Quick dinners for dreary days

On the days that I work, I don’t usually get home until around 6.30pm.  By then I’m starting to feel hungry so a dinner that’s going to be quick and easy to prepare always gets my vote – and especially so now that the evenings are colder and darker.

One of my go-to recipes for nights like this is a one-pan, stir-fry style dinner. It’s an amazingly, endlessly versatile recipe that makes use of whatever I’ve got – whether that’s fresh ingredients or something left over from a previous dinner. In fact – it is invariably a combination fresh and leftover ingredients.

My usual starting point is to get my frying pan out and on the hob. You could use a wok if you prefer. I then add a little oil to the pan – sunflower, olive, rapeseed or coconut and let this heat through. Coconut oil works particularly well with potatoes so if I’ve got leftover potatoes to use up, I’ll normally use coconut oil. The next ingredient to go in is usually some chopped or sliced onion and maybe some garlic. And from there – the ingredients will be whatever I’ve got to hand.

This could be leftover poultry, meat or fish, leftover grains – such as rice, quinoa, bulgar wheat, leftover cooked vegetables – carrots, green beans, potatoes, pre-cooked pulses such as lentils, chickpeas or beans.

In terms of fresh ingredients – it’s best to use things that will cook fairly quickly such as leeks, peppers, shredded leafy greens and so on. If you have root vegetables – these are best cut into very fine julienne strips or spiralised so that they cook in around the same time as the other ingredients. You can also use a vegetable peeler to make thin shavings of root vegetables. I would normally add these to the pan immediately after the onions to give them a little longer to cook.

As a general rule – add the ingredients that will take the longest to cook first and those that just require re-heating later.  If you’re adding any green leaves that are a little more delicate, such as rocket, spinach or chard – these can be added towards the end so that they just wilt rather than being cooked to oblivion! Even if you only have a small quantity of something, it’s worth throwing in. And at least that way it doesn’t go to waste.

Add seasoning to the ingredients and gently stir everything to make sure that it all gets cooked evenly. It should be ready in about 10 or 15 minutes. Very often I sprinkle some seeds into the mixture a minute or two before it’s all cooked.

You can also add a couple of eggs to the recipe. When the other ingredients are almost cooked and don’t need to be stirred around any more, use a wooden spoon to create a space or two and tip the eggs into the space/s to cook. I find that adding a lid to my pan helps the eggs cook through more quickly.

I’d say I cook my dinner using a variation on this theme at least once every week – the possible combinations are pretty much endless. And it seems that it doesn’t really matter what I put into it – it always turns out tasting good.

If you missed my previous post about a quick and easy pasta recipe, here is a link to it. Hopefully you’ll find some inspiration in one or both of these posts for some quick, easy and healthy dinners!

The power of the drishti point

Those of you who practice yoga will, undoubtedly, have come across what is referred to as the ‘drishti’. It means the gaze point – where or what you should be focussing your eyes on in any given yoga posture. For example – in Trikonasana or triangle pose – your gaze should be towards your raised hand. Whilst in Paschimottanasana, the seated forward fold, it should be towards your toes. In other postures, it can be towards your navel or to the left or to the right. And in some postures – such as Navasana (boat pose) and Padmasana (lotus pose) it is the nose – which can be a little tricky to master without going cross-eyed!

In reality – gazing at your nose is more easily achieved by focussing on a point somewhere just in front of your nose. Inevitably, in order to achieve this, a softer, almost unfocussed gaze has to be used. And whilst the nose drishti may be one of the trickier ones to grasp, I believe it teaches us how to adopt a softer gaze – which is, after all, what we should employ with all drishti points, rather than a hard, determined stare or glare.

The purpose of using drishti points at all is more about giving you somewhere to point your eyes whilst discouraging you from looking at objects and/or other people around you. It is human nature, after all – or maybe it’s just our modern day conditioning – to spark thoughts about what we observe. And whatever those thoughts may be, whether it’s ‘that window over there needs cleaning’ or ‘I like that pink top that Anne is wearing. I wonder where she got it’ or ‘wow Alan’s back looks really flat in his forward bend’ – they are all distractions from what we are supposed to be doing on our yoga mats – which is, of course, to be practicing yoga!  And a degree of withdrawing our senses and focussing on ourselves and the moment we are in are all part of yoga.

