Fall is in the air. I love fall.  I love changes in seasons in general.  It’s like nature gives you 4 times a year to change up your life.  I mean that is awesome.  Think about it. How special is that every 4 months you get a chance to look over your life and figure out what you want the next season to be like. 

Looking over the first two seasons of my life this year has been a year of change.  I have gone from being a nanny to a person looking for a job.  I have also gone from having pretty much no direction in my life to having an idea of what I want to do.  I have decided to make fall the season where I make this stuff stick since it is a sesaon devoted to stickyness. I mean carmel apples anyone?

So blog friends what are you up to this fall? What are you going to make stick? How has the crisp air changed you?

I’ve been attempting a juice cleanse for the past few days.  I can say this much it isn’t as hard as I thought it would be, but secondly it has helped me realize a few things.  Your body is really an amazing machine that is able to self regulate itself.  I eat way too much.  I have basically been able to drink 3 20oz juices a day and I’m not even a little bit hungry.  Lastly, I love cooking. I hate not cooking more then I thought I would.  Juicing is a pain and in the end you get a juice that taste slightly of veggies but mostly of the one apple and lemon you put in it.

This realization and the fact that I’m currently jobless has lead me to realize that I should stop not pursuing my dreams.  Last night while I was reading Traveling Light, our new growth group book, I realized something.  I guess you could say it was my aha moment. I realized that I’m not going to lose anything from pursuing my dreams, but in not pursuing my dreams and my passions and the gifts that were given to me I’m letting a lot more then myself down.   I am blessed with so many gifts.  That not using them and hiding behind the idea that not pursuing my dream is more rational I’ve only hurt myself.

So, I know this much is true.  Dreams are meant to be sought after.  It takes guts and it is hard and you don’t know what is going to happen, but what do you lose if you pursue them? The answer is you lose nothing pursuing a dream, but what do you lose if you don’t? You lose yourself to the what ifs and worries and the if only I had.  It may be a struggle achieving your dreams, but at least in the long run you will know that you used what you had and you tried your very best.  You know this much is true.

So today started day one of my reboot.  I’m doing 10 days of juicing 5 days of juicing and eating a little bit and then 45 days of raw food.  Which brings me to the question can you cook without cooking… We will find out.

I reckon being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill and is not obliged to work till one is better.  ~Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, 1903

I don’t know why that quote jumped out at me, but I have been thinking about sickness lately.  It isn’t because I have been on my death bed, but more because it seems like everyone else around me has.  It got me thinking about sickness and then I thought sickness gets a bad wrap. Really being sick isn’t all that bad. I mean it is no fun to not feel good, but having and excuse to take care of yourself is kind of nice.  Catching up on all those shows you know you like it. Really I think sickness is a way for our body to say, “Dude, slow down please.”

Think about it the people who are good at self-care hardly ever get sick.  They take care of themselves. There body doesn’t have to retilate in order for them to get enough sleep or not go out for the 20th night in a row.  These people know when to say no to fun and yes to themselves. Just think about it next time you are sick.  Think what can I do to not get sick again.  Chances are if you do it you will be a much happier, healthier, and rarely sick person.

So, I have still been MIA. Sorry about that.  When I start blogs I always promise to be better about writing and then life gets in the way. I however, have been cooking lots and trying my best to stay healthy so to get the ball rolling again I am going start with a recipe.

Megan’s Curry with Pumpkin Ravioli

Ingredients

Curry Sauce:

1 stalk Lemon Grass

1 onion

1 clove of garlic

2 carrots

1 apple

2-3 tablespoons curry powder

1 tablespoon flower

3 tablespoons oil

2 cups of carrot juice

half a can of coconut milk

Pumpkin Ravioli:

1 can pureed pumpkin ( you can also use sweet potato)

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

2 teaspoons curry seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

wanton wrappers

Steps:

1. Chop lemon grass and pound to release flavor

2. Chop onions

3. Chop carrots

4. Heat a sauce pan on medium heat with 1 tablespoon of oil. When hot add lemon grass, carrots, and onion

5. Chop apple

6. Add the curry powder, flour, and apple to sauce pan with the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil (it should form a paste and be fragrant don’t be afraid to add more curry powder if you want it)

7. Allow to cook for 5 minutes.

8. Add carrot juice and coconut milk and bring to simmer.  Simmer for 15 minutes.

9. pour sauce through strainer mashing ingredients so you get all the juice. 

10. return to stove and allow to reduce and thicken more.  If it seems to much like a soup add a little more flour. At this point you can also add veggies to it.  For this recipe I used bok choy and spinach and added the sauce to the ravioli.

Steps for Ravioli

1. Mix pumpkin with spices

2. Follow instructions on the wantons and make ravioli. Make sure they are sealed well

3. boil water

4. when water is boiling add the ravioli

5. Ravioli is done when it floats to the top.

6. Combine ravioli with curry sauce. 

7. Enjoy on a cool autumn day.

I have been cooking a lot so I’ll be back. Tonight I made black bean burgers from scratch so stay tune for that post and let’s cook together ;)

Life kind of caught up with me this summer and I had no intention of letting this go.  I lost momentum which is what happens to me a lot.  I want to say I’ll be back and in full swing but I’m not sure what will become of this honestly.  Lots has happened in the last months and I am again swimming upstream without a paddle.  I have some idea of where I’m going and that paddle seems to be close and tides are turning.  We’ll see where this gets us.

