Chakra Vinyasa weekend

Hello beautiful Bloggies,

This past weekend officially blown my mind. I spend 3 days surrounded with other yogis listening, practicing and learning about Chakra Vinyasa during Maria Garre’s Teacher Training. I missed days like that a lot. I knew a few people at the training already so I wasn’t completely alone.

To be honest I have no idea how am I going to digest all this knowledge now so I am just gonna sit on this and wait. Chakra Vinyasa is one of many modules of Prana Flow TT founded by Shiva Rea.

It’s a pretty complicated process although everything does beautifully comes together in the end and practicing it feels amazing. I won’t get into deep details but just to give you some idea.

Prana Flow philosophy is all about “the universal force” that’s behind every action, movement that we see and feel in the nature and within our bodies. Every breath that we take, every thought we have, every heartbeat we feel is caused by this “all knowing intelligent life force Prana”,

When Prana comes into play there is an energy rising and moving within our bodies. This philosophy is based on Chakra System (Muladhara, Svadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddha, Ajna, Sahasrara Chakra and 5 elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Space); it teaches us how to experience vinyasa. Our breath is a vehicle to Prana so we can embody consciousness and “flow of life”.

I know that it may sound abstractive to you so I will stop here but believe me if you are a yoga practitioner try it out and you will be hooked.

For more info check out Shiva Ree or Maria Garre websites:

http://web.mac.com/megarre/

http://shivarea.com/

Very inspiring women.

We went through a pretty intensive training with yoga practices and in between there was meditation. And as much as I love this practice I was truly amazed that I actually loved the meditation part as well. Someone forced me to meditate 4 times in 2 days…loved it. And now I miss it…so I think one of my New Year’s resolutions will be bringing more meditation to my life.

Izabela

What would you do for the men you love,,,

Man, this week goes fast – I seriously had to study so maybe that’s why. I am going to a Prana Flow training this weekend. Now I am going through materials that are recommended. At least I am trying to 😉 The training is going to be in one of Mississauga’s yoga studios. One of Senior Teacher and Director of Shiva Rea’s Samudra School of Living Yoga is coming and I am pretty excited about what happens there. I won’t go into details what it’s about. I’ll share with you after. It’s going to be an intense 3 days so I am already concerned how to stock myself with on the go food. I am thinking that snacks are not enough since its from 7am-7 pm. That’s correct-7 am!!!

Back to the topic, Tom is pretty open recently to vegan cousin and some dishes he really likes . But still he is a meat eater. In general I don’t have issue with preparing traditional meals for him but liver.…Is one of those things that really disgusts me. Probably most of you will think “why would you have this for dinner”. Well it’s all a part of Polish cuisine when you simply fry the liver (any kind) with onion. And I remember the times when my mom used to make it and I ate it then…but ever since I tried to prepare it on my own I just got grossed out. It’s all bloody and slimy before it looks like meal.

I am not even mentioning the fact I almost don’t eat meat anymore…

I was doing my shopping on Monday evening and since I am a good wife – I remembered that a while ago he asked me to make it. Bleh…I just clenched my teeth today. I didn’t take any pictures of this bloody meal – to graphic for the blog;) but you can call it -an experience.

And what can you do for your meat eater?

Have an awesome rest of the week,

Izabela

Disconnected…

No, I didn’t forget about you guys. I simply didn’t have a connection to the world (my charger for my laptop died).  I had to stop my weekly or I should say daily routines of catching up with my favorite blogs, researching new recipes and even replying to emails. All other things that I do got disorganized and failed as well. I didn’t practice this week – so I feel very disconnected from my body. Tonight after my class I am planning to stay in the studio and practice on my own.

Some good news is that I didn’t stop cooking and trying new recipes. I found some amazing desserts but they were gone before I could take a picture so now I need to do it again-poor me;).

I also started juicing and I have noticed small positive changes with my belly so soon I will share with you some of my fav. recipes.

Finally this week’s HIT for dinner was: Fall TVP Burrito. Turned out delicious, you have to try it.

Ingredients:
1/2 small butternut squash (backed a night ahead)
½ cup TVP
1/2 cup of brown rice
2 whole wheat tortillas
1 ripe avocado
1 tsp nutritional yeast

1/2 red pepper
3-5 cherry tomatoes
1-2 small mushrooms
½ sweet onion
3 tbsp EVOO

a little bit of shredded rice vegan cheese on top

Cook the rice. Prepare TVP with boiled water as usual. Saute all the veggies ( without avocado) with olive oil at the end add smashed squash and TVP. Mix together. Mash the avocado with nutritional yeast and spread it on the warm tortillas. Add rice, and TVP &veggie on top, wrap it up.

So good so Enjoy it!

Have a great weekend,

Izabela

 

Random lunch ideas & amazing socca discovery

I hope your week was more efficient than mine. I am finding myself very fatigued and lack motivation to have things done recently. As I can read from other bloggers, I guess it’s the season.

As mine mood swings I am not getting very creative as well. I am used to plan my meals and at least have an idea so I know what to prepare a day before or buy ahead. Hmm,,,apparently not anymore. During this week I was just grabbing whatever happen to be in my fridge-mishmash-and done. (I don’t have to tell you that for those who have IBS it’s a very bad idea=symptoms increase). Thanks to shopping in an organic market last Saturday-my fridge was pretty well stocked. So the random lunches were not too bad and pretty dam tasty. Here it is:

Spicy rice cake sandwich

Rice cake (I used the one with basil and tomato spice) spread mashed avocado, added last piece of “Veggie Slices” soy-based mozzarella, scramble egg, spinach, zucchini and tomato, sprinkle with basil. Done in 5 min.

