Day 1: Wow… getting on that mat can be really hard work, right? I know. I really, truly, do. And when it’s been weeks, or months, or maybe years for some, your body aches, and burns, and hollers for you to stop. Sometimes we do stop. We do this either by physically stopping or mentally drifting off to the beach, the grocery list, the last episode of Game of Thrones, or the piece of quinoa in the floor board, ahem. It’s hard to be in our bodies. It means being fully conscious of what is happening in the now, in this very moment – whether it is sadness, pain, pleasure, fear, or ecstasy. Truth be told, this can be very uncomfortable. But, if we stay with it, if we bring our breath back to consciousness and back to this very moment, we see that nothing lasts – not even the pain.

It’s day 1 of our 30 Days of Yoga and I want to be really honest here. I vacuumed the whole freaking house, cleaned the bathroom, and did some video editing before I finally settled onto my mat. I can sit here and tell you that doing yoga in a clean house is important to me, but let’s be honest, it’s an excuse. It’s all an excuse for not just getting down to business and seeing where your body and mind are at. While it wasn’t easy, it was absolutely magical. I realized my body ached because I haven’t been on my mat. My discipline and devotion to my practice have been lacking to say the least. It’s hard being a mamma – but there again is another excuse. When I really think about what I do with my time, there is ALWAYS 30 minutes somewhere to do this work. So let’s all bring our fullest selves to our mats today, tomorrow, and for the next 29 days (and then some).

Now, I’m not going to leave you hanging without a nice little recipe for dinner. Now that you’ve spent your 30 minutes doing yoga, you probably didn’t have time to brainstorm a healthy dinner, wink wink. I’ve got your covered. This pizza is the mac daddy of comfort food meets kick-ass, nutrient rich, power-veggie-supreme. Yeah, it’s got cheese (I already told you about my weaknesses!), but you can absolutely use vegan cheese too. It starts with a gluten free whole grain crust (I like this one), then a layer of a simple tomato sauce, then sautéed red onions, sauté-steamed garlic kale, paper-thin sweet potato slices and cheese. Throw some fresh basil on top and let the flavors take you to pizza paradise.

This is a simple and healthy dish that anyone will love – even the non-believers. This crust does take a bit of time to rise and pre-bake, so that’s something to keep in mind. If I’m busy I like to do the onions and kale and prep the sweet potato earlier in the day. The other little secret to this pizza is that it’s baked on a pizza pan. We bought one that is round and has holes, but there are a million types out there. It really does make a difference, for realz.

Kale, Red Onion, and Sweet Potato Pizza: 

Ingredients:

• 1 gluten free pizza crust
• 1-2 cups tomato sauce (depending on how many pizzas you make – we made 2)
• 1 bunch of kale washed, de-ribbed, and cut into pieces
• 2 red onions, peeled and sliced
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic peeled and smashed
• 2 Tbs butter
• 1 sweet potato sliced paper thin (I use a mandolin – might be hard without one)
• .5 – 1 cup water
• 1 – 2 cups mozzarella cheese shredded

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to the temperature required from your dough mix.

2. Prepare your pizza dough. Once risen, form onto your pizza pan.

3. Heat a large frying pan with olive oil. Sauté your garlic for a minute. Don’t let it brown as it will get bitter. Throw in your kale. I like to sauté the kale a bit with the garlic and then add my water. I start with a half cup of water and then add a little more. Cover the kale and let it steam until it is tender. Don’t overcook it. Keep it semi-bright green. Set aside.

4. Sauté your red onions in the butter until tender and caramelized. Set aside.

5. Arrange your pizza. First put your sauce on your crust by spreading from the inside to the edges. Next place a layer of the kale (if it is heavy with liquid ring it out a bit), then a layer of your onion, then the sweet potato, and finish with a nice layer of mozzarella. Throw some basil on top and toss in the oven. Enjoy!

P.S. Here is a yoga video for inspiration! Remember if you are doing the 30 Days of Yoga to post how it’s going in the comments section. 1 Day down! Good for you!!

When I was little we rented an old house on Spruce Street that had a cherry tree in the front yard. The house had a huge staircase when you entered and beautiful wood floors throughout. The kitchen was old and big and I spent a lot of my days on the counter watching my parents cook. We had fresh milk delivered in glass bottles on the back porch. Through our backyard you could see the hot tub store on the corner (if that doesn’t scream the ’70s, I don’t know what does). They had hot tubs on the roof and you could rent them hourly. At night we could see people up there staring at the stars and singing… naked, ahem.

