Stretch Your Heart

Last night my husband and I had the chance to go out with some really good friends.  I had really been looking forward to it.  Then my husband and I got into a fight.  It was a classic situation of mis- (or rather non-) communication.  I was a Super Sulk for the first bit of our outing, despite being at the super-cool new Doggery, the prohibition-era-ish place on Historic 3rd, and despite having a most delicious and lime-y daquiri, followed by the smoothest red wine I've ever tasted...  Anyway, in a fit of "how cool can we be?" we decided to continue the outing at Chester's, where we couldn't help but order the delicious chocolate cake.  I mean, honestly.

While waiting for our deliciousness to arrive, I went to powder my nose.  If you've ever experienced the ladies room at Chester's, you know that it's really rad and low-lit.  And it has a giant mirror in one corner that sits at a slant and is handy for looking at the reflection of your rear through the mirror in front of the sink on the opposite wall.  You see what I mean?  Anyway, I made the mistake of spending some time looking at the reflection of my own rear.  In all my sulkiness and high emotions, that was a grandiose mistake.

I have been on a general upswing when it comes to my self-esteem since turning 30 (a while ago...).  I get a fair amount of exercise in my role as group fitness instructor.  And, all things considered, I think I'm in pretty good shape and feel good about my body.  But it's interesting how your mind can do funny things, especially when your emotions are high.

That (stupid) mirror reflected a wide butt and short, stumpy legs.  Now I *think* that the slant of that particular mirror probably affects its accuracy, but it got me thinking about looking at our reflections.  What do we see?  Is it an accurate vision of who we really are or do we judge ourselves extra harshly based on what we see in our reflections?

And then in church this morning, the message was about spiritual hospitality.  The importance of welcoming people wherever they are on their spiritual journey, even (and maybe especially) if it's different from ours.  And how we embrace (figuratively) and accept strangers, family & friends, and ourselves.

Embrace ourselves?

It's easy to embrace strangers.  Slightly more difficult to embrace those we know and love.  And virtually impossible to embrace ourselves, where we are, who we are, what we look like, without expectation or thoughts about what we *could* be, if only...

Since conflict stays with me and affects my emotions longer than I care to admit, the fight with my hubs was still lingering and had me on high emotional alert.  That, combined with some beautiful and haunting music provided by Leon Littlebird, made me very receptive to the message of acceptance in church.  We were encouraged many times to "stretch your heart open" to strangers, friends and family, and ourselves.

So many of us feel as though we are "not there yet," striving toward something that we want.  I'm thinking specifically of the context of our bodies.  We are constantly thinking about what we want to look like, unwilling to accept ourselves and "open our hearts" to who we are, at this very moment.

And while striving toward things is generally a good thing, it's important also to make sure that you are loving yourself up at each stage of your journey.  You only have one chance to be you.  You're the only you that exists in this world, and therefore, the world would not, could not be the same without you being exactly who you are right now.

I challenge you to go look in a mirror right now.  Let everything fall away except for you and your reflection.  Forget about things that are bothering you.  Forget about that fight you had with your husband.  Forget about the worries on your mind (as Debarge once said).  Really look at yourself.  This is who you are!  It's you!  You are special and perfect just the way you are.

And speaking of Michael Franti, watch this video to hear him tell about his inspiration for the song that we all love to dance to in Empowered Wellness Zumba class.  I lovelovelove the upbeat-ness of this song, and it usually makes me want to cry when I'm dancing to it, leading a class in shaking our hearts open and our butts into shape, and he says, "You're perfect just the way you are."  With all of your imperfections, you are perfect.  How d'you like that???  I like it.  A lot.  Now, I'd better go make up with the hubs...  Even though it was all his fault...  ;)

 

Chicken and Dumplings Soup

Chicken and Dumplings Soup

Ingredients:

For the Soup:

• 1 1/2 lbs. chicken breast, cut into 1/2 cubes
• 1 large onion, peeled and diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 celery stalks, thinly sliced
• 4 carrots, thinly sliced
• 1 half stick (2 tbsp.) butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp. ground mustard
• 1/8 tsp ground  turmeric (for color)
• 1 bay leaf
• 64 oz. low-sodium chicken stock
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh  parsley
• Pepper to taste

Dumplings:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 3 Tb. grated parmesan cheese
• 1 Tb fresh thyme leaves, finely minced
• 1/2 tsp. fresh rosemary, finely minced
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground pepper
• 3/4 cup milk

Directions:

1. In a large sauce pot, melt the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, cook for about 3-4minutes. Add celery and carrots. Cook for another 7-8 minutes. Stir occasionally.
2. Add the mustard,  turmeric, bay leaf and chicken stock. Bring to a boil. Stir in the chicken. Then cover, lower the heat, and simmer for 30 minutes
3. Meanwhile, put the ingredients for the dumplings in a medium bowl. Mix with a fork until a wet doughy consistency is reached.
4. Once the soup base has cooked down, bring the  temperature  back up to a boil. Then use a spoon to drop scant 1/2-teaspoon  lumps of dough into the soup. Simmer 5 minutes, until the chicken and dumplings are cooked through. Remove the bay leaf and serve warm.

Fall Garden Vegetable Soup

Fall Garden Vegetable Soup

With this being the end of the season, we're doing lots of harvesting of our veggies and putting them to good use. I'm particularly fond of garden veggie soup. This week's soup includes vegetables from our garden and my inlaws' garden: green pepper leaves, tomatoes, butternut, eggplant, zucchini, 2 serrano peppers and from the store: onions, garlic and carrots.

