Curry Butternut Squash Soup featuring Coconut Milk

Coconut milk is my new love. Creamy and sweet and oh so fatty, it hits the heart right in between the om and the ah. It's like the perfect balance of the yin and the yang, or not really, because there is nothing yang about it. You can use it just like you would cream or a heavy milk, yet with a nutrition profile that is astounding. Without regard to the fat content, coconut milk has many benefits that will send your heart soaring and your taste buds gleaming with an inner smile all the way down to your belly.

Following are some of the health benefits of coconut milk:

Manganese Ya! Manganese is an amino acid that gets sucked out of your body due to glucose intolerance. I attribute many blood sugar imbalances to the intoxication gluten can cause, yet it may not be 100% for you if you are reading this and hesitant to believe it. This is my experience and a testimony from years of personal and professional research, and so if it does not resonate, leave the rest to discover for yourself! Manganese is in coconut milk and so you may assure your bones and brain they can have a party because the coconut is going to offer you one! As well, grains, legumes and nuts provide manganese.

Flexifies the skin and blood vessels! No one wants to find their blood has become stagnant, their veins hard to access or their circulation cut down to only in their torso. You want strong arms to support your body, arms to help lift you up (and hands to express through). The copper and vitamin C in coconut milk will encourage flexibility in the blood flow of the body, which means everywhere so drink up!

Your Daily Boost! Coconut milk is high in phosphorus which strengthens bones. So practice yoga and drink/cook with coconut milk for strengthening bones and preventing bone loss.

Keep your blood-a-flowing! Anemia is a common cause of lethargy and over-exhaustion due to a lack of proper mineralization. One cup of coconut milk offers 1/4 the RDA of iron.

Free your mind and the rest will follow! Stressed out in your mind or body? Check your magnesium, perhaps the cause of pain in your neck or back is that your diet is causing your nerves to withdraw from their natural flow of beauty. Coconut milk provides plenty of magnesium to relax your muscles and send healing sparkles of light to those areas which maybe harboring the plague of your current situation. Perhaps coconut milk in some soup tonight?

Full Belly, Full Heart! Coconut milk provides plenty of fiber, which fills you up quicker and may aid in reducing the need to eat more than your body is ready for. So eat more fiber (coconut milk!), ultimately eat less overall.

Silly Seli - what? Selinium is an important antioxidant which reduces inflammation in the body, especially surrounding the joints. So, more coconut milk, especially if you have arthritis - it is observed the people with low levels of selenium may suffer from rheumatoid arthritis.

Pot-ass-what? Potassium, or foods containing potassium (if you break that word apart, it's funny, right?) is a blood pressure reducing-agent that comes naturally in coconut milk.

Immune me, please! I spent a semester in college in Tanzania and once was forced to lie back @ camp and miss a day of beach hiking (hiking on beaches to "island hop" around various un-inhabited aka desert islands) due to a major fever. I went hiking on my own and came to a village known for it's incidences of elephantitits. That's another story, but for now, know this: they gave me coconut to drink and said it would take my pain away. It did, however my taste buds weren't quite mature enough to think that coconut milk was magical. Once I broke through to the other side, now my immune system is in high gear and I haven't been sick since (in 10 years!).

Zinc your taste! Zinc is the key to healthy taste buds, as well as plays a role in promoting the health of the prostate gland. DRINK MORE COCONUT MILK!

Now for the main squeeze :

Butternut Squash Curry Soup featuring Coconut Milk

Ingredients:

1/4 cup onions, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 T ginger
1/4 t curry powder
1 t coconut oil
1 c butternut squash
1 t coconut oil
1 cup water
1/2 t sea salt
2 T coconut milk

Heat oil until smoking. Add onions, garlic and ginger. Saute until fragrant and clear. Add curry powder, saute 30 seconds. Add squash and water. Simmer and cover for 15 minutes or until squash is soft. Blend. Add coconut milk (optional). Simmer for 2 minutes. Add more coconut milk for a creamier consistency. Serve warm, garnished with cilantro.

Super yum.

Black-Eyed Peas and Dating Luck

I need some luck. My dating life needs some luck. I questioned my mom the other day when she said her usual: well, good luck with that. As if that she is not in support, does not need to hear the outcome and can see the potential mistakes her rebellious daughter is making. Oh, well and I am much like her, except I prefer to live a large life and to explore the unknown (at times with vigor more than fear;).