Every night we would sit down for dinner in our wallpaper clad dining room (Wes Anderson would be jealous), and my parents would put the record player on. It was old, with brown panelling, like everything in the late ’70s and early ’80s. My Dad was hyper sensitive about the needle and we had to take extreme care if we wanted to put the records on ourselves. As soon as we finished eating we would start dancing. It was often The Harder They Come by Jimmy Cliff – we loved ‘Sweet and Dandy,’ ‘Johnny Too Bad,’ and ‘You Can Get it if You Really Want,’ or Walking on Sunshine by Eddy Grant and we’d sing along ‘oh mamma mamma you’ve got me livin’ on the front line’, or it could be Simon and Garfunkel, The Rolling Stones, or Muddy Waters.  We would all just dance and dance and dance. These are perhaps some of my greatest memories of my childhood, which while not idyllic (whose was?), had it’s supremely beautiful moments.

I was born into music. I have few memories that are not directly linked to specific songs or albums. The lifestyle that my parents, perhaps unknowingly, created with our after dinner dance parties, is a great one. Now, when I cook and eat with Mr. Wonderful and the Little Dove, there is always music on. And we were listening to some great tunes when I created this dish. So slap on some wax, or turn on your iTunes, however you bring music into your world, turn it up, move your body, and make this now.

Dang! We ate this the other night and I had to get it on the blog ASAP. I seriously couldn’t wait, amaa gaaad it’s that good. It’s easy, delish, super healthy, and gorgeous. To be honest, I feel kind of last-season that I haven’t made this before. I love me some bibimbap, but I’ve always been intimidated to make it at home, using all the common excuses: ‘I don’t know how to pickle kimchi. What are those other yummy veggies in there? They won’t have those at my grocery store. What’s in that sauce, gluten, msg? Fuggedaboudit. I’ll just go to the great Korean place in town.’ BUT NOW, but now, my dear dear friends, I broke through and found that sometimes compromising and monkey-ing with tradition a bit can be rewarding in it’s own way. Letting go of the perfection ideal can lead to some magical creations (a lesson I have to remind myself of daily hourly).

No gochujang? No problem! No fresh kimchi? No problem! No bulgogi? No problem! While this isn’t a fully traditional bibimbap, it’s packed with sabor and is really, in all honesty, going to knock your socks off. I made a make-shift gochujang sauce that was really good and hot damn spicy (the recipe is below too) and I bought, yes bought, some jarred kimchi at the store (*gasp* so not hipster-pickler of me I know! You can stop reading if you want, I understand. I’m probably not welcome in Brooklyn anymore… ). I subbed some sauté-steamed kale for the bulgogi and topped it all with the traditional egg. You can make this completely vegetarian or vegan and the recipe I’m sharing is of course gluten free.

Make-Shifty, Shape-Shifty Bibimbap:

Ingredients:

• 2 portions brown rice
• 1 bunch kale de-ribbed and chopped
• 3 cloves garlic smashed
• 1 cucumber sliced and then sliced in half
• 1 big carrot julienned
• 1 yellow onion, quartered and then quartered again (is there a name for that?)
• 4 scallions sliced into 1/4 inch pieces
• Sesame seeds
• Kimchi (from a jar or homemade)
• 4 Tbs canola oil
• 1 Tbs sesame oil
• 2 Tbs gluten free soy sauce
• 1.5 – 2 cups water

For the ‘gochujang’ sauce:

A lot of gochujang sauces have gluten and msg, so if you are planning on buying pre-made instead of making this – READ the ingredients!

• 4 Tbs sriracha sauce
• 2 Tbs gluten-free soy sauce
• 2 Tbs Rice vinegar
• 1 Tbs sesame oil
• 1-2 tsp sugar

Directions:

1. Make your sauce. This is very spicy, so if you don’t like spicy, just throw some soy sauce and a little sesame oil on your bibimbap. For those who like spicy, mix all your sauce ingredients together. Set aside.

2. Get your brown rice cooking. Timing is sort of everything in cooking, so if your brown rice takes 40 minutes to cook like mine does, I would start it when you start prepping your vegetables and sauce so that it’s done by the time you need to add it to your dish.

3. Heat 2 Tbs canola oil and 1 Tbs sesame oil in a large frying pan and sauté your garlic for a minute. Don’t let it brown as it will get bitter. Throw your kale in and pour in your soy sauce. I like to sauté the kale a bit with the garlic and then add my water. I start with a half cup of water and then add a little more. Cover the kale and let it steam until it is tender. Don’t overcook it. Keep it semi-bright green. Set aside.

4. While the kale is steaming, grab a small frying pan and heat 1 Tbs of oil. Add your onion and sauté until mostly translucent and tender.

