myself; kale is rich in antioxidants, considered an anti-inflammatory, very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and calcium, believed to have anti-cancer properties due to its content of sulforaphane, also a source of indole-3-carbinol, a chemical which boosts DNA repair in cells and appears to block the growth of cancer cells, and is a good source carotenoids! Kale! Thank you Wikipedia for that information!

More recipes to come, but time to prepare for my afternoon class.

The organizers: Nadia Stevens, of Sustainable Healing, a project that introduces acupressure, herbs, food, breathing, qi gong, and awareness as avenues toward a sense of health and well-being that is long-lasting and meaningful; Jordan Nardone, a masso-kinesitherapist: an integrative approach utilizing various massage techniques, with an intimate knowledge of human anatomy, treating the person as a whole and working to restore balance in the body; Wendy Ayotte, a certified flower essence therapist, works with the liquid extract of flowers to address issues of emotional and mental well-being in a very gentle way: through the healing life force of flowers; Lauren Trimble, a graphic designer, artist; and Kevin Alexander, a distributor for Yogi and Numi teas and Green & Black’s fair trade organic chocolate (we were gifted about twenty boxes of tea and two large boxes of chocolate after this event!).

I relish re-imagining the space. We created seating for everyone by layering up from the floor to stools – amphitheater style. Tea and snacks were available throughout the evening and people brought their marketing materials to share with others.

A beautiful evening yielded the desire for more: the next Healing Arts event is January twenty-ninth.

Finding Balance, the weekend of 10/10/10:

From October ninth to eleventh, I had the pleasure of hosting a workshop: Finding Balance: A Wholefoods and Detoxification Weekend, with my friend and yoga teacher, Kristi Sullivan. Six delightful, dynamic, different women attended the ‘retreat’ – all hailing from Northeast United States, Connecticut connections.  We slept, ate, yoged, talked, laughed in the space – a beautiful panoply of people, poses, and plant-based diets. The first afternoon yoga practice, led by me, lengthened compression from walking, car-riding, sitting: elongating the spine, the back of the legs. That evening we dined at a favourite place in the city: aux vivres: a creative, vegan restaurant down the street from us; a brisk walk home, bed arrangement, sleep. Nine of us mapping the floors with various modes of repose.

We woke to warm our bodies through a yin asana practice with Kristi as our teacher; deep opening into the connective tissue of the hips, the fascia of the shoulders, the intercostal muscles of the ribs: a meditative practice, working through silence and stillness to find peace and calm.

Our traditional breakfast of soaked oats, nuts, and seeds, adorned with farm fresh apples greeted the group that first morning. One aim of the weekend was to showcase my and Andrew’s diet, with an introduction to preparation and health benefits. It was during this breakfast that I first presented a primer on our food philosophy and welcomed investigation into the things found in the studio space.

A short break, then a detailed discussion about physical and emotional detoxification from Kristi. She spoke about the active and inactive periods of the day, foods that nurture and foods that inhibit energy flow, the importance of meditation and keeping a journal, and other techniques and suggestions for further routes of detoxification. From rhetoric we then rose to practice: an invigorating and demanding detoxifying asana sequence ensued.

Lunch at La Lumiere du Mile End: one of our favourite spots in the city, for delicious lunches and ready smiles. Back to the studio to relax, start making dinner, and talk more about the conscious decisions employed throughout our household in regards to hygiene, food, cleaning supplies, overall consumption, and more.

Dinner hosted up a stew of lentils, tomatoes, and savory spices (recipe to follow), steamed red quinoa, roasted farm-fresh acorn squash, and kale chips (recipe to follow, as well). The evening spilled into the night and we closed out the day with a screening (on the studio wall with a projector) of an episode of a BBC produced television show called ‘Tribe.’ Then, to sleep.

Morning yoga to herald in a new day, soaked oat concoction for breakfast, and then our wonderful guests departed for points south.

What a marvelous weekend! There seemed, to me, a synergistic energy between the group and our environment. Everyone learned something and an open channel of honest inquiry and sharing was established. I am looking forward to having another retreat in the spring!

Check out the photographs!

Photo by: Andrei Kalamkarov

I wrote a post a week ago about living and loving my path and, since then, there have been so many episodes of clarity and reminders to live in the moment, to experience the prowess of the present – it’s uncanny. The joyful people who are coming into the space are proof enough for the law of attraction.

I am busy: preparing for the street fair that we are participating in on Saturday, coordinating the commencement of our new book club, and then all of that other stuff I do. Ha. Last night I hosted a potluck dinner for my dear friend, Philip, in honour of his imminent departure from Montreal. My penchant for potlucks is strong and there were delicious vegetarian dishes to share:

Gabe: whole wheat couscous salad with lentils, raisins, walnuts, fennel seed, fresh mint, and red onion. Philip: bruschetta. Alec: samosas and grapes. Roddie: mushroom and nut (hazelnut, cashew) pâté. Liz: cupcakes. Seb: moon cake. Me: thinly sliced potatoes roasted in this carrot, ginger, scallion, black pepper broth that I had as a byproduct of my dish for Sunday’s potluck, covered with a sweet summer tomato, garlic sauce with chopped fresh chives on top. I am going to start recording all of my recipes from the panoply of potlucks I seem to frequent – who doesn’t want handfuls of vegan maps to feed the masses!?