One of my yoga colleagues seems to have perfected the art of unfocussed gazing. On several occasions I’ve tried to catch her eye either to mouth a ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’ during self practice sessions – but have been unable to!  Her gaze is obviously so unfocussed but at the same time so steady that she is oblivious to most of what’s going on around her. Now that helps me to understand how yoga can become a meditative practice…

Although probably every yoga teacher I’ve ever had has talked about drishti points and I would have said that I understand them, I have a feeling that my understanding and ability to implement them is about to go to another level. I’ve been making a conscious effort over the past few weeks not to look around me during yoga practices. It’s actually made me realise how much I do look around me – even if only surrepticiously sneaking a look at the person on the mat next to me. But what I’ve also noticed is that it does make my practice somehow feel more contained, almost more personal. So I intend to keep on doing it and see where it can take my practice – and me.

This all got me thinking about how often we all compare ourselves to others in our everyday lives. How we make observations and, I’m sure, often then jump to an incorrect conclusion about other people and their lives. I think it’s quite easy to convince yourselves that everyone else has more than we do, is more talented than we are, is happier than we are… When in reality – most of these thoughts are almost certainly fabrications of our own minds.

I’m not suggesting that we should try to become solitary islands and stop taking inspiration and ideas from other people but I do wonder if many of us could learn a lot about ourselves and maybe feel deeper levels of contentment if we made a little effort to focus on what we already have and what we can already do rather than constantly comparing ourselves to others, which so often leaves us feeling lacking and inadequate.

As autumn arrives

Autumn has very definitely arrived in the UK. There’s a slight chill in the air in the mornings and the nights are noticeably starting to draw in. There are conkers on the ground and bunches of bright rowan berries and rosehips everywhere. And even on sunny mornings – it doesn’t feel the same as a summer’s day. There’s a sense of summer receeding and of a cooler, quieter period of rest approaching.

My birthday is towards the end of August and I always take time off work around then. It’s almost a self-imposed rule that I don’t work on my birthday. I sometimes wonder whether this stems from school days when my birthday always fell during the summer holidays so I was never at school on my birthday. And I’ve carried it on into adulthood and working life.  This means that I generally find myself going back to work at the beginning of September having had a week or so off. Quite often this feels reminiscent of  going back to school at the beginning of a new school year.

And with it comes a feeling of settling back down into routine and thinking ahead to challenges and projects over the coming months.

The autumn is a good time to consolidate what has happened so far in the year. A time to bring things to a conclusion before settling down for a time of rest and dormancy during the winter. It’s a good time to start thinking about closing down the year, finishing things and tying up any lose ends.

But the approach of winter isn’t all doom and gloom – after all there are some fabulous foods to be harvested and enjoyed during these months. Autumn always makes me think of fruit crumbles – and in particular apple and blackberry crumble. I made one a few days ago and thought I’d share my recipe. The topping isn’t a traditional crumble topping – it’s more of a granola. I think it works quite well as it retains some crunch on top whilst softening slightly underneath where the granola comes into contact with the fruit.

So here is my recipe which will serve 4:

650g fruit  – I used one Bramley apple, one Braeburn apple and 225g blackberries

Sweetener  – such as honey, agarve syrup, date syrup

100g oats

50g seeds  – you can use just one type of seed if you wish or a mixture

100g nuts  – again a mixture of different nuts works well although Brazil nuts tend to be a little too earthy tasting so probably best avoided

25g butter or coconut oil

Spices such as cinnamon, ground ginger or even a little cacao powder

Heat the oven to 160 degrees C.

Prepare the fruit and chop into pieces. Put the fuit into an ovenproof dish with a couple of tablespoons of water and a couple of tablespoons of your chosen sweetener. You could, of course, use sugar if you prefer. Add some spices to the fruit if you wish – apple and cinnamon always work well together. Put the dish into the oven for 10 minutes to soften the fruit.