5. Once the kale and onions are done, you can arrange all the ingredients, cucumber, carrot, kimchi, kale, onions, and brown rice in two big bowls (let the eater mix it all up, it’s pretty to present it like this). Sprinkle with scallions.

6.  In a small frying pan heat 1 Tbs of oil. Once oil is hot crack an egg into the pan. Cover the pan immediately. After about 30 seconds or so add a little water, maybe 3 Tbs. Cover again and let the egg steam. Watch it carefully, you want the white to be firm and the yolk runny as it acts as a binder and sauce for the dish.

7. Place the fried egg on top of the other ingredients and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve with your sauce. Mix everything together and enjoy!

8. Have a dance party!

Bonus playlist for dinner tonight:

• Pressure Drop – Toots and the Maytals
• Rivers of Babylon – The Melodians
• It’s Alright – Bob Marley
• Burial – Peter Tosh
• Clean Up Woman – Betty Wright
• Strongest – Etana
• Police & Thieves – Junior Murvin
• Rock Fort Rock – The Skatalites
• Jah Is By My Side – Tony Rebel
• Funeral – Bob Marley & The Wailers

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Ah the internet. I have a serious hate, love, hate relationship with the internet. Did I mention I married a techie? Yeah so… the internet and all it’s memes. Ugg. I’m tired just thinking about it. If I see one more post about ’10 things you never thought you would ever see ever if you didn’t click on this video right now of a cat batting at an egg,’ my head might explode.

Maybe it’s just me? I come from a time when computers weren’t even really a thing. Okay, no I wasn’t born in the 30’s, but when I was a kid we had encyclopedias made from paper, in order to use a dictionary you had to be able to spell, and our phones were attached to the wall – when you left home you had no means of communication unless you used a pay phone (aka ‘a glass cage of emotion’ for the Anchorman generation). We made friends face to face and played rough in nature without supervision. It was the best of times, it was… quite frankly the best of times.

But once in a blue moon something comes across one of my 20 open tabs, ahem, that’s actually helpful or fascinating or both. Considering how much we waste our brains staring at our computer screens, those little morsels of knowledge can be the ‘online age’s’ one redemption.

Would I have known about oil pulling if I didn’t have a computer? Well, maybe. I could have heard about it at a yoga studio, or read it in a magazine, or heard from a friend. But a funny thing happened instead. I read about it online a few months ago and then recently decided I wanted to try it out. Suddenly it was all over the internet. Really. Everywhere. It was as if the internet was monitoring my thoughts. Does that ever happen to you? Scary, I know.

It’s quite the trend right now, this ancient Aryuvedic dental care, Gwyneth Paltrow even does it in the midst of her ‘conscious uncoupling.’ So I figured I could probably do it too since I’m not uncoupling at the moment which should give me a bit of extra free time, no? Well, whether you are coupling, uncoupling, poly, single, whatevs, you will totally benefit from this seemingly gross ritual. I know I’m winning you over already, right? I’m serious though, call the karma police because I’m about to let you in on a little secret (ok, it’s not a secret at all, but I’m going to make you want to do it & you’ll thank me later) and tell them to give me an awesome job teaching yoga to activists. Now that we’ve sorted what I want from you, I bring you: Oil Pulling 101.

“Oil pulling, also known as “kavala” or “gundusha,” is an ancient Ayurvedic dental technique that involves swishing a tablespoon of oil in your mouth on an empty stomach for 20 minutes. This action supposedly draws out toxins in your body, primarily to improve oral health but also to improve your overall health.”

Potential benefits include: 

• Whiter teeth
• Cavity and gingivitis prevention
• Better breath
• Stronger teeth and gums
• Less jaw pain, alleviation of TMJ
• Improved sleep
• Alleviation of headaches
• Alleviation of hangovers
• Alleviation of acne and skin issues like eczema

When I first tried oil pulling, I seriously thought I would throw up. How can you not swallow for 20 minutes? Even worse, not talk?? How can you have a glob of OIL in your MOUTH for that long? And to tell you the truth, I couldn’t. I felt defeated. I barely did 5 minutes! But I learned a few things during those 5 painful minutes. The first is that it might be best to work up to the full tablespoon amount, so I continued the next few days with a teaspoon. I also cut myself some slack with the time. Now, apparently for this to really do it’s magic, you need to do the full 20 minutes, but I think your first week can be an introductory period and you can increase your time daily. I found it extremely beneficial to do something while oil pulling: cooking breakfast, showering, answering emails etc. It helps keep your mind off the oil. Also, you may need to rest for a moment and let the oil just sit there. That’s okay too. Just don’t swallow it. If it’s doing what it says, it is leaching the toxins out of your body – you really don’t want to swallow them again.