I was supposed to have a date over for dinner tonight. This is someone I really dig, and am sad I won't be with him tonight because all weekend I have been nursing an infection and need to rest. Went to the doctor this morning and was prescribed antibiotics and yes, it is time to be kind and so gentle with myself. I was choosing some wild men to be involved with lately, thinking that dating means going out drinking and staying up LATE. Oh, well, this marks the first night of my new dating life. Cooking, home, connecting authentically and staying away from men with helicopters (for tonight:). The last guy was fulfilling an agreement that yoga instructors have some special healing power. He charmed me into his story and invited me to escapade with him to Venezuala, Germany, Dubai (all this summer). I was not in. I told him: money does not impress me. Nope. And now I know that I meant it.

Babylicious Black-eyed Peas

1/2 cup black eyed peas

1/3 cup diced carrots

1/3 cup diced onions

3 cups spring water

1 postage size piece kombu

1 t sea salt

luscious greens: broccoli, kale +/- collard greens

Rinse black eyed peas and soak in 1 cup for 5-8 hours. Drain.

Add to pot. Cover with remaining 2 cups water. Bring to boil. Skim off foam.

Add carrots and onions and kombu. Lower heat to low and cover.

Simmer for 30 minutes.

Add: broccoli, kale or collard greens and simmer 4-5 more minutes.

Add salt and cook for 3 minutes.

Serve warm, with bread or perfect brown rice.

Garnish with scallions.

Yum....yum...yum!

Red Veteran's Day

It feels like there is a battle going on in my head and cooking in the kitchen allows me to see it for what it is. Knives cutting through squash, some pieces more square than other, seeds cut in half not meant for the dish anyways, somehow make their way into the dish, and other pieces meant to be smaller turn out to be large and stick out like a big man in a little chair. Regardless of imperfections, I am forgiving of the battle that takes place in the kitchen. And it's necessary to process this energy that gets stuck inside and otherwise would lead me to a place of most destruction. I'd much rather be cutting onions than cutting my own life force off by withholding my greatness and hanging out in the places that scare me inside of my mind. It's not pretty anyways, and no matter how much I do to try and fix myself, my mind will remain, psychotically attuned to what it thinks is right and how I am never good enough to be better than I think I should be. Anyways, it's a bit too complicated for a paragraph, which is why my book is coming out...in this century which may actually turn out to be this decade.

Today's battle revealed a rather yummy heart healthy dish (that was not a plug in for the American Heart Association to read my blog, by the way). Red, red, red. Since I've been single longer than I've been alive, um, let me rephrase that, for 27 of my 28.5 years on this planet, I think I deserve to take in a little heart energy.

Sweet and Red Lentil Quinoa Squash Smash

1/4 cup red quinoa
1/4 cup red lentils
1/2 cup hard winter squash
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 tiny piece kombu
1 T coconut oil

Rinse quinoa and lentils very well. Place in pot. Cover with water x2 and bring to boil. Skim off foam with a spoon, add squash and onion. Cover and cook for 30 minutes. Add 1/2 t sea salt for the last 3-5 minutes of cooking. Add coconut oil and serve, garnished with cilantro or parsley and a side of greens.

A Corner of My Heart

I was reminded how short life is yesterday and how we all give a piece of ourselves to one another and hold an ounce of the other in our hearts. A dear friend, who held a corner in my heart, Will Owsley, took his life early yesterday morning. Will struggled like mad to embrace his talents and in recent years was more in the conversation of how bad life is and unable to see the gifts that are inside or around him. He was honest and exposed. I never knew him in his prime, though I felt safe being raw around his unique ability to reveal the darkside near the end of his life.

At the same time, my raw diet has fallen by the wayside. I thought perhaps that was a calling, to go raw in the past few weeks. It was fun, but today I needed comfort and all the nuts, seeds and raw fruits and veggies are not enough to fill the whole inside of me today.

I spent the night painting pictures to go on my walls, as well as considering that each angel in my life is not going to be here forever and I want to know how to love them up in the most authentic way. I find creating things taps a corner in my heart that invites me to express myself fully and energizes the emotional content into transformation. Normally, this is in writing or cooking, but I see a house full of empty walls that need filling, so I am painting my way to fill them up.

Lunch was an opportunity to embrace the sweetness of today: Blue Corn Bread and Sweet Onion Soup. Blue Corn Bread is definitely blue bread first, with a hint of corn. It is not like your traditional cornbread, more like a muffin loaf, sweet and dense and dark enough to look healthy, but sweet so like a bread with a side of really good friends for brunch.
The sweetness of the onions cooked for a long time in the soup was like a jam for the bread and together perfectly satisfying to soften my heart and help me feel fine looking out on the rain today.