Andrew is in England at the moment, attending his sister’s nuptials, visiting friends and family: generally reacquainting himself with lives past, present. I was meant to go with him, but the variety of new business deigned otherwise; a designation I am now pleased occurred: I enjoy being alone with myself, perhaps one of the perks of loving oneself; and, it gives Andrew the opportunity to reintroduce himself without me piping in every two minutes (yes, I have the tendency to pipe).

Ardha Matsyendrasana Photo by: Andrei Kalamkarov

Lately, more new faces are coming into the space, filling me with positive vibrations and further founding my conviction that our project is righteous. I spoke with a person today about the parallels between a traveling life and my life in Montreal. Some find it strange that an itinerant like myself can stop the movement long enough to root. But, in my current position, an incredible gift of travelers (literally and figuratively) come into our space. The current adventure of a sedentary life exhilarates me. I am able to manifest philosophies and diets and practices in my immediate life, everyday; that’s exciting. New people are constantly coming into the space, bringing diverse energy and passion and perspective.

Last night a new friend, made through [ahimsa], came over for dinner. We dined on steamed brown rice, roasted red, yellow, and orange peppers, steamed broccoli, a garlic roasted eggplant and cauliflower mash with fresh basil and chives , and mango purée – all the produce, except for the mango came from my weekly farm basket. For dessert my friend brought homemade cheese cake with homemade gingerbread cookie crust and a cinnamon pear sauce for the top – gorgeously delicious; as soon as I wrote that sentence, I got up to serve myself another piece: irresistibly tasty. Needless to say, the food, faces, friends, and findings elicited from our presence here feels right and meaningful. The interactions are honest and open; there is a security in the space from this transparency gleaned from the passion for the path.

I love my job. I love my life. I love myself. I love my path. I love.

Choosing joy

On the disadvantaged side: we came into a community with virtually no connections (save a few gorgeous folks), thus disabling the ability to call on all friends and family to herald our entrance into the business world, to spread the word of our new-found existence far and wide; I had not built a base of followers, loyal students ready to set up shop with me when a decision to forge out on my own was made; and, my near anonymity within the yoga community in Montreal makes for slow recognition – not only had I not been teaching in one of the established studios, but I had not been practicing in them either.

Advantages: our growth and rooting is completely, gorgeously organic: people’s curiosity draws them into the space and the positive energy and light of our project compels them to return; my near anonymity within the yoga community in Montreal (wait! you may say, you previously listed that as a disadvantage!) – as in all business realms, politics abound – some more subtly than others – and blazing out into the world of studio ownership can ruffle feathers and stub toes if students are drawn away from your previous studio affiliation to your new space, or if care is not taken to support delicate balances within the yogic world. Therefore, my limited alignment with other yogis/studios makes our decisions and goals righteously independent and steadfastly ours. And, finally, we are not reinventing ourselves or compromising our status within our historic community, we are simply here, quietly erecting a community of our dreams.

That being said, I am thoroughly obsessed with the little community we are beginning to build, without burning a single bridge or stepping on lovely, grounded toes. Though it may take us a bit longer to witness the river flowing, the trickle we have initiated feeds the grasses and sates the thirsts, encouraging patience and credence in our souls.

And, let’s be honest, look at this luminous space!

Mindful meditation

Montreal hosts a number of farms that operate outside of the city and bring in their weekly bounty to various drop-off points throughout the city. The farm that we chose Ferme Cadet-Roussel, is only 45 minutes from downtown and drops off our goodies at the local Mile End Mission. Before choosing which farm to go with, Andrew called around to all of them that had drop-off points in our area to ask about farming practices and use of packaging. We elected this farm because it offers a range of vegetables and fruits, with very little packaging (the beans come in a plastic bag, which I empty into one of my canvas bags and give the bag straight back to the farmer), and grow their produce organically and bio-dynamically.

Farm basket bounty!

I love farm day, in part because I get to use my amazing wicker basket! My brother-in-law got me this beautiful, huge, hand-woven basket for Christmas and it feels so lovely to prance out of the house with this massive and gorgeous receptacle linked through my arm, strolling to pick up farm fresh, delicious produce. More often than not the truck is just pulling up when I get there so, as a group, we all help to unload the weekly harvest. This communal effort to get access to our food draws me fondly back to the co-op days with my mother and siblings. My mother was a champion of whole foods for us growing up and worked to set up community food co-operatives to allow us access to bulk, natural products.

