fajitas and flow

Good evening dear readers and thank you for all your lovely comments about your experiences of dorm rooms!

Sorry I've been MIA most of the weekend, I've been busy moving the blog over to its own URL.  Well I say "I" it's mostly been Himself who should be thanked in abundance!  I would hate to lose any of my dear readers so if you scroll down to the bottom of this post there are instructions on how to keep following.  The new webpage is still a bit of a work in progress but over the next week or so there will be all sorts of fun things appearing over there so do keep an eye out.  I'll be posting both here and there for one week and then moving over completely.  Do come with!!!

We did also find time to cook fajitas for Ma and Pa Yogini at their house.  Here is my second chef hard at work at the chopping board....

....and not much liking having his photo taken!

Unfortunately, soon after this he had to be sent out for salsa which I'd forgotten to bring with me - I also forgot my camera so do forgive poor quality camera phone piccies.

Nearly ready....peppers of all colours, onions, leeks, mushrooms and Quorn pieces.

.....this was demolished in seconds!

For dessert we had another of my many vegan cupcake recipes.  This is my current favourite - lemon and orange with lemon frosting and a few grapes to pretend to be healthy!

After too much food on a Saturday night what more could you want for your Sunday morning than a nice short flow sequence.  I'm sorry this is a bit late but I'm sure it works on Monday mornings too!

1.  Tadasana - stepping the left leg back into wide legged stance
2.  Turn the right foot out coming in to Virabhadrasana 2 on the right.
3.  Inhale into Reverse Warrior
4,  Exhale into Parsovokonasana (left arm stretching up to the ceiling)
5.  Inhale left arm alongside the ear.
6.  Exhale over the right leg into Parsvottanasana (keep that right knee bent!)
7.  Inhale into Virabhadrasana 1
8.  Exhale into Virabhadrasana 2

Repeat steps 3-8 between two and four times and then repeat the whole flow on the left hand side.

Finish with a nice relaxed Padottonasana.