Blue Corn Bread

Dry ingredients:

1 cup blue cornmeal
3/4 cup teff or sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon mild chili powder (optional)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup organic light brown sugar or agave (if using agave, reduce water by 1/4)

Wet Ingredients:

Two organic free-range eggs or Ener-G Egg Replacer for 2 eggs
1/2 cup light olive oil
1 cup water

Optional add-ins:

1/2 cup chopped roasted mild green chiles or raisins or walnuts

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
• Measure the dry ingredients and mix together in a bowl.
• Add the wet ingredients together, and beat well.
• Add the dry ingredients a bit at a time and mix until it is thick, but not dry.
• Add the optional add-in's: raisins, green chilies or walnuts
• Grease a bread pan and add dough to pan. Pat down to shape into a loaf.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350. Insert a toothpick in center and if it emerges dry, the bread is ready to come out of the oven.

*This recipe is inspired by Gluten Free Goddess

Breakfast of Champions

In honor of Music City Marathon day...








I decided to retire my running shoes...










and create a Breakfast of Champions...
What would I eat if I were running a marathon?

Teff Almond Carrot Pancakes. Or Almond Teff Carrot or Almond Carrot Teff Pancakes. Whichever way you look at them, they are gluten free, vegan and sweet enough to satisfy the runner in us all to have the best day ever. You may not be running a marathon today, but in celebration of the day, may we all honor ourselves and never give up on our dreams!

Carrot Almond Teff Pancakes
Serves 3 or 1-2 marathon runners
1 cup teff flour
1 cup shredded carrots
2/3 cup blanched almond
2 t baking soda
1 t cinammon
1/2 t sea salt
2+ T Maple Syrup
1 T olive oil
1/4 cup raisins (optional)

Combine flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon in a bowl. Add carrots, 1/2 cup crushed almonds, and 1 T maple syrup. Combine.
Heat pan with oil. Add batter and cook 3 minutes on each side.
Top with almonds, cinnamon and maple syrup.

Just in time for a marathon of a day!

Some Like it Green

Today I was set to go out for lunch. After a morning of writing, I was looking forward to getting out of the house. When it came time, I considered that I have no real reason to get out except for go visit a friend today, and I need to be working on finishing this book before the end of the month. I was convinced there was nothing in the house, but found some edamame in the freezer and decided to go for it.

Edamame, leftover brown rice, with Hemp-Spirulina dressing
I water sauteed the collard greens and shallots:

• Boil 1/2 inch of water in a pot.
• Add diced shallots and simmer for 2 minutes.
• Add slivered collard greens and simmer for 3 minutes.
• Add 1 pinch of sea salt and cook for 1 more minute.
• Remove with a slotted spoon.

Add edamame to water and simmer 3-5 minutes until defrosted.

Add edamame and veggies to a bowl of brown rice topped with dressing:

Hemp-Spirulina Vinagrette:
2 t hemp seed oil
1 t apple cider vinegar
1 garlic clove
1/4 t rosemary
1/4 t spirulina

Whisk and enjoy on veggies or as a sauce for a sandwich or salad.

This is a great liver detox meal in that it is green and includes sea veggies and essential fatty acids, phytonutrients and chlorophyll.

Avo Carrot Saucy Soup

Simply delicious avocado. How else can you satisfy your brain and your belly, your hair, skin and nails and enjoy such a succulent superfood at any age? (avos are great for babies and old people since they are soothing to the digestive system).
Avocado can be added to nearly any dish--from soup to sauces and dressings to desserts. Without further ado, here is a dish from lunch a few days ago that can be as saucy or soupy as you prefer. Laura and I enjoyed it as a dip with celery, in addition to collard wraps filled with extra salty almond pate--it would have been a nice colorful sauce to the wraps as well. Or a soup to begin with. She liked the coconut water, so I decided to add it in to make the soup a bit more saucy! Spring water works nice also. ( :

Avo Carrot Soup
1 avocado
1 carrot
1/4 cup blanched almonds (I removed the skins, but not necessary)
1 T ginger
1 T agave
pinch of cayenne

Blend. Add coconut water or spring water for a thinner consistency.
Enjoy as a starter soup, side sauce, succulent saucy section of your plate to enjoy with sorted veggies or just plain as a saucy soup!

More simply yum way to enjoy an avocado:
*mashed into a grain
*mashed onto a slice of bread
*cut in half and enjoyed with sea salt/lemon on a spoon
*sprinkled with nutritional yeast and enjoyed out on the beach in the sunshine as a protein, healthy fat filled pick-me-up
*however you like it, savoring the taste and chewing well (-:

Eat more avocados. Be at peace. Sleep well and breathe in new life every day in every way.
Trust the process and whenever life gets stressful, be sure to eat well so you can stay centered.