I LOVED co-op day. The first co-op I remember we were living in Massachusetts and met the delivery truck outside of this old church once a month. Everyone rallied to unload the goods into the church basement to start the process of splitting up the orders. Rather than having a co-op store front (which is what Andrew and I are a part of with Le Frigo Vert), my mother, and a host of other mothers, eliminated that part of the supply chain and did all ordering, sharing, separating, and organization themselves. Looking back on it, I am always impressed. As a young one, my job usually entailed browsing the bulk goods with a spoon: a taste of rolled oats here, a dip into the peanut butter there. But, the mothers relinquished precious free time to make food sharing and bulk buying a reality, even in rural Massachusetts. I still remember the recycled paper pages of the co-operative catalog – a, what seemed at the time infinite, list of food, beverage, health care products, and beauty supplies.

When we moved to Connecticut my mother took it upon herself to start up another co-op, refusing to let the lack of one deter her wish to feed us well and save money simultaneously. I so admire my mother for her tenacity and resolve to shield her children from the burgeoning processed and preservative filled foods that the eighties aggressively propagated. I can distinctly remember the first time I tried “fake” peanut butter (a.k.a. Skippy) – I could not understand the correlation between this incredibly sweet, whipped spread and the massive buckets of oil-topped crunchy nut butter that I grew up on. I am so fortunate that my mother’s dedication was so strong and that her passion about food and healthy diets passed through the blood line to me.

But, back to the CSA! This week’s basket contained: a head of green cabbage, potatoes, carrots, green beans, onions, garlic, loads of green plums, tomatoes, a cucumber, a cantaloupe, fresh chives, mint, basil, parsley, and lemon grass, and a head of lettuce – all gorgeously fresh and ridiculously tasty. Some weeks bear more than others, but that is the risk you take to help support local farmers. There are opportunities for CSA throughout the US and Canada – next summer, check it out (if you’re not participating already)!

I mentioned before that I lustrously approach organization and aesthetic; having what essentially amounts to a show house, seriously pleases me. The morning ritual’s tedium comforts me, calms my mind, prepares me for the day; a penchant for meditation furthers the rites.

The space is constantly filled with reverberating vibrations of ‘ ૐ,’ I chant mantra regularly, people share a part of their journey with us: nothing short of exhilarating.

Filled with gratitude: the space, a wondrous support web woven, massive windowsills to perch in, a miniature jungle of majestic, miraculous plants – all is well.

Window seat.

A positive result of the absence of students is that I have found more time for meditation. My morning classes are rarely attended so, I try use the time I would have taught to meditate. Patience is the overarching theme: release expectations, work as hard as I can to achieve success, and practice patience every moment of every day. I find solace in this new-found patience, a skill that is not always at the forefront of my attributes. I knew that this venture would bring about myriad learning experiences and, along with my budding graphic design skills, patience is pronounced.

I am an apostle of hustle.

On a less dreary note, last Friday was our first vegan potluck, following our conscious community class. We had five people join us for a sumptuous meal and, luckily, Andrew was able to attend as well. (Andrew got a promotion at his job to prep chef – he works in the kitchen of this delicious Italian restaurant – so, during his training, he is only working Monday to Thursday – woot!) We dined on lentil, tomato soup, kale/chard/yellow cherry tomato salad, succulent yellow watermelon, juicy pineapple, sweet mango, cabbage, beetroot, mango coleslaw, spinach, banana, mango smoothie, and fresh nectarines with cinnamon infused coconut cream! The meal was delightful and the company was so very pleasant. I am really looking forward to building on this tradition and welcoming as many people into our kitchen as possible!

On Sunday, we had a photo shoot. We met Andrei (the photographer) at the park one sunny afternoon and it came about that he loves photographing yoga and was eager to do a trade – win! So, I got together a group of magnanimous friends who were willing to take up part of their Sunday to come into the studio to simulate a class (so I didn’t have to interrupt a scheduled class with a photographer prancing around). I had so much fun! I find it exhilarating to be photographed and am anxious to see the results. Andrei took photos of the studio space itself, without people, the “class,” posed group shots, solo ones of me in asana, and Andrew and me. He was here for a few hours and I was giddy with excitement – getting professional photos of the space on the website will ideally attract more joyous souls into this lovely space!

So, on that note, I am off to work on the SEO (search engine optimization) of our website – making it easier for people to find us online when they search for certain things in Google (or whatever search engine people use!). Wahoo. Yet another exciting learning experience awaits.

Yoga in Sanskrit literally means ‘to yoke’ – the idea of yoking your spiritual higher power with your physical body – based on the concept that everyone hosts an enlightened being within them and, through meditation and a commitment to this yoking, enlightenment and the highest level of consciousness is attainable, for all.

My take on it: Choose joy; that is what yoga means. Find your joy, within body, mind, and soul, and express it to the fullest potential: illuminating all, releasing all judgment. Thus, with this definition, yoga is unique to each person it touches, every resonance resplendently diametric. Yoga is an art form, a spirituality, a science, a way of life, a business, a path, a gift – the list interminable. Yoga is your own.

Downward Facing Dog

Having this brilliant space to share yoga with others is a gift for me; the energy it emits and the people it attracts: gorgeous. So, I meditate, manifest in my mind the cultivation of roots and the growth of a community that shares joy and food and knowledge. This Friday, after the conscious community class, a new tradition is set in motion: vegan potluck dinners. We are building it, they will come.