Ingredients:
1/4 c steel cut oatmeal
1 cup of liquid (fat free milk, soy or almond milk work great)
1/2 a medium apple, grated or chopped
1 TB brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla bean extract
pinch of salt
Use a 16-oz little dipper slow cooker:
Steps:
1- spray container with cooking spray don’t skip or you will need a chisel to get it out!
2-combine all ingredients and pour into container.
3-cover with lid.
4-cook for 8 hours.
For added flavor top with nuts, berries, raisins etc
Honesty has been a theme for me the last year. Honestly with myself, my husband, my students, and my friends. Honesty with Ahimsa or non-harming words. When I go against this it is like a shock to my system, I get all choked up or immediately regret what I said or the action I took. I have a student that I can never seem to be fully honest with. This student is a great teacher to me, because every time I swallow my thought or words, I feel it sitting there waiting to be said. It just never feels like the right time I say to myself, or I fear I wont be heard, or it will be taken the wrong way. But it is important to me, my thought and this person, so I wait until the next time, and it happens all over again.
It is ok to not speak your truth at times, you know when you will not be heard or when the pot will just get stirred, or that person just may not be ready, but it needs to be processed in your body with love and compassion then so you can move on from it. Your truth and honesty must be just that though, stripped of your illusions and fears. This is how I work with my clients, the yoga therapy. I do think it would work if everything I said was what my clients wanted to hear, or if I wanted to make the work easy on them, no healing would happen. Just be honest with Ahimsa and all will be fine, this is the deep shadow work we are all working on with yoga, bring your shadows into the light and you will see! I wish you much love on this journey, start with yourself and see what happens.
This makes enough for 4 servings
Spanish Rice, Quick Guac, and Fajita Veggies
Tonight this is what I made, but you can of course modify like crazy!
Spanish Rice – two boxes of far east spanish rice mix but I added in cilantro to taste, 1c frozen organic corn, 1 can organic black beans, and 1/2 jar of organic corn salsa, 1 can no salt tomatos, and chili powder to taste, just boil it all together in one pot, if you do not have spanish rice, just use brown rice and season a bit more with salsa, cumin and chili powder
Fajita veggies: 1 green bell pepper, 1 red bell pepper, 1 red onion all sliced. Spray a pan with coconut oil and stir fry with seasoning you like to taste or salsa. I like my veggies crisp!
Quick Guac: 2 avocados, 2-3tbsp red onion minced, dash of sea salt, 1 tbsp cilantro, sprinkle of cumin and chili powder ( you can also add tomato and lime but i was out)
Eat with organic corn chips or in a bowl by itself!
This went great with Green Beans on top!
1lb Gluten Free Rice Pasta Fettucini style
1 whole yellow onion sliced thin
1/2c-1c of organic frozen spinach
1/2 jar of Jenna Hull’s Marinara Sauce or you favorite organic fresh marinara or one can of diced tomatos
salt, pepper garlic to taste
Boil pasta and rinse with cold water, set aside. Saute onion in olive oil, around 2 tbsp or so, for about 5 min, add spinach, cook until soft. Add sauce and simmer for about 7-10 min. Add pasta, turn down heat and continuously stir until warm enought to serve. Top with some green beans, pepper, and maybe a pinch of sea salt. Delicious!
By Jenn
Each day I am faced with challenges to be happy. Each day these challenges can manifest in forms of people, events, or personal crisis. Each day I try to be the lover, the magical heart that beats to the pulsation of the world. Each day I wonder why do all this inner work, and each day I am gifted with an answer. Each day I wonder why I am here, and each day I gain more understanding. Each day that goes by is a gift to be inspired, to have inner growth. Each day I am glad I did not wait to count on someone to make me happy, each day I go on and do it myself.
My pure devotion is to my beautiful boy!
Namaste, this word is our way of honoring the light in everyone, and each true yoga class ends with this word, as we are ever devoted to our students and honoring that connection we have to each other as a community.