To make the topping – break the nuts into small pieces. I do this by putting them into a plastic bag and gently bashing with a rolling pin. Mix the nuts, seeds and oats together in a bowl. Melt the butter or coconut oil and add to the dry ingredients together with a couple of tablespoons of your chosen sweetener and any spices you’d like. If you’ve already added spices to the fruit, be careful not to add too much more to the topping mix. A little cacao powder added to the topping is rather nice!  Mix all the topping ingredients together and spread onto a baking sheet or shallow dish. Cook in the oven for 10 minutes. If you prepare the fruit and topping first, you can cook them at the same time – although separately.

After 10 minutes, stir the topping around a little and add it to the top of the fruit. Return the dish to the oven and cook for a further 10 to 15 minutes until the fruit is bubbling and the topping has browned a little.

Enjoy your crumble either hot or warm with custard, cream or yogurt.  And if there’s any left over, you can eat it cold for breakfast the next day with some yogurt.

 

Good enough is good enough

I was first introduced to the concept of good enough being good enough many years ago, in the early 1990’s when I was a single parent with a young child. I came across a course/group called Parentlink. It was aimed at all parents – not just single parents and the idea behind it was that being a parent is probably the most difficult thing that any of us will ever do and yet no-one teaches us how to be a parent. The course covered coping strategies for the endlessly challenging situations that most parents find themselves in, a little about understanding behaviour – of both children and adults! But I think the lesson that has stuck with me over the years is to accept that good enough is good enough. Being a parent is incredibly challenging and no-one can be expected to get it 100% right all of the time. I’m not entirely sure that I fully grasped the concept at the time but it is something that I’ve gone back to time and time again and I think in many ways – I’ve understood it more and more as the years have passed.

It’s not always an easy principle to adhere to. We live in such a competitive world where so many people seem to be constantly striving for perfection, to keep up with others, to reach goals or targets that they’ve been set – or even that they’ve set for themselves. It can be difficult to accept that just getting by, just surviving is sometimes the best that we can do. As long as no-one gets hurt or dies – we have, in a small way, achieved something. Not every day of our lives can be full of high-achieving perfection.

In work situations I’ve come to realise that it’s just not possible to get everything right all the time. Sometimes we lack knowledge, sometimes our concentration slips and sometimes we misjudge things and make mistakes. Usually there’s no catastrophic outcome and most things can be corrected or amended. So in the grand scheme of things, our mistakes don’t usually have any lasting effect. And how many times do we hear that a mistake isn’t a mistake if we learn something from it?

I’m quite often reminded of the good enough is good enough principle when it comes to my yoga practice. I currently do is described as a half Ashtanga Primary series practice. Although – to be fair – I’m sure it includes a lot more than half of the postures in the whole series!  I practice alongside people who do the whole Primary series, some do the 2nd series and one or two are working on the 3rd. I have to remind myself frequently that my practice is my practice – it’s what I can do at the moment – and also that a lot of my fellow yogis are a lot younger than I am!! I have to remind myself of the benefits I get from doing what I can do. I may never move on to the 2nd series – and that’s fine – there’s enough in the Primary series for me to aspire to and work towards. I’m certainly not going to give up because I can’t see how I’ll ever be able to get my legs behind my head or execute a perfect handstand…

Maybe what matters is that our intentions are good and honest and that for the majority of the time, we try to do our best. We all have off days – or weeks – or even longer periods of time when motivation may be low for any number of reasons. It’s all part of being human – part of the cycle of highs and lows that life goes through.

I do think that in our daily lives, it’s important to have goals and standards. There are probably things about ourselves or the way we do certain things that most of us could work on gradually improving – if we wanted to. It’s good to accept that some things, some days don’t work out as we’d planned or hoped they would. But the world doesn’t come crashing down around us and very often, we have another opportunity to try. And I think very often we are our own harshest critics and sometimes we would do well to remember that other people don’t always see us the same way that we perceive ourselves. How often have you left the house in the morning feeling that your hair is a mess or that your clothes don’t really go together – only to be complimented later in the day? Or how many times have you produced a piece of work that you weren’t entirely happy with – to then be told that you’d done a good job?

