Thursday, October 20, 2011
Sweet potato cakes.
I made these as a substitute for fish cakes. Cook one sweet potato, drain and mash. Add a little coconut and some finely chopped kale. Thicken with Teff flour. Form into patties. Brown both sides in a frypan with a little coconut oil. Season with veggie salt. Serves two people.
Zucchini spaghetti
Use a spiralizer to grate a zucchini into long "spaghetti" strands. Stir fry with a little coconut oil. Puree one to two tomatoes in the blender and add puree to pan. Add mixed herbs to taste. Add two dessertspoons of teff flour to add iron and protein as well as thicken the mixture. Cooked when zucchini is soft and mixture has thickened. Add vogel salt to taste. Serves one hungry vegan.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
how we try to make ourselves better than others.
When we consider the egomania of the modern world which also drives our economic system its easy to just think that we use the pursuit of wealth, pleasure and happiness to position ourselves ahead of others. But in a thought that came to me today I think its even more insidious than that. Every time we criticise or are annoyed with someone aren't we saying "our way is best", that the other person's wants, feelings and opinions aren't as important or as valid as ours. Everything we do, think and say places us in a position relative to others. The better path I think is to tread a middle way between pride and shame, between negative and positive judgments of all kinds
Well - not quite vegan!
On an autumn trip out to Lake Gordon I succumbed to the smell of a chicken wing. Its about the only meat that still smells good to me. Then I desperately needed some yoghurt to sort my stomach out one time - at least I got lactose free so it doesn't seems to have bothered my dairy allergies - but it does taste damn good. Oh well - I'm still mostly vegan and recently having discovered teff grain has meant I can have a yummy high protein almost gravy like vegetable stir fry. I had water and amaranth flour to make the gravy once the veggies are singed. Love my smoothies and sprouts but in a Tassie winter raw and cold loses its appeal a bit so I try and balance the salads with the above. I seem to have come through winter healthier than ever.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Elemental hierarchy of needs
When we come into the world we need food, shelter and touch - Earth Element
From infancy to teenage hood we learn (mostly) to manage our emotions and relate to others - Water Element
Throughout our schooling and more likely from our peers and environment we acquire knowledge - Air Element
Leaving school and entering adult life we look to pursue our passions (careers, hobbies and goals) and our loves - Fire Element.
But at some point, if these needs are met, we realise we still have an unmet need - to find meaning and connection - Spirit Element
From infancy to teenage hood we learn (mostly) to manage our emotions and relate to others - Water Element
Throughout our schooling and more likely from our peers and environment we acquire knowledge - Air Element
Leaving school and entering adult life we look to pursue our passions (careers, hobbies and goals) and our loves - Fire Element.
But at some point, if these needs are met, we realise we still have an unmet need - to find meaning and connection - Spirit Element
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Love your friend as yourself
Why does good and evil exist?
If I've understood this correctly (from what I'm learning at http://edu.kabbalah.info/ )there are usually four main ways people try to explain away the mix of good and bad in the world:
1. Nature (the world) evolved according to certain Darwinian and scientific rules. It has no mind. It does no good to pray to anyone as there is no-one to hear those prayers. The best we can do is seek to amass wealth, happiness and ongoing genetic continuance by competing the best we can with others for limited resources.
2. Someone or something created the world but has since moved on to another project and have left us to muddle along the best we can.
3. All the evil in the world is the fault of an anti-god force which balances the good of a god force. Through this polarity we know what is good because we can compare it to the bad.
4. The world was created as a playground for sometimes fickle collection of gods, much like as in Greek Mythology. They're not really interested in our needs, we're only here as ornaments and playthings in their garden. The best we can do is to try and placate them and stay on the right side of them through beseeching them and making offerings or sacrifices.
My recent reading of "The Twelfth Insight" by James Redfield, watching http://www.kabbalah.info/engkab/kabbalah-video-clips/introduction-to-kabbalah as well as what I have understood from the comments of various South and North American indigenous thinkers of our time I think there another theory. This theory also has a basis in recent scientific understanding as interpreted by the likes of Amit Goswami, Lynne McTaggart and Ervin Laszlo.
We are part of a mass of vibrating particles/waves. The fact that we perceive ourselves and the world around us as separate forms is an illusion created by our minds. The illusion is pretty "cool": it allows as to act in this world, to touch, see, hear, taste and observe the elements of this perceived world. We can go "wow" at the snow covered mountains and the silver edged clouds in the sky, smell the rich aroma of freshly ground and brewed coffee, taste the melting chocolate in our mouth, listen to chirping of newly hatched birds and insects on spring day and touch the soft fur of a puppy dog. However our perceived separateness leads us to egotism: the pursuit or happiness and the escape from pain, at the possible expense of others. Egotism in itself is not escapable as it is as natural as breathing, our error is in pursuing egotism for just our perceived bit of the universe without understanding the reality of our connection with everything else. We need to be egotistic for the whole mass of vibrating particles/waves and all the space in between that make up our collective universe.
1. Nature (the world) evolved according to certain Darwinian and scientific rules. It has no mind. It does no good to pray to anyone as there is no-one to hear those prayers. The best we can do is seek to amass wealth, happiness and ongoing genetic continuance by competing the best we can with others for limited resources.
2. Someone or something created the world but has since moved on to another project and have left us to muddle along the best we can.
3. All the evil in the world is the fault of an anti-god force which balances the good of a god force. Through this polarity we know what is good because we can compare it to the bad.
4. The world was created as a playground for sometimes fickle collection of gods, much like as in Greek Mythology. They're not really interested in our needs, we're only here as ornaments and playthings in their garden. The best we can do is to try and placate them and stay on the right side of them through beseeching them and making offerings or sacrifices.
My recent reading of "The Twelfth Insight" by James Redfield, watching http://www.kabbalah.info/engkab/kabbalah-video-clips/introduction-to-kabbalah as well as what I have understood from the comments of various South and North American indigenous thinkers of our time I think there another theory. This theory also has a basis in recent scientific understanding as interpreted by the likes of Amit Goswami, Lynne McTaggart and Ervin Laszlo.
We are part of a mass of vibrating particles/waves. The fact that we perceive ourselves and the world around us as separate forms is an illusion created by our minds. The illusion is pretty "cool": it allows as to act in this world, to touch, see, hear, taste and observe the elements of this perceived world. We can go "wow" at the snow covered mountains and the silver edged clouds in the sky, smell the rich aroma of freshly ground and brewed coffee, taste the melting chocolate in our mouth, listen to chirping of newly hatched birds and insects on spring day and touch the soft fur of a puppy dog. However our perceived separateness leads us to egotism: the pursuit or happiness and the escape from pain, at the possible expense of others. Egotism in itself is not escapable as it is as natural as breathing, our error is in pursuing egotism for just our perceived bit of the universe without understanding the reality of our connection with everything else. We need to be egotistic for the whole mass of vibrating particles/waves and all the space in between that make up our collective universe.
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