On With the Grub!

While I'm home, I'm working on two main projects.

Project One: Integrate mindfulness into every moment of my life.

Project Two: Feed my mother good vegan food.

Both are large and both require a lot of my attention. In fact, Project One requires all of my attention, but we'll revisit that one at a later date. Project Two is something that I'm very blessed to be spearheading. The seeds of this tree of change took root when my mother visited me in Beijing; I cooked her 7 days of beautiful vegan fare, sparing no amount of love or skill. She was so pleased that, upon hearing of my return home, she requested that I take her meals out of my brother's meat covered hands and do for her again what i did in Beijing.

I am now lucky enough to be cooking all of my mother's meals, all vegan, and all gluten free. This is something that I've wanted to do for years, something I thought I'd have to haggle my way into if i was going to get it at all- but low and behold, patience is, if not a virtue, at least fruitful. I'm making all my mother's meals, filling them with love and wholesome nutrition. And I couldn't be happier about doing it.

Below is a menu of the last 6 or so days, to give you an idea of the how things are starting out. In fact, this is a list of everything I've made for her since we've started this venture. Everything listed is homemade by the hands and heart of yours truly, using only fresh/whole ingredients (all veg/fruit from the farmers market, grains/pulses from Whole Foods)

Thursday (today):
Breakie: Yogurt w/ ground flax/pumpkin seeds, walnuts, cranberries
Lunch: Split Pea Soup, Chickpea/avocado/tomato salad
Snack: Fiberful fruit bar from Trader Joe's, Dark Chocolate
Dinner: Oven Baked Polenta, Curried Split Pea Soup, Chard&Kale Salad w/ Peanut Dressing

Wednesday:
Breakie: Yogurt w/ ground flax/pumpkin seeds, walnuts, pear pieces
Lunch: Chickpea Salad/Curried Potatoes/Salad
Snack: Trail mix, two tangerines from the backyard
Dinner: Split Pea Soup w/ Fresh Cornbread, Shredded Beet/Sesame Salad

Tuesday:
Breakie: Asian Pear, Banana, Dried Cranberries, Walnuts
Snack: Salad w/ walnuts, cranberries, butter lettuce, lemon/EVOO dressing
Lunch: Barley Veg Soup/Salad
Dinner: Chickpea Patties w/ Curried Potatoes and Broccoli

Monday:

Breakie: Yogurt

Snack: Almonds, Cranberries, Dried Apricots

Lunch: Barley Squash Cranberry Almond Risotto

Snack: Avocado/Tomato/Chickpea Salad

Dinner: Fresh Baked Cornbread with Barley Veg Soup

Sunday:

Breakie: Miso/Avocado Rice Noodles

Lunch: Black Beans w/ Brown Rice and Shredded Beet Salad

Snack: Trail Mix

Dinner: Squash Barley Risotto (w/cranberries, celery, almonds)

Saturday:

Breakie: Pancakes! Blueberry Pancakes! Bananas, Mangos, orange juice.

Lunch: Something I've forgotten. Salad?

Dinner: Bowl of Raspberry Yogurt*, chopped bananas, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, cranberries, walnuts.

Some days we've had desserts of Cinnamin Squash Puree or Honeyed Tangerine, but I can't remember which days.

love&light
jessie, the live in health lady.

Out of the Way Back Machine

In the midst of working on tonight's stream of conciousness post, I came across a blast from the past.

This little (and by little i mean lengthy) gem was drafted on 1/19/2009, from the reaches of icy cold beijing, from the grips of a life consuming 24/7 personal tutor job.

For your nostalgic reading pleasure:

Alright lovelies, it's a little late and I'm a little tired, but just for all of you i thought i'd dash off a quick little love note before i tucked myself away for the night.

I'm still in Beijing, which means I'm still more distracted and less contemplative than i was when i was away from home. To me, this is both nice and a little irksome. In about 10 days though I'll be packing myself back off to the Southern reaches of China, so I think I'll enjoy this respite at 'home' while I can. I've just gotten myself a load of fantastic books from the tiny tiny book store up across the street from the Lama Temple, which is making work much easier to deal with. Sinking my teeth in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is helping me to relish all those hours that I'm sitting around CCTV amidst hectic preparations for their Spring Festival Extravaganza.

Had I not mentioned that yet? My current student is envolved with it, and as I go where she does I now spend a significant portion of my time holed up inside the claustrophobic, smoky interior of CCTV. They have some truly beautiful and amazing things lined up for this Spring Festival show, and some truly bizarre things as well. They have pandas on unicycles, panda contortionists, and even pandas on yoga balls. It's like Chinese stereotype land met the college of preforming arts and had a springtacular love baby.