Pop-ups are popping up everywhere…

I love the current trend of pop-ups. Pop-up shops, pop-up cafes, pop-up restaurants. It must be such a great way for people to test the waters/run a trial of their own particular business without having to incur too much expense or commit to a long-term lease or rental. It must provide a great opportunity to gather valuable feedback.

I was chatting to a lady only the other day and she was telling me that she was going to have a pop-up shop in London for a week to showcase and sell the jewellery she makes.

And I’ve recently been to a couple of pop-up catering events.

The first was a vegan brunch that was provided by a friend of mine who has recently set up her own raw vegan food business called  MightyroaR . She ran the pop-up on a Sunday morning/lunchtime in the cafe at the yoga studio I go to regularly. So I went along and did a morning practice, along with quite a few other regulars and afterwards we had brunch in the cafe.

MightyroaR takes over the cafe at Stonemonkey

I had scrambled tofu on toast with mushrooms and chard. It was delicious!  I’d never had scrambled tofu before so wanted to give it a try. And I’d definitely give it another try!

Scrambled tofu on toast with mushrooms and chard

Hummous and avocado on toast

The photo on the left is of my brunch and the photo on the right is of one of the other choices – hummous and mashed avocado on toast.

If you’d be interested to learn more about some of the food that MightyroaR produce – here is a link to their website – www.mightyroar.co.uk

The second pop-up I went to was a dinner at the farm I get my vegetables from. The farm is a CSA – a community supported agriculture scheme. As a member, I pay a monthly subscription which entitles me to collect a share of the veg harvest every week. Members are encouraged to give some time to help the farm as well. This can be by doing a few hours work on the farm itself. I’ve done weeding in one of the polytunnels and spent a morning planting young plants. I’ve delivered leaflets about the scheme and helped out on the farm’s stall at both the Peace Festival and the Food Festival that are both held annually in Leamington.

One of the members offered to cook dinner a few weeks ago – using as much produce from the farm itself as possible. The evening was run on a donation basis and the profits were donated to charity.

Here is the beautiful menu for our evening:

And – as you’ll see from the menu, another little pop-up popped up that evening!  The Willows Project is also based at the farm. It provides nature-based activities to support groups and individuals who may be affected by learning difficulties, mental health problems or who are recovering from addiction.

The food was prepared and cooked in an on-site kitchen and it was all absolutely delicious!

We started off outside but by the time we got to the main course, huge black clouds had accumulated and it had started to rain so we all moved the tables, chairs, plates, glasses and wine bottles inside to the pole barn where we completed the meal. It was a bit of a shame that we couldn’t spend the whole evening outside but I have to say the rain meant that we were treated to the most stunning rainbow…

Our lovely chef for the evening Xandra

If you’d like to know a little more about the farm – here is a link to their website – www.canalsidecommunityfood.org.uk

So I’ve been treated to some fabulous food at local pop-ups recently. And I – for one – hope this is a trend that’s set to continue.

To tell you the truth

Satya (truthfulness)

As I’ve already mentioned, the type – or system – of yoga that I practice is called Ashtanga. Ashtanga means eight limbs and the word is formed from the sanskrit words for eight – ashta, and limb – anga . The first of the eight limbs are the yamas. These are the moral codes, although in reality they are more to do with restraint rather than actions. They include ahimsa – non-violence or non-harming and satya – truthfulness.

Back in April, the yoga studio I go to regularly hosted a workshop with Hamish Hendry. In the morning, we did a Mysore-style self practice with Hamish adjusting and in the afternoon, he talked about some aspects of yoga philosophy and practice techniques. One of the areas of philosophy that he talked about was truthfulness and he used Father Christmas as an example. The vast majority of us tell our children the ‘lie’ about Father Christmas and then a few years later, we get found out. What kind of example are we setting to our children by doing this?  Are we giving them the message that it’s OK to make things up – to tell little un-truths? But what kind of parent would you have to be to never introduce Father Christmas at all?  Brave or cruel?

This started me thinking about truth and how truthful we are in our lives . To what extent is it even possible to be truthful all the time or even for the majority of the time? It doesn’t have to involve major deceptions but I suspect that most of us get caught up in little un-truths probably virtually every day. Like arriving a little late for work and blaming it on the trains or the traffic when in fact it was because you got out of bed 15 minutes later than usual. Or telling a friend that you can’t meet for a drink after work because you’ve got to get back home for this reason or that reason – when the truth of the matter is that you just don’t feel like going out that day.

