Sesame Bliss!

Food A Love Story

Last night we had dinner at home with four wonderful, conscious friends. One of them, Ninh-ji, who began his life in Vietnam, brought the dessert. It looked at first like a delightfully simple silken tofu warmed in an electric pot. Indeed, that is all it was, but served with a ginger syrup, it became divine, sweet succulence. Plus, it turned out to be only the first of three dessert courses!

The next two desserts were utterly inspiring for their color, artistry, alchemy. Little bite-size delicacies of sesame, rice and mung beans, almost like deconstructed Kichari reimagined and delicately sweetened, these treats were not only a delight to the senses, but such healthy, whole body nourishment that when offered seconds, you felt permission, nay encouraged, to say, ”Yes please!”

Ninh-ji had carefully selected each of these treats from his favorite local Vietnamese Bakery, telling us that they are very complicated to make. “Not even my mother was able to make this and she was a great cook!”

I looked today for a picture or recipe online, but don’t know the names and found nothing quite right. I did find this Blog with its colorful, photographic list of many Vietnamese desserts. Also, while not as gorgeous, this site has recipes. And, for culinary, cultural adventurers, there is a whole world of Asian sweets to explore here.

Instead, I remembered a recipe received yesterday that would make a good substitute. These Sesame Bliss Balls from the Chopra Center are not as artistic, but they look simple to construct, flavorful and every bit as fortifying.

I had to share them with you as they are ideal for the Autumn Balancing Act: Sesame is tonifying, healing and hydrating. Ginger is soothing, calming, and immune-boosting. Cumin and Cardamom work with Ginger to aid digestion and add flavor. Ghee is a prime healer, with innumerable benefits ~ a few of which are mentioned by the Chopra Experts below.



I am off to make these now for a gang of young boys. Lead by our 13-year old, they have been running around the neighborhood all afternoon, engaged in a playful “Battle,” and are now calling out for snacks worthy of a Victory Feast! Wish me luck…

Namaste ~

Laura Plumb

Food A Love Story

5 for Fall

Full Moon at Sunrise this Morning

My list of Five Best Practices for Fall

1. Rest & Nest ~ Do less. Breathe deep. Turn inward. Come evening, let yourself go gently into the night: Gaze at the Moon. Gaze at a candle. Gaze at the darkness. Dive into the quiet. Enjoy the stillness.

2. Hydrate ~ Start your day with lemon and water. Drink warm ginger tea with your meals. Sip Spicy Tea throughout the day.

3. Abhyanga ~ Give yourself a vigorous full-body, organic oil massage every morning before you shower. (Yes, oil BEFORE shower!). Massage your feet at night with warm oil and cover with cotton socks before bed.

4. Mineral Baths ~ Soak in a warm bath with Epsom Salts. Add lavender or your favorite essential oil. Do this often. Ahhhhhhh.

5. Yogic Power Nap ~ Lie down in Supported Viparita Karani Mudra (photo below) for 15-20 minutes, three times a week. Let time melt away. Feel the peace of relaxation. Allow your body and mind to be deeply nourished and restored.

Viparita Karani Mudra

Autumn is the Harvest Season. This is the time to rest in your abundant nature and enjoy the bounty of each breath. It takes trust. It takes courage. It takes love. But it is worth it to give yourself the gift of you.

~

How do you relax and renew?

Help inspire all of us by leaving a comment below.

Summer Beans & Greens

Food A Love Story

Summer Beans & Greens




I find it peaceful to write and so was relieved to finally have the time to write on Ayurveda & the Summer Season and get it published to my Blog. It is full of tips for maintaining balance in what is turning it out to be an especially hot season and you can find it here on the Seasons page.

Meanwhile, I had a great lunch yesterday that I also want to share, by way of a little explanation:

In both Spring and Summer I focus on beans and greens. The difference is that in the Spring meals are hot and spicy, whereas in Summer we enjoy cooling vegetables and fresh seasonings that aid digestion without heating the body ~ like mint, cilantro, dill and fennel.



So, with a few tweaks, this recipe for Tofu with Snap Peas from Whole Living magazine (more and more a great resource for vegetarian meals) is ideal for summer. I simply replaced the red pepper with fresh, chopped mint from the garden, sprinkled the whole dish with the juice of one lime and garnished with a copious dose of chopped cilantro.



