Finding my true Self and "end of the week" Bigos

Very often we hear in yoga class "find your true Self, be yourself. What's that means ??? When first time  I have heard about true Self  I thought what  it is ? I am looking  into mirror and what I see (  very often I don't like what I see specially in the morning) is me true self.  Hmmmm, not really true.  After practicing Yoga , and I mean yoga ,not just a postures we have  glimpse of that true Self.    All of  us have experienced those glimpse. It may be trigged in contemplating nature, during meditation  ,prayer  or during "kick ass " yoga practice. Imagine you being a whole sky, and your true Self is sun. Sometimes they are clouds on sky , but still we know that sun  is  up there. We don't think that only clouds exist, that only clouds are up there. We know  that any moment sun will arise we love those moments , and we are waiting  for them. Sky is your mind clouds are your thoughts, sun  is your true Self.

 How do you feel in those rare moments? who would not like to see a sun all the time ( you can move to California) or you can stop identify yourself with your thoughts ,every day minds   and possession. That's how  you get lost that rare connection with your true Self .Which leading us to alienation and results in suffering.

Ask yourself a question , how long  are you happy with  buying a new things ? A day  a week...what's after  that ,happiness  disappear and we need  to look  for new drug of choice, new car, new phone new purse or shoes, when this is  end? . You need  to ask yourself question, what do you want  from  live, when  you say stop, I got everything and I don't need anything else.  When day like this come , this will be a day when you wake  up a sun  in  you , when you start seeing  glimpse of your true Self , this will be  your road to happiness.  
Sutra 1.2 "Yoga citta vrtti nirodha. "Yoga is cessation of the misidentification with the modification of the mind" or version for less grammatically correct " Yoga is stilling fluctuation of the mind."

Stop identify yourself with your mind, start enjoy live one breath  per  at the time.
I am sharing    part of thoughts  one of my hero Kris Carr who has been diagnose with cancer and heal herself with diet, who for me totally get it what is essence of  live and yoga :

Honestly, I have a very deep connection with myself. I think I get my strength from

my friendship to myself to be really basic. I get a CAT scan every year and a half
and I bring that up because, of course, I get scared. A friend of mine recently said,
“I just never see you down.” When I have those moments, it is really time for me to
go deeper into my own practice of mindfulness and really be in the moment more
than in the future or in the past. The past is, “Why was it me? I thought I was
good. Haven’t I been through enough? Gosh, if I didn’t have cancer, maybe I would
have children.” All of those places that I could go to. The future is, “What if the
scan is bad this time?” “What if the slow moving tumors became aggressive?” I get
emails from people weekly with my disease that aren’t doing well, what if it is my
turn now? All that does, both of those stories can create a paralysis in me and can
bring me to a place of depression and of endless suffering. What I try to do and I
don’t have a very clear way to articulate because it is a practice that I do for
myself, I acknowledge it, that there is pain there. I acknowledge that there is
something going on that I wish wasn’t going on and then I really try to go to the
breath and maybe sit for however long in silence and just bathe myself with love,
right now in this moment all I can do is breathe in love. Right now in this moment
all I can do is exhale suffering. I do that until I am able to move like a wave from
that space and what is interesting is after that, the choices that I make reflect how
good I feel. I might go downstairs and make a green juice. Maybe I will go outside
and get some greens for my salad because all I have is right here, right now.
Thursday is Thursday and yesterday is gone.
So, I hope that articulates in some way how I am able to keep the brightness alive.

Now time  for another Sexy  Vegan  Yogi Polish recipe .Today I decided to introduce you to crown of Polish kitchen  Bigos ( AKA "end of the week") Traditionall bigos needs lots of  meat  ,but  because you are sexy vegan, I will share with you how to make that awesome dish without killing  any earthlings.

Bigos

You will need :
1 head of white cabbage
2 pounds of sour cabbage (best home made will  give recipe soon, or you can get in Caputos in polish section) 
1 can of organic tomato paste(15.5oz)
4 fresh tomato ( you can use canned)
1 package of any fresh mushrooms
handful of dry mushrooms
 Fried tofu, you can use meat substitute  of any kind ( I told you this is"end of the week")
2 onions
coconut oil 1 Tbs
salt ,pepper, 3 -4 bay leaves
 
Now lets fun begin:

• put dry mushrooms to hot water to 20 min or until get soft 
• after removing the core ,shred  the cabbage  and cook  for 15-20 min, add sour cabbage bay leaves and pepper 
• in frying pan heat up coconut oil add shredded onion (it will smell so delicious that your partner will stop watching tv or facebooking and will come to kitchen , but don't get distracted, you need to  stay focus ,bigos will not make it Self) 
• add onion to cabbage 
• to the same pan add  fresh mushrooms fried tofu or meat substitute, fried till your satisfaction and add to cabbage. 
• add tomato sauce and sliced fresh tomato and dried mushrooms.

