Food for the Soul

What to eat today….

I remember a time when it was such a chore to prepare, cook --- no it was a chore to even think about what to prepare or cook for a meal. It was as if my mind was stuck and I couldn’t even think clearly about what I would like to eat.

Perhaps part of the problem back then was that I was so busy (distracted?) by all the other stuff in my life. At the end of the day I really didn’t have any energy left to do much about nourishing myself, let alone anyone else. 

But another thing that was happening which was probably far worse was that I really wasn’t thinking all that much about the food/meals/nutrition I ended up putting into my body. 

A meal was prepared just to get something on the table most days. Things were rushed, I was tired, food was a hassle, eating was a mindless activity. Life was an ordeal.

Then, when I absolutely had no choice in the matter and had to start carefully considering exactly what went into my body for each and every meal to make it count (because the way I was living had made me sick)…then my eyes and my world opened up.

I allowed my intuition, (not advertising, imbalance, tiredness, peer pressure or worse – indifference) to dictate the needs of my body, mind and spirit. Nourishing myself has since become a multi-dimensional approach to far more then just staying alive –

It’s a process of paying attention, listening and thoroughly engaging with my food and the environment it comes from. I am feeding my body, mind and soul through the food choices I make each and every day.

So, that’s why I feast some days, fast other days and eat normally any days in between. My relationship with eating and food has become a spiritual experience – one that only asks of me to be present and involved with the food on my plate. 

Spiritual for me means being alive….

April

Yarrow 

Father Christmas Cookies….

Vanilla & Butter Cookies (Father Christmas Cookies)

Christmas to me has become all about the so many things I can do with my children (and should be doing more of)…because I am often rushing around and not taking as much time as I could do at other times. 

I have a singular point of view when it comes to my kids as well – I want them to grow up knowing things….how to do things, make things, create the life, food, home and work they would most like to do.

How to follow their dreams and listen to their hearts as they walk through a better world we have worked so hard to create on their behalf. Because, well, I have long felt as if I was misinformed (or uninformed) and certainly ill prepared with life as I have come to know it.

With this in mind (nothing small around here!!! LOL), I wanted to bake some treats together with them this week for our Solstice and Christmas celebrations (I know, it’s a big cookie to bite off!).

We decided on some sort of butter cookie….well, it had butter in it (lol) and flour, almonds and then the greatest flavour of the season – homemade vanilla extract. I make mine in a large bottle of bourbon – using 8 or 10 vanilla bean pods as well as some scraped out vanilla beans.

These sit for several weeks and then months until you can’t walk by the bottle without smelling wafts of vanilla perfuming the air (available in the market stall on occasion)….lovely!

So, these are butter and vanilla cookies, right? 

Back to the story or recipe….which is really a tale of how to create something magical from ingredients that seem rather ordinary on their own.

To make these cookies we used:

500 g flour (whole wheat/strong white ½ and ½)

250 g raw cane sugar

380 g butter (soft)

125 g ground almonds

 2 – 3 tablespoons  Bourbon vanilla

¼ teaspoon sea salt

dark chocolate (melted in double boiler)

imagination!

Blend the butter and then slowly add the sugar, almonds, flour, salt and finally vanilla – keep mixing until soft and crumbly. Add extra vanilla if this seems too dry. You should be able to squeeze the mixture together into a soft dough.

Onto a floured board or baking paper, knead some of the dough  and then roll it flat…let the children take over with cookie cutters, shapes and fingers to make the cookies into whatever shape they need to create.

At this time of the year we all like stars, ginger bread men, hearts and trees. Once you have enough shapes to cover a large baking sheet – place them onto parchment paper and into an oven set at 180C or so for 10 to 12 minutes.

Watch them closely because they will brown quickly. 

Once done and out of the oven, cool slightly then remove with a palette knife onto a cooking rack. When completely cool, dip in the melted chocolate and decorate with some coloured bits from the organic shop….

They taste as good as they look! We like to make different sized star shapes and stick them together using dark chocolate in the centre….we refer to these as Father Christmas cookies here, because these are the ones we leave out for him on Christmas Eve.

Happy Holidays!

April

Father Christmas Cookies

Repairing the Body's Nutritional Status

This week and perhaps for the next month or so (yikes!) I plan on re-nourishing myself – like never before. After doing this last cleanse to remove parasites I can see how much they were affecting me and  ultimately depleting my system.

Right now I feel as if I have no reserves left – and have been wondering if indeed I ever did have any in the first place (LOL) – or if this was a clever illusion. I knew I certainly have adrenal exhaustion and perhaps this is all part of the picture of never feeling exactly right.