I have been dealing with this monster for the past few weeks.  He started out as just a nuisance, but slowly as I ignored his barks he grew and grew until he was the most teriffying animal ever.  I think most of us know how this goes.  You have a big change and you don’t have time to deal with the small things.  You say I’ll get to that tomorrow.  Then it’s, “No, Monday I’ll have time for that.” Then before you know it your to do list is ten pages long. The stress monster is rearing its ugly head and you don’t know what to do first. It is at this time that I tend to just disappear from all human contact. It is also at this point where that precious balancing act I often talk about takes a tumble and life in balance becomes life way of kilter. 

The question then becomes how do I tame the stress monster and get my life back to normal.  How do I surrender without surrendering? These are the questions that I am now asking myself.  And slowly the answers are coming.  I am checking off the things on the to do list.  I have learned through the many battles with the stress monster that it is best to start small.  Handle the small thing first don’t start with the big thing.  For instance for me the small thing was getting back to healthy eating.  This has been a slow process but as my eating returns to normal I am finding my life is returning to normal. 

Once you have tackled a few small things move up to the medium size things.  This for me was getting running back into my life.  It is taking me a little longer to get to this medium sized thing but as I slowly gain foothold in the exersize rotunie I can feel the stress monster shrinking.  As I remember that the person I need to take care of first is myself and that then I can take care of others the stress slips away.  The overwhellming problems I have start to slip and I can say I feel like me again.

Finally and this is probably the most important part of taming the stress monster is taking time to meditate and pray.  I have found that the more I do this the more I give myself and my hopes over to God the easier it is to relinquish power and destress. My suggestion to you who are dealing with this stress monster is simple add this to your day.  Take 15 minutes and find a time where you can sit and do a devotional. This time is time where you reflect on the struggles you have and give thanks.  This 15 minutes is probably the most important 15 minutes of your week.  This time focuses you and calms you and makes your day that much more managaible.  In addition to starting your day this way anytime that you start feeling the stress monster rear is nasty had take five minutes and meditate/pray and refocus.  Nothing is insurmountable thought he would like you to think it is.

So it really is that simple.  You just have to take the time and refocus.  Realize that the small things lead to bigger things.  Taking time to yourself and managing stress is the most important lesson that I have had to relearn over and over again.  The stress monster is one that will come back and torment me I’m sure, but with these tools I know I will be able to vanquish it.

This path month has been crazy for me.  I moved and I have been looking for another job and just generally trying to figure out the futures.  This has meant I had to put this little blog on hold for a few weeks while I figured things out.  I’m happy to report that life is returning to normal and I’ll be back to posting about food and community this week.  I’m glad to be back :)

turtlebaby:

Thought for today - you have to love and value yourself enough to want to be healthy.  It needs to be a comprehensive type of healthy.. not just eating well OR excercising - but a little bit of everything.  Health is mental, physical, spiritual and sexual!!  YOU DESERVE IT!!

Recently a quote has been circulating in my sphere about health. This quote is

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. ~World Health Organization, 1948. 

A friend of mine posted this on her Facebook page on World Health Day and received some negative feedback. Here is the definition of health according to Merriam-Websterr:

Health: the condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit; especially  : freedom from physical disease or pain.

Isn’t it interesting that here they say it is one of the 3 not all 3?  Can you really be healthy if you are unbalanced or sick in the mind or spirit but your body is fine? A healthy person is a person that is happy and at peace in all three areas.  I don’t really think that there is a debate here, but it did get me thinking about what health really means.

Lets dissect the meaning of health. First lets look at the part that there is really no debate on health is the absence of disease or infirmity in the body.  This can totally mean you are on the BMI scale a little overweight, but your blood work is healthy and your doctor says you are doing fine.  This is what I think most people see as healthy now.  It is just the lack of being sick. Is that really healthy?

Let’s look at the second part of the health definition this talks about the mind.  I don’t think that you can argue that if you mind is in destress you are healthy. Stress comes through and makes you sick. When you mind is at unrest you cannot find balance and when you can’t find balance you get sick. So, I believe that to be healthy you also have to have a sound mind.

Lastly lets look at the spirit.  I think spirit and mind go hand in hand. They are both very hard to quantify.  It is hard to really understand depression if you aren’t depressed.  It is hard to undrestand loneilness if you aren’t alone.  It is hard to understand the illness of spirit and mind from the outside.  However, just as with mind when something is off in the spirit your body reacts.  Depression affects so much of your body and yes it is a hormonal imbalance but it also is a spirit issue. Without a healthy spirit it is hard to be a healthy person.

To conclude for me health is the definition that the World Health Organization has been using since 1948. A healthy person is healthy in all areas of their life. This allows a person an optimal life.  I don’t really think you can argue with this definition.  Yet, I’ll pose this question to you dear reader what does health mean to you?