And do these little un-truths matter? Is it OK to not tell the complete truth if it means not hurting someone’s feelings? Is it better to tell someone that their new haircut looks awful and really doesn’t suit them or is it better not to say anything?  Of course, it may well depend whether they ask you the direct question. And in that case, is it better to say something vague and try to change the subject as quickly as possible? What if you have a friend or relative who – in your opinion – smokes or drinks too much. You may genuinely have their best interests at heart – but it’s very unlikely to be an easy subject to raise. And if you do, the conversation that follows may well be rather uncomfortable and if you are too blunt about your own feelings, the chances are you will hurt the other person’s feelings.

But satya is more about refraining from saying something harmful rather than refraining from saying things that are factually true. It’s about speaking with awareness and I suppose, a certain amount of compassion. Perhaps it’s more about blending the right – or the appropriate – amount of truth with the appropriate amount of compassion or non-harmfulness. About finding the most beneficial blend of satya and ahimsa for each different occasion.

And what about being truthful with ourselves? Is that more or less difficult than being truthful with others? I feel somehow it should be easier to be truthful with ourselves because we should know ourselves and our own feelings better than anyone else’s. But human beings find a million ways not to face the truth about themselves. I’m not suggesting for one minute that we should be so brutally honest with ourselves that we end up hating ourselves and despairing that we have any good qualities at all. But I believe we can learn to accept the aspects of ourselves that we don’t like or don’t particularly admire. In most cases there is something we can do about these aspects of ourselves. We can try to lose a little weight, we can learn to be a little more assertive, we can learn to control our temper a little more… I believe there is almost always something we can do to improve the things we don’t like about ourselves. It may not be easy and it may not be a quick fix though.

And in the process – we mustn’t forget to feel the same compassion towards ourselves as we try to feel towards others.

Hamish Hendry

Ahimsa (non-harming)

Shouldering set-backs

I’ve hurt my left shoulder. I don’t know exactly what I’ve done to it or how I’ve done it but it’s uncomfortable to raise the arm at the moment. As I raise my hands with the first breath of a sun salutation, it doesn’t feel quite right – I can feel a clunking in my bones. And chaturanga into up dog doesn’t feel comfortable at all. As any Ashtanga practitioner will know, this is quite a blow as the sequence involves repeating this movement quite a few times. Out of curiousity I once counted how many there were in my own practice – I don’t do the full primary series yet – but even so I go from chaturanga to up dog at least 40 times…

Reluctantly I have stayed away from classes that were likely to involve a lot of chaturanga to up dog transitions – and this has included self practice sessions. My feeling is that it’s my technique that needs some working on – very possibly I should be engaging my larger upper body muscles more. Or maybe there’s some small tweak or change I can make that will make a difference. So I’ve been doing some research and reading articles to get some tips to try out.

And it seems that chaturanga gets quite a bad press – it gets blamed by so many yogis for so many injuries!!!

At the weekend instead of going to my usual Ashtanga Research class, I did a practice at home. I rolled my mat out in the living room – for some reason, a yoga practice never feels quite the same on a carpet. I suppose I’m so used to practicing on a beautiful bamboo floor at the studio I go to. Or maybe I just convince myself that it doesn’t feel the same, doesn’t feel quite right as an excuse for not doing as many practices at home as I could! I put on my favourite CD at the moment for yoga – Lou Reed’s Hudson River Wind Meditations. Although we never practice with music at the yoga studio – I somehow find it helps to focus my mind if I’m practicing at home. I must admit that I was a little surprised when I was first introduced to this CD about six months ago – who knew that Lou Reed had produced meditation music!! Well – it’s probably more accurately described as meditation sounds – the repetitive electronic notes are very calming and soothing – so perfect for meditation or yoga. The repetitive rhythm reminds me of heart beats or breathing.

