ANOTHER 101 Cookbooks recipe...

I'm in the middle of the immersion right now - so far, the biggest challenge is figuring out when to squeeze in my homework. I have a ton of reading to finish for Monday and so far I have done exactly almost none of it. So logically, last night I eschewed productivity in favor of a Birthday party. What are these "adult responsibilities" you speak of...?

When my friend Amanda said that she was having a POTLUCK birthday party on Saturday, my first thought was "how am I going to find time to cook anything on Saturday??" Desserts were out - she's got those covered. I was in the immersion from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm, and I need my morning hours to get reading done... so with only an hour and a half to get home, change, shower, whip something together and head over to the party, I knew I needed something that a) I had most of the ingredients for already, and b) I could prep the day before, toss the ingredients together and run. But it still had to be delicious.

Oh, 101 Coobooks, you save my life. I'm pretty sure I owe Heidi my first-born child (sorry Ben). Or at least several blog mentions. Done. I didn't mess with this recipe at all, so instead of re-typing everything, I'll just link to the recipe for Lemon-Scented Quinoa Salad.



Amanda's party was fantastic as always - it helps when all the guests are awesome cooks and bakers. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera :( Besides my quinoa salad, we had sweet potato samosas, roasted veggies with Tatziki, bread and cheese, cherry-hazelnut blondies, pear chocolate cake, marble bundt cake with raspberry sauce, and mini almond cakes (noticing a theme here...?). Luckily, I decided long ago that it was perfectly ok to have more than one dessert.

Hopefully I'll have time later this weekend to blog about the actual immersion...it's already been really interesting and full of food for thought. Basically we've been doing a lot of yoga, some yoga history and philosophy, a LOT of yoga-related anatomy and physiology, and I've been meeting some really cool people. I think it is going to be more of a mental/emotional challenge than a physical challenge. I kind of want to dive more into the history of yoga and development of the various schools, but that won't happen until immersion two - plenty for the philosphy nerd in me to chew on though ;)

Mother-Daughter night and easy Red Lentil Soup recipe!

Sometimes I manage to talk my mom into coming to yoga with me - more often than not I end up bribing her with soup... or rather, I mention that I made soup, and she then invites herself over to eat some of said soup after class (secret - I would have invited her anyways).

We had a great time, and mom was a total trooper. In Anusara each class has a sort of theme or philosophy behind it that then informs the asanas we practice that day. Last night we talked a lot about balancing doubt with certainty, and how we always need a little bit of each - certainty comforts us and gives us context; doubt is what keeps us coming back. We leave class knowing that we have shelter and food to return to and that comforts us, but we wake up each morning with no idea what the day will bring.

Speaking of comfort, Britany's post earlier this week about the brillance of soups that you can just throw in a pot and let them do their thing reminded me that I haven't made lentil soup in a while! This soup is deceptively simple, easy to get creative with, and has all those warming, comforting qualities that go perfectly with freezing January weather.

This recipe, like my last one, originated at http://www.101cookbooks.com/, but again I added some little things of my own, and I also made some mistakes because I'm only human and sometimes when I cook, things get crazy. Sometimes, humans open the bag too fast causing lentils to explode all over their kitchen counter. Humans also occasionally realize they forgot about the shallots, and so end up rushing frantically to chop them, sautee them in a separate, way too small pan, and then add them to the already cooking soup. These are not actual cooking steps and I would not recommend following them.

Ahem.

RECIPE: EASY LENTIL AND BROWN RICE SOUP
Ingredients
- 2-3 T olive oil
- ½ sweet potato or yam, chopped into little cubes (no bigger than 1cm)
- 1 onion (any color), chopped
- 2-3 shallots
- ½ tsp red pepper flakes
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1 and 1/3 cup red lentils (red lentils cook much faster than other types)
- ½ cup brown rice
- curry powder (2-3 tsp)
- salt (as much as you need)

( I don't normally buy pre-packaged lentils, but the store I went to apparently stopped carrying them in bulk and I was too lazy/time constrained to go anywhere elses so I splurged and bought Bob's Red Mill.)

In a big soup pot over medium heat, combine the olive oil, sweet potato, onion, shallots and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally, over medium heat and let the onions brown and start to caramelize a little.

Note the rogue lentils on the counter - this is real life, people.

