January, 2010 | Say Yes to Salad

31 January, 201031 August, 2010

Sunday Recipe: Cornbread Casserole

While making this recipe I felt like I had transplanted myself to another era. This is a recipe of the 50’s (60’s? 40’s?). I could see my grandmother mixing these ingredients on a late fall afternoon, preparing a semi-homemade dinner for her family and waiting to hear about her husband’s and her children’s days.

I like to think that I’m going to be a good wife and mother some day. What this means exactly I’m not sure. I hope to cook good food, take care of Bobby, have a nurturing home, and in general have a healthy life. Being happy and healthy are probably my top priorities.

Coco asked today how you would rank the following: family, friendship, love, health, and career. My response was: love, family, health, friends, and then career. I consider love and family one and the same. As much as I enjoy working, I would probably be just as happy making a home (provided I could get over the guilt of not using my degrees) as I would working an exciting and demanding job. I would actually be happier as a homemaker, to be honest. What is your ranking?

One reason that I love cooking so much is that it brings up memories for me. Sometimes it brings up memories that are not even mine – I suppose I’d call them fantasies, or daydreams (like imagining my grandmother in the kitchen). So I’d like to share this inspiring recipe today, not because it’s particularly healthy or unique, but because it brought me a special happiness that I don’t always find in other parts of my life.

Maggie’s Cornbread Casserole

Ingredients

1 package of Jiffy cornbread mix
2 eggs
1 container of 2% Greek yogurt (mine was 7 oz. of Fage; I’m sure that any ~1-cup container of any yogurt would suffice)
1 can of yellow sweet corn (drained)
1 can of creamed corn

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375F.
Mix all ingredients together in a baking dish. I used what I think is called a “loaf pan”. It’s about 9 inches by 4 inches and it’s maybe 3-4 inches high. It was almost full.
Bake for 40-60 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean. Baking times will vary depending on what pan you use and how your oven bakes.

Enjoy with a friend or loved one. Make a memory and savor the moment.

Does cooking evoke memories for you? What other activities are particularly meaningful for you?

30 January, 201014 June, 2011

Let Your Voice Lead

Let Your Voice Lead was the title of the intenSati writing workshop I attended today (@ Equinox). Bobby actually joined me; I was really happy he came. The workshop was 2 hours and it consisted of an intenSati class (1 hour) and then a writing workshop about personalizing the intenSati affirmations (also 1 hour). It was led by Lindsay, who I’ve mentioned before.

The class was great, of course. The affirmations were:

I am powerful
I am inspired
I am confident
I have desire
I am ready to write
I am willing to write
I am able to write
I am writing RIGHT NOW
I am free to succeed
I let my voice lead
I intend to open my heart and grow; with courage and discipline I write what I know

Because we got there late I actually wasn’t that sweaty by the end but Bobby was sweating buckets. He thought it was pretty fun.

Then we did some writing exercises based on the affirmations. We did 7 minutes per exercise, and they were…

Write a story about desire. (I wrote about figuring out what I desire – happiness. Oddly enough, so did Bobby.)
Remember a time in your childhood when you felt confident. Be very detailed. (I had a lot of trouble remembering a confident time. I think I spent 5 minutes thinking and 2 minutes writing.)
Write about the affirmation, “I am free to succeed.” (I wrote again about happiness and doing things just for ME.)
“Let your voice lead.” Write a conversation that you have in your head with yourself (generally these are the conversations with the “devil on your shoulder”). (I wrote about body image. I may post this conversation sometime because Bobby thought the ending was funny.)
Write about how you can save your own life/make your life better. (This was pretty easy – we all have goals!)

My favorite fuel of the day was this huge bowl of oatmeal and maple syrup and almond milk. I always put salt in my oatmeal (think I’ve mentioned that before).

It was a whole cup of dry oatmeal and it could barely fit in the bowl. I am so glad that oatmeal is back in my life. I went for over a month without it for some reason.

This picture looks weird because I always let my oatmeal sit for about an hour before I eat it so that it gets nice and thick. This time I put in the milk before I let it sit so the milk got weird looking. If I don’t have time to let it sit, I will put it in the freezer.