However, I have eaten so well for many years – organic, homemade, home grown/raised, free from sugar, caffeine, alcohol, additives – yet it took this work I have just done to pare it all back to basics and show me my exact nutritional status.

Taking out a part of that equation such as parasites – has revealed the extent of being run down (and how much these nasty creatures were taking from me) but now allows me the chance to build myself back up to healthy levels of energy.

Of course this is to be done with food and water….and I am busy now thinking of things I would like to fill my body with to restore my internal nutritional status. Right now I am craving meat and have been for a few weeks.

I could eat a horse (I know where to get some real cheap! LOL) but other things will do just as well. I actually feel as if I am starting over in some way. But it’s just that I now have the opportunity to feed my body the types of foods I would have liked to have been fed as a child.

It wasn’t all bad food for me growing up – I did eat lots of wild game and fish, however, there were enough of the other foods on hand that I would never feed to my own children such as hot dogs, sausages, packaged meals (mac and cheese) and horrible milk.

Now, I can choose all the lovely, fresh foods such as – well everything really, to put into my body. Much of which we are raising ourselves and is organic, gently treated and loved.

I am off to a good start here and am really looking forward to my meals….

April

Feeding the Children Part 2

I have learned quite a few things from my years spent in the food industry, raising children and talking to absolutely everyone about everything to do with eating, nutrition, packaging, labeling and food. 

So I wanted to say something more on children and eating because everyone keeps asking me to comment far more on this issue. But also because I feel that so many of us have every good intention and then fall back on the ways we ourselves were ‘made’ to eat. 

Of course some of these methods work – but not all of it. Perhaps it is best to pick apart what hasn’t been working and start with the basics. Children should be easy to feed – they are not complicated little humans with emotional/stress eating or at least shouldn’t be.

With a simple approach in mind – the food, eating, mealtime, the table, the setting, the menu plans and anything to do with dinner should be low key, loose and gentle.

However, one important aspect is often overlooked – many children don’t need to eat a lot, and we start the overfeeding process far too early. Not only overfeeding, but worse – offering the wrong types of foods (low nutrition) required to grow strong bodies and minds.

The meals should be kid friendly but that doesn’t mean junk, such as fish fingers and fries smothered in sugary ketchup. These items are not simple eating, this is pure rubbish – immature guts need easy to digest foods. 

Children are often slow eaters – my son used to linger over his breakfast for over an hour when he was younger. I often thought thankfully, he was not rushed off anywhere because he would never have finished his breakfast. 

That is one of the lovely things about homeschool and being at home with the children (working from home etc.). No one needs to be rushed with their meals, slow cooked, savored and enjoyed – with the children eating at their own pace.

I have also learned from my own years spent fasting, detoxing and cleansing to wait until they ask for food. In the morning my daughter usually doesn’t want to eat right away. She prefers to have a cup of herbal tea first (quite the little lady) and this gives her digestion a head start.

Of course not every day is an ideal situation and we have days where we have to rush off for dance classes and what not – so I organize their snacks ahead of time… Last week I made simple goat’s cheese and onion muffins from spelt and oat flour (organic whole grain of course).

These are filling, simple and tasty – yet cover carbohydrates, protein and fat – to give them the energy for the day. Together with an apple, some figs and a few nuts – everyone was well nourished and had their main meal when they got home. 

Another thing I have noticed when it comes to children is they often get overlooked when it comes to water. Don’t give them juice, they don’t need the sugar or sweetness. Save the juice (sugar free, natural) for a treat day such as birthdays, special occasions and what not.

Water is essential for proper digestion, not to mention every other function of the human body. We are water operated machines – provide the best water you can find for your growing little ones. 

As a general rule, children do not need;

Sugar

Caffeine

Additives

Chemicals/toxins

Processed food

Advertising!

Marketing geared towards children is probably the most damaging influence to push it’s unruly way into your home. Banish it as much as possible, talk about it and educate them about how they are being manipulated into wanting something that their bodies do not require.

When it comes to each of us and our food, get back to basics. Start with increasing vegetables, rice, beans, lentils, some fruits, a little fish and meat. Then take it from there. You will find when a child eats his dinner he most often doesn’t want or need anything more…

April 

Purple daze...

Cooking and Baking - The Approach

It has been another fasting day for me here - and a welcome break from all that eating and cooking - well sort of a break because I am still cooking for everyone else here and baking bread most days. Recently I came across mention of how if you like cooking, usually you would not like baking - and vice versa.

I was floored by this - mainly because there probably isn't one aspect of food, cooking, baking, preserving or eating that I don't enjoy. I even like the washing up after wards - because I like a clean kitchen and to have everything back in it's place.

