Quinoa Bean Salad

The days are beginning to gain hours of daylight and with this comes the excitement of warmer temperatures and sunshine. I can already feel the 'change' within me that translates into my my longing for foods that need not warm me as they did during the cold winter months but instead are cooling to the body. As the seasons change so do our tastes and desires for different foods.

I went to my repertoire of cookbooks last week and was looking for something to make that would be both quick and nutritious as a side dish. I came across a recipe for Quinoa Bean Salad and I was in! I love chick peas and also kidney beans and the best thing of all was that I had all of the ingredients already in my refrigerator and pantry! I have already made this recipe twice and it is so tasty! It bears sharing with everyone so that you can enjoy it too. I do try to use organic ingredients (which quinoa is most often organic), but any fresh, local ingredients will be delicious also! And when it's made with love it's just the best ever :)

Let's share in some facts about quinoa. It is an amazing food choice!
can be bought as a grain, flour or in flakes

• grains can come in red, black or a white / golden colour
• grains cook up to 3 or more times it's original volume
• cooks up quickly
• an excellent source of protein 
• is considered a complex carbohydrate allowing for easy and slow digestion 
• is gluten free

Quinoa Bean Salad

1 cup of water
1/2 cup of quinoa
One 19oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
One 14 oz can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup sliced green bell pepper
1 cup diced celery
3/4 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Bring the water and quinoa to a boil in a medium saucepan. Cover, reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Turn the heat off and leave the covered saucepan on the burner for another 4 minutes. Fluff with a fork and allow the quinoa to cool.

Combine the quinoa, chickpeas, kidney beans, green pepper, celery and onion in a large bowl.
In a small bowl mix the vinegar, oil, garlic, oregano and black pepper until well blended.

Add the dressing to the salad, mix well and serve immediately.

* I do like the salad to sit for a while in the refrigerator for the flavours to blend. I find it gives time especially for the dried oregano to become more flavourful.

Credit must always be given to the authors of the cookbook ~ Quinoa 365 : The Everyday Superfood Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming

I hope you add this recipe to your summer meal plans and enjoy it's fresh taste and all of the amazing nutrition it has to offer!

Healthy blessings sent this morning!

Maggie

in the midst of March

I see that my last post was a few months ago as the calendar turned from one year to the next. Here we are now on the doorstep of Spring. It is a pleasing place to be as the winter was long, snowy and cold. It was much like last winter and many of us were hoping that we especially did not repeat the winter of 2014. But it seems we did for the most part and yet once again we made it through and Spring is now heralding us.

 Just this morning I awoke to the songs of both a cardinal and a robin and the sounds of a blue jay which I'm not sure is exactly what I would call a song?? So it seems we all sing the praises of the months moving on and the arrival of the season next to the last. The sun shines today with just merely wisps of cloud and the temperatures will hopefully rise to above the freezing point. The snow that has accumulated into large drifts are now melting rapidly and the grass that has hibernated over the winter is now beginning to reveal itself. This is nice to see in the simplest of ways. All of these actions are indicators of both an end and a beginning. Like being at the state of betwixt and between. It is neither Winter nor Spring.

 I'm still cocooned in my morning ritual of tea and some reading and now obviously catching up on some work. I am returning to my Reiki practice this year and have just ordered a few books that will inspire me to walk down this path again. I'm excited to receive them for many reasons. One being that I love books and adding these to my library will be lovely. I share in the life of a book each and every day. It's a part of who I am. So to read a section of a book today and to also order new books makes this a wonderful day!

Now to be on to the list of things that encompass my day off. Aaah…..where is that list?? ;)

Blessings to all,
Maggie

first new year post ….

I found that over the months of 2014 I was an off and on again blogger for reasons that weren't entirely clear even to myself. I do know that over the last few months of the year I was simply ok with not blogging and had even thought of quietly closing the blog. I chuckle inside with that because I'm not sure anyone would have noticed that. My blog is truly only a place where I write what may be on my mind and if it is something that is of interest to anyone else then that is ok too. But I do like to write and put words together to create a thought. I don't look for followers and don't expect any. It's just all ok with me.

During the last quarter of the year I seemed to have a quiet place inside of me that simply didn't want to speak through the blog. I have checked in on other blogs from time to time and found that they are also  empty of words and life for the blogger is at that time no longer through the keyboard. And that is all ok.