Edamame Guacamole

1 cup edamame
1/2 cup avocado
1/4 cup carrots
1-2 T umeboshi vinegar
1 T lemon juice
1/4 cup cilantro

Place all ingredients in a blender or cuisinart. Blend until creamy.

You may like to add a chipotle pepper and ground black pepper, if you like spice.

This dip can be enjoyed on a raw collard green or kale piece as a wrap, on carrots or celery or spread on crackers.

Thanks, David Wolff!

Superchocolate Goji Berry Lemon Bar

2 cups organic, dried Tibetan goji berries
2 cups raw cacao nibs
1 teaspoon lemon peel
2 cups grated raw cacao butter

Add everything to a Vita-Mix and blend until smooth. Pour into a mold and refrigerate to set.

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David and Shazzie’s Hansel and Gretel Mix

1 cup organic, dried Tibetan goji berries
1 cup raw cacao nibs
1 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup raw pumpkin seeds

Mix everything together in a large bowl. Place the mix in little containers and put them around your house ready for people to discover them with delight, so they have a healthy snack within reach.

Variations: add hemp seeds, sesame seeds, crushed nuts, dried currants, raisins, sultanas apricot chunks, pineapple, mango etc. For extra enzyme action, soak the nuts overnight, rinse, and then dehydrate until the nuts are dried out, again.

For mega nutrients, sprout the seeds before deyhdrating at low temperatures (less than 120F). Make sure all of the dried fruit is organic and unsulphured. Use organic nuts.
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Red Squares

2 cups organic cacao butter, grated
1 cup organic, dried Tibetan goji berries
1/2 cup agave nectar

Blend everything together in a Vita-Mix or food processor until smooth. Then place in some cube-shaped molds. Turn out when set.

You can also add maca or hemp protein powder to this.

Cacao Basic Truffle

This recipe will make about a dozen truffles. I like to make small batches daily forfreshness.

¼ Cup Cacao
6 Dried Apricots
1 tsp. Coconut Oil
2 tsp. Agave Nectar
½ Vanilla Bean

Grind cacao and vanilla bean in a coffee grinder on the espresso setting (if your grinder has one). Add all ingredients into a mini food processor* with the “S” blade. Start by using a pulsing motion until the batter begins to blend. Continue blending until the batterforms a smooth ball on one side of the processor.

*If a larger food processor is used, it will be necessary to double, triple or even quadruple the above ingredients to make sure the batter is above the blades.

Last night I was feeling a little adventurous. I added the following ingredients to the basic truffle mix:

2 additional teaspoons of Agave Nectar
1/8 tsp Cayenne
1/8 tsp Blue Manna
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp maca
1/4 tsp carob
a pinch of salt

This makes about 20 small truffles. Have fun with it. Enjoy the creation of your truffle and the manifestation of your destiny as you ingest cacao, the food of the gods!

Cacao Truffles

Ingredients
½ cup pitted prunes
¼ cup pitted dates
3 tbsp almond butter
2 tbsp Agave Nectar
2 tbsp cacao powder*
1/4 cup grated unsweetened coconut
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
Directions

Place unsweetened cocoa powder in a shallow bowl and set aside.

Combine prunes and dates in a food processor and process until finely chopped. Add almond butter, agave nectar, and cacao powder. Transfer to a bowl and mix in coconut by hand.

Scoop up about a tsp of fruit mixture and roll between the palms of your hand to form a small ball. Roll each ball in cocoa powder and place on a tray or plate that will fit in your fridge. Refrigerate until firm and enjoy!

*If you do not have cacao powder on hand, don't worry! You can simply add 2 tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder instead and the truffles won't even know the difference!

Makes 12 truffles.

Cacao Bar

Ingredients for simple chocolate:

1/2 C whole peeled cacao beans, ground
1/8 C coconut oil
1/8 C melted cacao butter (use coconut oil if not available)
1/4 C raw honey or raw agave syrup

Optional ingredients:

1/4 cup raisins
1 T almonds, finely chopped
1 drop orange, lemon, clove, lavender or other essential oil
Cinnamon to taste
Celtic sea salt to taste

Preparation:

Grind cacao until it is very fine. The cacao will have a consistency like raw almond butter and will stick to the sides of the grinder. Mix ground cacao with coconut oil or cacao butter in grinder. Remove mixture and add honey and other ingredients. Stir well with a fork. The mixture should be able to be poured. If not, add more coconut oil. Pour into ice cube trays or other forms and freeze for 45 minutes. Serve immediately after removing from the freezer.