Macrobiotics and Me

Hey!

Breakfast

Roasted oat porridge with shoyu – mmmm!

Lunch

Ahh, it was so nice being at home today and having the freedom to cook at a leisurely pace.

Miso soup made with celery, onions, chickpeas & kombu

Brown rice with hato mugi and gomasio, roasted pumpkin, fried cabbage with walnuts & daikon pickle – delicious!

Salted popcorn & a couple of rice cakes with miso & tahini

Nettle tea

Dinner

Miso soup with brown rice & hato mugi in there & a spoonful of sauerkraut

Bancha tea

Keep eating well

Love & light

Sharlene

Is it really day 15 already? Incredible!!

Breakfast

Barley porridge with black sesame seeds and miso

Lotus tea (to clear mucous)

Lunch

Spelt pasta, barley sauce, fried kale, daikon pickle & nishime squash, parsnip & turnip, shio kombu & a few roasted sunflower seeds

1/4 cup of grain coffee

Dinner

I decided this morning that I would fast this evening.

I feel hunger now and it’s a nice feeling, one that I don’t feel often enough.

In the words of Bob Dylan ‘times they are a changin!’

Time for meditation before bed…ahhh!

Good night & god bless

Sharlene

G’day!

Oh my, time is passing so quickly & I’m beginning to feel a bit of exam pressure. I have macro exams next week…eeek!

I’ve been doing lots of pondering recently about my own macro journey and it seems as time goes on I feel that I’m really getting into this macro life more and more (and the more I do the more I love it!), understanding more, realising more, going a stage further with my practice, learning more about myself and about the universe. It seems that following this macro way means that life can never get boring or dull – it’s just one big macrobiotic game; macropoly…ha ha! (the go to jail would have to be replaced by go to macdonalds or something like that!!! :O)

Last year for me was really about giving up certain things and eating as many different foods etc as possible. But that isn’t really macrobiotics. Whilst I felt like I was being conscious, I wasn’t being truly conscious if that makes sense? This year, I will learn more about what macrobiotics REALLY is through conscious awareness. We must learn to think about everything.  No one can teach us this, we must do it for ourselves. It’s soo easy to become dependent on others but true macrobiotics is learning by yourself, through your own judgements, your errors, your revelations. Of course it can be so helpful to have a guiding hand from others but that hand is only a guide and should never be held. We must each learn to think for ourselves and to better our own judgements rather than depending on the advice or judgements of others – that is true macrobiotics.

Breakfast

The most beautiful barley porridge I’ve ever eaten cooked for a few hours in the pressure cooker

Lunch

Brown rice with aduki beans & pumpkin seeds mixed into some miso soup from yesterday so it was kind of like a stew type dish

Dinner

Spelt pasta with a delicious sauce made with barley, garlic, onions & a couple of olives, stir fried kale with ginger juice, shio kombu (mmmm – yummmm! this is a macro condiment made from kombu,water & shoyu) & the sweetest, softest nishime veg of parsnip, squash & swede, roasted sunflower seeds & daikon pickle. Mmm, such a satisfying dinner :O)

And now it’s time to rest my kidneys, mmmm!

Macro love & consciousness

Sharlene

Good evening!

Breakfast

Buckwheat porridge with shoyu & home-made oat, rye, white corn & buckwheat bread with miso & tahini

A little drop of bancha (about 1/4 of a cup)

Lunch

Brown rice, stewed peas & onions, daikon pickle & a little bit more bread

Dinner

Miso soup made with arame, squash, buckwheat & onion (mmm, this was so yummy)

Brown rice with aduki beans, squash tempura (I chose to have this again today as a celebration for some good news :O), grated daikon & shoyu, peas & onions & a little more bread

Bancha tea

Ahhhh! Lovely simple but delicious food – that’s what it’s all about :O)

Lots of wholesome love

Sharlene

Howdy!

Breakfast

Oat groats & rye porridge with a splash of shoyu

Lunch

Cous cous with stewed carrot, onion & parsnip & steamed kale & some apricot kernels with tamari

Dandelion tea

Dinner

Oat & rye with sauerkraut & a little bit of stewed veg left over from lunch

Check out Michael Rossoff’s website to see one of his lectures. He came to London a couple of years ago and I went to his lecture which was really great.  http://www.michaelrossoff.com/

Now it’s time to dance…yay

Adios!