Mishmash Delicious Salad

Lettuce (Iceberg this time), red pepper and cherry tomatoes chopped, mashed ½ avocado, “Sabra” roasted red pepper hummus, scramble egg and …goat cheese. You don’t have to believe me just try it. Yumi.

Friday Discovery-Socca

adopted from pure2raw

This is a huge step for me. Fist it’s kind of a substitute for bread, second-no symptoms even with chickpea flour as an ingredient.(I am not really good with tolerating chickpeas). I found the recipe and somehow I decided to give it a try-turned out amazing!

1 cup of chickpea flour

1,5 water

pinch of salt

3tbsp of melted coconut oil (You can use olive oil as well)

Turn the oven up to 400F. I used coconut oil so had to melt it before the mix…Then mix the flour with water & salt pour onto pan and baked it for 30-40 min.

I made a sandwich with satue kale, carrots and hemp seeds with the coconut oil and 1tbsp of peanut butter (weird I know, but tasty) as well.

I have already experimented with adding 1 cup of pumpkin puree to socca recipe and it was great as well. Tom ate it today topped with beef strogonov (to satisfy his meaty taste).

Highly recommend to give it a try.

Enjoy your weekend.

Xoxo

Izabela

 

 

 

Sunday sweethearts

I hope your weekend was just as beautiful as mine. The weather was gorgeous so after worked my weekend morning classes I spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying the sun.

On Saturday afternoon we visited our friends, proud parents of two little twin boys (I love these guys!). Maybe you remember from my previous post my favorite family in Waterdown. The evening was fun. Their family grew by one member – Charlie the cat. We tried to introduce Charlie to Sophie. Unfortunately the cat was not impressed by this idea and they are not friends so far.

On Sunday after my class we took the dog and drove to our old hidden spot in town for a walk. It’s amazing how fresh air and nature can improve your mood and energy level.

This walk definitely turn up our appetite so we came back I went straight to prepare dinner. Chicken salad with hummus for me and a chicken cutlet for Tom. Well, yeah …I know “meat in the house” today. Ironically I am very good at making cutlets so he ate more than one.

The best part was after dinner – something that starts with a letter “s”. Sunday dessert, let’s call it: “ Sunday sweethearts” from now on. Thank you Averie for the recipe! My two favorite ingredients: Almond butter and flax seeds-no guilt what so ever.

3tbsp of Almond butter

½ cup of flax seeds

3tbs Maple Syrup

2 tbsp of melted Coconut oil

a few drops of Almond Extract

I just blended everything together and form into 4 heart shapes cookies. I added some chocolate chips on top and put it into a freezer for 10 minutes. You need to try it!

Have a great rest of the weekend guys,

xoxo

Izabela

 

Healthy alternatives for traditional Cabbage rolls

I need to admit that having a big box of chocolate bars at home, on the table waiting for kids is not a good idea and I didn’t have the strength to resist the temptation. So let’s hope I can sweat it out today.

In my last post I said I am resting on Sunday,well it’s not entirely true. I was “relaxing” in my kitchen and doing house work the whole day, but I finally had time to find a healthy version of one of my favorites Polish traditional meals.

Let me start from the beginning. Probably most of you are familiar with cabbage rolls. It’s one of the Polish traditional dishes. You may have tried different variations but basically it’s rice&meat(ground beef) rolled into cabbage leafs served with tomato sauce. It’s truly amazing and it’s not the worst choice you can put onto your plate but it can be very high in calories (depending on how you make it and if include meat of course). I think the worst part is that this is a very time consuming meal, takes almost a day with all the preparations to make it. And since I am not living in Poland anymore no one is making them for me;(. I can buy them, but then again, I have almost zero trust in prepared dinners.

So a while ago my mom came up with easy version of this-called ”cheated cabbage rolls”;). Everyone loves them. Taste is the same.

I had a cabbage in my fridge waiting for me until I will get around to it, so finally on Sunday I made them and created a vegan version for myself.

Cheating cabbage rolls (Vegan and Non vegan version)

½ cabbage

¾ cup of rice (I used brown rice)

ground beef or if you are vegan TVP works great here ( I did both)

2 cloves of garlic

½ onion chopped

non vegan version: use flour, breadcrumbs and 1 egg OR Vegan:use flax egg 1:1 to glue TVP roll

2-4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

Tomato sauce:

vegetable broth

jar of tomato puree

spices: basil, salt&freshly ground pepper, oregano, sweet paprika

You can use Greek yogurt to make it thick.

Step 1. Chop the cabbage and boil until soft, let it cool down completely

Step2. Cook the rice-let it cool down.

Step3.

Non vegan: Fry ground beef with onion, garlic and spices-let this cool down

Vegan: Prepare TVP with boiled water as usual.

Step4.

Non vegan: Mix brown rice, cabbage and meat in a big bowl, add flour, egg and breadcrumbs to glue everything together and by hand form into balls/rolls shape. Fry on EVOO at a low heat until ready.

Vegan: Mix TVP with flax egg, cabbage and rice. Form the balls/rolls shape, spread them out on a parchment paper and bake in the oven for around 30 min at 375F

Final Step5. Make a tomato sauce in the pan. Pour vegetable broth and allow it to boil, add tomato pure, spices, mix well and stir it for a few minutes.

I guess depends on you, you can add a Greek yogurt, sour cream or flour to make it thick . Substitute with gluten free flour, soy plain yogurt or vegan sour cream alternatives.

Pour sauce on the rolls. Dig in*.

*This recipe is for 2 people for aprox. 2 dinners so make sure you adjust the portions to your needs.

You can freeze the cabbage rolls as well, but I am sure you will eat them before that. Enjoy and let me know how you like it.

 

Have a great week

Izabela