What the heck is Kitchari?!

One word: AWESOME!

Kitchari is a one-pot meal that is used for whole-food cleansing as well as just a yummy, super-nourishing meal that you can prepare once and eat for days. It is a great way to take care of yourself when things are stressful, providing a healthful and delicious meal to soothe and comfort your belly and body.

So often, when we're stressed, we reach for the thing that we think is easiest. In my journey with food and health, I have for sure fallen into the perceived comfort of cheese fries and a big fat diet coke, and have noticed that the initial sensation of satisfaction (and numbing) quickly dissolves into feeling truly terrible, heavy, bloated and usually sad and anxious-the exact opposite of the stress-relief I was originaly seeking!

I know it's easy to think that these "hippie dippe" ways of being and eating come naturally to me, but as I often say in class, one of the reasons I feel so inspired to teach is because I have really struggled to find these tidbits of peace and health, each hard-fought. I know what it is like to keep banging my head against the same wall, and wonder why my head keeps hurting. I want to share what I have been given, and hopefully help lighten the load for someone else.

So here it is one of the gems I have found along the way: Kitchari. I hope you'll enjoy it, and from time-to-time, when things in your life are a bit bumpy, put a pot on the stove, instead of heading for the drive through.
KITCHARI
from Keli Lailita Reddy with help from Gerhard Schmid
Part 1:
1c Basmati Rice (rinsed)
1c Split Yellow Daal (rinsed)
3 Tbsp Ghee
up to 3" chunk of ginger peeled and grated (quantity to taste)
1 to 1 & 1/2 Tbsp Mustard Seeds (quantity to taste)
Place Ghee in a small cooking pot, fry seeds and ginger until the seeds pop and crackle. Add the rice and daal and cook until the rice goes from clear-ish to cloudy-ish.

Part 2:
Add some chopped vegetables-you choose the ones you like. I often use carrot (1 or 2), celery (1 or 2 stalks), zucchini, cauliflower (half a head), and broccoli (half a head). You can also add sweet potato(yam), or at the end, add kale or spinach (I LOVE to add kale!)

Once the veggies are in, add:
1-2 tsp Hing (asafoetida)
2tsp-2 Tbsp Sambar Mix
Salt and Pepper to taste (I use about 1 & 1/2tsp salt & 2tsp pepper)
Add 1 & 1/2 c coconut milk, then top off with water until the liquid rises 2" above the mix.

Cook 45 minutes, checking occaisnally to stir and add more water if necessary (the consistency should be about as think as oatmeal).

Just before removing from stove top, add leafy vegetables & cook until wilted.

Remove from stove & serve! You can also garnish with cilantro...

Whatever is left can be kept in the fridge for about 4-5 days max, or freeze in portions & quickly reheat on the stove.

All the unusual ingredients like split yellow daal, sambar mix & hing can be found at India Unlimited on Foothill Drive, and I like the Ghee at Whole Foods. Please let me know if you try it & how it goes by replying to this blog, or email me at jenniferellen@flowyogaslc.com .

Om Love!

Ummmm....was I going to write a blog?

Isn't it just like that? Action and Intention, Action and Intention. In my yoga classes we often work through the paradigm of adding action to intention, and thus achieving what we seek; yoga, union, peace. What happens when there is so much action, that intention gets pushed aside, forgotten, or simply made to wait? Does that mean there is less yoga, less peace, less union?

As I fell into the deep well of Kalari at the retreat in Latvia, the practice was so intense, that there was little room for anything else, like blogging, returning emails, just barely enough room to keep the studio flowing, and not burn the building down (with great support from Amanda!).

When I arrived home, jet-lagged and inspired, but exhausted, I had 197 emails in my inbox & guess what? A Master Class, my own teaching schedule, and a Kalari retreat beginning here at Flow-with others starting around the country and needing information, photos, flights booked...not to mention a husband living in Toronto, and a sweet Buttercup the dog starving for my attention. What to do, what to do?

Once again the message is soooo clear: SURRENDER.

I have been carving out time in the in-between moments for my meditation practice, eating as much wholesome, nourishing food as possible (cooking at home), and maintaining a somewhat consistent sleep schedule. Some things, like this blog have been put on the back burner, but this is the rhythm that I can sustain, and isn't that what we work for in each yoga class? We work on finding the level of intensity that we can sustain, lettting the rest go, laying down the ego...the ego that says we should stay up until 4am taking care of all those emails & just grab a 'double double with whip' at Starbucks in the morning to keep us going.

So I am, again, letting go, and doing the best that I can-neglected blog and all. I hope that you're letting go and doing the best that you can, too.

Let's make it a collective intention: for fall-to-winter transitions surrender to what is, do our best to stay connected, and find peace to let go what we can not reasonably sustain.