Miso Soup with Cabbage, Seaweed and Pasta shells

Miso Soup with Cabbage, Seaweed, & Pasta Shells
Serves 2

Ingredients

about 3 tablespoons miso paste

1 1/2 – 2 cups water

about 1 cup steamed cabbage

about 1 cup cooked qinoa pasta shells

1/3 15 oz can cannelini beans

2 or 3 tablespoons dried wakame flakes

1/2 of a medium-thick slice of raw onion, chopped

Instructions

In a small pot, use a wisk to stir the miso and 1 cup of the water together. Keep tasting and adding water until the broth is a bit weak – the wakame will add flavor to it later. Add the rest of the ingredients to the broth – heat on low flame until just hot enough to eat & try not to boil the miso because that kills whatever's good about it. Since it's a small pot it will be pretty full but that's ok because i think it helps to not boil the miso.

There are a lot of variations to this soup – you can do it with other beans and qinoa or any other grain you like. Also you can do it with any vegetable. The only constants are i think the miso, the wakame flakes, and the onion :-) Just note, it doesn't store that well so better on the first day -- YUM!!! :-)

Red Lentil Soup

Red Lentil Soup

Very easy to make and very tasty! :-) :-) :-) 

2 ¼ cups red lentils

9 cups water

½ cup short grain brown rice, uncooked

5 carrots, chopped

2 large stalks celery, chopped

1 large yellow onion, chopped

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp dried ground fennel

Salt to taste

Throw everything except the salt in a big soup pot. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for about 40 minutes or until the lentils and rice are tender. Add salt to taste. This is a very yummy soup!

Miley Cyrus The Climb

MILEY CYRUS LYRICS

The Climb

I can almost see it.
That dream I'm dreaming, but
There's a voice inside my head saying
You'll never reach it 

• Seems like the song starts out pretty clear i guess i just imagine Martin Luther King saying he has a dream he's dreaming and it feels better to me than if i have a dream of being a rock star of something

Every step I'm takin'
Every move I make
Feels lost with no direction,
My faith is shakin' 

• OK no problem here

But I, I gotta keep tryin'
Gotta keep my head held high

• The part about trying seems to be sort of plaintive and not particularly effective -- as I understand God, all i need to do is remember to ask him what to do/say/think whenever i am feeling lost (which for me is constantly) and he always offers guidance and direction it's just a question of learning to hear

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move

• OK

Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

• My experience is that the more time i spend focusing on what the Lord would have me do, say, or think, the less everything seems like an uphill battle. 

Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side

• Now THIS i agree with.

It's the climb

The struggles I'm facing
The chances I'm taking
Sometimes might knock me down, but
No I'm not breaking

I may not know it, but
These are the moments that
I'm gonna remember most, yeah

Just gotta keep goin',
And I, I gotta be strong
Just keep pushing on, 'cause

These are the lines that feel the least grounded to me out of this whole song.  I go nuts when i hear people talking about how they've had to be strong.   I feel like it sets up a victim/hero scenario inside their heads and also inside the heads of anybody who believes their story.   For me, listening for the voice of God in order to follow the movement of Spirit (aka Go With The Flow) sometimes involves doing something that feels like standing up for myself.  However, i do not necessarily associate this kind of action with being strong but rather with focusing clearly and standing my ground within my focus and my grounding is in God.  

 

There's always gonna be another mountain

I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side
It's the climb
Yeaht
There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Somebody's gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side
It's the climb
Yeah, yeah yeah
Keep on movin'
Keep climbin'
Keep the faith baby
It's all about, it's all about the climb
Keep the faith, keep your faith, whoa, whoa, oh. 

 

This is fine i mean it's great to keep faith the only thing is the whole rest of this song is so confused about what faith exactly is that trying to follow it seems like it leads to being more lost than before hearing the song.  I have a problem with a lot of pop songs like this -- the chorus or hook is good but then when i listen to the rest of the song i end up thinking "wait, is this person advocating violence as a solution to life's problems or maybe suggesting that blaming some guy for treating her like garbage is a tolerable mindstate to get stuck in or suggesting that it's ok to abuse himself now for not bringing some chick flowers last year etc etc etc"

Spicy Nachos with Goat Cheese

Spicy nachos minus the avocado

Spicy Nachos with Goat Cheese

Serves 1

Ingredients

A couple handfuls of spicy tortilla chips 
     – i like Garden of Eatin spicy Red Hot Blues tortilla chips

A 1 1/2 x 2 inch chunk of hard goat cheese, chopped into little bits – gouda is a favorite 
     but any hard cheese such as cheddar or monterey jack is good

1/3 of a can of canned beans 
     – kidney beans, black bleans, pinto beans are favorite choices

3 medium lettuce leaves, chopped

5 cherry tomatoes

1/2 an avocado, scooped out and cut into rough bite-sized chunks

A  very small handful cilantro leaves, chopped

1/2 of a medium-thick onion slice, chopped

1 tsp olive oil

1-2 tsp apple cider vinegar 
A pinch of celtic sea salt (i just use this cause it still has minerals in it)

1/2 – 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast

All of these measurements are approximate i just threw it together

Instructions

Put the tortilla chips into an 8" x 8" baking dish. Spread the beans over them, then sprinkle the cheese over everything. Broil at 500 degrees for a few minutes until the cheese is melted – the edge chips might be a bit burnt but that's ok. Keep on eye on this, don't want anything to get too burnt! When the cheese is melted, take the baking dish out of the broiler.

To make the salad:

Put the lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, and onion in a medium bowl. Add the oil, vinegar, salt, and nutritional yeast. Mix until the salad is coated.

Now put the whole thing together:

Use a spatula to transfer all the cheesy beansy tortilla chips to a dinner plate. Pour the whole salad over it, serve, and enjoy YUM

Blue Cookie Bar Blob

Blue Cookie Bar-Blob

Grape juice concentrate is what makes these delicious vegan and refined-sugar-free cookes blue!  Also, mashed banana is what holds them together it works pretty good.

The reason this is a bar-blob is because the finished product really has to set but it is really yummy so i didn't worry about it :-)

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups almond flour

1 cup oats (you can substitute 1 more cup almond flour instead of oats

                  to make this recipe entirely gluten free)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 very large banana or 1 1/2 medium bananas

1/2 cup coconut oil

2 tablespoons ground decaf coffee

1/2 cup water

6 tablespoons grape juice concentrate

1/2 cup grain sweetened carob chips

1/2 cup raisins

Instructions

Boil the 1/2 cup of water and then dump the coffee into it and let it sit for a couple of minutes. Then either pour it all into a coffee filter in a single-cup plastic coffee thingy over a mug or else just use use a teeny little strainer over a mug like i did to make the finished cofee. Whisk the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a big bowl. In another bowl, mash the banana using a potato masher or if you don't have one then a fork. Add the mashed bananas, coconut oil, 2 tablespoons of the finished coffee, and the grape juice concentrate to the dry ingredients and mix until blended. Add the carob chips and the raisins and mix until blended. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Put a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Smush the mixture on to the cookie sheet, make a big blob about the thickness of a cookie. Bake for 13-15 minutes – they probably will still be quite gooey on top but as long as they get brown underneath that's fine, don't leave them in more than 16 minutes MAX. Take the out and let them cool. Actually the finished product seems to be best when refrigerated but if you don't mind if they tend to fall apart at room temperature, have them that way. :-) Cut into bars and serve. Yum!!!! :-) :-) :-)