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Come January, diet is at the top of the list for new years resolutions. You may think that diet a dirty word. Afterall, it has 4 letters… isn’t that one of the criterias? My recipe below is definitely a 4 letter word, but not dirty - it’s YUMM!
What makes something a dirty word? I think it’s the feeling that goes along with it. If you are someone who has struggled with keeping a healthy weight, diet may be a dirty word for you, as you may associate it with a lot of restrictions. Oxford defines diet as the kinds of food that a person or community habitually eats. There is no mention of restriction. The definition of food is any nutritious substance that is ingested. That means not only what you eat, but what you listen to, who you hang out with, the thoughts you tell yourself, your environment! Now that is some food for thought! Steve Jobs is quoted as saying, “Eat your food as your medicine. Otherwise, you have to eat medicine as your food”. This is a profound truth. Instead of going on a diet, try to be more mindful when you eat. Use the acronym DIET to ask yourself two questions: Do I Eat This? And Does It Evoke Transformation? Pie, ice cream and soda would be a NO. Fresh, colorful, non-processed food, like this salmon recipe would be a YES. There are so many foods that are healthy and delicious! Okinawan sweet potatoes are high in antioxidants. Beets, pineapple, and blueberries are anti-inflammatory. Salmon is good for your heart. It also helps decrease inflammation and improve brain function. I need that! The other ingredients in this recipe are healthy too. Organic honey - aids with digestion and boosts the immune system. Lemon - rich in vitamin C, Rosemary - reduces inflammation. You may notice a theme here. I’m choosing food as medicine to help with inflammation and increase brain function. Take some time to do some research to see what foods you can eat as medicine and keep you healthy. Honey Dijon Salmon
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No matter what your faith, the Holidays are meant to be holy days. Our special seasons are meant to be celebrated. Setting an intention to focus on BEing rather than buying will help you create and sustain the magic of the season.
Real living is about being present in the moment. The best way to capture moments is to pay attention (John Kabat-Zinn). We all get caught up in things that are not true priorities. When I catch myself in that space, I offer myself grace and press the reset button. Beating yourself up distracts from peace. I crave for peace in my life. Just yesterday I was feeling stressed with all the extra work that the Holidays bring. I was actually feeling resentful while I was making gift bags! 😣Then I caught myself! I have been pondering how I can nourish myself first, and how that would then nourish others. This was the perfect example!! I reframed the experience by remembering I actually love doing crafty things! And I was so excited to learn a fun way to use up my scrapbooking paper to make gift bags! Poof! Stress and resentment evaporated, joy and gratitude emerged. The work wasn’t work anymore, it was fun, which is something else I’ve been craving. Cheerful Christmas Salad.pdf I love living in Hawaii. The diversity of cultures and delicious food provide a never ending banquet to feast on and explore, like the recipe for ajitama below. (Seasoned boiled eggs).
My parents lived in Japan for 10 years as missionaries. The last 3 of us 5 children were born in Tokyo. I like to say the three of us have a stamp on the bottom of our feet that says “made in Japan”. My parents moved back to Hawaii many years ago, and we have kept up Japanese cultural traditions like rolling sushi every New Year and making ozoni soup. I think the most rolls of norimaki we made at one time was 94! My mom was still making rolled sushi and cone sushi until she was 98. In true Hawaiian and Japanese style, we give most of it away to friends and neighbors. I have some mainland friends who are not willing to try “ethnic food” just because they haven’t been exposed to it. We are so blessed to be surrounded by a plethora of choices. Can you think of any food in our melting pot of Hawaii that you don’t enjoy? I love them all. Being willing to try something new opens up our taste buds, our minds and our hearts to nourishment of all kinds. If you haven’t tried ajitama before, give them a try. These seasoned soft-boiled eggs are a good compliment to ramen or udon. They are also good on their own for a satisfying snack. Ajitama.pdf I do a weekly series called F-Word Fridays, where I share an F word that inspires. The word FUNDAMENTAL will be coming up in the que soon. (You can find it on my YouTube Channel.)
Oxford gives this definition: a primary rule or principle on which something is based. Using that, I played with it a little - breaking it down to read FUNdamental and ask myself and you, is FUN a primary rule on which you base your life? Food is a necessity of life, do you create ways to make your food fun? Is nourishment for your body, mind and spirit a priority? Here is another way to break it down - FUNDamental. If you don’t fund or fuel yourself with what’s important, you go mental. I know this may seem silly, and it is! And it’s a fun way to ask some important questions. What is the principle(s) you base your most valuable assets on? Food for thought, right? Here is a fun recipe that I like to make when I have friends coming over, or on a hot summer day. I call it Mai’s Mock Mojitos. Mai's Mock Mojitos.pdf My mom passed away 2 years ago. I miss her everyday. She was a great Mother who did her best to instill in her 5 children a deep love of God, the importance of hard work, and the value of integrity. Thank you Mom! She was also a great cook and her love language was food! I share that trait and it makes me so happy to nourish people in every way I can.
If you still have your Mom with you, give her a call, or go see her in person. Tell how wonderful you think she is and give her a huge hug. The following recipe reminds me of my mom because it is beautiful and elegant. It’s a salad that you can make in less than 10 minutes and brings a sense of style and beauty to your meal, which my mom always did. She loved strawberries so I added them to this recipe to honor her. They look like sweet vibrant hearts. Strawberry Pear Carpaccio .pdf Food! Glorious Food! I often sing the first line to this song out loud because I love food! It’s glorious.
