How You Doin'?

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Photo by: Annie Spratt @anniespratt

What is real? Sometimes life feels surreal which can be hard to differentiate from what is happening in real time to what we are emotionally experiencing. (This is especially true when we are living alongside that dirty bitchass named grief. That’s a post for a different week.) This human experience is as complex as it is simple in that there’s a beginning and an end, yet there are so many twists and turns with many lessons to learn. All for what? What is real when we each have our own perspective or different version of the same story? Perception plus instincts plus logic is a dynamic mixture created from early childhood experiences. Was that just mental and emotional math? Ew. That’s kind of what it seems like. So HOW we choose to live our lives is what makes us real in this surreal and confusing, yet finite existence. What we do to care for ourselves, the work we do and our financial fitness are what we are responsible for managing. It’s way too easy to get wrapped up in what we have to output everyday when it comes to the expectations others have on us. It’s essential to evaluate our life’s balance sheet often.

Here is a checklist reminder for simple actions to be aware of each day:

Self-care

  • Nutrition - eat at least some whole natural food from the earth

  • Exercise - can be subtle stretches throughout the day

  • Meditation - in the form of sitting quietly for 3-5 minutes with one word to repeat mentally

  • Hygiene - take a longer than normal shower and maybe light a candle and play some classical music if its not raining outside

Work

  • Balance the ratio of your output to input energy by practicing saying no politely to give yourself more “me” time.

  • Shift the thought of exchange time for currency to offering energy for infinite abundant energy.

  • Do some work that you love on the side or volunteer using your natural gifts to have a positive energy exchange for a passion project or cause.

Financial Fitness

  • Where are you directing your dollars? Each dollar works for you, but your job is to tell them what to do for you and when.

  • Look directly at your Income, Debts, Assets and Investments. It may hurt at first, however taking an honest look at your financial state will put you in charge of what you do next.

    • Check your credit report

    • Add the total debts owed and divide that number by 12 which will provide some perspective on how much you’d have to pay per month to pay off all of your debts. Now take the debt total and divide it by 365 and you will see how much money you’d have to earn per day (weekends included) to pay off the debts in one year. This is just an exercise to put the numbers into persepective in order to create a realistic debt freedom date. Choose the best pay off strategy based on your income and fixed expenses each month.

    • Be sure to save some money while paying down debts and donating to causes that you’re passionate about. Giving any amount of money you can even when you’re in a tough financial situation is key to trusting yourself, the energetic forcefield we live in it and ensures you will receive what you need in this life when you need it.

Bonus: On a piece of paper write the number 8 or 888, fold it up and place it in your wallet. 8 is the number of infinity and abundance.

Vegan Holiday Recipes 

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tina natalini Nov 28, 2019 3 min read

Enjoy these delicious and simple no sugar added vegan recipes perfect for holidays and family gatherings.

Much gratitude to all of these talented creators of these recipes.

EASY VEGAN STUFFING: www.karissasvegankitchen.com/easy-vegan-stuffing/

INGREDIENTS:

8 cups bread crumbs

2 tbsp vegan butter or oil

1 yellow onion chopped

3 celery stalks chopped

4 cloves of garlic chopped

1 tsp dried sage

1/2 tsp dried thyme

salt & pepper to taste

2-3 cups vegetable stock

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Place the cubes bread onto baking sheets and toast in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 stirring/flipping halfway.

2. In the meantime, sauté the celery and onion in the vegan butter until the onion is translucent. Add in the garlic, sage and thyme and sauté for an additional 2 minutes.

3. In a large dish, mix together the toasted bread and the sauté mixture.

4. Add the vegetable stock until the bread is just saturated - not too wet and not dry.

5. Add salt and pepper to taste.

6. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until the top is golden and crunchy. Serve warm!

VEGAN GRAVY

https://shaneandsimple.com/easy-vegan-brown-gravy/

INGREDIENT:

1/4 cup + 1 tbsp. whole wheat flour (*I used Bob’s Red Mill Tapioca flour which is gluten-free)

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 1/2 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. rosemary

1/8 tsp. thyme

2 cups low sodium vegetable broth

2 tbsp. low sodium tamari or soy sauce (*I used amino acids which is a better alternative at 90mg/tsp)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Pre-heat medium sized sauce pan on medium high heat.

2. Add all dry ingredients to sauce pan and whisk for about 30 seconds.

3. Whisk in veggie broth and soy sauce until all ingredients are well combined.

4. Lower heat to medium and bring to a boil.

5. Reduce heat once more to low, let simmer and whisk to thicken.

6. Remove gravy once it reaches desired consistency.

TOFURKEY DELI SLICES

Place slices in gravy on low temperature until ready to plate.

VEGAN MASHED POTATOES

To make vegan use coconut milk and Balance Vegan Butter https://www.earthbalancenatural.com/baking-sticks/vegan-buttery-sticks

GLAZED PURPLE SWEET POTATOES

This is my freestyle recipe after tasting a purple sweet potato for the first time. It reminded me of my childhood Thanksgivings with the candied sugary sweet potatoes. The purple sweet potatoes have a natural mild molasses-like flavor and I knew I had a perfect match for creating the glaze.

First, boil the purple sweet potato(s) along with regular sweet potatoes leaving them slightly firm on the inside. They will later be baked in the oven and will reach their desired texture when complete.

GLAZE: SUGAR-FREE SIMPLE SYRUP

1. Cut one half of the of the potato and blend it with 1/4 cup of water

2. Then bring 1 cup of water & 1 cup of monkfruit to a boil. (Monkfruit can be found on amazon, Whole Foods, and sometimes at Marshalls and TJ Max)

3. Add the blended potato to the sugar-free simple syrup

4. Add Tapioca flour 1 tsp at a time to desired thickness. (I use Bob’s Red Mill Tapioca Flour)

5. Cut the remaining potatoes into chunks and spread in baking dish.

6. Pour glaze over potatoes

7. Cook at 400 degree for 20-30 minutes

8. Stir halfway through baking.

NO SUGAR ADDED CRANBERRY SAUCE

1. Bring 1 cup of water and 1 cup of monkfruit to a boil.

2. Add 1 & 1/4 bag of whole cranberries

3. Cover and reduce heat

4. Cranberries will start to pop and the sauce will thicken.

5. Remove from heat and let stand until cooled

(These instructions are on most bags of cranberries)

Happy Thanksgiving!