Love, light & consciousness

Sharlene

Hello!

I’ve had such a wonderful and productive day & I now feel like I have earnt sleep this evening. I love that feeling!

I woke up this morning and did some cooking, yoga, meditation & more cooking before having a body scrub and heading off to work. Mmm, I love it when I do so many things in the morning. Now, I will make sure I get to bed at a decent time tonight so I can work on replenishing that kidney energy I squandered.

I’ve been thinking alot about alcohol today and how I am going to adopt a new policy! Last year, I made a very conscious effort not to drink too much or go out with for drinks etc (although there is an abundance of opportunities to do this). My reason was that I was set on really getting in touch with my true self/my soul. Alcohol can really take you away from your true self, and whilst it might seem like fun at the time, it’s not a wise thing to do. So many young people are into drinking nowadays and it is very easy to get caught up in that. So, my new policy is to allow a maximum of three drinks at any one time. That is more than enough, especially for the purposes of maintaining as much balance as possible. I have mixed feelings about all the alcohol I consumed over the xmas period, whilst part of me says ‘yeah, it was good, you had a good time’ (maybe the part of me that doesn’t want me to feel shame or guilt) but the other part of me knows that it was just too much and just really not clever to drink as much as what I did. It’s all just learning for my soul. Now I am sure that next time I will have one or two drinks and if I really push the boat out (man, I really did push the boat out over the festive period – I think I pushed the boat out so far that it has sailed off to the other side of the world! oops!) I’ll have another one but that is max. Yay!

I ate some lovely food today:

Breakfast

Millet porridge cooked for a loooong time. Mmmmmm!

Lunch

Miso soup made with brown rice, kidney beans, kombu & leek

Brown rice with gomaz (gomasio!), stewed celeriac and onion & sauerkraut

Dinner

Brown rice & cous cous with gomaz, daikon pickle, steamed kale with ume su & squash tempura (I LOVE tempura!)

A little tipple of grain coffee (ground rye, chicory & barley)

OK, now I must get myself to bed ready for another beautiful day tomorrow.

Bright & shiny love & magic

Sharlene

p.s. a photo of dinner tonight

Hello folks!

New year begins tomorrow…yayyy!! I am excited about that & I really am happy that celebrations etc are now over with so I can resume a sensible way of eating and drinking again!

Day 9

Breakfast

Millet porridge

Lunch

Oh yum – a really amazing lunch of home made brown rice & wholewheat sour dough bread spread with tahini & shoyu, brown rice with gomasio, stewed green & yellow beans with seitan, squash tempura & sauerkraut

Beer

Roasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds

Dinner

Miso soup

Brown rice, tempura, a small piece of fish, carrots & onion & pickled cabbage

Amazake pudding with kuzu, raspberres & almonds

Beer

Pumpkin seeds & salted peanuts

Sour dough bread with fruit spread & also with miso (not together!), more amazake pudding

Day 10

Breakfast

Buckwheat porridge

Lunch

Millet with gomasio & roasted pumpkin seeds

Dinner

Buckwheat, carrots & onions, steamed kale & brown rice pasta

Bancha tea

Ahhh, it really is such a relief to know that from tomorrow I’ll be back on track again. The past week has certainly involved far too much eating and alcohol, and whilst I’ve enjoyed it, I have been aware that my body is not entirely happy. Bring on 2010!

Love, light & consciousness

Sharlene

Hello!

Yesterday was Christmas day here in Serbia & it has been so wonderful seeing some of the Serbian traditions

We had an amazing feast again yesterday. I ate too much, I drank too much and today my body is really not happy with me.

Day 7

Brunch

Miso soup with chickpeas

Brown rice paella, corn bread, sauerkraut, sarma,  leek & radish salad and a little bit of lamb (huuuhhhhh!!! yes, lamb!!  I decided that I would eat a small piece to honour Christmas day and to join in with celebrations. I feel really happy that I chose to do this.

