How To Video: Crack a Coconut

Not only do I love coconuts because it reminds me of Maui, my favorite place in the whole wide world! but the coconut water is so refreshing and the meat is so yummy.  

Unfortunately the coconut has had a bad reputation.  Many people think it is fatty.  On the contrary, the coconut is a super food.  It is rich in lauric acid that boost the immune system and has antiviral/antibacterial properties.  Fresh coconut water or juice from a young coconut has the highest amount of electrolytes, more than a sports drink, that is very efficient to combat and prevent dehydration.  

Coconut milk is usually why the coconut has a fatty reputation.  Coconut milk comes from the flesh of a mature coconut whose flesh has been grated and expressed to yield the milk.   It does have a high concentration of saturated fat.  No one seems to agree as to whether coconut milk is healthy or not.   It’s agreed that the saturated fat content from coconut milk is much better than consuming saturated fat from an animal products.

Coconut oil, on the other hand is the healthiest oil you can use for cooking.  Not all coconut oil are equal in health.  Make sure you use the ones in it’s most natural form (i.e. organic, unheated, unfilterd, virgin).  Some benefits of using coconut oil over other oils such as canola or vegetable or even olive oil is it helps increase your good cholesterol, increases your metabolism as it is made up primarily of medium chain fatty acids, supports healthy thyroid function, helps control blood sugar, and amongst other healthy benefits, you can use it on your hair and skin.  It’s so versatile!

Here’s a video on how to crack open your very own young coconut:

 

 

 

I’m coconuts for coconuts!!!  Drink it up baby!

Enjoying my coconut on a beach in Maui

Pre Ground Hog Day

 

Taz

I’ve been spinning around like a maniac, attacking my days with fury, holding nothing back, and having sleepless nights…

Well seems like I never learn my lesson until WAM!  Down. Out.  Sick. 

I’ve opted to be a ground hog the last two days burrowed under the covers debating whether I should come out of my bed.  

I managed to roll out of bed today and thank goodness I didn’t see my shadow cause I looked like death.. so today, I’m sharing with you my secret weapon… drinking my way back to vibrance because life awaits me… 

This green concoction will tickle the eebie jeebies out of any cold virus you have…. ohhhh it’s spicy and warm.

Ingredients:  kale, celery, lime, granny smith apple, bartlett pear, water cress, and the secret ingrediet is a jalepeno.

Green Limeade

 

These orange and reds will not only give you the extra boost of vitamin C but dang it.. I need some color back in my cheeks.

Ingredients:  red and yellow peppers, carrots, oranges, ginger 

Plenty of Vitamin C

 

Need to catch up on sunday sutras and more handstand posts  I’ll be back very soon!!!  Cheers!  

P.S.  I’m hoping Mr. Ground Hog won’t see it’s shadow tomorrow cause I’ve had it with winter… 

Today's liquid diet

Finding Comfort in Chaos

Wow!  Has it really been since May 6th since I posted?!  So it seems the rest of the world has been up to busy work too.. My friend Nancy over at Flying Yogini sums it up well today.  She says, “..somehow I manage to keep on plugging onward in every endeavor because this chaos is where I find comfort.”

Chaos?  Comfort?  They both start with C.  Same thing right?  “More power to you!” someone told me this week.  She asks, “How do I do it?”  Between teaching, commuting, two kids, a dog, volunteering, and now an official PTA board member at our school.  Well as you can see some things went to the bottom of the list (aka this blog).

Remember the angry birds?  That’s what started off this year’s birthday marathon and celebrations.   Here’s a yummy collection:

Mother's day: pineapple pops with pineapple and mango frosting inside.

The next birthday: domo kun!

A cake of cake pops. 40+ bite size pieces of happiness and late nights

marshmallow krispie treats to go

late nights, chocolate crumbs, sticky fingers... all worth it for this one wish

and a party isn't complete without a custom made pinata

Of course after all the birthday festivities, I was in charge of teacher appreciation week.

for the best teacher in the 2nd grade

Our 2nd grade teacher. He really is the best ever!

I am cake pooped!  No more I say.

People wonder how I have time to do all these.  I thought and I wondered in amazement “how do I find time to do all this?”  I think back at those late nights.  I find the whole house quiet. It’s just me, cake, crumbs, chocolate, and my wild imagination. 

For those hours of molding, painting on faces, melting chocolate, wrapping, and cutting, I found comfort.  For that little bit of time, my mind is fully present to what I was doing.  Not thinking about tomorrow or beating myself up for the things past.  It is a culmination of excitement brewing up.. for I couldn’t wait to see the smiles of the ones who will get to sink their teeth into my creation.  

Who knew cake pops would be a meditation.

