Macrobiotics and Me

Good Evening!

Today’s macro delights:

Breakfast
Amaranth & raisins

Lunch
Yellow split pea soup with nori garnish
Brown rice sushi with home made pickles

Rice cakes with raspberry jam with green tea and aloe vera

I had quite a late breakfast and quite a late lunch so no dinner this evening.

I have photos but I’m not at home right now so I can’t upload them…hmmm, it will have to wait until Sunday/Monday.

Loads of macro love, light & nourishment
Sharlene

Hola!

Breakfast
No breakfast for me today as I wasn’t hungry

Lunch
A delicious barley & mixed bean stew made with leftovers
Sweet rice crackers, lettuce & cucumber salad & squash, carrots, parsnip & celeriac kuzu stew

A dessert made of brown rice, blueberries and apple juice

Dinner
Millet, lotus, carrot, parsnip & squash & umeboshi radishes & celery

Followed by a bowl of amaranth & raisins & a cup of tea

Love & magic
Sharlene

Good Greetings!

My absence was much longer than anticipated. Dejan and I have just moved into a new home and we have been without internet access until now.

So, how’s macrobiotics going for you? It was difficult eating well whilst we were moving. I really feel like I need to focus on nourishing my kidney and spleen energy at the moment. It is interesting to see how health changes. It’s also great to have such fantastic tools to use to improve health.

So today’s food:

Breakfast
Porridge made from leftover brown rice, red quinoa, carrots & onions with a little miso and parsley

Lunch
a little tipple of kidney bean juice with a dash of tamari (ahh, this felt amazing to drink. My kidneys loved it!)

Soup made from arame, wakame & dried burdock with miso & spring onion garnish

Brown rice & barley with a sunflower & wakame condiment, kidney bean, carrot & pak choi stew, green beans with an onion sauce, squash puree & home made pickles

For dessert I had some squash & a small cup of twig tea

Dinner
Chickpea soup with daikon & cucumber skin (I didn’t want to throw it away!)

Amaranth (this is my new found favourite food at the moment!!)
Boiled carrots & parsnip & lettuce salad

One very beautiful day’s worth of food

Love, light & magic
Sharlene

Good Evening!

Breakfast
Brown rice porridge with carrots, onion & roasted sunflower seeds

Lunch
Buckwheat with pumpkin seeds, red lentils, lettuce salad & carrot & onions
With a lovely chestnut puree pudding to follow

Dinner
Brown rice salad – made with spring onion, sweetcorn, red radish, carrot, fried tofu, roasted sunflower seeds & lettuce with a lettuce salad and some home made pickles. Mmm the pickles were exactly three months old today (happy birthday pickles!!) and they were really amazing. I’ll have to post a pickle recipe soon.

I have made enough grain salad for all day tomorrow as I won’t be able to cook tomorrow. We are moving into a new home on Wednesday and I just cannot wait to get there and to get our kitchen set up and ready for action!!

I’m not sure if I’ll get a chance to post tomorrow or on Wednesday. I’ll do my best to get on here. I’m going to macro school on Thursday (yayy!!) so I’ll be sure to post from there and I’ll take photos too.

Cook, keep & love well
Lots of macro magic
Sharlene

Hey!

A few days to catch up on…

Friday 13th

Breakfast
Buckwheat crisps, an apple, barley porridge with sunflower seeds (out of a jar at the airport – whilst my friend ate a burger/breakfast meal (see photo) he he!

Lunch
Shiitake broth with spring onion
Brown rice, red lentil dahl, dried dakion & carrots, boiled broccoli with home made horseradish & home made pickles

For dessert I made some oat flake & rice syrup biscuit type thing!

Dinner
Brown rice, red lentil dahl, lettuce & radish salad with a mustard dressing & carrot, squash & onion nishime

Saturday
I ate really simply today as I felt like I needed it. I didn’t have any breakfast, for lunch I had some fresh carrot juice and for dinner I had some plain brown rice, then some brown rice with a little shoyu & and then a small bowl with a little rice syrup

Sunday

Breakfast
Soup made from carrot & broccoli with nori strips for garnish
Mixed grain flake porridge with raisins & almonds

Lunch
Pea & onion soup with fresh horseradish – mmm I think I have found my new favourite soup!

Brown rice, black eyed beans, roasted squash, lettuce salad & hijiki with carrots

Dessert – brown rice with nuts & seeds & fruit spread

A cup of beautifully bitter grain coffee – mmm I haven’t had grain coffee like this for ages!