Looking back now as I exist one week into the new year, I feel that 2014 was a year of settling in to life as it now surrounds me. For me that involves my relationship of 2 years and finding the rhythm that works for the two of us. Relationships are multi-faceted and layers deep because any two people that comprise the relationship are similarly vast. This can create difficulties often but finding an ebb and flow of understanding is the path that will find the least resistance. It seems that we have become these intense creatures who want so strongly to remain an individual that there is a subliminal fear of becoming less of who you are if you relent in a relationship to the other individual. It's just not so though. It was a dance for myself that found it's cadence in 2014. It has in turn also made me a better person I feel because I can now exist inside of the relationship and not feel vulnerable by compromising any part of who I am. I have a history of leaving a part of myself behind and becoming someone else or maybe call it 'half of who I really was'. But now it feels as though I have 'come of age'…..and I smile as I write that because a part of me then is also saying ….. 'finally'. And I can honestly share that I have felt this before, but something feels new this time. It feels real. It feels right. And it has come from a depth inside of me that has an awareness. That wise place that comes with age. That wise place that comes from appreciated experience. There will always be that mental ebb and flow, but the return to that wise place lies in one's power to eventuate in a more rapid fashion allowing a fuller life to exist in each moment.

Settling into life for me hopefully means that the flux has found it's conclusion, but I also know that nothing is forever carved in stone and challenges will present themselves but inner wisdom will prevail if given the chance. Knowing is a more comfortable process in life rather than it feeling open-ended. When we look deep inside of ourselves we often know exactly what our answer is, but we often do not want to acknowledge the answer. It's ok, it's all a growing process and a coming of age. Everyone comes to it at a different pace. Life is like that. And when it arrives you will feel that long deep sigh that acknowledges your arrival.

Live your life well. Life will give you what you bring to it. Access your inner wisdom and create the life you desire. Seek and you will find. Listen and you will hear.

I wish you all the best.

In love and light,

Maggie

BE HAPPY…...

This hangs in our stairwell to remind us each day of those things that will make us HAPPY!

 

my email attachment…...

Yesterday I received an email that was sharing information with me. I won't go into details of that information as it really isn't relative to what I learned about the email today. After reading this email I was very, very angry. What I was being asked to carry out was not the problem at all. I was angry at the composition of the email and how the writer immediately went to a place of suspected non-compliance on my part and laid out in no uncertain terms what the consequences would be for my inaction. My goodness …. I haven't even been given an opportunity to comply and I'm already being painted with the brush of disobedience.

This email was sent out to many people and not just myself. I believe there is a way to communicate that will achieve results in a positive fashion and have people feel positive about it. And then there is communication that is not positive. For me, I felt this came across as a threat. That is my personal opinion. As a finger-wagging in my face. Neither of these methods leaves me feeling very good. I discussed the email with my partner at dinner and I could feel my anger once again and it was rising even higher. I am disturbed by people who communicate in a way that is negative, leaves a person feeling negative and feels that this way of communicating is worth the outcome. This email was meant to be intimidating and nothing else.

Now here's the good part. I learned something from that email. I know there is negativity around us everywhere, but yesterday it came through in this email. It was like an attachment that I didn't have to open though because it was simply in the written words and maybe it was in my interpretation, but then again my interpretation is my reality. The next time this happens I will immediately cleanse if I'm in a position to do that and if not I will make sure that the negativity does not attach itself to me and clear it from my environment. Dry brushing is also a good practice to participate in to make sure that your body is cleared of negativity. Even meditating quietly for just a few moments will clear the negativity. Make note of the pertinent information in the email and then delete it.

The power of negativity is amazing and we all deal with it differently. Yesterday I was having a great day and then I read this email. It didn't turn my day upside down, but I certainly was upset when I read it and when I talked about it later. It was still affecting me hours later and now I realize that I could have changed that. I needed to deal with it immediately and then let it go. Let my frustration and disappointment go. Let my expectations of better communication from this person go. Just let it all go. There, I feel better all ready. If we let all of the negativity around us cling to us it will weigh us down and we will feel very heavy with its burden. Let's lighten the load.

Thanks for listening……

Blessings to all,
Maggie

Turn down the volume on life…...

Life has required a lot of smudging lately. Much more than what is our usual. It's a ritual that we share here at home as a part of our spiritual practice and it brings us balance and clarity and grounds us in our life. But lately it seems that we have been drawn to the meditation room more frequently to smudge and find that balance. Things just seem 'off' in a bigger way than normal causing us to look deeper for that balance. I know we have just finished a time of retrograde and this is often an unsettled and interesting time to work through. But having said that, it still seems that there is an energy present that is not settled. And I have felt it for a while now.

Weeks ago I kept hearing a phrase in my head that talked about life being too loud.  It seems as though there is a 'loudness' that prevails in so many ways from the macro to the micro and it is deafening us from what we really need to hear. And what we really need to hear should be soft and loving and not loud and harsh. It feels as though my mind and soul is assaulted with all of this loudness and it is so unsettling. 

