Fall-Time Recipes

Veggie Bean and Barley Soup 
This could easily be called "Everything Soup," but really the ingredients are geared to what you may have on hand.  The Chicken is not so necessary, since the beans and barley provide plenty of protein, but if I have some leftover, I often throw it in.  The Pasta is also an extra ingredient, mostly because my children love to see noodles!

3/4 Cups Pearl Barley, Rinsed
3/4 Cups Green or Yellow Split Peas
1/2 Cup Red or Brown Lentils
10 Cups Chicken or Vegetable Broth
1 Cup Yellow Onion, Chopped
3 Stalks Celery, Sliced
2 Whole Carrots, Chopped
2 Chicken Breasts, Cooked, and Cut into Bite Size Pieces
1/2 Tsp Redmond Real Salt
1/4 Tsp Ground Black Pepper
1 Tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Celery Salt
1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
1 Cup Veggie Spiral Pasta

In a large stockpot, combine the barley, split peas, lentils, and broth.  Cook over medium heat for 30 minutes on the stove top.  Add the chopped onion, celery, and carrots.  Add the cooked chicken if desired.  Season with salt, pepper, cumin, celery salt, and garlic powder.  Cook for another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  The last 10 minutes of cooking time, add the un-cooked veggie spiral pasta.  The pasta will absorb some of the broth.  As soon as the pasta is cooked through, remove from heat.  Enjoy the fall colors in your soup bowl.

Pumpkin Spice Cake: I love to make this cake on Halloween night, so when the kids come home from trick-or-treating, there is a festive and healthy deterrent from all the candy!  We like it with a dollop of whipped cream on top of each slice. If I’m feeling indulgent, I’ll use dark chocolate chips instead of the raisins and dates.  (This cake makes a great breakfast the next morning too.)

12 oz. Apple Juice Concentrate

1 Cup Butter, Softened

2 Cups Pumpkin, Cooked and Mashed (most of the time I just use unsweetened canned pumpkin)

4 Eggs, Lightly Beaten

3 Cups Whole White Wheat Flour

2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1 tsp Allspice

1/2 tsp Ground Ginger

1/2 tsp Ground Cloves

1/2 tsp Redmond Real Salt

4 tsp Baking Powder

2 tsp Baking Soda

1/3 Cup Pecans, Finely Chopped

1/2 Cup Raisins, (previously soaked in hot water)

1/2 Cup Dates, Chopped (also previously soaked in hot water)

Using an electric mixer, combine all the wet ingredients.  Sift together, the add the dry ingredients gradually.  Strain the raisins and dates that have been soaking in the hot water.  Finally, gently fold in the pecans, raisins, and dates.  Pour batter into a greased loose bottom tube pan.  Bake at 350F for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Once the cake is cooled, Store in an air-tight container in the fridge.  Eat up within about 3 days!

Transitions

Seasons Change
It's getting cold outside in the mornings as the seasons change.  This photo is from my last yoga session on the dock this year.   Looking back as I walked away from a finished practice, I saw the sun reflecting on the lake, and I knew I'd say goodbye for now.  Hopefully I'm around the area to enjoy the same privilege next spring.   If not, I may just have to make the drive. 

Remember my dear yoga sisters?  Heather recently brought to my attention that we are all experiencing some major transitions in out lives currently.  She just sent her first son off to college.  Steffanie just sent her first son off to serve an LDS mission.  My oldest son is now in kindergarten.  Yes, the seasons will change.  Heather also pointed out that how gracefully we take the transitions we make within our individual circumstances will determine our ability to trust the process of life.  

Sometimes, I can't help but feel the way my favorite female songwriter, Dar Williams describes in her song, "It's Alright"... 

"I know change is a bad thing, makes me down into a sorry sad thing, not some iridescent grateful butterfly.  I'd resist with defiance, not the valor of a mystic silence, I will fight the dizzy spiral of goodbye."  But--It is alright.  

K.T. Tunstall, another favorite songwriter of mine, describes it as "The Beauty of Uncertainty."  Whenever I hear someone else so beautifully express it, I'm glad to know we all have these transitions, and we all have to learn to move with it.  

Trust Yourself

When I was a ballerina years ago, I remember my instructor telling us how important the transitions in-between the steps we took were.  Within the transitions was the artistry.  If you took the transitions with grace, you would become stronger.  Making something look light, and easy actually takes a great deal of strength.  Now, I still apply this principle as I move from one yoga pose to another.   It becomes like a dance.  This is why I love vinyasa flow.  Although, I have yet to have the same kind of grace in my day to day.

I think of those dancers I knew who seemed to posses this amazing grace.  Jessica Hansen in Swan Lake, Christina Gee and her radiant smile, & occasionally--me.  I would at times, almost grasp what seemed impossible--true flow.  The things we do by instinct, are what we do best.  It has been described in numerous ways.  Embedded knowledge, muscle memory, subconscious, going with the flow, getting into the zone, whatever you choose to call it, everyone has experienced that space where time is suspended, and it all comes natural.  

Also, I often would ponder over the simple words on the wall at my favorite yoga studio, carefully placed inside a boundless circle:

"Practice and all is Coming."~ Shri K Pattabhi Jois

Often, our yoga instructors would remind us to remove the ambition from our practice.  I think I finally understand what they meant.  Trust that you know what you already have learned.  Remove the conscious effort and the comparison to others.  This relieves a great deal of anxiety, because there is less need for micro-management in your own life, or over anyone else.  Simply learn what is necessary, and then allow it to flow naturally from you.  Trust Yourself.