Zucchini, carrot, shallot and sorghum fritters

To make these I put one each of a zucchini (small), carrot and shallot (all three chopped up) into a blender with enough water for the blender to blend easily.  Then pour into a mixing bowl.  Add seasoning (I use a veggie stock).  Add a heaped tablespoon of chia seed (adds omega 3), add a heaped tablespoon of psyllium seed (improves texture and adds fibre) and then add enough sorghum flour to thicken the mixture.  Let the mixture rest for a minute as this gives time for the chia and psyllium to swell. Use a scoop or large spoon to take good sized dollops of the mixture and add to a fry pan that has been preheated and seasoned with coconut oil or rice bran oil (the latter cooks a little hotter so make sure it doesn't burn). When browned on one side flip over and do the other side, don't need a lot of cooking, just enough to hold them together.  Serve warm with fresh salad pickings from the garden ... eg some sliced cucumber, sliced tomato and fresh purslane ( a highly nutritious and tasty weed).

Making the switch from individual to universal consciousness

Having waded through about six months of beginner's and intemediate Benei Baruch classes on the Kabbalah (I think I actually got more out of their youtube videos though) as well as augmenting with my own reading I've decided what I've got from it is as follows:

• everything we do is for self benefit! (even giving to charity makes you feel better about your self)
• up until recently most of us have been caught up in the illusion that we are alone in the shells of our skins, egos, unique and trying to control everything in our perceived environment (to our own advantage)
• recently a lot of us have been starting to wake up (whether through kabbalah, brain science, the human potential movement, the fourth awakening or plant teachers...) to the fact that consciousness is not in our brains nor is it confined within our mortal bodies. 

My consciousness is a part of great cosmic sea of consciousness, diamond net of Indra, source field... whatever name you wish to call it (some might call this "God" but I'd rather not as I think that unnecessarily complicates things and attaches too many thousands of years of misguided dogma). This sea of consciousness contains everything and in some way which is beyond my understanding is in any part of it (holographically perhaps) everything. This everything is energy vibrating but doing so at different frequencies, the very fast as spirit and the slower as matter.  There are no boundaries within it ... just areas of slower vibration or faster vibration (a bit like a weather system).

Now the really neat bit is that I don't have to give up doing everything for self benefit (you can't any way as its just plain human nature) - I just have to realise that my "self" is everything and do "everything" for self. This is the true meaning of "love everyone as your self" (including your friends and enemies, beings of stone, beings of plant, beings of four, six and eight legs etc) for everyone is you.  This is the origin of Mayan saying "you are another me".

So shed your artifically constructed boundaries: give way to the yourself in the queue of the supermarket as you have as much right to get out quickly as you do... if you catch my drift.

They say that all this is something that you can't explain ... you can only understand when you experience it for your self.  So experiment: use visualisation, affirmations, act as if this model of consciousness is real (whatever works for you) and see what you think about it.

At the moment I practise daily visualising love and acceptance for my body contained self and then I extend that visualisation out in onion layers to include family, then neighbourhood, then work and so on until I visualise the whole planet and everything on it and then out to the galaxy and the universe.  All the time ayaing "I love you, I accept you as you are", all the time knowing that I mean just one extended entity. Its also easy to extend this across time and space (to everything past, present and future in all dimensions and all universes).

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.

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.

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