Homemade Veggie burgers and Reiki Attunement

This weekend was pretty great, to say the least. I had the amazing opportunity to obtain Reiki Attunement and I am now a first degree Reiki practitioner. I'll explain more about what this means after the recipes. To make this shorter, I'll just say that Alex (my amazing boyfriend) and I headed down from Long Beach to Malibu and of course I thought, what better time to make something healthy and packable for lunch on Saturday :) Of course this needs to be somewhat easy, somewhat healthy, easy to make, filling, and able to please a meat-eater (at least this one, who luckily is easy to feed). So here goes!

Homemade Black Bean and Rice Veggie Burgers with Spicy Veganaise and Sweet Corn Salsa 

So for the patties, I looked around some recipes online and eventually just took what I liked from each and took out whatever I didn't have on hand. So I ended up with a can of black beans, about a cup of cooked brown rice, some taco seasoning, and a bit of onion (not a lot, as I've mentioned I don't really like onion, if you do you could always put more than I did) and garlic as well as an orange bell pepper. The orange ones were on sale, but you can use whatever color your heart desires.

Drain the beans REALLY well and set aside.

Start with a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a pan

And start with the onions, then pepper, and then the garlic, careful not to burn anything. I know with most cooks this is not problem, but I'm still fairly new to this :)

 Not to point out the obvious, but this smelled soooooo yummy. So now you can add the beans and about a 2 tablespoons of the seasoning, just stir till everything is nice and warm and it smells so good you want to eat it right then and there. I made this around 8 am Friday morning and kept thinking how yummy it would be with an egg and tortilla (save that for another post haha)

 So what I did then was put it back in the bowl with the brown rice, and mashed it a bit with the fork, not too much, you still want some whole beans in there. A potato masher would have made this easier, but I'm still getting used to this cooking thing so a fork was alright. When the mixture cools down you can form the patties, I made 6. Then throw a bit more oil in the pan and just brown both sides. 

I needed to save these for later so I put them in a little tupperware with a layer of foil in between. You can use wax paper if you're fancy like that, I just didn't have any. These would freeze fine too, if you need to make them a few days ahead of time. Note: I don't think these would last very well on a grill, I made them stovetop and they were falling apart a little. 

Now for the salsa yummmm!

I didn't follow a recipe for this, I just threw in what looked good and taste tested, that's the way my mom does it and with salsa you just gotta do your own thing. I only used one jalepeno, only a bit of the corn, less onion than most people would use, a bit of cilantro, 2 tomatoes and the juice of one lime, as well as a shake of salt and pepper. Soooooo good. 

 Then I made some spicy veganaise, not following the latin theme here but it was pretty delish. Just some mayo or veganaise if you'd like and as much sriracha as you can take.

The trick was packing this all to go. That night I put the patties on ciabatta buns (they don't get soggy easy) and wrapped them in foil, put them in a lunchbag with the mayo and salsa and an avocado, made sure to bring a knife and we headed off! 

 So as we all know, life is imperfect and nothing is set in stone, so we were SO HUNGRY we completely forgot about the salsa and the avocado!! The spicy mayo went on there though, and they were pretty good :) 

 And I kept trying to get Alex to take a normal picture without the thumbs up, but hey, if he liked them enough to give them a thumbs up well then goshdarnit I should be flattered and post the thumbs up! 


Now for the Reiki part. What is Reiki? Reiki is a Japanese technique of healing by utilizing the universal life force energy that is transmitted through the hands of a Reiki practitioner onto the person. Alex introduced me to this, and I've had a few treatments before getting my attunement. The key is being open to it, miracles have happened using this method of healing. I like it because it doesn't only heal the symptoms of the illness, but treats the causes behind whatever the ailment in the mind as spirit as well as the body. I am not ready to practice on others just yet, but I feel wonderful. 

Being able to open myself to this energy was a gift and an honor I couldn't possibly put into words. I will keep everyone updated on my progress with this and let you all know when I'm ready to work on others. 

So until next time, friends, remember:  There is never a dull moment <3  

Human kindness.....and more kale

I'm so lucky. Sometimes in my day to day life, things happen that make me remember why my life is so incredibly rich. I'm having a loss for more words to explain it, so here is a delicious Kale and Apple smoothie. Super green and delicious, friends, and I made it again and threw in some blueberries. The blueberries turned it a brownish color, but it tasted pretty good. Anyway, it didn't taste like drinking kale :) Try it!

Grab some kale, take it off the tough stems, and a stalk of celery, a banana, a lemon, and some Apple Juice (I used Motts for Tots, which is really just watered down apple juice, I recommend watering down all your apple juice, especially if giving it to kids. It will have less sugar and taste basically the same!) And add about a tablespoon or 2 of the lemon juice, I used fresh but from the little yellow bottle is fine too. Oh and some ice.

 Blend

And then you have a delicious, healthy smoothie. Even I get tired of kale, this is a good way to sneak it in :) 

Now go forth, healthy happy being! I like to brings things to people I love, and that's exactly where my Kale smoothie ended up :)  

Stories

Have you ever seen the way kids walk? I noticed it again today while at the grocery store. Kids don't really walk, it's more of a spastic skipping while flailing their limbs about. If one hand is attached to an adult, they still manage to flail their other three little limbs about! It's pretty funny, and got me thinking about how kids just get SO EXCITED about everything! I mean, when was the last time you got so excited about something you literally spazzed out? Where in life do we lose that? I mean, I'm not saying that adults everywhere should be flailing about every time we get paid or anything, and as a society there are times we can act like kids (think, sports games or Vegas I suppose). Big, drunk kids. But there's definitely something that gets pushed down.