Cilantro is so incredibly cleansing, balancing and cooling that we add to almost everything in our home. We are fortunate because we were just given a generous handful of cilantro seeds, aka Coriander, for our garden. We use a lot of coriander in our cooking, grinding the seeds from whole, so we are familiar with these beautiful balloon-shaped gems. Still, holding this gift in my hands, I couldn’t help but marvel at the intelligence, the deliciousness, the potency and the medicine within.



We have a perfect spot for them – a place where we were growing sunflowers, until someone thought they were weeds and yanked the newborns right out. It was the next day before I noticed they were gone. I cried on the spot. It was as if something in me had been ripped out and tossed away. Considered useless, ugly, a waste.



Silly, I know, but I had nurtured the sunflower plants from seeds, soaking them first, transferring them to the ground, watching over and cultivating them carefully, protecting them from our neighborhood’s stalking ravens, researching their power to purify soil, and then writing a whole blog about it…




But Coriander seeds blossoming into Cilantro will fill the gaping emptiness and restore our garden to whole. And then one day before summer is over we’ll be able to make Tofu and Snap Peas with our own home-grown Cilantro.




Nature’s beautiful cycles of renewal is the reminder I need today that we, too, are nature and our powers of regeneration are every bit as great.

Hope you are enjoying your summer.

Namaste ~

Laura Plumb

Protective Strategies - Cesium 137 (Radiation Education)

Natural Cesium 137 Protective Strategies

By Charlotte Tenney,

April 2011

By the time this is published, we will know much more about how much radiation has been released from the Japanese reactors and where it has drifted. My email box is filled with messages either asking or suggesting ways to prepare and deal with radio-active fallout. At my chiropractic appointment yesterday, I was advised in increase my iodine intake and offered iodine tablets. It was incredible that he was willing to part with them, since they have become a famously scarce commodity in the marketplace. To say the least, this health threat is one that has grabbed our collective attention.

I was compelled to do some research in order to understand the issue and formulate a plan. First let’s define the problem. The kind of radiation that will be drifting our West Coast way is called Cesium-137. All of the radio-active isotopes work in the body by bonding with a mineral/metal receptor site. This one does NOT bond with the iodine receptors and disrupt the thyroid function. Instead, it docks on the potassium receptors and affects primarily the muscles. In addition to blocking the potassium receptors, it emits gamma rays that act as powerful oxidizers that mutate DNA in ways that can become cancerous. The way it gets into our system is through our breath and our food. Since it is neutralized by water, we don’t generally get it in our water supply.

Working from that overly simplified description, here are the things that I have found are recommended by such sites as Mayo Clinic, Argonne National Laboratories and a large number of natural health sites. I am indebted to Ingrid Naiman’s newsletter (ingridnaiman.com/subscription_lists) and the Healing Cancer Naturally organization (www.naturopathichealth.net ) for their excellent research and analysis. They had carefully thought out and comprehensive strategies to protect your health..

In Support of the Three Bodies

In Support of The Three Bodies to Stay Healthy During The School Year


This presentation was given to the future teachers of Waldorf education and is a blending of Anthroposophy and modern nutrition.

In these modern times, it is a challenge to stay healthy throughout the year, especially in a classroom. With new and stronger viruses and bacterial infections it is imperative to protect yourself during the school year. It is my goal with this paper and presentation to give you, the future teachers and parents, some wisdom regarding strengthening of the three bodies to help you, your families, and students stay well to learn all of the valuable information you have to teach. The approaches I am giving you are founded in Steiner’s teachings and are methods I have used with the many families I serve everyday as a nutritionist and healer.

I will begin by grasping the magnificence of the human body through a discussion of the three bodies, Physical aka Willing, Etheric aka Feeling, and Astral aka Thinking. As we grow we fully develop all three of these bodies until we have fully expressed their union which happens around the age of 21. Up until that time the Physical, Etheric, and Astral are still forming. The Physical we are born with and hopefully our parents were practicing healthy habits to ensure the most capable physical body for us. The Etheric forms when the physical and astral bodies begin to merge. The etheric body is fully incarnated by the age of 7. The astral body is the merging of the physical with the higher self. This fully incarnates at the age of 21.