It’s so funny how yoga does seem to keep your ego in check. I’d recently done a couple of fairly fast-paced practices and was feeling quite pleased with myself – a) for being able to ‘keep up’ with the others in the class – most of whom are a lot younger than me and b) for feeling that my practice was starting to improve and move on. I’ve noticed this in the past as well – almost every time my ego steps in to gloat, something happens and I have to take a step back. It’s as if there are little yoga fairies out there and they step in to say ‘hey – no – this isn’t what yoga is about! You shouldn’t be comparing yourself to others or trying to compete with them. It’s not a race or a competition – it’s about you and where you are right now.’

But equally – it seems that every time I have to take a step back – I find something new. Usually it’s something about my technique and often it leads to increased strength – and ultimately being able to move more deeply into poses/asanas. In fact at the weekend whilst I was practicing, I realised that I have a tendency to raise my shoulders when breathing in. In my mind – I thought this meant I was lengthening my spine but suddenly it dawned on me that, in fact, all I’m doing is hunching my shoulders up. By consciously drawing my shoulders down when I inhale, I can lengthen my spine and as a consequence I can then fold further forward.

And as a result of my shoulder problems, I’ve made a couple of discoveries. The first is aromatherapy massage. I was chatting to one of my yoga friends a week or so ago and mentioned my shoulder problems. She recommended that a massage might help. I knew that she was a holistic therapist so booked in for a massage. What I didn’t realise until I got there was that she uses essential oils and blends several different oils according to each individual’s needs. It was just lovely …

I haven’t had many massages in my life – in fact I can only think of one other before – but I’ve already been back for another and I have every intention of going regularly – even once my shoulder problems have been sorted out.

And my other discovery was Barry H Gillespie.

My regular yoga teacher ran a workshop back in January. His theme was spirals and included in the handout notes was this quote:

‘The path isn’t a straight line. It’s a spiral – you continually come back to things you thought you understood and see deeper truths’ – Barry H Gillespie

As I was writing this article, I remembered this quote and thought how apt it was – not only to the setbacks with my shoulder problem but also in so many ways, to life itself. How often do we find ourselves coming back to square one – coming round full circle – to where we thought we began but actually to realise the lessons we’ve learned since we were there before?

And the quote lead me to google Barry H Gillespie…

And to find his website http://www.barryhgillespie.com

What an interesting man!  I love and admire the way he’s doing what he feels passionate about in life even though – on first appearances – the three main strands of his life may  seem quite disconnected. Here’s a man who’s living a confluent life …

 

Confluence

Same old same old… or is it?

Who needsa Dolmio day anyway?

There was an interesting news item on Friday – that Mars Food have recommended that some of their products such as their Dolmio pasta sauces should only be consumed once a week due to their salt, sugar and fat content.

This has been lauded as a ‘hugely unusual’ and ‘very imaginative’ move on Mars Food’s part and given my interest in healthy eating, I do applaud them for taking some responsibility and bringing consumers’ attention to the less healthy ingredients in their products.  But equally – with my healthy eating hat on – I question whether we really need to buy ready-made sauces at all when they can be so simple to make ourselves. So I would like to share a couple of my own pasta sauce recipes that are quick and easy to make as well as being inexpensive and almost certainly healthy than sauces you can buy in a jar.

I probably cook this for myself once a week. Usually on a day when I’ve been to work or maybe after an evening yoga practice – the evenings when I want something substantial, tasty and quick to cook. Either recipe takes around 15 minutes from turning on the hob to being ready to eat. So perhaps a good recipe for you busy Mums out there as well.

The first is a tomato sauce – and for one serving,  I use roughly the following:

1 small/half a large onion

2 to 3 tablespoons oil (olive, rapeseed, coconut)

3 to 4 medium tomatoes (or 8 to 10 cherry tomatoes)  Sometimes I use tinned tomatoes if I haven’t got fresh ones but it definitely tastes better made with fresh tomatoes

Black pepper, a little salt, other spices that take my fancy on that day – cayenne pepper, smoked paprika – really whatever you’ve got and like the thought of that day …

3 handfuls of pasta

Seeds – you can use pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, a mixture of both and/or other seeds

Cheese

Put some water on to boil to cook the pasta in. In a separate pan, heat the oil on a medium heat. Chop/slice the onion and put in the saucepan with the oil to soften. Cut the tomatoes into small chunks or slices and add to the onions when the onions have softened a litte. Add some black pepper and any other seasonings you have to hand and like – for example a little cayenne pepper, smoked paprika…  I do usually add a little salt as well – because I really think this enhances the taste of the tomatoes. And at least I know how much salt is in there as I’ve added it myself.  I also think it could be the salt that helps the tomatoes to break down.  Then just leave this to cook on a medium heat, giving it a stir occasionally until the tomatoes have broken down to form a sauce.