Happy Sunday!
~~~~

As I mentioned, I'm moving the blog over to its own URL and I would love it if all of my dear dear readers came with me!  So here's how.


To follow me in your favorite reader
Go to Suburban Yogini
Click the big orange button with 'Subscribe in a reader' next to it and follow the directions.

Or just paste http://suburbanyogini.com/feeds into your "Add" window.

To follow me on Google Followers
Open Dashboard
Scroll to just below ‘Blogs I'm Following' and click the 'ADD' button. Then just enter the url http://suburbanyogini.com in the pop up box and you should be good to go.

Any problems drop me an email at suburbanyogini at gmail dot com

the image of yoga

One of the very few downsides of living in Cambridge is there is a severe lack of independent cafes that do a good Sunday Brunch, so this weekend we had to make do with Giraffe.

One of the many upsides is the beautifully laid back yoga atsmosphere.

Back in London, there was a tendency in some of the studios, to judge. To judge on the "perfection" of your asana, the austerity of your life, even the price of your yoga bag, the more expensive the better. It's enough to eat into anyone's self esteem and is one of the reasons why it took me so long to get around to training to teach yoga - I just didn't think I was "good enough".

Of course now, as I said in an email conversation with EcoYogini yesterday, it breaks my heart that beautiful, talented and amazing women are thinking twice about training to teach because they are not "good enough".

The yoga media don't help much either as Brenda P pointed out in this post. Much as I love Yoga Journal and it's UK equivalent Yoga & Health (hell I've even written for the latter one), I don't think I've ever seen a cover shot that isn't of very slim, Caucasian women bending their "perfect" bodies into gymnastic postures. Sometimes it's enough to make anyone give up. What about the tattoed, crooked backed women who will never get their head on their foot in Pigeon Pose (and yes YJ I'm willing to pose for a cover shot if you're reading)? What about all the beautifully curvacious yoginis out there? What about the graceful older yogini? What about the non-Caucasian? What, even, about the men?

We need images that inspire us to keep practicing despite, or even because of, our individual limitations - which, incidentally, we do all have. Images that remind us that this practice that we have right now is yoga, that we are not waiting to practice yoga until we can attain a posture akin to a Yoga Journal cover shot. As The Everything Yoga Blog wrote in this post, asana is only one of the eight limbs of yoga - a precursor if you will to the practices of pranayama and meditation.

With this in mind then, we can begin to realise that we do not have to be a certain build, or be of a certain flexibility to become teachers. It doesn't matter if we can't perform every asana "perfectly". As teachers we are enablers, helping our students work to their own abilities, helping them along their journeys, whatever their journeys may be. From personal experience I have found that my students secretly like my crooked back and dodgy hip, it gives them a sense of perspective!

Desikachar says that yoga is "to attain what was previously unattainable". That "unattainable" is different for everybody, and it's time that difference was represented more in the yoga world.

In Cambridge you can turn up to a yoga class in your pajamas (I have a friend who regularly does) and nobody bats an eyelid. Let Cambridge lead the way - I'm a lucky girl to live here. :)

mindful eating

One morning during my yoga teacher training we were each given an orange. Rather than this being a cue for a teabreak, it was the start of an exercise in mindful eating. It is an exercise that can be done with any fruit (or indeed any food), but citrus works well because you have to peel it. I have repeated the excercise again over the years both on my own and when teaching. This morning I used a grapefruit.

At first just hold the fruit, be aware of the vibrancy of its colour, feel its texture, its firmness. Roll it against your skin and feel its coolness. Inhale its aroma.

When you are ready begin to peel.

Notice the citrus aroma getting stronger. Be aware of the feeling of the skin of the fruit in your hands. Is is easy to peel or difficult? Does the pith come away with the peel or do you have to take that off separately? How does that make you feel? Does it annoy you that it takes so long to get into the fruit? Breath and be patient. Enjoy this moment.

Begin to tear the fruit into segments. Slowly. Piece by piece.

I loved it with this grapefruit as I didn't realise it was a pink one!

Feel the grapefruit juice on your fingers, how do the segments feel in your hands? Begin to anticipate how the fruit will taste. Tear each segment separately before you eat.

When you are ready take a few more deep breaths to notice how you are feeling.

Finally eat! Savour each mouthful. Chew slowly. Notice the sensations in your mouth. Notice any memories. Be aware of the fruit nourishing you, refreshing you.

Eat mindfully and be thankful! I know we cannot eat every meal with such awareness but take a moment to think about what you are eating and why you are eating it. I often find, when I think about it, I don't want that chocolate biscuit after all! And then again sometimes only a cupcake will do!

What other foods could you practice this mindful eating exercise with? What sensations would they bring?

40 days

Good morning all! I hope you all enjoyed your pancakes yesterday. We had blueberries and maple syrup with ours (the blueberries made us feel we were getting some fruit at least)! No photos I'm afraid as they were pretty much inhaled before I could get near a camera.

And so 40 days of Lent begins. Research suggests that 40 days is the right amount of time to start a new habit, or give up an old one, and for it to stick.

I went to Catholic School and so I remember Lent with a sense of trepidation. Every year for 40 days the tuck shop and snack bar were shut. No sweets or hot chocolate for us - we were all forced to give up snacks and sweets whether we wanted to or not.

These days I prefer to think of Lent as not so much a time to give things up, but more a time to start positive thinking and practices, or working on one of the Yamas or Niyamas (the yogic codes of conduct towards ourselves and others).

This year as I continue to travel through my year of mindfulness, I'm going to work once more on ahimsa. The first of the Yamas, ahimsa asks us to act in a non-harmful way, in kindness - towards others, towards the planet and towards ourselves.