Of course, you know me, I have been mulling this over ever since. How might someone enjoy baking and not cooking....hmmm. Then it hit me! It was because they have put these two activities down as being separate from each other.

That baking is somehow separate kitchen magic from ordinary cooking of meals for instance. So, I guess it must all be in the approach. I would bake up a storm before any feast days. Baking bread is something I do nearly every day, and I would use the oven to cook some meals such as stew in the Tagine.

Baking therefore is not separate from any other meal for me. But there is more than this - for others baking conjures up visions of sweets, chocolate dripping off of cakes and cookies that make you fat just by looking at them.

It is an entire separate food group (which would not even register as food as far as I am concerned) crammed with as much sugar and other nonsense as possible for your enjoyment and dining pleasure. Then, that would depend on your idea of pleasure. 

Giving children sweets full of sugar and other junk and watching them act up and get a sugar rush - is not something I would take pleasure in. I know enough teachers and others who work around children who would say the exact same thing. 

The poor child would then be yelled at or some other negative response because of this behaviour and we are well into a vicious cycle here. 

So, I  enjoy baking yes and cooking - what I enjoy far more is the fact that any of my cooking can be eaten without concern of sugar or other nasties. It is certainly not a behaviour altering experience to eat good, wholesome organic food - unless having extra energy changes your life!

April

Cinnamon Cake 

You have got to try this recipe! Apple Crumble

Well, back at it again after a bit of a sad time these past couple of days - saying good bye is never easy, and certainly not to a member of the family such as a precious dog. However it does make it easier when she wasn't well and was ready to move on.

Of course, I have been feeling her around me for the past day - slowly making her journey onwards to other worlds. And what do I do to cope with loss and grief? Cook. Eat. Walk. Perhaps that is really all a person can do under these circumstances. Do the best you can with where you are.

Tonight we had her funeral - and why am I telling you all of this and what does this have to do with apple crumble? I made enough food for an Irish wake ( I guess it is an Irish wake, I mean she was an Irish dog and this is Ireland...) so, we have loads of food to eat and I am doing what I love to do in her honour.

But, also being a long weekend and Samhain coming up next week - I like to make special foods for this the second most important holiday all year. One of my favourite dessert dishes when the apples are fresh is an apple cobbler or crumble. 

This is super easy to make and I promise there won't be any left over! 

Apple Crumble

Sauce;

5 large apples chopped (mixed types is good)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup water

1 tblsp custard powder or cornstarch with 1 tsp vanilla essence

¼ cup honey

Topping;

¾ cup spelt flour

½ cup oats

3 tblsp butter

¼ cup maple syrup

pinch salt,  pinch baking soda

Preheat oven to 175ºC and prepare a medium sized baking dish by rubbing butter on the inside.

Chop the apples into large and small pieces and place in a sauce pan with the water, cinnamon and honey. Bring to a boil, turn down and cook gently for about 10 minutes. Add in the custard powder – or you can use cornstarch with 1 tsp of vanilla essence. Turn off the heat and allow this mixture to cool down. It should thicken slightly.

In a deep bowl place the dry ingredients spelt flour and oats. Using your fingers rub in the butter and then mix in the maple syrup with a wooden spoon. If you want more for a thicker crumble or bigger baking dish, add more oats and a little milk.

Place the apple mixture in the bottom of the baking dish and start crumbling the oat paste over top. Cover as much as you can, especially in the middle, the liquid at the sides will bubble up either way. 

Place in a hot oven for about 20 minutes until the topping is browning and the apple sauce is bubbling a little. Take out and serve immediately on it’s own or with goat’s milk ice cream. Greatest dessert I’ve ever had!

I think it may take us a couple of days to work our way through all of this food...

April

Apple Crumble 

Moods, Disconnect and Cooking

Every day I give a lot of thought to food and nearly every aspect of eating. Lately my thoughts have been once again turing towards the nature of our spiritual connection with food and what has happened to it. 

For the most part, what I see from others and indeed for part of my life, has been more of a love/hate relationship with eating. Of course, this is mainly due to a lack of connection which originates from eating the wrong types of foods. 

This disconnect causes many of our modern day problems with disordered eating, obesity, choosing the wrong types of food and worst of all - disinterest in our bodies need for nourishment. This in itself, can cause various emotions and issues to rise up in us.

Sometimes I will have an over whelming feeling or sense of confusion around food, cooking and what to eat -almost as if I no longer care or can't quite see the point of paying attention. I have come to recognize this as energy influence not coming from me, because it is very easy to break through it. 

