Macrobiotics and Me

Hey!

Time seems to be flying by lately, it’s like the fast forward button is stuck!

I have felt pressured by the lack of time the last couple of days. I find that planning and trying to think ahead is so important when trying to stay afloat eating well.

It is almost midnight now and I have not long got home. Before I leave for work tomorrow I must cook breakfast, lunch & dinner to take with me so that means a bit of forward thinking. I’ll soak some beans, some grains and be clear about what I will make to save time tomorrow. I am already looking forward to an evening at home on Thursday and some time at home over the weekend! I guess it’s a case of just doing the best we can and making the most of what we have and what we know.

Food today has been delicious. I have found myself getting quite thirsty these past couple of days. I don’t seem to be doing anything majorily different so I am interested as to why this is happening. The only thing I have been paying closer attention to is chewing more (especially after the lecture I went to where particular emphasis was put on chewing food well) but I am not sure if or how that would increase thirst. Perhaps I should not even worry too much about the reasons for this but just drink more and listen to and respect my body.

Breakfast

Noodle soup from yesterday

Oat porridge

Grain coffee

Lunch

Noodle soup & soya beans with ginger, garlic and shoyu

Sweet rice pudding

Bancha tea

Ame kuzu drink

Dinner

I had the pleasure of eating out this evening. I had broccoli with courgettes, lentils with pumpkin (this was beautiful!) and some mixed sprouts

For pudding I had a really amazingly divine carob cake with cocounut cream.

Digestion tea

I managed to coerce myself into running today. It was so challenging, even when I was running I was thinking about turning back!! I am pleased to report I didn’t turn back and stuck it out.

I thought about joining the gym but my finances will not permit thhat right now so I am going to have to find ways to make exercise more interesting. I should have my bike available from tomorrow so I will be sure to put that to good use :O)

OK enough from me! Now I must get to bed ready for tomorrow’s macro challenge!

Divine love

Sharlene

Good evening!

Ahh it’s such a pleasure to be back in the kitchen :O)

Breakfast

Bancha tea with shoyu and umeboshi plue

Lunch

Soup made with kombu & shitake as the dashi with buckwheat noodels, leeks, celery, carrot and hijiki

Sweet rice pudding made with sultanas, cinnamon, soya milk and nutmeg

Snacks/other

Almond truffles

Grain coffee with soya milk

Dinner

Soup from lunch

Love & light

Sharlene

Hello!

My weekend of camping was great fun but I couldn’t help feeling relieved to be back in the kitchen today for some whole grain goodness!

Saturday:

Breakfast 

Miso soup from Friday

Sweet rice with barley malt

I’d already made these and packed them into jars to take with me

Lunch & snacks

Hummous, olives, nuts, sugar snap peas, carrot sticks, chilli peppers, crisps, oat cakes, oat bars

Ale

Dinner

Lentils with carrots (very quick and easy to do on a camping stove)

Apple juice

Sunday:

Breakfast

Sugar free baked beans with oat cakes

Hot apple juice

Lunch/snacks

Pretty much the same as Saturday but I couldn’t resist sharing some of my friend’s chip shop chips. I also had some dressed crab too (I was at the English seaside and it seemed a shame not to participate in some of the traditonality that was going on around me, I did however avoid ice cream!)

Mu tea

Dinner

I didn’t have any dinner as I was pretty full from all the snacks I’d been munching on throughout the day!!

Ideally I would have liked to have cooked food to take with me but as I’d have to trek all the food from my house in London to a friend’s house in Cambridge, I decided that I’d travel lightly. I spend most days carrying bags of food round with me so I thought I’d give myself a break. However, on our next camping trip I would really like to cook some food to take along and even do more cooking whilst we are there. Better planning and preparation beckons!

Hello!

This evening I went to a seminar by Tomio Kukuchi and it was so fascinating and I feel grateful that I was able to attend and hear some of his wisdom. Maybe next week sometime I can write more about it.

My hip bath last night went well :O) I didn’t notice anything other than getting really hot and feeling really hot in bed during the night too. I am not sure if there will be any other after effects but I’ll stick at it and see how it goes. Watch this space!!