Stir in the broth and bring to a boil, then stir in the lentils and rice, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes. By this point the rice will be cooked and the lentils will have totally fallen apart into lentil mush. You can also adjust the thickness by adding more water if you need. Towards the end, stir in 2-3 tsp. of curry powder and some salt (taste the soup before adding salt to see how much you need – a lot depends on how salty your chicken broth is).

Then, you can add whatever toppings you want! Heidi suggests Kalamata olives, feta cheese and sliced toasted almonds. I had none of these on hand, but I HIGHLY recommend squeezing some fresh lemon over your soup - this was the standard garnish for lentil soup in Turkey, and it really adds a nice flavor. I used lemon and some chopped smokehouse almonds, my mom tried lemon and a dollop of sour cream.

Since it's happened at least twice now, I'm thinking that these yoga/soup nights with my mom will become a regular occurance. Also, Anusara immersion at The Om Collective starts TONIGHT! Ahhhh!!! So excited....

Hey there lurkers!

I know you're out there, I see you on my stats page! Three of my friends told me on Monday "hey I read your blog about...blah blah blah, I really liked it!"... who knew?

Don't hide away all introverted in cyberspace, tell me about yourself, even if I have NO idea who you are. What's your story? Where are you from? What's your favorite movie that's so bad it's good? Stuff like this is always interesting, plus comments make me look cool and popular.

Kidding.

Sort of.

But seriously don't be a stranger :)

I finally took my new kicks out for a run today around Lake Calhoun and let me tell you, running in the snow without proper spikes or anything is NOT easy...it's very slippery. And slow. I shuffled around the lake like an 80 year old grandma but still made it back in plenty of time to grab a snack and get to Laura's yoga class before choir. Almost makes me wish I had a treadmill. Definitely makes me wish I had room in my apartment for a treadmill.... and also someplace to practice my inversions other than a wall that borders someone else's apartment. I would probably be concerned if my neighbor was always making noises that sounded like throwing dead bodies around.

OK that's all, I'm not feeling extra creative tonight. I'll leave you with an inspring hump-day quote:

Eighty percent of success is showing up ~ Woody Allen

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Dear Ben,

Today you turn 28. When we met as freshmen in college, we were both 18 - how crazy is that?

I didn't know you, but I thought you were cute. Apparently you though I was cute too, but we somehow neglected to mention this to each other for about eight more years. You were one of my best friends all through college. I will never forget walking to reading night together and re-casting Star-Wars using players from major league baseball teams.

Somewhere along the way, we nicknamed each other Stinky and Smelly. You were my date to president's ball senior year, even though we were just friend

Even after graduation, we were there for each other through good times and bad, and spearheaded the best Twins blog of all Twins blogs, http://heavenlypeanuts.blogspot.com/. We bonded over LOST, Ken Burns documentaries and general nerdiness, but somehow STILL managed to avoid talking about our feelings...

And then, one day, we finally did. And now we get to spend the rest of our lives together. I could not ask for a more kind, loving and wonderful person to be with...even though we have to live together for like...50 YEARS... I have no doubt that we will love and support each other through everything. So, even though today is your birthday I just want you to know that I'm thankful *every* day that you're here. And that sometimes, you still call me Stinky :)

Easy like Monday morning...

Some people get up to go to work on Monday morning. I sit at my kitchen table listening to the Eat Pray Love soundtrack and enjoying my coffee and Breakfast. Maybe the life of a student isn't so bad :) Oh by the by, have I mentioned how much I love my new cup from Anthropologie? It's actually part of this set, which for some wierd reason I am completely in love with. I actually am considering registering for it... the giant sea-creature theme makes me feel like a kid...I like things that make me feel like a kid.

Watch out little boat...the squid is coming!

She's goin' down Cap'n!!

Fun Fact: When I was little, my friend Ellen and I would order gummy bears as an ice cream topping for the sole purpose of drowining them and making sound effects like "nooooo! save meeee!!!" How sadistic is that, right? But now, as an adult, I can indulge this strangeness by sinking tiny boats in coffee.