Here’s the thing though, you can’t talk. So if you have a toddler, or anyone really, that you need to communicate with right when you wake up, you’ll need assistance, sign language, or a very patient toddler (riiiight).

When I’m done, I drink my warm lemon water (Ha! I know I told you that was the first thing I do in the morning, but it’s actually the second thing). Christ. It literally takes me 25 whole minutes to get to my freaking cup of joe. But, you know what? It’s really worth it. I’ve found the discipline alone something I enjoy and need. I have noticed my teeth are whiter – just within the month. They always feel super clean, all day long. My mouth in general feels amazing. I know I’m not providing some scientific theorem here (okay, kind of), but if you’ve trusted me this far (and I know some of you have as you’ve started your lemon water rituals – yay!), then give it a shot. Remember, be patient, have discipline, and see what happens over some time. I’m pretty certain you will be surprised.

Directions:

1. Put 1 Tablespoon of extra virgin cold pressed coconut oil or cold pressed organic sesame oil into your mouth. I scoop it out as a solid and let it melt in my mouth before swishing.
2. Swish for 20 minutes. Apparently the timing is key, as this is long enough to break through plaque and bacteria but not long enough that the body starts re-absorbing the toxins and bacteria. The oil will get thicker and milky as it mixed with saliva during this time and it should be creamy-white when spit out.
3. Spit oil into the trash can.  Don’t spit into the sink! Do not swallow the oil as it is hopefully full of bacteria, toxins and pus that are now not in the mouth!
4. Rinse/gargle well with warm water. Some folks suggest gargling with salt water, but that makes me gag. Your choice.

Let me know how it goes! Good luck and enjoy!

I was sitting in bed eating buckwheat cereal with my homemade cashew milk and bananas (outside the covers of course, c’mon people I’m a Virgo after all!), as you do on a Friday afternoon when you’re big pimpin’ er…. a bloggin’ stay at home rockstar, feverishly typing away at the blog, getting it ready to launch. And boom, just like that the bowl fell out of my hands and onto my computer, FTW!? This crap just DOESN’T happen to folks like me, folks who don’t eat in bed or on the couch. In fact, if we can take a moment to pause and reflect on the movie Sixteen Candles and the scene when the two grandmas are making breakfast together, one grandma has a cigarette that’s half ash dangling from her lips and the other grandma is following her with a spatula trying to catch the ashes. That’s me, I follow people so the crumbs never hit the floor (I take comfort in the fact that some of you do too, right? right??). So how is that I reverted to the high school behaviour of cereal in bed?  Blame it on the rain… or the blog. The world may never know, but I can tell you that what I was working on is this little post for you here. So you betta get’cha greens on in tribute to my computer that’s now living with the apple repair folks. Sad panda indeed.

Some things I’m taking comfort in as I live without my computer:

1. The yumminess of this kick-ass pesto recipe.

2. Mr. Wonderful who is sharing his beloved computer with me so I can continue to blog for you.

3. My hometown’s awesome public radio station KGNU 88.5 FM (holla!), and the second longest running radio show in the USA, produced by them: Reggae Bloodlines (on Saturdays, check it out! kgnu.org). There is nothing a little Junior Murvin, Sister Nancy, Jimmy Cliff, and Tony Rebel can’t fix.

4. All the amazing feedback I’ve been getting from YOU about this little blog of mine! Wow, what a blessing you all are.

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let’s discuss this twist on pesto. Rawrrrrr…. It’s badass. It’s also packed with vitamins from the kale and the walnuts, so it’s a no brainer really (or maybe it’s actually a ‘brainer’ because walnuts are great for your brain! Score!). You could be eating it now, or in about 20 minutes because that’s how short it takes to make it. Unless you’re just waking up, of course then you could have it with eggs. You could literally be eating green eggs and ham! Sweet! So what’s stopping you from giving up that seriously overpriced and not that great pesto you just bought from ‘Whole Paycheck’ (if you’re in the states that is)? Go on, make it now, you’ll feel better. Fresh is best. Can I get a witness? Oh and a prayer for my laptop? Thanks.

Kale and Walnut Pesto:

Directions:

1. Place walnuts in a pan over a medium heat. Stir often to ensure they don’t burn. Let walnuts roast for about 10 minutes or until they are browning and fragrant. Set aside and let cool. Once they are cool chop into pieces.

2. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Place kale in water and let the water come back to a boil. Stir gently just until leaves wilt. Immediately rinse leaves in ice cold water. Wrap leaves in clean towel and pat dry.

3. Place all your ingredients in a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth. Store in airtight glass jar. Pour some olive oil on top of the pesto to keep it fresh. Enjoy!