Breakfast

Miso soup made with wakame, onion & watercress

Sweet rice with miso and homemade gomasio

Kuzu drink with barley malt

Lunch

Broccoli with shoyu & tahini dressing, red quinoa, sauerkraut & tempeh

Dinner

Mixed grain, green lentils & red cabbage slaw

Bancha tea

Gingered apricots

I am off camping tomorrow so I won’t have access to a computer. But fear not, I will fill you in on Sunday evening/Monday. I have only cooked miso soup and sweet rice for breakfast tomorrow (I wanted to travel as lightly as possible!), I have some oats and some tea bags and the rest I’m going to have to freestyle with and see what I can come up with! Perhaps a quick trip to a health food shop would be good, otherwise, I am happy to just eat very simply. We’ll see!  

OK sweet macro dreams to you

Love & light

Sharlene

Good evening,

Today I received some dried daikon leaves which means that tonight I will experience my first ever hip bath. I am really looking forward to doing this. Hip baths are a natural home remedy that help to warm the body and helps to restore the female reproductive organs to healthy conditions. They also help relieve skin problems, aid in extracting body odours, and draw out excess fats and oils from the body…powerful stuff eh?  I will let you know how it goes! I think it might take a number of them before anything starts happening. Wish me luck!  

Breakfast

Today I had some apple pudding for breakfast. I felt like something different and couldn’t resist this wonderful pudding.

Grain coffee

Lunch

Black bean dip with oat cakes

Grain coffee

Dinner

Tempeh reuben sandwiches (but without the bread!!) made with tempeh, sauerkraut, gherkins, tomato ketcup (sugar free of course), mustard, mayo (egg free!)

Blueberries with malt syrup

Snacks/other

Halva (sesame seeds with grape juice and sultanas) & a sugar free fruit bar

Bancha tea

I am pleased to tell you that my skin seems to be clearing up at long last. I have had white pimples for the last god knows how long and even though they are still there, they are definitely going which is great. They are from dairy (you may have heard them referred to as milk spots before). It seems to have taken forever for them to start going but they are fading slowly but surely. It is a reminder that healing takes time. We can’t just expect a quick fix solution because it doesn’t work like that. We just have to keep on the road, have faith and trust that in time we will heal.

Love & healing to you

Sharlene

Hello!

I felt sooo tired this morning and I am very glad to be home now and ready to relax for the evening.

I have learnt something tonight and that is not to take on too much in the kitchen when I am tired because my dinner really reflected my tiredness. I felt like it didn’t come together very well at all and for the first time ever I think, I did not enjoy eating it! So next time I am feeling tired I will keep it quick and simple.

Breakfast

Miso soup from yesterday

Brown rice congee with onion and carrot

Lunch

Barley soup made with carrot, celery, leeks and white miso

Afternoon snack

Barley soup

Apple juice

Dinner

Oat cakes with black bean spread made with black beans, onion, miso, toasted sunflower seeds & spring onions

Trout with lemon, millet mash, pressed cucumber & red cabbage and daikon

For dessert I have made an apple pudding made from alphabet pasta, apples, sultanas, walnuts & arrow root and I can’t wait to have some with some oat cream and a nice cup of tea before relaxing for the rest of the evening…ahhh!

love & peace

Sharlene

p.s. I must share something really beautiful with you: a morning prayer song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSIa7mhgHbo

Good evening!

I am not sure where today has gone, it seems to have flown by!

I woke up this morning and was on a mission to accomplish the task of cooking all my food for the day. So, before I left for work at 8am I  cooked everything I ate today which is as follows:

Breakfast

Miso soup with celery, carrot & wakame

Millet porridge with pumpkin seeds and miso (it was a kind of congee!)

Bancha tea

Lunch

Black beans with ginger, shoyu & spring onions (this dish was scrumptious!), oven roasted baby shallots (very cute and very satisfying!), nishime onion and squash (mmm so soothing!), pressed leeks and steamed broccoli (ahhh) 

Mmmm lunch was soooo soooooo yummy :O)

Dinner

Long grain brown rice with gomasio, nishime onion and squash, brocolli and pressed leeks. This was also super yum!