Here are some reasons why:
Fundamental ingredients in cooking are items that produce salty, sweet, sour, bitter, umami (savory), and fat. Yum! Life is full of these same tastes! Blending sweet and sour creates synergistic flavors and are better combined. As in life, you cannot know and appreciate one without the other - yin/yang. I LOVE the way food teaches about life. The possibilities of combinations and ingredients are endless. Fusion cuisine blends different cultures and makes something amazing. Fusion cooking is an invitation for us to look at the good in other cultures and create a world where differences are enjoyed, respected, and celebrated. Sushi Fusion.pdf Many cultures, including Hawaiian, believe that words carry energy and power to create. We create our experience through the words we use and think. Henry Ford said “whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right”.
What are your thoughts creating? Do they inspire greatness or mediocrity? It takes an ongoing effort to monitor your thoughts and keep them positive, but it is life changing! Every word carries a vibrational energy. Dr. Masaru Emoto, the author of The Secret of Water, did an experiment where he covered 3 bowls of rice with water. Over the course of a month, he said thank you to the first bowl, derogatory words to the second bowl and ignored the 3rd bowl. The results were astounding. The rice he thanked every day remained white, its water started to ferment and gave off a mild pleasant odor. The rice given negative words was black and rotten. The ignored rice had gone bad, but was not as decayed as the second bowl. Whoa!!! Again I ask, what are your thoughts and words creating - decay or beauty? Some people think they can’t cook. Remember, whether you think you can or you can’t…. If you are one of those people, I invite you to say positive things before, during and after you cook. If you can’t muster “I’m a great cook”, you can start with “I’m going to have fun making this!” The energy of your thoughts goes into the food you create. Think great thoughts my fellow Foodies! Have you ever eaten a particular dish and think, oh, this tastes like a certain place you have lived or visited? It’s not only a taste, but the feeling of that place, so that when you eat that specific dish, you are transported to that place and the experience of it. It could be eating a special dessert that your Grandma used to make - it tastes like Grandma and a wave of love-filled memories washes over you and fills your soul. This is yet another reason why I love food so much. Just like music, the notes of flavor can transport you through time and space where you can magically relive the experience. Wow! Having food in front of you is a testament that you are loved by a higher power. Having special tastes that nourish all of you is a deeper manifestation of love.
This recipe for Nasu Dengaku is one of those powerful recipes for me. When I eat this, I feel like I’m in Japan. I’m surrounded by the sounds, smells, energy, deep history, and personality of Japan. I was born there and was formed in the womb by Japanese food my mother ate. Japanese food is literally in my blood. I hope this recipe sends you to an enchanted place. Nasu Dengaku (Broiled Miso Eggplant).pdf I remember hearing this adage when I was small, but I didn’t get the nuance until I was older and had experienced some of life’s “showers” of hard times. It’s such a nice way of saying that rainy days may not be fun, but they bring forth wonderful things. It’s a wonderful perspective, don’t you think?
Some of you may not look forward to cooking, or see it as something not fun, but making the effort brings forth amazing things. When I think of rain, I think of being refreshed, rejuvenated and replenished. That can happen with cooking! Over the weekend I made this killer tortilla with leftovers I had in my fridge. It had chicken, chipotle in adobo sauce, cheese, tomatoes, and onion. I fried up the tortilla really crispy, and stuffed it with my concoction. It was so ono! It’s so satisfying to create something “new” with things you already have. Some people may see leftover ingredients as the equivalent of April showers, but really they are May flowers! Here is something else I made with contents from my fridge. VEGGIE PASTA CASSEROLE.pdf We needed a new roof. We had someone come out to look at it and give us an estimate. We were talking about the leaks we had and the Estimator said “water always finds a way”. The way he said it, I could feel the absoluteness in his voice. Those words stuck with me. It’s another Life Lesson disguised in ordinary conversation. How can we learn and be like water to always find a way?
I pondered all the forms that water takes - liquid, mist, ice, clouds, steam. It’s really quite impressive how versatile it is. It morphs into what is needed, it always finds a way. That gave me encouragement to follow suit. Maybe instead of being frozen in fear, I can melt into a fluid form of courage; or instead of being stuck in old thought patterns and habits, I can try a new way of being - still me, but an appropriate form needed for living an extraordinary life. We are made up of about 70% of water, just like Mother Earth. Maybe that is why being around large bodies of water is so soothing. Just like the oceans and deep lakes hold all kinds of secrets, I think we do too. By secrets I mean yet undiscovered treasures within. Think of all the sunken ships filled with untold bounty. In order to find it, there is a lot of work involved, just like our own hidden treasures. It takes work, sometimes catastrophic weather to manifest them. Life is like that. We all go through challenges and trials - divorce, abuse, unfairness, loss of a loved one, sickness etc. Each experience asks us to morph into a different version of ourselves. It’s always up to us to choose to change for the better. Just like water, we can always find a way. Here is one of my favorite smoothie recipes, where water finds a way to blend with other ingredients to make something delicious. Sometimes the best things in life are simple, like this recipe. Mai's Dragonfruit & Blueberry Smoothie.pdf |
AuthorSpiritual Foodie, Chef, Holistic RN, Healer Archives
January 2025
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