Dinner
Soup made from leftovers (hijiki, beans, brown rice & some extra carrot)

It’s really nice to be back in the UK. Spending time in Serbia makes me realise just how fortunate we are in the UK to have access to such a wide selection and variety of many wonderful ingredients and products (like grain milks, other seasonings, snacks, creams, breads, biscuits, spreads). At the same time, it also seems like a bit of a curse as it is very easy to detract from the true macro way when there’s so many products available.

What I mean when I say detract is that it is easy to get caught up in buying and using lots of different products when really, macrobiotics is much simpler and wholesome than that. In the beginning of my practice of macrobiotics I had a good reason to use all of these kinds of things which helped me make the transition. However, after a few years, I have no excuse and I realise and feel how using all these products can get in the way of understanding, develop and healing.

It is absolutely wonderful to see so many sugar and dairy free products coming onto the shelves, and they can be so useful at times. But I could feel myself allowing these things to steadily and increasingly creep into my eating regime. Whilst these products can be so useful at times, they are, what seems to me, to be a side track from the truth! It is my mission in this lifetime to discover the truth about macrobiotics and I certainly won’t get there by depending on or using processed foods regularly. So, it seems I have returned with a few new intentions which are:

1. No alcohol
2. Instead of buying any ready made food/snacks from health food shops or supermarkets, I’ll make it myself with ‘whole’ ingredients
3. To considerably reduce my use of processed products
4. To cut down on desserts.

This will be interesting! I’m going to use up all the things I have in my cupboards and begin my new found way next week (I’m at macro school from Thursday).

OK, time for some photos:

Love, light & magic
Sharlene

Good Evening!

Breakfast
An apple!

Lunch
Arame & spring onion soup
Brown rice, lentil carrot & onion stew, lettuce salad, boiled onions with umeboshi plum & a condiment I made from peppers & spring garlic

Dessert was a beautiful pudding made of apple and I’m not sure what else (Dejan made it!) but it was really amazing

Snack
Roasted sunflower seeds

Dinner
A kind of pie made from oats, spring onions, carrots, buckwheat pastry topped with sunflower & sesame seeds
Chickpea stew with sesame seeds, leeks, onions & carrots
Lettuce & cabbage salad

Grain coffee

That’s all for today!!

Love, love & more love
Sharlene

Hello

I’ve had an incredible couple of days & today marked the start of something extremely special for me…

Yesterday’s food was:

Breakfast
Nothing

Lunch

Black bean, pasta & wakame soup

Millet & onion burger, carrot & spring onion mash with a lettuce & radish salad

Pasta with barley malt & coconut

Dinner

More black bean soup (from lunch)

Millet with miso on a stamed cabbage leaf with stir fried carrots, leeks, onions & ginger & cucumber salad

Snacks/other
Beer & crisps

Today/11th May

Breakfast
Nothing

Lunch
A beautiful bowl of barley & brown rice cream/milk with a little shoyu

Dinner
Barley & brown rice, boiled peas, carrots, onions & leeks, home made cabbage and cucumber sauerkraut & a carrot and spring onion sauce to pour over the grains

Then we had some lovely macro biscuits & green tea whilst visiting a friend & I had a slice of apple too

Since arriving here in Serbia on the 1st May, I have, on many occasions, had non macro food and a lot of beer. Too much beer in fact which is not so macro friendly and not very wise. As a result, I have been witness to an ongoing battle in my consciousness about this. It is not because I feel guilty about my indulgences but rather because I am now very sure how alcohol and how eating non macro food effects me and I can no longer ignore the fact that it is not helpful for my health, well being or consciousness.

Macrobiotics for me is about ongoing development. It’s about working towards doing what you know is good for you and leaving behind that which isn’t. It’s all well and good someone telling you what is right and what is wrong but unless you can really experience it for yourself, you’ll never really know the truth. I feel like my trip here has really taught me about that which isn’t good for me and now I am finally ready to surrender to that and take my macrobioticness one step further.

So, in light of this, I am happy to announce that I am now officially teetotal. Yayy!! I AM TEETOTAL!!! I think this is one of the greatest decisions I have made and will be really helpful for me on many levels. My body has never appreciated this extreme yin and whilst I’m sure my being has enjoyed using it for various reasons on numerous and ample occasions through out my life, now I am very ready to say goodbye once and for all. I could write many things about this decision and why I’ve decided to call it a day. The biggest reason is that I find it is no longer supportive of who I am or who and what I want to be – on every level (physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, energetic) and I have a feeling that life is too short…to drink bad wine ;0) he he!