But, what does this feel like? Generally as if you are in a slight daze where eating and food is concerned. That's one part of it. The other more significant issue here is the negative thinking around eating, cooking, food - and what it might do to your body.

In many instances, food has become the enemy. All food, all eating, all meals and anything to do with concepts and subject around food have been demonized into a battle of weight, body image and fear.

The fear is a vicious circle because you are afraid to eat, afraid to gain weight, afraid to eat too much, afraid of losing control, afraid of each and every morsel that you might put into your mouth because --- of what?

Where on earth does these thoughts and this thinking come from? How have we become so distanced from our food, disconnected from the sanctity and ritual of preparing, cooking, eating and sharing meals together - it no longer has any spiritual relevance whatsoever.

Fear is the great separator, a divider of body, mind and soul. If the connection has been lost between nourishment and body, trust and faith in our physical needs, functions and desires has also been severed. If we cannot trust our bodies to gain from the foods we are eating as well as have clarity in mind and spirit - fear creeps in.

So where does this come from? 

There seems to be one main origin of this disconnect - processed and toxic food choices. Once we start on the road towards eating mindlessly, needlessly and without purpose from the array of dead foods on offer - what else can we expect, except that part of us gets pulled down to this low level?

Is it any wonder we have so many people with dark moods, feeling unhappy or depressed, uninterested and worse, all due to being stuck in the cycle of eating processed food (sugar, caffeine, rubbish), feeling awful, then eating more to try feeling better and slowly sinking down into this wasteland. 

Once you begin the process of digging yourself up and out of this hole, towards the light of better, more nourishing meals, you can re-build this bridge back to a healthy spiritual connection with your food. All your food, water and intake then becomes a joy and something worth celebrating - because your body feels loved, nourished and whole. 

Next time you feel as if you are mindlessly moving through your day, unsure of what to eat and unable to make a decision about your food - start with an apple. Clear your mind and recognize this energy for what it is - the result of poor food the day before.

Change your food - change your mind - find your soul

Have  a healthy day,

April

There's Nothing To Eat

I remember this!!! Yes, those were the days, come in the door from work and immediately be thinking to myself - there is absolutely nothing to eat here. And to be looking around the kitchen (tired, drained, weary) for something to prepare - in a mindless haze from the outside word.

In. A. House. Full. Of. Food. 

Does any of this sound familiar to you? The fridge would be full, the cupboards bursting and still - there was not one thing that was formulating inside of my head to make as a meal for my family. Many times I eventually came up with something (and surprised myself that a meal could be made from few ingredients) other times I ended up getting something else.

It was just too convenient to order a take away or get a ready meal - there is something on every corner and it is a 'treat' after a long stressful day following someone else's dreams. We are put in a position where someone else is in charge of our food, nutrition, tastes, portion sizes and then (through this  virtual reality) became a part of the family.

Of course, many years ago I left all of this behind - however I have my moments every now and then where I remember full well what it was like to 'think' that way. It was a mind set, a frame of mind that I would fall back into as if someone had pushed a button and I could no longer think clearly enough about what to feed myself.

I knew then and I know it even more clearly now, a reset button needed to be pushed where food was concerned and my eyes opened to the fact that we need very little to make a decent meal and there is always potential.

So, let's see - in the cupboard at the end of the week I have onions, carrots, sweet potatoes, a leek, pumpkin - add to that a few lentils and rice and I have a balanced meal. Or, if you only have an onion, rice and a tin of fish - stir-fry the onion, toss with the cooked rice, add in the fish and you have a tasty dish.

Need some other ideas? How about a sandwich (bread, tuna, lettuce, mustard) and a bowl of lentil soup that can be made in minutes...with lentils, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, sweet potato and a carrot? There is also pasta (we like spelt or rice pasta) and a quick stir-fry of onion, sugar snap peas, garlic, grated carrot tossed with pesto - all made from vegetables and herbs growing in the garden.

Or, how about being more organized and prepared where your meals are concerned? Novel idea that it is, when you guess at the end of the day you might be home looking for something to eat, perhaps beans or lentils could be soaked ahead of time. Veggies chopped or a few ingredients left out to remind you of what you had planned to prepare? 

This thinking - 'there is nothing to eat' used to make me feel so frustrated, tired and then disappointed with myself because I would often end up eating the wrong types of foods and too much of them. It was an immature attitude toward feeding myself (food was a reward and I deserved all these 'treats') like giving a baby candy. 

Changing my attitude towards food, diet, eating, nutrition and my entire approach to cooking has been more then a lifestyle change, it has been a coming of age. 

Enjoy your day,

April

Spelt pasta - stir-fry with veggies from the garden and homemade pesto

April