Perfect breakfast: plain yogurt, half a pear and some Kashi Go Lean cereal topped with honey and cinnamon

In with the new

Due partly to being a student with no income, and partly to the upcoming wedding/honeymoon situation which is going to be quite expensive, I decided shortly before Christmas to do my best not to buy anything I didn't absolutely need until I start work in June. This is going to be HARD. Part of why I'm posting it here is to keep me honest - Ben is also helping to keep me honest.

So, logically, this post is about all the new stuff I got this weekend!

Don't worry, I didn't break any rules - all of it was stuff I either didn't buy, or didn't not need (aka, I needed it, but for some reason the double-negative seemed appropriate here).

On Saturday I went shopping with my dad - even though I'm a real adult now, we still have our post-Christmas tradition of going shopping for my present(s) and then having dinner somewhere fun just the two of us. This is honestly one of my favorite days of the year - my dad and I hang out a lot but for some reason this day is always really special. For example, my dad never, ever, tells me what to do with my life but on our post-Christmas day two years ago we had one of the best, most life-changing (for me) conversations we've ever had (if anyone wants to hear the story, I can post it at some point. It sort of relates to my upcoming wedding). We hit up the Anthropologie sale and Len Druskin and came away with the following spoils:

I LOVE the skirt... I tend to gravitate towards pieces with fun details, and this is totally work-appropriate too. The bathing suit was mostly because I have Thailand on the brain...but check out the cool tag! Just about awesome.

Now on to the things I didn't not need. While in Istanbul, I realized how old and worn out my running shoes are, so my sister and I made a trip to Run n' Fun today. She stocked up on new shorts and socks and I got these babies (please ignore disgusting boot tray):

They're the same brand I always buy (Asics) but I upgraded one level to the Gel kind...they're super comfy, I can't wait to go running in them once the temperature gets above 0 (barf). And last but not least... the absolute necessities (aka necessary to pass my classes). Some of these are for school, some are for the yoga immersion:

So that's about it! A fruitful weekend, but now I have to read a ton of articles about healthcare for my evening class tomorrow. Wheeeee....

Vegan + Delicious = ??

Yesterday one of my FB friends (actually a friend of Ben's) stirred up some chatter about whether or not vegan food could ever be tasty. I've definitely had some pretty bland, not too appetizing vegan food but I *do not* think this means that vegan and yummy are mutually exclusive. In fact, just the other day I realized that one of my all-time favorite dishes to make is in fact vegan.

I should mention that I generally like food that could probably be classified as "weird hippie food", so just keep that in mind before proceeding, but I have to say that this dish is not only tasty but also very simple to make (and cheap depending on the ingredients you decide to use), and it freezes/reheats very well. The original recipe comes from http://www.101cookbooks.com/, one of my favorite cooking blogs. Heidi uses tofu, cauliflower and green beans but you can really use any combination of veggies you want, and I usually omit the tofu. I've made it with a cauliflower/potato combo, and also with a cauliflower/butternut squash combo, both were delicious.

RECIPE: ROASTED VEGGIE AND COCONUT CURRY

Ingredients

1 cup coconut milk

1-2 tbsp. curry powder (I like the Lunds brand, or the blend from Bill's Imported Foods)

1 tsp cayanne pepper (optional - I added it because I like spicyness :) )

1 tsp salt

1/3 cup water

3 (approx) cups roasted vegetables

1 onion, chopped

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

Quinoa or rice to serve the curry over

toasted cashews (optional)

1) chop the veggies into about 1 inch pieces, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast on a baking sheet until done (about 30 min). While these are roasting, chop the onions and garlic. Set aside.

2) toast the cashews, if using (you can probably use the same baking sheet). Set aside.

3) Pour 1/2 cup of the coconut milk into a large skillet or saucepan and bring to a simmer. Stir in curry powder, cayanne pepper and salt and work out the clumps.

4) Then add the chopped onion and minced garlic and cook for about a minute, then add the remaining coconut milk and water and cook for a few minutes to reduce the sauce and soften the onion. If the sauce gets too thick you can add more water.

5) Add the veggies! Cover and simmer for a minute or so...

6) Serve with quinoa or rice and top with some toasted cashews. Yum :) (I usually use quinoa just because of the nutrition content - high protien and fiber - but I'm sure brown or white rice would be great). This is also a prime opportunity to continue reading about such relevant issues as Johnny Depp's guitar.

I know of several other awesome vegan recipes, so just watch me prove the haters wrong :)