Patience and Pomegrantes

Seeds of patience

I came home tonight craving a pomegrante after a hot, sweaty, and vigorous class.  I bought 3 big orbs at the farmer’s market on friday but haven’t had the time to peel them.  Ok, I was actually resisting my cravings because I hate peeling them!  Talk about a love-hate emotion!  Love to eat them, but peeling them is so tedious.  If you know me, you must know that I have to do it right.  They can’t bleed and each seed must not go to waste.  It takes me ten minutes on average to peel one.  10 minutes doesn’t seem like a long time, but when I’m fighting between little fingers sneaking into my bowl and popping them in their mouths quicker than I can pop the seeds out of the rind, it’s a LONG time!

Tonight, the pomegrante poppers are fast asleep and I sit with my shiny red orb in hand, popping them out one at a time… not into a bowl, but into my mouth!   Mmmmmm the promises of a sweet, sour, juicy delight tantalizes my taste buds.

I am reminded that although patience is a practice of waiting, it never is passive.  Even the kiddos who wait for me to peel the fruit don’t wait passively.  They reach in with all 10 fingers.

This week I’ve been practicing patience with my hips (yes, I have tight hips and tight hamstrings and tight everything else) and although I wish they would not be so tight, I gently remind myself that it’s a peeling process.  I definitely don’t want myself to bleed (aka push them forcefully into pigeon for example) and definitely want to savor every seed (aka sensation that arises).  Each inhale and exhaaaaaaaale  is an opportunity to shift my perspective (aka my belief system aka B.S!) about my tight hips.  More often than not, it usually takes about 10 minutes to soften and the only right way to do it is to BREATHE through it.

Watch for my “oh! my! holy hips!” podcast this week

Friday’s Feast

There’s no other perfect way to end the week but with food!  Since friday is a farmer’s market day for me, I’m thinking friday’s feast is a perfect blog post today.

I am in love with eggplant this week.  Not only is the deep purple the new black this season, but eggplant warms my belly.  I got some Japanese variations today for making what I call eggplant caviar.

Very sweet!

The one and only eggplant I got from my garden

I’m not a recipe type person and when I do have a recipe, I hardly follow it.  So here it is:

First roast these beauties whole until soft.  Optional to peel the skin off.  Chop them up, mash them up.  Crush some garlic.  Heat some oil and add the garlic til brown.  Add the mashed eggplant.  Stir around for a bit.   While that’s infusing with garlic, wash and chop some cilantro and Thai basil:

Oh! I wish there was a smellablog cause the basil is so fragrant it's making my tummy growl

Add the chopped herbs, some salt to taste and stir until the herbs wilt a bit.  You then have this:

Eggplant caviar

How to eat this?  Like a dip.  In a salad boat.  With some crackers, cucumber coins, any veggie, pita bread with some cheese.  The possibilities are endless. I ate mine like this:

scrip scrap lunch

Topped my lunch off with these gooey sticky mochi squares:

it's brown rice with hemp seeds

Toast them and they look like this:

Drizzle with some raw honey... yum!

Who said it was officially fall?   Today is the missing end of summer.  90 degrees today and for the rest of the weekend calls for a watermelon, pineapple, and strawberry smoothie:

slurrrrrrrp!

Oh!  look at this purple manduka mat called the black magic… ohhhhhh how I wouldn’t love to sink my toes into this!

photo: manduka.com

Have a delicious weekend!!!

Bits of Summer

As summer comes to an end and I try to practice non-attachment, I can’t help but want to preserve the  hot summer days (or what it seems like lack of this summer).   I’ve been dehydrating a tons with all my farmer’s market deals to make up for the lack of hot summer nights… at least the tastes of summer can linger on for a bit longer.

A simple blend and mix of some of our favorite fruits were dehydrated into fruit leather/roll ups.  So far our favorite has been watermelon, apple, bananas, and berry mix.   Figs were great too… especially if you get a whole tray of them for $2 that yielded about 30 roll ups!

who knew watermelon could be dehydrated

puree it -- no sugar added

into the dehydrator they go... see you in the morning

best breakfast ever!

Today is a gloomy friday but farmer’s market was vibrating with lots of color as usual.  Remnants of summer fruits linger and fall crops are creeping in and new things to taste.  An interesting fruit I found today are jujubes.

jujube fruits

I don’t recall seeing these last year, but there were a mob of Chinese women picking through these and I got brave and asked them what they were.   Out of the mob, one woman (probably the only one who spoke english) told me they were sweet and taste like dates only they are fresh.   I didn’t know how to pick them so I grabbed these and put them in my bag.

Inside of a jujube

The are sweet.  They texture is dry, almost like biting into styrofoam but definitely much more tasty than the wax coated jujube gummy candy that the name may remind you of.  They are commonly called red dates or Chinese dates and are eaten fresh like you would an apple.  They can be candied, dried, and even made into tea and wine.  In Chinese and Korean medicine, they are used to alleviate stress and calm sore throats.  The sweet smelling leaves are often believed to make couples fall in love   All good reasons to buy more of these jujubes… plus it’s name is so cute!