And it is that last I have trouble with. I spend so much time on others and on the external world that sometimes I burn myself into the ground. Sometimes I beat myself up, compare myself to others too much, ignore my own limitations. So this Lententide I am going to act with kindness in any way I can including towards myself.

What about you dear reader? What are you giving up or starting for Lent?

vegan pancakes

So somehow another year has flown by and it's Fat Tuesday again tomorrow. Traditionally the day to use up all the eggs and milk in the form of a pancake before Lent starts. But what if you don't eat eggs and milk?

Well fear not, you can still join in the fun! This is posted with Mary in mind - she's doing a vegan experiment right now!

Ingredients
150g (5oz) plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
half teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons of rapeseed/sunflower/vegetable oil
5 tablespoons of water
300ml (half pint) of plain soy or rice or hemp milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (optional)

Method
Simple really!

Sift the flour, baking powder salt and cinnamon together in a mixing bowl.

Mix the oil, water and milk together with the vanilla extract into a jug.

Slowly pour the wet mix into the dry, stirring as you go until you get the consistency you like for pancake batter (I like it quite thick but a lot of people like a thin batter to make crepes). Don't overmix though or the pancakes will be tough.

Cook exactly like you'd cook a normal pancake.

Enjoy!!

this weekend i....

*ate the best vegan burrito I've had this side of the Atlantic in a plastic-chaired cafe behind Oxford Street (see above).
*had my wardrobe overhauled by a style advisor at Top Shop, which was awesome. Basically I got to sit around on a sofa drinking tea while the woman brought a million outfits for me to try on. It was like being a rich person. Sadly I do not have a rich person's budget so I had to choose only a few of the clothes. Came back with a pretty fantastic haul though AND I came in under budget. I tried on a ton of stuff that I wouldn't have even thought of looking twice at if I'd been shopping on my own, some didn't work, but a couple of things really looked good on me so that was an eye opener. If you adore clothes but hate shopping and can get to one of the big Top Shops fairly easily, I highly recommend this. You'll come out feeling like a princess, or a rock star depending on your style. :)
*met a dear friend for Russian Caravan Tea and vegan almond cake.
* waited forever for a train home.
*realised once again how wonderful Himself is when he paid for my taxis and had Chinese takeaway waiting for me when I got home.

Awesome weekend (and totally yoga/writing unrelated, sorry about that)!

happy things to be thankful for

• Teaching again. Last week and this week I have been teaching yoga again for the first time since we moved (about 3 months). Whilst it has rendered me bone tired having been crazy busy at work again, I had forgotten just how much I love it. The first night I was so nervous but as soon as I started it all came flooding back and I thought "oh how I've missed this!"
• A vat of homemade Yellow Split Pea Daal which has kept me fed during a week when I have had next to no time to cook.
• Organic gin. Abel and Cole have their Christmas goodies in so we got some of this last week. My, oh my is it good (although of course I can only have one small one because of headaches and falling asleep!). Himself has organic Scotch, but hasn't tried it yet.
• Vegan hot chocolate (even though, despite checking everything for traces of dairy it still gave me tummy ache - why do all the yummy things hate me!)
• Binge reading.
• 100% support from Himself on a new project I want to work towards when I actually thought he would try and talk me out of it on the grounds of "doing too much".
• The "it's nearly here" feeling of a 10 day break over Christmas!
• A rumour that (shhhh!) it might snow!!!

Reasons to be Thankful

"So who wants to live forever when these moments will only come the once?" -- Justin Sullivan




This week I saw the best band in the world. Every time I hear Vagabonds live my heart bursts. Dancing to NMA for 2 hours is worth feeling as though my sacro-iliac joint is on fire the next day. Never, ever stop touring. Never. One Family. One Tribe.

Also this week I am grateful for:-

* Poetry
* Foo Fighters on VH1 Storytellers (even if they did bleep out all the "fucks" - meanwhile Jay-Z is allowed to call women "bitches" without being bleeped!)
* Desperately needed days off work
* Donating blood (another one off my list). Having needed blood myself in the past I always swore when I was well enough I would give it back.
* Yin Yoga
* Cooking for my family (which included British wine. Yes that's right, British wine! And it was nice!)
* Sunday morning power walks followed by curling up on the sofa
* Reading a whole book in a weekend (I used to do this a lot, I just haven't found the time in the last couple of years)
* Things to look forward to

Flexi-Vegan

I came across this term last week, I’m ashamed to say I’ve forgotten where because the lady who wrote it deserves credit. If it was you do tell me because that’s me, in a nutshell!

I have been vegetarian since I was 13 years old after staying with my aunt in Tasmania who took one of her sheep off in the front seat of her car and brought it back as a joint of lamb. I knew where meat came from of course, I’d just never seen it actually happen.

I was lucky. My parents’ embraced my vegetarianism completely. My mother became vegetarian as well and my father barely eats meat to this day. My brother was 6 at the time so had absolutely no choice in the matter (he has since rebelled by becoming a sausage eating carnivore).

On top of this I have always been lactose intolerant. Not in a “I will die if you bring cheese near me” kind of way, but more in a “spasming stomach and unpleasantly icky kind of way”. I have always used dairy alternatives where I can and my mother has always been magnificent at inventing vegetarian recipes that do not have cheese.

I originally gave up meat for very typical “teenage girl” reasons. I did not want the lovely little animals to die. As I grew older I learned things about farming methods and animal cruelty. I became unbelievably strict with my diet. I became a fully paid up member of the Vegan Police. I ate no meat, no fish, no dairy, no honey, no eggs. I wore no leather. I was a woman obsessed! And then a few years ago I got ill. Really ill. It was around the same time I met Himself (a man who will not be vegetarian-ised!). Together we researched organic, locally farmed meat and eggs and slowly I started bringing them back into my diet. Slowly as the protein did its work I got better.