Tofu cheesecake

Home made red wine

wine, beer, beer, more beer…

Dinner

Pretty much the same as brunch!

more beer…

Some not very macro snacks (crisps & pretsels)

more beer…

Fish & corn bread

and to top it all off nicely, an umeboshi plum!

Day 8

Breakfast

A rest for my body – nothing

Lunch

A couple of pieces of wholewheat, sesame & nut biscuit type thing

Dinner

Buckwheat, onions & sauerkraut

What a relief it has been not to drink anything or eat anything too complicated today…phew!

Now Christmas etc is over with it will be back to eating properly Bring it on,  yay! My new year will begin on the 11th January

Much macro love

Sharlene

Hey!

WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW!! I have had the most magical day (today is Day 6) today.  It has been one of those days where this life seems to make more and more sense. It’s like I found another piece (or another few pieces) of the jigsaw puzzle and the picture is becoming clearer and clearer.

You know, there is a reason for EVERY single thing that happens in this lifetime. There are times when it’s so easy to get lost in amidst life but the truth is that we are all part of something bigger, something truly incredible that is happening right now and at every single moment –  a spiritual evolution!

There seems to be many signs that exist in our lives that can help us to evolve, but we can be so cut off and so blind and unable or maybe unwilling to read the signs. I am certain that macrobiotics allows one to be able to start seeing signs. Signs that lead to the discovery of pieces of the jigsaw, pieces of your own jigsaw which once they start coming together, form part of the universal jigsaw, of which we are all part of course!

Ahh, ok enough of that! Lets talk about food!!

Day 5

Breakfast

Brown rice

Lunch

Ahh we visited Dejan’s macro teacher’s home today for lunch and had the most delicious food. Mmm, it was really amazing (I’ll post photos!).

To begin with we had a noodle broth/soup, then we had sarma (a traditional Serbian dish which I mentioned before of pickled cabbage leaves stuffed with rice – but this was stuffed with rice & seitan :O), millet with pumpkin seeds & gomasio &  beetroot with a tofu dressing followed by a really beautiful dessert of wholewheat flour, apples, brown rice, chicory, sultanas…mmm & some bancha tea mixed with another kind of tea from South America which I can’t remember! Ahh it was all just sooo amazing.

Dinner

Quinoa with gomasio, sauerkraut, roasted carrot, onion & celeriac with a creamy brown rice topping

White wine

Day 6

Breakfast

Quinoa & roasted vegetable porridge

Lunch

Cous cous with gomasio, stewed mushrooms & onions & baked corn on the cob. Mmmm, amazing lunch!!

Dinner

The most amazing feast you could ever imagine (I’m not kidding!) of brown rice paella type thing with peas & onions, carp with wasabi, pressed black radish, leek & walnut salad, sauerkraut, sarma, corn bread & aduki & squash stew

Tofu cheesecake

White wine (home made!) – you cannot beat home made wine!!!

Mmmm, wow, mmmm, wow, mmmm, wow!!!

Dinner @ restaurant

Noodle/spaghetti broth/soup

Lunch from Day 5

Dessert from Day 5

I will post photos of today another day!

I hope you are eating, living & loving well

Big love

Sharlene

Hola!

Breakfast

Brown rice with gomasio

Lunch

I ate out today at a very beautiful Serbian restaurant…mmm. The menu consisted of mostly meat and dairy but thankfully we were saved by fish, corn bread, red cabbage & pickled cabbage…phew! It was really lovely & so nice to experience eating out in Serbia

Red wine

Dinner

Whole wheat pasta, brown rice, carrot, onion & mushroom cream (oh my – this was sooo beautiful!) & pickled cabbage

I feel truly honoured and touched that someone who does not eat macrobiotically has cooked delicious food for us the past couple of days. Sometimes it feels like a big enough ask for people to share food if they aren’t macro, but for a non macro to cook macro seems very special…ahh, I feel very lucky :O)

Beer

I have taken some photos so I’ll try to post tomorrow if I get a chance.

I hope your are getting the new year off to a good start

Love, love & more lovely love

Sharlene