Yoga, balance and cooking in bulk.

To say that I’m feeling centered would be an understatement. Last week I signed up for yoga at a local studio. New students get the first class free or can pay $25 for one week of unlimited yoga. I opted for unlimited yoga and took six yoga classes in seven days. My body was very sore for the first four days. On day five I noticed that I could bend without my abs aching – that I could reach with my arms without my limbs shaking.  I feel so, so good.

I am reminded that when I feel centered in my body – when I feel strong mentally and physically – I want that feeling to reach into other aspects of my life.  I get more focused at work.  I find time for fun outside of work.  I find balance.

That feeling ebbed over into the kitchen this week.  I reconnected with my love of bulk cooking – my love of investing a few hours in the kitchen so that I have easy access to healthy, prepared whole foods all week.

Just a few hours in the kitchen the other morning

resulted in

• 10 cups of homemade vegetable broth (pressure cooker)
• millet (rice cooker)
• split pea soup (pressure cooker)
• brown rice (rice cooker)
• crackers – with the juice pulp + veggies, wheat berries, nuts and seeds (dehydrator)
• chickpeas (pressure cooker)

I love having beans and grains readily accessible for meals.

Split Pea Soup and Millet

Chickpea and Brown Rice Soup

Let’s talk about the chickpea soup.  I simply poured two cups of vegetable broth in a large sauce pan. I added half a cup of cooked chickpeas and half a cup of brown rice. I diced half a tomato and added it to the pan, plus two handfuls of mixed greens and a healthy squirt of Sriracha.  I enjoyed a hearty bowl of soup for lunch – done in about 10 minutes! That salad – sauerkraut, cucumber and carrot – was topped off with croutons. Those croutons were intended to be a raw bread.

I loosely followed this recipe, using pulp from juicing. I added sun-dried tomatoes, wheat berries and added the sun-dried tomato soaking water to make the batter wetter, and spread it thick, but it turned into crackers, not bread.

Crumbled crackers = awesome croutons!

I’ve also been juicing and making smoothies:

Smoothie: almond milk, blueberry, mango, and rolled oat (uncooked) smoothie
Juice: carrot, celery, apple, ginger, lemon, and lime juice

Almond milk, arugula, spinach, chard, flaxseed, ginger+ frozen blackberries, clementine and banana

Yesterday I was up early to get some work done before an 8:30 yoga class. I realized I needed something on my stomach, but not too much.

Do you have 12 minutes and a food processor? You can make this homemade nut butter, too!

• 2 cups raw, unsalted almonds
• 1/2 cup dry coconut flakes 

Blend the almonds in a food processor for 12 minutes, scraping down the sides as needed. Add the coconut at 7 minutes. 

And now it’s time to make a smoothie, get some work done and get to yoga class at noon. I hope you find balance in your day.

Tags: bulk cookingchickpea and brown rice soupgreen smoothiejuice pulp crackersmilletvegan split pea soupyoga

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