Snacks/other

I wasn’t planning on having anything sweet today but I met a friend at lunch and as I had already eaten mine and we sat down in a health food cafe and my friend was eating, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to eat a little something…;O) (ha ha..it is miraculous how I can always find an excuse for something sweet!!) so I had a fruit and nut slice name with rasions, dates, figs, sunflower seeds, rice syrup, hazelnuts, almonds, oranges and ginger which was beautiful.

Later in the afternoon I also had some apple & plum puree :O) :O)

I have an evening at home tomorrow night so I am looking forward to cooking at a more leisurely pace and making a dessert of some kind. Mmmm! Maybe I’ll make a cous cous cake too.

Ooo I am going camping over the weekend so I must think about preparing for that…

Now I have time for a quick cup of tea (I think I will have nettle and mint which might help me with my current dilemma…I am going dancing tonight and will be in fairly close proximity with other people which is fine but perhaps not such a great thing after you’ve had pressed leeks for dinner!! I don’t want to offend my dance partners with my leek breath (ha ha!) but obviously chewing gum is out of the question. I am not at home so I can’t brush my teeth and I don’t think there will be any mint plants enroute to my class so chewing on a mint leaf is also out of the question. I pray for the sake of my dance partners that some mint tea will do the trick!!!)

Au revoir!

Sharlene

Good evening!

Focusing on chewing today has felt quite revitalising in many ways. I’d like to dedicate one day a week to chewing (obviously I will try to bring this awareness to all the food I eat so I will do this when I remember). Chewing is so important and I can feel my digestive system is grateful for that!

Breakfast

Brown rice

Lunch

Brown rice

Women’s energy yogi tea

Mid-afternoon snack

Brown rice balls stuffed with umeboshi and some rolled in home made gomasio and one wrapped in nori. WOW – these were absolutely declicious. I love how when you just eat brown rice it kind of resets your taste buds and you go back to appreciating the simplest of foods.

Bancha tea

Dinner

Sweet rice with gomasio

Pepper mint tea

I cannot wait to get up tomorrow to cook and to eat beautiful food :O)

Now I must get myself to bed.

Don’t forget to chew, chew, chew :O)

Love & light

Sharlene

Good evening!

I feel as though what I have eaten recently has been a little bit all over the place and as though I have not been as conscious about it as I usually would be. So, it is time to get right back on the macro wagon ready for another macro adventure.

Tomorrow I shall begin with just eating brown rice for the day, this always helps me get back on track again and I always feel like my body and mind really benefits from this.  I would like to focus on chewing, chewing and more chewing for tomorrow.

This evening I have given myself a ginger compress and in a couple of days I shall begin with hip bath treatments. The reason I am doing this is to begin clearning stagnation and ‘old stuff’ (that has built up from years of using dairy, meat, sugar, processed food etc) and to do some deeper healing. Part of this process will involve being a bit more thoughtful and careful with food. I definitely need to exercise more too. I am even debating whether or not to join the gym as I am feeling uninspired by running.

Brunch!

Miso soup from yesterday with slice of lemon

Brown rice congee

Bancha tea

Dinner

Soup made with millet, onion, carrot, kombu & broccoli & roasted shoyu sunflower seeds

Strawberry kanten

Snacks/other

Almond truffles

Sweet popcorn (barley malt)

A couple of roast potatoes (my family were having a roast dinner!)

Grain coffee with barley malt

Love & light

Sharlene

Hello!

Breakfast

Miso soup made with onion, carrot, hijiki & parsley

Lunch

Brown rice & sweet rice congee with onion and parsley

Bancha tea

Dinner

1/2 jacket potato

chilli peppers

This was a bit of a strange dinner and was more of a late snack as I wasn’t hungry at dinner time and my day was a little erratic!

Snacks/other

Almond truffles

Potato crisps

Hot water

Love & light

Sharlene