I’m also feeling more certain that I don’t want any non macro food for quite some time now. I don’t want to put a time scale on it but I know that it won’t be any time again in 2011. I just don’t see the point in non macro food any more!!!

So today, I felt like I’d woken up a new person in a way. There is so much more to write about this, but I’ll save it for another time.

Time to upload a couple of photos from today & yesterday and then get myself some zzzzzs.

Wishing you love, health & healing
Sharlene

Hello!

I’ve had an action packed few days and not had the chance to post, but alas! here I am.

We’ve been spending time with friends who are mostly non or semi macro which has been enjoyable but ahhhh I am so so so relieved, satisfied and happy to be back to eating macro food.

7th May

Breakfast
Nothing

Lunch
We had a lovely home made picnic in the park which consisted of:

Porridge (mixed grain with umeboshi – Dejan made it & I’m not entirely sure what grains he put in there but it was really nice!)
Bread, radish & carrot salad
A little bit of home made museli with hot water
Corn fudge

A beautiful refreshing, sugar free lemonade

Dinner
Our friends took us out for dinner tonight & we decided to go with the flow and enjoy the experience of eating out and being with friends.

We ordered a meat platter type thing so I chose to have chicken and avoided the red meat, with french fries, lots of different salads & bread

Beer

Then we went out later & had some more beer with some peanuts, corn chips & pretzels

I had an umeboshi plum when I got home!

8th May

Brunch
Freshly made whole wheat bread rolls & pretzels

Dinner
We were out again in an Italian restaurant and I had some minestrone soup, brown foccacia & a seafood salad
with chamomile tea

Snacks/other
Beer, crisps, a slice of pizza & sausage roll, brown rice

9th May

AHHHHH..thank the lord for macrobiotics!! After a few days of having beer and other non macro foods I really feel bleurgghhh. I kind of feel a bit dirty and my body is definitely craving proper whole nourishing foods.

Breakfast
Nothing

Lunch
Leek & wakame soup & I added an extra sheet of nori
Millet, brown rice & cabbage with a red lentil sauce

For dessert I had some grounded wheat & barley malt & some leftover tofu cheesecake

Dinner
Brown rice, millet & pumpkin seeds, carrots & cabbage with a white miso & umeboshi dressing, mung beans and hijiki & cucumber and cabbage sauerkraut

No drinks today

Hello!

Yesterday was a beautiful day in every way!

Breakfast
Nothing

Lunch
Smoked catfish with a chickpea & vegetable dip type thing & gherkins
Fish soup
Bread (white), brown rice, smoked carp & salad

Tofu cake

Dinner
I didn’t have dinner as I wasn’t hungry

Snacks/other
Beer

Corn chips
Corn fudge – mmm!

Love & light
Sharlene

Dobra jutro!

It’s really early in the morning here in Serbia & Dejan & I couldn’t sleep so we’ve been up making food for today’s (the 6th) party which I’m really excited about. We have some more friends coming from the UK today too so I’m sure it’s going to be a great day!

Yesterday’s (the 5th) food:

Breakfast
Nothing

Lunch
Brown rice, quinoa, nori & horseradish condiment (mmm – fresh horseradish from the garden), lentil & carrot stew & a salad made from lettuce, carrot ,umeboshi plum & onion

Followed by some cornflakes & barley malt & bancha tea

Dinner
A fish burger

Other
Beer & corn chips
Tofu cake x2….ahem!! I made a cake for tomorrow and we couldn’t resist having some!

The fish burger was from a takeaway place. Whilst it was unquestionably desired and enjoyed by my senses there was without a doubt something about it that felt wrong. Whether it was too much salt or too much of some kind of artificial seasoning, whatever it was, it had an extreme taste.

It’s no wonder many people find it difficult to eat beautiful, fresh, pure food. With all the salt and flavourings in ‘modern day food’ out taste buds are ruined and not given a chance to taste the beauty of real food. The good news is, once you start weaning yourself off of modern day processed foods, then you can start really enjoying and appreciating the simple yet profound tastes of proper food….ahhhh!!!

A whole load of love & magic
Sharlene