Day 3
In this jounrney of Radical Care we are creating space around the mundane to live it as a sanctuary for our being to land, in our vessel, in this life. By following these simple steps each day you will notice a shift in your awareness of yourself and your life, there will be more breath, more space for life force to move. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of it all, these simple practices will create a wave of change in your everyday life that you can ride for rejuvenation and inspiration. Observe yourself today, welcome in pleasure in your practices, welcome in joy in the art of taking care of yourself, your body and your space.
Nourish
Food as food of the Gods and kitchen as sanctuary. But food also as the love letter from the earth to your body, guiding you home with a map of belonging encoded in the nutritional and energetic content of the food.
Journal prompt: what is food for you and how does it nourish you?
One of my teachers says that the whole day is a preparation for the moments where we eat, what she means is that food is an important ritual that connects the outside world with the inner world and a meal prepared with care and intention can shift your energy, bring you pleasure and nourish you deeply as well as rooting you in the context of your surroundings (season, landscape, weather, etc). A good meal is a meal that leaves you light and energised so never fill your stomach, always leave some space empty after a meal so the food can be better digested.
My kitchen for me is a sacred space in the house, I have crystals, inspiring artworks, beautifull glass jars with dried herbs and a small statue of the Buddha. Before I prepare a special meal I light an incense. And often I cleanse the space with either white sage or my own home made water essences to keep the energy toned and clear, yet inviting. I invite you from today onwards to start shifting your view of food making also by slowly transforming your kitchen in a sanctuary, your sanctuary, a place that makes you feel welcomed and connected. A place where you want to spend lot of creative nurturing time in.
Many ancient cultures knew that by chanting while kneading bread or reciting mantras during food prepping or herb drying knew the importance of weaving good intentions and good energies in our food. The invisible has a frequency that informs the field that we and our material world occupiy, this field can be informed intentionally to support our wellbeing. In fact this field is always informed by our states of mind and our ‘moods’, doing so intentionally, with prayer and heart-centered presence will allow you to move with life with a deeper awareness in time and make you more attuned and sensitive to the subtle.
When I lived in an ashram in the north of India I remember Babaji, an elder that lived there, preparing his mix of dried herbs for a chronic cough he had, whilst he used his giant mortar and pestle to prepare his medicine he chanted mantras in the sun facing a specific direction. All this he did to support his healing, to have his cells dance with the universe in the rhythm they belonged to, because when we do so we heal. To support this scenario I would like to mention that in modern day, as many of you perhaps know, we have the example of Masaru Emoto and his work of studying how the water structure is influenced by words and music that is played to it. If you don’t know his work I suggest looking it up.
So with the above preamble, I would like to invite you to cook this simple Ayurvedic breakfast slowly introducing this new awareness into your cooking, seeing it as practice, as ceremony as an offering for your innermost. I sugegst you adopt this meal as a gently cleansing yet nourishing breakfast for the rest of the week, even beyond, if you wish.
Breakfast white rice
I love white rice, expecially organic jasmine rice and expecially as a breakfast option. This is an ayurvedic inspired hearty warming recipe, yet it has a purity to it that I find refreshing and soothing for my belly and system so I love starting the day with a bowl of this earthy manna. It is hard to find foods that are equally hearty and cleansing and this recipe is one for me, it really affects me beautifully in my body: calming, creating space while nourishing.
1 cup of organic white rice (I love jasmine rice but basmati also works)
3 cups of water
ghee (clarified butter)
cumin seeds
fennel seeds
coriander seeds
pepper
seasalt
optionals:
dry seaweed (I love dulse)
nori flakes
fresh herbs (pictured is nasturtium from my garden)
nutritional yeast
Wash the rice and strain. Melt the ghee in your chosen pot and simmer in it the spices and salt for a couple of minutes, until you can feel the smell of the spices filling your senses, then add the rice and the water, bring to a boil then simmer until cooked. Pour into a bowl and let it cool a bit before eating. If you add the seaweed boil it with the rice. Nori flakes and fresh herbs can be added at the end with a drizzle of olive oil and nutritional yeast.
Consume this dish as intentionally as you prepared it, really open yourself to receive and enjoy the food you created. I love eating in a candle lit space that feels clean and fresh away from distractions such as work or devices, I also love eating in silence but this can be a preference so I invite you to play around and explore.
In the picture I have added extra water during the cooking so to give it more of a soupy feeling, this is an alternative if you feel like a lighter version of the above.
Bonus recipies
I thought I’d add a couple of my simple favourite recipies for you to explore further your kitchen sanctuary...
Gluten free buckwheat loaf
This recipe is super simple and very tasty, bread is such an earthy and nurturing food that will ground you and bring you love the whole week. I am a very approximate cook and my recipies change each time, if you are like me feel free to jazz this recipe up as you wish. If not you can follow the recipe.
Make your kitchen your sanctuary and make this bread at twilight either early morning or at dusk, these moments are expecially infused in spirit and poetry and let the beauty of the turning of the daylight flow with your creativity.
1 cup buckwheat flower
2/3 cup rice flower
3 tbsp maple syrup
1tsp bicarbonate
3 tbsp psyllium husk or ground flax soaked in a cup of water
2 cups of water
1 tsp seasalt
optionals:
3 tbsp cacao
1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cardamon
bunch of raisins
maca
mix all ingredients together, the dough is quite gewy and sticky, place in a 1 pound loaf form lined with a sheet of wet baking paper and bake in the oven on medium or medium low heat for at least 60 minutes, it is hard to really say how long it should be in the oven, but until you can stick a chopstick in the middle of it and all you get as you pull it out is a bit of moist and no sticky dough. The crust should not get black at all. It should be evenly baked.
Let it sit to cool at least 30 minutes.
Enjoy one or two slices with ghee, butter or a nut butter.
Preserve in a cloth on the counter for a few days.
Experiment in the next few days in making food for yourself and your loved ones with the same care and devotion. They will taste your love in the food and so will you. If you would like to try another recipy to accompany your 7 days journey below is an optional simple meal that can serve as a earthy yet detoxing staple for your kitchen.
Simple red lentil stew
a cup of split red lentils (soaked in water with 1 inch kombu seaweed for a few hours)
1 tbsp turmeric
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
handful of dulse
ghee
black pepper
optionals:
1 fresh garlic clove
optional foraged herbs:
chickweed
nettles
dandelion
Strain the red lentils and cover over with triple the amount of water, add the seaweed, spices and ghee and boil for 20/30 minutes on low heat. Add the herbs at the end and cover over to cool. Enjoy by itself as a detoxing yet nourishing meal or with rice.