When the water in the other pan starts to boil, add the pasta and cook for the time given on the pack. I did read an interesting tip about cooking pasta the other day – which said that you can turn the heat off once you’ve added the pasta to the water and leave it sitting in the water. It will soften by itself in around 15 minutes. I tried it when preparing the pasta for the photos below – and it works!

While the pasta and sauce are cooking, I usually grate some cheese.You should find that by the time the pasta is ready – so is the sauce! Combine the two, sprinkle the cheese on top and some seeds if you like. The seeds can be added to the sauce towards the end of cooking if you prefer. And there you are – dinner is ready!

You can vary the type of cheese you use – cheddar, blue cheese, goats cheese or my current favourite, Manchego. Or you can use a cream cheese – this is best added to the sauce just before it’s finished cooking so that the cheese melts and becomes part of the sauce.

I try to eat as seasonally as I can and the farm I get my veg from only grows seasonal veg. So there are quite a few months in the year when tomatoes are not available. One of the highlights of my year is the day I go to the farm to collect my veg and the new season’s tomatoes are there. It always makes me smile! Not least because it means I can make one of my favourite recipes – tomato pasta sauce!

So during the winter months – the non-tomato months – I vary the recipe and use green veg instead.  Leeks work very well as do most other leafy green veg, including finely sliced cabbage – the key thing is that it should be something that will cook quickly when sliced or chopped up. And of course you don’t have to limit yourself to using just one veg – you can combine two or three.

A sauce variation that’s particularly nice with green veg is to add a couple of spoonfuls of peanut, almond or cashew nut butter to the sauce towards the end of the cooking time so that it melts into the sauce. You probably won’t need to add any cheese if you use a nut butter – but of course there’s nothing to stop you if you wanted to!

To be honest, there are so many possible combinations that I’ve been eating one variation or another of this recipe for dinner pretty much once a week for many years now – and I never get tired of it. In fact, I’d say that it’s one of my favourite dinners.

So why not have a go and get creative?  And enjoy!!

On the left – onion, leek and curly kale with almond butter. On the right – onion and tomato with pumpkin seeds and grated Manchego.

 

Same old same old… or is it?

One of the biggest influences in my life at the moment is yoga. I’ve been fascinated by it for many years and have practiced different types of yoga on and off over the years. For the past few years I’ve practiced mainly vinyasa flow and Ashtanga yoga.

Ashtanga is a system of yoga founded by K Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, India and is still taught there today by his daughter, Saraswathi, and grandson, Sharath. It consists of a set sequence of postures known as asanas. The traditional way of learning the sequence is in a one-to-one way – student and teacher. Students only progress to the next asana in the sequence when the teacher thinks they are ready. In the west, Ashtanga is often taught in a class environment of one teacher and several students.

It’s a tough practice – both physically and mentally. Dedicated students will practice six days a week. I will confess – I’m not quite that dedicated! But also have to say that having practiced more regularly over the past two years – on average three or four times a week – I have noticed changes in my practice – both physically and mentally.

I have been asked a few times whether it’s boring doing the same sequence all the time. And there have been times – quite a few of them actually – when I have asked myself whilst getting ready to go to practice ‘do I really want to do this again?’

But that seems to be the paradox with Ashtanga yoga – it’s the same every time – and it’s never the same each time.

I often liken it to my commute to work. I take the same route from home to the office, starting with a walk to the station. The walk is never exactly the same on any two days – sometimes it may be raining, sometimes it’s very cold early in the morning, sometimes it will be broad daylight and the sun will be shining. On different days, I cross the road at slightly different places – depending on the traffic. I see different people as I walk to the station.  I don’t always get the same train. There are days when I go a little earlier – and some days when I go a little later. But even on the days when I get what I refer to as the usual train – there are the days when it’s delayed and sometimes even cancelled.