This year I decided I was in a position to give up animal products again but sensibly, using alternative methods of protein. Obviously the dairy’s not too much of a problem. If I do eat some cheese I’m soon reminded why I shouldn’t.

But then we have the egg issue. You see I love eggs so much. I never admitted to myself how much I missed them when I was vegan before. I love golden mounds of scrambled egg on (non-dairy) buttery toast. I love two perfectly fried eggs between two pieces of homemade bread – I love biting into the yellow domes of yolk and letting it run down my chin…. Mmmm-hmmmm!

I don’t want to live a restrictive life anymore. Life has enough restrictions anyway. So I have found my compromise. I don’t use eggs if I don’t have to. I bake without eggs, I make batter without eggs, I make the best sweetcorn fritters ever without eggs. But then, once or twice a week I treat myself.

I do not condone farming and shopping methods in the UK. I do not condone what the large supermakets do to the farmers. I shop at farmers’ markets and organic delivery stores. But my shoes are now leather, they keep my feet dryer and Tasmanian honey is too good not to eat.

Ahimsa isn't just about being kind to everything around us, it's about being kind to ourselves as well. And that is something I have always been very very bad at.

Reasons to be Thankful

Thursday Night was lovely. The firework display for Guy Fawkes Night was awesome and it was so nice for the whole family to get together for food and laughter - it's so hard to get everyone together at the same time! I felt horribly under the weather all day on Thursday, tired and washed out, and I didn't really feel like going but it turned out (as is so often the case) that it was exactly what I needed. So I am ridiculously thankful for my hilarious family this week. Other things that have made me smile with glee this week:-

* Himself making me vegan "cheeseburgers" for tea on Friday night.
* The new Foo Fighters Greatest Hits, Dave Grohl being on Jools Holland's TV show and also him saying that a Greatest Hits does not mean the Foos are over. Hurrah!
* Becoming a redhead again.
* Having the photos taken for my new yoga website (coming soon!) and actually liking all of them.
* Buying spring bulbs with my mum.
* Planting spring bulbs and reminding myself that winter may be bleak but it doesn't last forever.
* The new Flight of the Conchords album (laughed until I cried).
* Purple stripey wooly tights - winter was invented for them!
* Yoga, yoga, yoga, yoga.

ETA: I can't believe I forgot one - this week I have "met" a whole bunch of lovely new people on the blogosphere and for that I am grateful :D

More on food and moving on

If you read my relatively infrequent blog updates you will know that over the last few weeks I have been slowly trying to draw myself back to an animal free diet. I've really surprised myself with some absolutely delicious meals - and secretly I think Himself has been rather surprised as well. He certainly hasn't complained. And he's been wonderfully supportive - although he has been cooking himself bacon on the BBQ in the back garden :)

My favourites so far have been the refried chili beans with brown rice and corn chips (still working on tracking down vegan sour "cream" in the UK) and the vegan Mac and "Cheese" I made last night (which could have done with a bit of extra Cheezley to be honest, but I'll know for next time). The daal was also good but I made enough to feed an army so I got a bit bored of it!

Also been baking lots of nice vegan treats :)

=

We have been taking some time to visit various places that we probably won't see again once we move to Cambridge. I'm not sure it's always a good idea to re-visit places that have good memories attached, yet I persist in doing it (and persist in being let down!).

So on Saturday after I'd finished teaching, we took a nostalgic trip to the Fishponds. Back when we were first dating, I lived in North London and used to come down to Surbiton for the weekends where many a happy afternoon was spent at the Fishponds doing... well those things people who have just started dating do ;)

We haven't been for ages and ages so we thought it might be nice. We were wrong. All the fish seem to be dead. The ponds themselves have barely any water in them and the ducks are sort of paddling about in 6 inches of green sludge. On top of that there was a girl chucking rocks at ducks and her parents were just letting her. I really wanted to say something but I just don't have the guts. It reminded me of the time I saw a woman letting her lab shit on the verge outside my house and then just walk away. I wish I'd said something to her to. My mum said I should have just taken her registration number and reported her. I'm sure I used to be more confrontational but I'm also very aware these days of trying hard not to think bad thoughts. Aaaarrrggghhhh!!!

Anyway next week I believe we're going down to the East Sussex coast and ruin some memories there! :)

On food....

In an attempt to bring a little more balance and contentment into my life and adhere a little more closely to anti-inflammatory diets, I am slowly drawing myself back round to a more animal-free way of life. It's going to be a process of baby steps, first up I'm cutting out meat and dairy (I shouldn't be eating dairy anyway due to a lactose intolerance), working out all the products I like and don't like. For instance I had forgotten how much I love vegan "cheese" slices but yesterday we had some tofu sausages which have given me the worst indigestion I've had in ages!

I have to say in the three years in which I have been omnivorous again** both the variety of vegan products on the market and the variety of places you can get them has definitely increased. And that's going to make it easier. What makes it harder of course is living with a carnivore! That's not really fair, Himself is omnivorous and has no objection to eating veggie at least five times a week - but what I am not going to do is push my beliefs and my lifestyle choices on to somebody else. Relationships are about compromise and my compromise is to experiment in cooking dishes to suit us both. Which is probably why I'll never be the uber-strict vegan I used to be -- but baby steps eh? Anything is possible!

=

**I was vegan for many, many years but ended up really ill about 5 years ago with iron/Vit B12 deficiency due to endometriosis issues (not the vegan diet, although at the time I was going through quite a lot and totally not looking after myself - one cannot live on peanut butter sandwiches it appears) and started eating meat again. Since then I have of course spent several years fighting fibromyalgia and feeling I needed all the protein I could get! I am now in a position to start to cut meat out of my diet again.