Ingredientes:
1/2 eggplant cubed
1 large zucchini cubed
2 medium carrots chopped
1 large onion cubed
garlic to taste (2-3 cloves is good, minced or sliced thinly)
3 medium tomatoes, diced
2 serrano peppers minced
1c cooked, mashed butternut squash
2-3 handfuls whole green pepper leaves (plucked right off of the plant, top tender leaves are best)
2c chicken broth
In a large heavy bottom stockpot, heat 3 tbsp olive oil. Mix together eggplant, zucchini, carrots, onions, serrano and garlic. Heat until veggies are tender (about 5-7minutes), stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes, heat and stir about 5min. Add broth, squash and leaves. Bring to boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 30min. Serve with fresh bread. Great leftover too or with meat (shrimp is delightful) or chickpeas would be a good protein addition.

Garden Chickpea Salad

Garden Chickpea Salad

2 small cucumbers, diced

2 medium slicing tomatoes, diced

1 small zucchini

1 medium green pepper, diced

2T chopped chives

1 can chickpeas, drained

Vinegarette:

2T balsamic vinegar

4T olive oil

1t dried basil or fresh (to taste)

pinch of salt

Whisk vinegar, olive oil, basil and salt together into an emulsification. Toss cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, green peppers, chives and chickpeas together in a medium bowl. Drizzle the vinegarette in and toss. Serve over fresh spring greens, romain or green leaf lettuce.

Sweet Potato Kale and Sausage Hash

Sweet Potato Kale and Sausage Hash

Ingredients

• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into a fine 1/4" dice
• 1 medium onion, finely sliced
• 2 - 3 cups fresh kale ( ribs and stems removed, roughly chopped leaves)
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• Salt
• Ground black pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Ring of keilbasa, smoked sausage or turkey sausage (chopped)

Instructions
Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a medium-high skillet, toss chopped keilbasa in and cook about 5minutes, stirring. Until golden. Remove from pan and set aside. 
 
Heat 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add in the finely diced sweet potatoes, onion, cumin, paprika and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. 
 
Cook mixture, stirring occasionally, until sweet potatoes are cooked through and tender, about 15minutes. Add keilbasa back into the skillet, toss. 
 
Add kale into the skillet approximately during the last 5 minutes of cooking. Taste the hash and season with additional salt or pepper if needed. 
 
Optional: boost of protein, add a fried or poached egg to the top.

Katie and I got to "crash" a wedding this past weekend.  We danced our booties off and did some of our favorite songs with the bride and groom and their guests.  We think the DJ felt like we were ruining his show...  oh well!  We have another one planned for early 2014!  So exciting!

This marks the first day of Make Every Bite Count (more on that later this week).  This morning's breakfast was banana nut pancakes topped with plain yogurt and berries with a side of bacon and some milky sweet tea!  Yummy!

Perfect fuel for our very first R.I.P.P.E.D class which we rolled out this morning to a very willing audience of 15.  It rocked!!!

Make Every Bite Count Zucchini Fritters

Zucchini Fritters (from Smitten Kitchen)

Adapted a bit from Simply Recipes

Yield: About 10 2 ½ inch fritters

1 pound (about 2 medium) zucchini

1 tsp coarse or Kosher salt, plus extra to taste

2 scallions, split lengthwise and sliced thin

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Freshly ground black pepper

½ cup all-purpose flour (Emily's note – or substitute with a nut flour for a less processed option)

½ tsp. Baking powder

olive or another oil of your choice, for frying (Emily's note – try something that is the least processed)

To serve (optional)

1 cup sour cream or plain, full-fat yogurt

1 to 2 TBSP lemon juice

¼ tsp lemon zest

pinches of salt

1 small minced or crushed clove of garlic

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Have a baking sheet ready.

Trim ends off zucchini and grate them either on the large holes of a box grater or, if you have one, using the shredding blade of a food processor. The latter is my favorite as I’m convinced it creates the coarsest and most rope-like strands and frankly, I like my fritters to look like mops.

In a large bowl, toss zucchini with 1 teaspoon coarse salt and set aside for 10 minutes. Wring out the zucchini in one of the following ways: pressing it against the holes of a colander with a wooden spoon to extract the water, squeezing out small handfuls at a time, or wrapping it up in a clean dishtowel or piece of cheese cloth and wringing away. You’ll be shocked (I was!) by the amount of liquid you’ll lose, but this is a good thing as it will save the fritters from sogginess.

Return deflated mass of zucchini shreds to bowl. Taste and if you think it could benefit from more salt (most rinses down the drain), add a little bit more; we found 1/4 teaspoon more just right. Stir in scallions, egg and some freshly ground black pepper. In a tiny dish, stir together flour and baking powder, then stir the mixture into the zucchini batter.

In a large heavy skillet — cast iron is dreamy here — heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Drop small bunches of the zucchini mixture onto the skillet only a few at a time so they don’t become crowded and lightly nudge them flatter with the back of your spatula. Cook the fritters over moderately high heat until the edges underneath are golden, about 3 to 4 minutes. If you find this happening too quickly, reduce the heat to medium. Flip the fritters and fry them on the other side until browned underneath again, about 2 to 3 minutes more. Drain briefly on paper towels then transfer to baking sheet and then into the warm oven until needed. Repeat process, keeping the pan well-oiled, with remaining batter. I like to make sure that the fritters have at least 10 minutes in the oven to finish setting and getting extra crisp.

For the topping, if using, stir together the sour cream, lemon juice, zest, salt and garlic and adjust the flavors to your taste. Dollop on each fritter before serving. These fritters are also delicious topped with a poached or fried egg, or strips of seared steak, trust me.

Do ahead: These fritters keep well, either chilled in the fridge for the better part of a week and or frozen in a well-sealed package for months. When you’re ready to use them, simply spread them out on a tray in a 325 degree oven until they’re hot and crisp again.