A Timely Vacation

I hope you all took advantage of the holiday weekend by unplugging from your regular lives and making time for relaxation. Overachievers, I know who you are, and I am talking to you! And yes, this is absolutely one of those occasions when you could respond to me with "When you point a finger at someone, remember that there are three fingers pointing back at yourself." I own my workaholic-ness. I would attend a 12-step self-help program for people like me, but I don't have time. (insert drum roll for cheesy joke) Well, this weekend I finally made time.

(photo artoflivingretreatcenter.org)

I and many other members of the Krishna community went to a 3-day kirtan immersion weekend, held at this fine place just outside Boone, NC. It is called the Art of Living Retreat Center. I highly recommend you look into it for your retreat/vacation needs. The grounds are absolutely gorgeous, the accomodations first-class, and the staff extremely friendly.

Sooo.... since I was deeply immersed in kirtan on Sunday morning when I normally send this out to you all, I needed to figure out how to use the scheduling feature in iContact, my trusty email marketing service. I am very pleased to report that it was so much easier to schedule the release of the newsletter than I thought it would be. My experience has proven that this is nearly always the case - the anticipation and/or anxiety of something is worse than the actual experience. I had put off pre-writing and scheduling the release of my newsletters for an entire year because I thought it would be too complicated to figure out how to do it. And it totally wasn't. When I really needed to schedule my newsletter this weekend, when I had no other choice (other than losing $ by not giving my customers anything to order), I buckled down and did it. It took me approximately 3 extra minutes.

The lesson? If we can somehow learn to manage those voices of apprehension, instead of being guided by them, we would likely accomplish so much more in our worlds. Actually, now that I think about it, that is probably why kids know so much more about our smartphones than we do. They just pick them up and start doing things without wasting time in an internal conversation about how they can't/don't have time to figure out new things. Note to self...

Here is what we made this week after parachuting back in from the mountains.

This Week's Menu:

Entree #1 - Mexican Black Bean Soup. This week's theme is The Top Ten List. This Black Bean Soup has all the signature flavors of Mexican cooking - corn, peppers, tomatoes, beans, chili, cilantro, and lime. Definitely one of my favorites! *GF, soy-free

(photo Great Vegetarian Dishes)

Entree #2 - Sesame Fried Rice. Yet another one of those oft requested favorites, this fried rice is chock full of veggies, soy nuggets, all toasted in absolutely scrumptious sesame oil.

Entree #3 - Green Split Pea Dal with Coconut Milk and Spinach. This dal is a classic recipe, one of my all-time favorites. It is mildly spiced with ginger (no chilis) and kalonji seeds, cute little black onion seeds that are replete with health benefits. *GF, soy-free

Side Dishes:

(photo vegrecipesofindia.com)

Idli - With coconut chutney. There is nothing else South Indian on the menu, and yet there is always time for idli! Served with delicious coconut chutney, idli are actually a great breakfast food, as they are light and yet rich in protein. *GF, soy-free

(photo mylittlecelebration.com)

Blueberry Buckwheat Muffins - I first saw these cute little muffins on, yep you guessed it, Pintrest. For you food nerds out there, buckwheat is a psuedo-cereal, rather than a cereal, it is much lighter and doesn't have the same effect on the body that other grains do. *GF, soy-free

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