Just watch the tv news or listen to the radio and you will hear it. Listen to conversations in line at your local grocery mart and you will hear it. It's at work in the lunchroom and its even in traffic when you head home from work. There is this 'loudness' everywhere. Everyone wants desperately to be heard. Everyone wants to be noticed. Everyone is desperate for acknowledgement. Yes, that's exactly it….. desperation. The world has become this desperate place that seems to exist in a chaotic fashion much of the time. And lately it just seems to be louder. Sigh……

It saddens me that we feel we need to live this way. I look around me at the world at large and am not convinced that this chosen path is working. There is strife everywhere. There is unrest everywhere. There is war that has gone on for far too long. We as a human race struggle and it seems to be getting louder. And as I said previously the microcosm is just a smaller version of the macrocosm. It's what we have been exposed to and let creep into our own lives. Once again I sigh……

So I strive to find and most importantly keep that balance and clarity. It is difficult though. It needs nurturing all the time. It needs a reminder often. So we smudge, we meditate, we takes walks in the forest and maybe sometimes when we need to we just close our eyes and travel in our minds to a peaceful place. Even just being 'present' allows us to better realize what might be going on around us and then not allowing ourselves to be drawn in. But if we continue to allow the loudness to prevail then we will become deaf to what real life should and was intended to be. Loving, peaceful and with less loudness. Let's try to live a softer life. Let's turn down the volume. We don't need to scream to be heard. We can speak softly and still share our message. 

Blessings to all,

Maggie

hello from here…...

I look at my last post being from June and I realize that I have once again been away from the blog for a long time.

A lot has happened since June. We had a wonderful holiday in B.C. and made many memories and we also got married! Had a wonderful garden party and shared our happiness with our family and friends! Maybe I could share a blog post about our special day soon. And the rest of what kept me away from here I guess is just life in general. The daily grind, which I will touch on later. So I'm back sort of and know that not anyone at all is depending on me to write an blog post, but I guess for myself it's a place to write down a few words and share something of how I feel about life and other things. I go through periods of time where words in my head just want out and this is my 'out' place it seems. Some things shared are not at all important (in the true reality of life)  and other things I might be a bit more passionate about. Yet I try to be careful in sharing passion because you can walk a fine line there in terms of sharing vs. preaching and I am not at all passionate about preaching. I feel like preaching is an 'in your face' kind of activity and that is usually uncomfortable. It just seems 'loud'.  I find lately that life being 'loud' is something I would rather steer away from. There is so much 'loud' around us and  I have been craving the opposite lately. It may be the change of the season from the active feeling of summer to the settling of autumn and the nearing of the ultimate cocooning in winter. Maybe I'm experiencing that shift. This suits me quite fine. Give me a snowy afternoon with the fireplace burning, a movie and my partner close and I'm a happy girl. Quiet is good.

Reading is quiet. I feel empty if my bookmark does not have a pair of pages to lie between. My reading passion lately has again been about Julia C, having gone through this phase once before and yet I needed to pick up another of her bio's and touch on her life once more. There is something about her 'passion' that makes me smile for her, knowing that she was so desperately longing for something to round out her life or at least become involved in and then found it in Paris no less!! What fun! As I read her bio's she just seems to have had a love for life that I think maybe we find hard to experience in these times that we live in now. That 'joie de vivre' that we all want so much! Yes, we secretly want this for ourselves and I am no different in wanting it also. I'm no fool! It's out there and an arms length away but there is so much else out there too and we often grasp for something that is not as satisfying. It's all about choices. Don't get me wrong my life is not an unsatisfying one by any means but we all have moments where the drudgery sometimes takes over……yes, admit it, it does happen, and we can tend to get our mindset stuck there and that is not a good thing. I know that life is not all fun and fabulous ….. lol…..as much as we want it to be but a balance just tipped a little over to the side of fun and fabulous would be perfect right? We would all take it in a heartbeat. The perfect life aside, I can truly say that while reading of Julia's life I had many, many moments where I would outwardly smile at her experiences. I loved those moments because I am truly then taken out of my own world and can feel joy for another. I think this is so important so that we can step out of this self centred world that we live in for even a moment and enjoy happiness for someone else. Julia seemed to have a balance of good proportions in her life. Wonderfully tipped to the side of fun and fabulous I must say! I've learned much from reading of her life. I only need to see a picture of her and I smile for so many reasons.

Well I've landed here again and I'm thinking that I want to be back blogging more but I write that hesitantly because it's always the time factor that needs attention to it in the end. So, we will see how it goes and I will end this post feeling no pressure.

Keep smiling and find your 'joie de vivre' even if just for today!! Oh, and I'm off to the library soon to pick up my next book to slip my bookmark into!

Maggie