To wrap this up, I've been doing a lot of reading lately and have been getting more solid information and facts about those things I believe in the most. Mainly, veganism, environmentalism, and eating/consuming/producing locally. To me they all tie into one another, and are things that i try my best to incorporate into my life as much as I can. A lot of the time, since I am living in Beijing currently, these things are ideals. A lot of the time, though, decisions I can make everyday keep me on the right track. Always taking my own bag to the grocery market, not purchasing any packaged foods, and sticking to my vegan diet are all things that help me get there. I had a close moment earlier today when i set my first foot into Jenny Lou's on the way home. For those of you unfamiliar, Jenny Lou's is a chain store in Beijing (maybe in all of China?) that specializes in imported goods and markets to those expats starving for a taste of home.

They have everything I thought I'd never find in Beijing and more- granolas, baguettes, jams, peanut butters, candy bars, the list goes on- and theyre all the same brands i'm used to seeing at home. I felt overwhelmed, excited, and dumbfounded. They even had all those ridiculous prepackaged cake mixes from brands like Duncan Hines and Sara Lee- ridiculous because not only is making up your own cake mix minus preservatives a cinch but because 99.9% of Chinese people do not (and I feel I can say this without being racist because I've had a number of Chinese people say it to me themselves) ever EVER bake things at home. ever. They also have the largest and most comprehensive cheese section in Beijing- I've often heard the Cheese section at Jenny Lou's discussed in reverent tones at parties when Beijing's culinary differences to Europe pop into the conversation. These things having been said, it was the granola that was my downfall. With no oven of my own, I cannot make my own- which makes me want to cry. I love granola. It's so beautiful, so versatile, such a perfect meal anytime of day. Cereal in and of itself...don't get me started.

I could spend an hour easy perusing the cereal aisle of almost any store, and a good 2 hours on the ones in health food stores. My love of cereal and granola I had put away until returning home...but then, in Jenny Lou's, I saw a spectrum unlike any i could have imagined in China. They even had (though I wouldn't buy it and do not prefer it) Honey Bunches of Oats. Insanity. And then, THEN, a box of Amaranth clusters on sale for a fifth the price of all the others. I grabbed it. I grabbed two. I would have grabbed three, but a third there was not. I was exhilarated. I imagined myself in bed, with a bowl, a spoon, fresh soy milk from around the corner and my darling sweet amaranthy goodness. Then i thought about the distance it had traveled to reach me. The processing. The workers. The ridiculousness of eating something whose source was so utterly unconnected to me when I could just as easily eat the unrefined oats with corner store dried fruits from inside China- not to mention that the latter would be much better for me. I waffled. I sulked. I put the cereal back, in a show of epic and unheard of self control for this granola loving beast. The environmentalist/locally dedicated being inside me lived to see another day.

When I started that paragraph, it had a totally different aim than where it ended up. Since I'm so tired, I'm neither going to split it up to edit it nor revisit my original target. And I'll leave you with that.

love!

Re-Scheduling. And Monkeys/

You may be seeing more of me in the next few days than the last post lead you to believe. Due to untimely illness my yoga intensive has been rescheduled for a later date.

Then again, I'll be mainly resting, trekking, meditating next to the Ganges, planning travel movements for the new year, and living outside in the open air. So maybe you wont be seeing me after all. Since I am in front of the computer now, though, i decided to sit for a few more minutes and write a little post.

Shortly before I left for India, a friend of mine told me this story:

Once upon a time, there was a lady who had a monkey. A pet monkey. A cuddly simian who shared her living space, completely tame and friendly. One day a friend of this lady came to the house for a visit. The monkey, sweet and tame, went insane and tore off the lady's friend's face.

Now, I heard this story right before coming to india. I attempted to shrug it off. I tried to leave the horrible shudders of fear and revulsion that wracked my subtle body in Beijing. But no, this story lingers with me. And, in Rishikesh, there are monkeys everywhere. Cute cuddly monkeys. Mischeivious and naughty, but ultimely harmless.

Or so they say.

Now, two days ago i went to get some beetroot for dinner. Everyone says of these monkeys, which perch mostly on the bridges running over the ganges from one bank to the other, that they are harmless but will take things they want if they see them- ie, your shiny camera, a child's toy, a bag of peanuts, or your friend's face. (okay, they don't say that last one, but its what i mentally add to the list everytime i hear it). Knowing this, i'm generally pretty careful. Not only cause the monkeys freak me out, but because i want to keep my camera. This time, however, I must have been a bit careless as suddenly there was a large full grown monkey attaching itself to my bag of vegetables and hissing at me.

My only thought: If i kick it, is it more likely to drop the bag and run, or rip off my face?

It's a very unsettling situation to find yourself in- debating about the likelihood of a monkey (a monkey in the process of stealing you vegetables) ripping off one's face.

love&light
jess