Bhakti Yoga, or Yoga of Devotion, is similar, as it is the path of bowing to the universe, at least I feel it is. This has been a true path of mine possibly since birth. My hunger to connect with something beyond me first started with my grandmother;s Virgin Mary statues and rosary’s, I love looking at them and keeping them in clean and well presented spaces in my room growing up, but I didn’t really know what else to do with them. My love for Greek and Roman mythology began in elementary school and went on until I majored in Art History in college, where I then found the whole pantheon of Indian and Eastern Mythology to explore! My room and then later my home became a temple to many statues, alters, tapestries of all kinds of theological background all to support this opening in my heart and my mind of what was beyond my knowledge of what I could see, but one thing stands true the most: without devotion or faith that something greater out there is taking care of me, and guiding me, I would feel lost.
It is with my devotion and love for yoga that I made it my life and creates my creative energy, and my ability to manifest in life what I need, whether it be healing, happiness, a goal on my journey, courage and strength, it is with this devotional heart I am truly who I am.
I hope you find a little devotion in your life, even if it just starts with a prayer of gratitude and thanks to whatever it is out there that takes care of you, and to living your life with a fuller heart, that becomes part of the path of the beginner Bhakti Yogi.
I hope you are finding your inspiration, love and devotion.
Jennifer
2 Cups cooked or canned chickpeas
1 tbsp ghee or veggie oil
1/2 red onion diced
1 1/2 tspn of all of the following: garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, garam masala, chili powder plus more to taste of garlic if needed
2 cups crushed tomato
sea salt to taste
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
fresh cilantro optional
add the onions and spices and saute until softened, add tomatoes and salt and simmer for 30 mins, then add coconut milk and chickpeas until heated through.
2 cups of brown wild rice is what i used if you were at the potluck and i added diced onion, carrot and peas to it if you want!
For the last 7 years I have been teaching in studios, community centers, fitness centers, paying rent for rooms to teach in and finally owning a studio, and through and through, yoga seems to get a rap for being expensive. Yoga, being a spiritual path, has been said to be something that should be free, or incredibly low cost. There are studios and places with classes you can get for free, we offer them quite frequently at our studio as well, every full moon or more to be exact, but what I have noticed over the years is, the people who want to invest in themselves will, and those who pay, come to class. Why… because they are making an investment in themselves.
Teachers spend a lot of time, travel and money to become certified and continue their education as well. Then they spend more money on books, marketing tools, and much of their spare time coming up with new ideas that will help themselves and their students grow. Studios create a beautiful environment that is comfortable and filled with yoga tools, like props, blankets and cushions that are at no small cost, and the cost to open a center or studio in today’s age is high, so that is another reason why yoga prices are what they are. My first teaching experience was in a cold, dirty day care gymnastics room, and my students, ever devoted, still paid to come just for their yoga and to get me to drive 45 mins two times a week!
Overall, yoga should be seen as an investment in your health and wellbeing, the ultimate preventative and healing medicine, besides you are what you eat, yoga helps us with the other aspect, you are what you think. Do you know the cost of 1 top shelf martini these days is the almost the same as most drop-in yoga class fees, that provide you with an hour or more of health? The cost of one month of cable is almost the same as one unlimited month of yoga? Look at the cost of your cell phone bill, I bet it is way more than a 5 or even a 10 class pass to your good health! So put your drink glasses down, put away your I phones and the remote control, and think about what you are really investing in, if you choose yoga, you choose you.
Namaste to all of you who choose you and who choose yoga and other healing paths,
Jennifer Langsdale
My son drinking his Vitamineral green smoothie with his mommy! He is not even 1 years old yet in this picture!
A Staple in the detox household or for those quick snack fixes, eat along side veggies, on top of salads, with crackers or inside a nori wrap with veggies.
3 C sunflower seeds raw, soaked for 3 hours or overnight
Juice from 2 lemons
2-3 T nama shoyu
1 clove garlic
Process in food processor until smooth and keep for up to 2 weeks.
One of my favorite recipes from my friend Jody Bukky! use organic!
1 1/2 c almond milk
2C fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 C Thai coconut
2 T honey
Juice of one Lemon plus 1/4 with skin
Place all into a blender and serve immediately.
