Ingredients

1/2 bunch washed spinach

1 bunch washed arugala

1 orange, peeled

1 avacado, sliced

1/8 an red onion, sliced thinly

½  a zucchini, grated
½ a carrot, grated
1 stick of celery, thinly sliced

The portions for the salad itself are a rough estimation to work with the amount of dressing recommended. Be your own salad judge and make more dressing if necessary for the amount of greens that you have.

Toss, enjoy, and you have a refreshing and healthy way to start 2011 off right!

**Top this salad with nuts or seeds to make a complete, protein-rich meal

How many challenges in our lives center around food? Many many many! What to buy, how to purchase it; what to eat, how to prepare it; when to eat, how much to eat; creating the time to purchase, creating the time to prepare; or just ignoring these considerations and eating without boundaries or thought because change involves effort.

The New Year is here! This is the time of year when it is most popular to embark upon new eating habits and usually with the goal to lose weight!  Although this goal is applauded, it is usually just temporary. With these new eating patterns we have ourselves at the center. Unfortunately as we tire of new dietary food choices and of resisting temptation, we slip into the same eating habits.

What about starting an eating program with the “Mother” at the center, Mother Nature. What about making food choices that leave a minimal impact on the earth. Keeping Mother Nature as the focus means that our health and the health of the environment have a chance to heal together. We are intimately connected, we are made up of earth elements, and eating earth foods was the intention.

From this foundation let the mothering Mother Meal develop. What is the mM Meal? Begin by preparing and eating a meal, say once a week, that comes almost exclusively from the mothering Mother cotton bags. This entails fresh vegetables and fresh fruits purchased and stored in the mM Produce Bags. This also entails legumes, grains, seeds, nuts, dried fruits and more purchased in the mM Sealed (Velcro closing) Bulk Bags. Oils and seasonings round out the preparation of the meal. In writing this I feel a bit like the Grinch in saying that a meal can come “without ribbons and packages!” Yes, we can eat without packaging, without preservatives, without altered fats and without altered sugars.

The recipe in this newsletter is a great starting point. The mM website, in the tip section, gives instructions on how to soak and cook legumes.

Enjoy your mothering Mother Meal, weekly, daily. Feel the difference that Earth eating makes for you and Mother Nature! We can eat our way out!

Wash with cold water and enviro-soap. Who needs to wear the synthetic scents all day?

When drying, air dry as much as possible. Today it is very very windy outside, so much so that it knocked down our basketball net stand! What a time to dry clothing. The laundry rack needed to be wedged between the deck railing and a chair so that it was not continuously knocked over. It was worth every stitch of effort. The clothing dried quickly, smells amazing and has given me a connection with the world around me. A little bit of the outside is now going to move with me when I pick up or wear that piece of clothing.

The folding of the clothing gives an opportunity to reflect on each member of the family as I handle pieces of clothing. We are all transitioning in each moment, this moment never to be repeated again.  During the folding, there is a mindful moment to take in the gifts of nature from the smells, and the gifts of each person with the touch. Giving thanks and slowing down allows life to distill within us.

May laundry be a source of awakened joy in your life!

Namaste,
Sydney