Another veggie I am totally in love with this season is bittermelon and it’s leaves:

bittermelon leaves

bittermelon

Yes, it is bitter.  But it’s also sweet at the same time.  My mom always told me to balance my palate out.  Eating too many sweets is no good.  She told me bitter foods help fight disease and illness.  Good thing I listened to her because these little bitters are credited by the Okinawan’s long life expectancies in Japan.   I love to just sautee the melon in some coconut oil and sprinkle some salt and pepper on it or scramble them with eggs.

bittermelon leaves scrambled with eggs

And to top off the bits of summer today, we brought our own sunshine and had a picnic in the park:

salmon summer rolls for the kids

bittermelon summer rolls for me

these summer rolls scream sunshine

The first few crops of peanuts at the farmer’s market today helps make saying goodbye to summer less painful.  If you like peanuts, boiled fresh peanuts are yummy in the tummy!

fresh boiled peanuts

Life couldn’t be better!  Have a great weekend!

$40 A Week and Free Ultima

farmer's market finds

Move over Rachel Ray!  Look at what I bought for $40 at the farmer’s market.  A whole armful of fruits and veggies that will feed my family for a week:  6 bunches of lacinto kale, 4 ears of corn, 3 big bunches of grapes, eggplant, 10lbs of valencia oranges, 2 heads of lettuce, 5 lbs of cucumbers, nectarines, plums, sweet melons, bitter melon, and a whole box of strawberries.  This would normally cost me about $60-$70 but being that I am always running late everywhere I go, I got to the market 15 minutes before they closed and got a great bargain!  Woot!  Woot!  I knew my lack of time management was good for something

Now gotta start eating those strawberries.  All 9 baskets of them!  Some I will freeze for smoothies.  Speaking of… here’s a recipe I scrapped together after running around in the hot sun at farmer’s market:  strawberry, banana, pineapple, coconut butter, and orange flavored ultima.  Yum!!!  As you can see I’m still reminiscing about the tropics.

Ultima flavors: grape, lemonade, raspberry, orange

Putting the orange Ultima mix into the smoothie gave it the liquid I needed without the need to dump excess juice to mask the flavors of my fruit.  The folks at Ultima Replenisher recently sent me a box of free samples of their electrolyte sports drink mix.  I’m not a fan of sports drinks because of the way they leave a sticky *smack*smack* after taste in my mouth.   I first discovered Ultima when I went on my first teacher training bootcamp.  They advised us to bring an electrolyte drink… and for good reason because not only was the training challenging but trying to stay hydrated in the hot power yoga sessions were also a challenge.  Ultima keep me hydrated without the *smack*smack* and nauseous feeling because it has zero sugar and zero artificial ingredients.  The last thing I want to drink when I need to replenish is red #40 and blue #10, sodium, and fructose corn syrup.  There were 4 flavors that came in my free sample pack:  grape, raspberry, lemonade, and orange.  My favorite is orange.  I love to munch on some oranges after a sweaty yoga class because they are so refreshing and the Ultima mix was just as refreshing.   Other great things about Ultima:  they are non-GMO, vegan, no MSG, no caffeine, and only 10 calories per serving.  Another cool thing to do with the Ultima mix is to make ice cubes.  Great for the kids because they love ice chips!

Thanks Lauren for sending me these new flavors to try.

Now off to washing those veggies!

Squirrel Wars

Little Bugger

Don’t let this cute little face fool you.  Once a friend now a foe.  We would awwww and ooooohhh as these furry little friends ran across our fence in the backyard every morning hunting for food.  It was cute to watch these little friends jump from our fence to the street, climb up the neighbor’s persimmon tree and snatch a big juicy fruit.  It was even more entertaining to watch them juggle this big fruit and run back to our fence, then sit and munch away.  My mouth would water as his paws got sticky with persimmon juice and crumbs fell from his mouth.  I would even think… hmmm I wonder if squirrels can be trained to fetch me a juicy ripe persimmon… LOL  I’m thinking ‘yes!’  They are smart and tricky little critters.

I’ve been waiting patiently for my garden to grow and now I believe miracles do occur because the seedlings I’ve planted on Earth Day are growing.  Lettuce sprouts, kale sprouts, tomatoes and cilantro all survived the wrath of my brown thumb.  Unlucky for the cucumber and kale sprouts, zucchini blossom, and strawberry that just peeked it’s head, got bitten off by my furry foe, mr. not so cute anymore squirrel.

Freshly bitten off baby zuchinni that just spouted

I bet this young strawberry was juicy!