Cook on medium settings for hour, stirring occasionally ( don't burn or  you will  loose you partner interest on your doing)
 
Best Bigos  taste next  day, but if your hunger raise you have my permission on snacking after hour of cooking. Best with bread or mash potato's. Whole dish is less than  $10.00 and totally vegan. One thing .... after that awesome dish you will have poops  from haven .
See you next time   

 

 

How Polish food can become hip ?

Lets turn Polish kitchen upside down. No meat, no cheese, no eggs, no butter, no fish in other words we will be  cooking  and eating diet strongly based  on plants. Why you asking ? No I am not  crazy . Polish food  is awesome,  but not  necessary healthy. I am Polish dude 45 years old and I am not using any animals products in  my diet ,cooking is my hobby , specially polish dishes , like my mama thought me .... yes     I am a  mama boy  ,and she taught me how to cook.

If you interested how to loose  weight, build muscle and have stamina for exercises ( those fun one too) you may find some tips  in this  blog . Why vegan food? First at  all, vegan is sexy . Can you imagine any animal based products being sexy???? piece of meat is not sexy is just  piece  of meat.
What about  all those  veggies and fruit, almost everything from mother nature is sexy.
Banana, peach, apple, pear, plum, cabbage (?) carrot.... Second ( or maybe should be  number 0ne) vegan is healthy . But  lets keep  this  blog  short and sweet, so lets just look below for first polish /vegan dish

 "Golabki"(Cabbage Rolls)

"Golabki"(Cabbage rolls)  best cooked  wearing yoga  outfit, so   you can do some  warriors posture while preparing  that awesome  dish  because will take  some time to make it. Make  sure  you don't snack during preparing  meal ( I always do ) so you can  eat more  latter .

You going to do some shopping first  . Best ingredients are organic and  none GMO . But if you can't get organics ( WH is so  expensive ) none organic will do. Always ask questions at  your local store.
We as peeps we have tremendous power in our wallets . Every dollar is a vote .I am shopping for  veggies and fruit  at Caputo http://caputomarkets.com/t/StoresNaperville ( my personal sex shop)
Shopping list ( you can copy and paste )
All Prices are estimates and also change with season .

Prep  time about 1 hr
Cooking time 25 min
Whole dish is under $ 10.00 and will make around 25-30 golabki

You will need:

1 Savoy Cabbage 
4  heads of  portabella mushrooms ( big)  buy loose less expensive  2.5 2 yellow onion 
4 carrots  
1 cup of  white Rice  ( brown more healthy ) 
1 teaspoon  earth bound coconut spread  
1 jar  tomato basil marinara from TJ 
1 tea spoon of pepper

• First strip cabbage naked (Remove leaves ). 
  
•  In a large saucepan boil water and add washed cabbage leaves and steam/ boil for 10 min. Not for too long be cause will become soft and easy to break it.

• Start cooking  rice  and  do your  first  warrior  pose so you will look cool if  someone will check on you in the kitchen .

• Chopped onions and  fry them in coconut spread ( or just in  water )

• Cut portabella mushrooms in small pieces and add them to  onions ( time for warrior 2 )

• Add chopped carrots  and  rice and  mixed  with onion and shrooms (this will be  your staffing )

• In the mean time put  the cabbage leaves out so  the can get cooler.

• Put few  broken leaves on side , (don't eat them by now you  must be hungry) wind removing pose will help with some cramps.

• You can  shave it down the  center stem  off the back the leave by  slicing thru horizontally 

Sound simply  enough???If  you don't know how, you can practice head stand.
Now you need some skills hands ( you can ask friend or spouse for help)
Place  mixture on each leaf; fold in sides. Starting at an unfolded edge, roll up leaf to completely enclose filling. Place seam side down in a skillet. In other words roll up like burrito.

Put about 1/2 cup of tomato basil marinara on bottom  deep cooking pot.

Spread some extra leaves on bottom of the  pot and place golabki seam side down in a skillet.
Make sure that they are tight and close together ( like little birds in nest seeking for  warm companion) on each layer put  some tomato basil marinara .

Cook medium high  for 20 min.
Awesome with mash potato and some mixes salad .
Time for eating.
Enjoy it