I think we get lost in the stories in our own heads. Don't tune out yet, hear me out! Think about it, there is reality, and there is OUR reality. Our reality is just the story we tell ourselves about the world around us. Yes, there are unavoidable truths (gravity, traffic signals), but most of our life experience is dictated by what we tell ourselves. I was listening to the voice in my head (my mind) today, as one negative thought led to another, and another, until I yelled "STOP!" (Yes,outloud, I was stuck in traffic on the 405).....And then I listened to the silence, immediately feeling better. There was no reason to be feeling crappy aside from what I WAS TELLING MYSELF. And I can control what I say to my own mind, my own body, and the people around me. It's my responsibility.


Needless to say, I turned my own evening around. I skipped (ok, ok I WALKED) through the market after that, noticing people, and picking up some stuff for my recipe tonight. Mac & Cheese, but with cauliflower and some other small twists. I've made Mac & Cheese so many times, some better than others, but this was the perfect mix of that kids comfort food and things I've learned to love as an adult, like cauliflower. Here goes!


First let's check out our lineup!

Whole Wheat Pasta (1 Box)
8 oz Cheese (I don't like only cheddar, I used cheddar-jack but you can use whatever cheese you like best)
1 cup Greek Yogurt, plain
A bit of butter (I used about a tablespoon)
1 cup skim milk
About a tablespoon of flour
Almost a whole head of Cauliflower (like how specific I am?)
2 Garlic cloves (I skipped out on onion, but if that's your thing by all means add some onion in the mix!)
1/4 cup parsley
A few handfuls of panko crumbs and parmesan to make it crunchy in the oven :)


So, throw some water in a big pot and boil it. Also preheat the oven to 350.

Chop up the Cauliflower and throw it in the pot with the pasta when the water starts to boil.

 

Chop the garlic (and onions if you wish) and parsley.

 
Melt the butter and saute the garlic and parsley in there (This is where it starts to smell AMAZING)

 
Little bit of flour, thicken it up..

Go ahead and throw in the Greek Yogurt and Milk annnnndddd..

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeze! Oooops got too excited there, let's go check on the pasta...

Mhmmmm....Ok time to mix the sauce in, it looks awesome enough to eat already, but wait! It will be worth it I promise, put it in a baking dish (or 2 if you're like me and always make more than necessary)

Mix the Panko and Parm (Parmesan, for those who didn't read my last post) and sprinkle on top. I threw in some black pepper too, because I put it on pretty much everything.

That's the before picture, here's after about 20 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees:

Yummmmmmmmmmm

And I'm a happy happy girl. As you can see, I also added some red wine, because something inside me still says it's hearth healthy (Shhhhhhhhhhh).

So until we meet again, go find something that makes you truly happy and relish it, goodnight friends!

Kale!

I'm trying to eat less sugar. Less sugar, less salt and oil, and more veggies and the good stuff. Oops! Not "trying", I AM (because this is the new year, time for cheange, right?).

As a vegetarian, I've had a tendency to think it's ok for me to eat a little badly. I've gotten those chips/fries with my sandwich because, hey, it's just veggies between that whole wheat bread! I always figured I was somehow canceling out the bad with the good. Rationally, I know this isn't true. It's time for me to take OUT the bad stuff out of my diet to fit in whole foods with actual nutritional value.

Life works the same way, I think. At least mine has. I've attempted to do EVERYTHING, and in the end it all suffered, both jobs and my grades. Quitting one of my two jobs wasn't an easy decision. I had to make the choice to be less financially comfortable, and I am pretty sure I've disappointed at least one person I love in the process. Now, the drama has blown over, and I feel like I'm in limbo, waiting for the semester to start. So in my world, I am substituting my side of fries for something more nutritious, like fruit, or these delicious Kale Chips I've recently learned to make! (Get it? Eh?)

So! Since this is my year of doing less (and accomplishing more), I have decided to share my experience with Kale Chips.

Ingredients:
Kale (I just bought a "bunch" from Fresh & Easy)
Olive Oil 
A bit of grated Parm (That's parmesan cheese, in case you didn't know)
Pinch of Salt

(Yes, those are my new Salt and Pepper Shakers!)
 So I took the leaves off the tough stems and threw them around a baking sheet, I sprinkled some olive oil and the parm, along with a little salt:

Here are those pesky stems (I should find a better use for them, instead of throwing them out):

I baked them for about 12 minutes at 375 and Ta-da!!:

Aaaaannnd then my roomie and I enjoyed them with a refreshing glass of lemonade :)

One day, ideally, I won't crave salty chips, but for now, these are pretty darn delicious :)

First Post!

Wow! My first post! I suppose I should start with an introduction of some kind. I'm a working grad student, often spending nights I should be studying "stumbling" across food, health, yoga, and so many other blogs, bookmarking everything with plans to go back through them and make and do EVERYTHING once I retire...But then I thought, why wait?? I can start my own blog, full of my attempts to live and eat well as a young adult on a student budget. Some may be failures, hopefully most will be successes, but this will be my story and findings to share with you all.