Kale sprout that is fighting for it's life after being nibbled on

So what did I do?  I covered the baby sprouts with those plastic strawberry baskets thinking it will deter the critter, but he’s too smart.  He pushes it aside and flips it up.  I wish I had a spy cam to capture how he did this.  So I put a rock on top of the basket and he still manages to poke thru the tiny openings and nibble.  Poor cucumber sprouts!  There’s not even a single leaf left for me to even take a picture of it.

This means war!

Watch out Mr. Squirrel… you might get a spicy surprise the next time you visit.  Muahahahaha!

Non-attachment (Part 2)

When did non-attachment taste so good?  These little penguins took about 4 hours to complete and were gobbled down within minutes. The process and time involved made them taste even so much better.  Even Jasmine forgot about busting her penguin pinata friend after sinking her teeth into these gooey friends.

The prize is definitely in the process.  No matter how many hours I spent on these, seeing the gratification on the kids faces was well worth it.  I find that cultivating a feeling of gratitude makes our attachment to things or others less intense when we do indeed have to let them go.  Our attachment doesn’t end with things or people, but often overlooked is memories… especially unpleasant memories.  We hold on as tight as possible as if they will not get repeated if we remember them.  Or we hold on dearly to pleasant memories hoping to recreate some of those again.  However, the idea of non-attachment to anything and everything gives us the platform to experience each moment as we experience it in full gratitude.  What a great lesson I’m learning as I try not to hold on so dearly to my children has they grow up right before my eyes.

The easy part - baking the cupcakes

It gets challenging from here - first resisting the temptation to taste them cause they smell so good

Here's the body

On with their heads

Going for a swim in the chocolate frosting

Penguin invasion in my freezer

And they taste soooo good

Off with their heads

Non-attachment can be fun too

From being dusted by peep squeaks to Namaste

Are you faster than a kindergartener?  Apparently I’m not.  Was back in my shoes running my 30 min interval this morning.  I’m up to 5 min run, 3 min walk, 8 min run, 3 min walk, 5 min run interval.  This week has been nothing but resistance.  I dragged my legs around the track near Jazzy’s school and shortly after running several laps, two kindergarten classes crowded around the track.  I thought they were going to point and laugh at me LOL.  Then as I pass them, I hear the teacher say, “ready, set, go, 1 time around.”  Two little boys sprint past me and the rest of the class followed and passed me up.  What the !@#$ I was dusted by a bunch of peep squeaks.  So for the remainder of the run, I got lost in my thoughts about why my legs didn’t want to move and why I was struggling so much.  Did my allergy attack last week really bog me down this much?  I don’t know.  Maybe I’m just nervous as the 5K Bunny Fun Run is on April 3.  I keep telling myself it’s just for FUN and I’m not worried about how fast I finish.  The best part of the run is the post run nutrition.  (notice how I’m ignoring my own question here? I was exhausted by the time I got home and made a quick smoothie before heading out to Cupertino’s Friday Farmer’s market:

Banana, strawberry, blue and blackberries, coconut butter, coconut juice, peanut butter, and spirulina

The highlights for this weeks farmer’s market:

Mine! All mine! (hear evil laugh in the background)

Wait til I pair you up with some jalapenos and cilantro

Had to get my raw milk from this guy today cause Whole Foods stopped selling them as of March 13.   I was shocked and thought there was some food safety issue.  Turns out it’s all political and corporate heehaws.  This is what happens when bigwigs get involved. I hope they sort this out fast, cause I love my raw milk and sometimes run out before friday’s farmer’s market.

Yum! Raw Milk!

Niko's Favorite Veggies. Organic for $1.50 each

Lunch for Niko: summer rolls.

My lunch: the best gyro EVER

And of course next to the gyro booth is the kettle corn guy.  We resisted last week but the temptation was unstoppable this week:

Can you smell this?

I felt bad for the guy cause he burned his hand right before scooping our popcorn.  He was badly burned.. probably 2nd degree he says… the result of not using his gloves when he should’ve been.

The highlight of this friday’s market is meeting a woman through a simple word as Namaste.  She was wearing a Namaste shirt and I just had to converse with her because not only is it rare to see an Asian (in this area) know what Namaste is enough to wear it on her shirt, but it was an opportunity to connect. (OK I just stereotyped, but many find yoga just a workout — perhaps another blog another day).  Found out she was an energy healer.  Got her business card and of a course a photo:

We are ONE indeed!

Perhaps my intention next friday is to connect to another person at the market.  Connections is what makes us human.  Most of the time we are wrapped in our OWN world and forget about THE world and we could all be in that place of love, light, peace and truth a lot more often.

Of course another rare find today is my hubby with me on fridays.  It was definitely a special treat.  I think I embarassed him though cause I was taking too many pictures acting like a tourist.  He said, “stop it! they might think we’re health inspectors.” Ha! Ha! I give these vendors an A+ for fresh, friendly, and affordable!

Silly tourists