Are you a writer? Does writing help you? Do you wish you wrote more? How did you get into it?

29 January, 201031 August, 2010

My current favorites: squash! (and more)

I have been into a few things recently:

Squash (kabocha, butternut, and acorn)
Steamed broccoli and Brussels sprouts
Parmesan
Nutritional yeast (nooch!)
Maple syrup
Corn
Spices! – ginger and chili
Butter

This bowl was very good:

It was a combo of steamed broccoli, corn, and acorn squash (this was before I bought kabocha). I then topped it with nooch, butter, and maple syrup. It’s awesome, I promise. This bowl (you’ve seen it before) is humongous. It was in the apartment when we moved in and I love it. Bobby thinks it might be from his mom (“it’s kind of Japanese,” he says).

Here is another yummy bowl:

Okay, this one looks weird. It is white rice (another new love), butter, nooch, and possibly maple syrup (can’t remember – I’ve done it many ways).

Nooch tastes good on everything. This week for lunches I’ve been bringing frozen Brussels, corn, and peas and topping them with nooch and butter. It is so so good.

What was not so good…

This is some free sample that I got from Foodbuzz. It’s some Special K bar and it was not tasty.

This weekend I’m going to try to do some work, try to chill out for once, eat some good food, and take some long walks. I’ve been feeling pensive this week (in good and bad ways). I’m also going to this intenSati workshop tomorrow (Bobby’s coming) so that should be fun. (Please come too if you’re around!)

intenSati Workshop: Let Your Voice Lead! (Saturday, January 30th, 3-5pm at Equinox on Park Avenue and 33rd St.). FREE and open to Equinox members and non-members! RSVP to Lindsay at davis.lindsay@gmail.com. (But probably ok if you just show up!)

What are your weekend plans?

27 January, 201014 June, 2011

My boyfriend’s back…

I had another non-planned-exercising day today. Here is what I did:

Take the N train from 60th to 14th (Union Square)
Stop at the farmers’ market and pick up 5 pounds of apples for $2 (they weren’t very good; no wonder they were only 40 cents/pound)
Walk from 16th Street to work (10 blocks)
After work, walk 17 small blocks and 3 big ones to check out a new grocery store
Walk home (17 small blocks and 3 big ones)

I count all that walking as my exercise. It’s probably about 3 miles total, which is really not bad at all. Plus, I got to check out a cool new store that was recommended to me by a reader (thanks, Kendall!). It’s called A Matter Of Health and it’s on 77th Street and 1st Avenue.

I got my absolute favorite food ever at A Matter of Health: KABOCHA!

Catch ya later! Have a good night.

26 January, 201031 August, 2010

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I had the most lovely conversation last night with one of my favorite bloggie friends. We chatted and chatted and I walked outside (just up to 70th and back; I live on 60th). Heather and I always have lots to talk about 😉 Like how great kabocha is:

While I was walking I realized a few things:

For one, I really like walking. I think I might be burning myself out a little with all this intenSati.
Yes, Equinox and intenSati are awesome…
But no, I’m not the kind of person who needs (or wants) that kind of exercise every day, every week, or even every month. I like to walk. I like to yoga.
I do love the Equinox showers, but I think I can trade them up for some at-home TLC in the form of some new bath products.

So… I probably will not be joining Equinox at the end of this month’s Warrior Challenge. I will definitely miss EarthRise Yoga (which I went to this morning), but I’ll replace it with podcasts and yoga on my own. (This is my yoga page – full of free recommendations. I’ll be updating this soon! Stay tuned.)

Just because I’m in the city now, that doesn’t mean I can’t make time to cook the food I *really* like. For example, I came up with a lovely lunch today:

2/3 cup (uncooked measure; it gets bigger in the rice cooker) brown rice, lightly salted
topped with a few spoons of nutritional yeast (nooch)
topped with some organic butter
steamed Brussels sprouts and sweet corn

Here is a picture of rice for your viewing pleasure (this is my picture, but it’s not from today and it doesn’t have nooch or butter on it):

Tonight my brother is coming into the city (he goes to school nearby) and we are going to get dinner at some vegan/vegetarian/raw place (any combination of the 3).

What are YOUR recommendations?