And then there’s the seat I chose to sit in… and yes, I will admit – there is a particular seat that I generally tend to head for! Second carriage from the front, third seat on the left-hand side in the middle section. And – interestingly – the very fact that I even do this, is indicative that I am the type of person who is attracted to Ashtanga yoga …

But then there are the days when I deliberately mix it up and sit somewhere different. So then I get a different view of the journey to work – especially if I’m facing backwards to the direction the train is travelling in. Sometimes I see the same people on the train but most days I’ll see someone I haven’t seen before – and may never see again.

Some days the journey is uneventful. And on other days it’s not. Like the morning we were evacuated from the train because of a fire beneath one of the carriages.

So whilst it’s essentially the same journey every day – no two days are ever the same.

And it’s the same with the yoga practice. There are never exactly the same people in the studio/shala. The mood and energy will be subtlely different every time I go to practice. My own mood and body are different every time. Sometimes I feel calm and relaxed, on other days my mind is awash with all sorts of thoughts. Sometimes my shoulders feel stiff, other times my left knee may feel a little dodgy and other times I feel strong …

Sometimes I seem to really connect with my breath, sometimes I seem to be able to fold a little deeper, sometimes my legs feel stronger. And then there are the days when I’m not able to do a posture that I’ve been doing relatively easily for weeks or even months.

It’s tempting to think of some practices as being better than others. But actually what I think yoga is teaching me is that every practice is unique. So now I’m trying to approach each practice without preconceived ideas about how it will be. I’m trying to allow myself to notice the subtle differences of each practice.

And if I can learn to accept each practice for what it is – whether it feels good or not so good – maybe I can also learn to apply this sense of acceptance to other things in my life – my commute to work, each working day, each non-working day, the people I meet and so on.

It’s not an easy thing to do.  I think it will take some practice…

Parsnip people

I just couldn’t resist picking up these two-legged parsnips when I went to the farm I get my veg from.  They’ve been grown organically  in a field less than 5 miles from where I live.  I love that they’re not perfectly shaped like the ones you see in supermarkets – and also that they’re still covered in the mud they grew in. I do find these days that if I see parsnips in a supermarket, they look very clean and white!

The one with its legs crossed made me smile in particular!!

Although, as you may be able to tell from the photo, it has become a bit dehydrated and wrinkled now. That’s because it’s been sitting on the counter in my kitchen waiting to be photographed for a week or so…  Normally I put root veg – and potatoes – with the mud still on them into a plastic bag with a piece of kitchen paper in the veg drawer in the fridge. They keep really well this way for up to a couple of weeks.

I think parsnips make a great soup – and that’s what these ones are destined to become, together with some squash that also came from the farm. I’m going to add some curry spices to the soup as I find that a little curry flavouring works well with root veg.

Here is my spicey parsnip and squash soup recipe. It will make enough for 3 to 4 portions:

475g parsnips

650g squash or pumpkin

I medium onion

3 tablespoons oil for roasting

Spices: 1 tsp  curry powder, half tsp each turmeric and cumin, a little fresh or dried chilli and a little salt and black pepper

Up to 1 litre cold water

Dessicated coconut (optional)

Peel and cut the parsnips, squash and onion into roughly 2-3cm chunks and place on a baking sheet. You can leave the skin on the squash/pumpkin as the flesh will be easy to cut away once it is cooked and softened. Mix the dry spices with the oil and brush lightly over the vegetables. Sprinkle the chilli, salt and pepper over the top. Place in the middle of a pre-heated oven at 200 deg C and roast for 40-45 minutes.

When the vegetables are cooked and tender, take them out of the oven and leave to cool for a while. You can either continue making the soup once they have cooled a little or put them in the fridge and make the soup later. Blend the vegetables and the cold water together to the desired consistency. If you have a blender that heats soup, leave it running until the soup is hot or alternatively put the soup into a saucepan or microwave to heat up. Sprinkle some dessicated coconut on top as a garnish and enjoy!