The sun isn’t up yet and my eyes pop open before the alarm. Who am I, happy to get out of bed this early?
My cats meow at my feet, batting each other out of the way to get closer to their food bowls. But it’s too early for breakfast, kitties. I’ll be home to feed you at a more normal hour. After yoga.
Hair goes back in a headband. No, wait, a ponytail. No, pigtails. There. That’s better. I gotta grow my hair longer so these pigtails don’t look like witch broomsticks firing off the back of my head. Grab the water bottle, coat and mat.
It’s 6:00am and 19 degrees out. Already 93S is full of cars headed into Boston. What’s up with that? Where are you all going? Is it wrong to get pissed over the traffic on your way to yoga? I should be more yogic. I should breathe. Let that guy go, don’t honk. Silently I curse anyway. Change the radio station. Take a gulp of water.
Everyone on the highway must be driving to jobs further away. No one else takes my exit.
Making my way downtown, it’s like being in a movie set after shooting is done. Buildings, signs, but no people, no hustle and bustle. A parking spot available right out front.
The studio is warm, like crawling back in bed. Except it’s not a bed, it’s my mat. I really need a new mat, I think to myself. Who else is here this morning? Everyone is in the zone. A few quick hellos but it’s time to get into the groove of morning practice.
It’s different than yoga at night. My brain feels more open. It’s a good vibe, surrounded by people breathing and practicing. Practicing for what? There’s no end goal, really. That’s nice.
Time flies by. Gotta keep an eye on the clock to avoid getting a ticket when the street meters turn on. Oh, look who just came in. I wonder if anyone is looking at me. I hope no one saw that I just almost fell over. What’s that guy doing over there? Wait…gotta focus. Breathe.
What do I have to do today. Hmmm maybe after this I can swing by the -
Shit, there I go again. The mind, always thinking. Wish there was an on/off switch. 30 minutes go by. Then an hour. Around 90 minutes it’s time for Savasana, corpse pose.
I wish I could keep going, really. The intensity of practice has finally smoothed the thinking wrinkles out of my brain. A brain lift. Not bad for $15.
On my way out the door, I feel brand new. Light, airy and a little spacey. It should be illegal to drive after yoga, I think for the 900th time and smile. Get on 93N. Time to feed the cats and have myself a day.
Ooh, and that reminds me, here’s an easy breakfast to make post-practice: Kamut puffs with banana milk and a scoop of peanut butter
Do you practice yoga? What’s your favorite time of day to get on your mat?
I’ve been feeling a little burnt lately. A little crispy around the edges. I love my life, I love my career, I love my husband and I love my clients. So…gah…why am I feeling on edge?
Well. Here’s why.
Owning your own business is ridiculously hard work. I imagine this is not new information to anyone who has ever tried it. No matter what your working hours are, in your head your small business is open 24/7. And it’s always time to make the doughnuts! (Or rather, the whole-grain-no-sugar-added muffins.)
Have you ever had a business or a project that you were totally, 100% responsible for?
It’s feels fantastic to have no one tell you what to do! But then of course, there’s no one to blame when things go wrong. It’s amazing to control your own destiny! But what if you’re unclear about next steps? All it takes is hard work! But when, oh when, do you get to take a break without feeling guilty?
After all, when you are trying to do your very best, don’t you want to just put your nose to the grindstone and give it all you’ve got?
Well, here’s the thing. My nose got a little tired. It made me cranky. And I realized (with some not-so-subtle hints from my husband) that it was time to relax. It was time to set working hours that end when normal people’s working hours end. It was time to take yoga classes for my own enjoyment and not just to add to my teaching repertoire. And it was most certainly time to let go of my attachment to success.
I mean, what’s that all about?
Sometimes when we want something so bad, we just really, really want it. When I was a kid I really, really wanted to meet the New Kids on the Block. We’ll do anything to make our dream happen. We’ll watch it like the stock market, cheering as our chances rise, hollering as they fall. We are attached. Especially to Joey McIntyre, if I recall.
In yoga, the practice on non-attachment is called vairagya. It is also translated as “growing pale” which I see as the opposite of growing hot in the face and muttering curses under your breath at a light that just turned red. To practice vairagya is to let go. To not be attached to making it through that light. To know that there are many lights, and you may hit them all because, well, sometimes that happens, now doesn’t it? It doesn’t matter.
Vairagya keeps us from becoming attached and identifying with objects, people and ideas. It keeps us from being at their mercy, from suffering as they inevitably come and go. Vairagya tells us we have everything we need already, right here.
Everything? Everything.
Whoa. So…that means I already have success? Well, sure I do, if I take time to give myself credit for all the work I’ve done. And doing more work? Chasing after success? It means I’ll be run into the ground. The opposite of success, in many ways.
Will you join me in doing less? What can you let go of?
Are you a vegetarian? Vegan? Carnivore? Omnivore? Raw Foodist? Macrobiotic?
Good.
As long as you’re eating real, whole food, I don’t have much of an opinion about whether or not you should eat meat. It’s really, truly, up to you. And I have more news: you don’t have to stick by your diet the way you do a religion. You can change! Every day if you want. It’s ok. What is your body telling you today?
Here’s my meat story.
I always ate meat of all kinds growing up. My mom made a great meatloaf, paprika-sprinkled chicken legs and thighs, and breaded pork chops. (For awhile in 3rd grade we were studying dinosaurs and I began to regard my mother’s steak dinners as “Stegosaurus” dinners, which ruined me on steak for a brief period. But that’s neither here nor there.)
Fast forward 10 years. In college I ate meat and lots of it. It kind of goes hand-in-hand with eating out, because when your food comes from restaurants you won’t find many vegetarian dishes. I ate a lot of chicken fingers, hamburgers, etc. You get it. I also ate a lot of Italian meats because my boyfriend at the time had a mother with a fridge full of gobbagool. God did my stomach hurt.
It was post-college that I started getting dizzy spells and feeling extremely exhausted. I don’t blame meat, but my diet certainly left something to be desired. Living alone, I sometimes cooked up my mom’s meatloaf recipe and ate it for a week as leftovers, and sometimes dinner was a pear and a piece of gorgonzola cheese.
I started doing yoga, finally. Why did I wait so long?? My yoga teacher talked about his raw vegan diet and the Italian grandmother in me thought, “No wonder he’s so skinny.”
But I started reading and thinking about my diet. Jessica Porter’s The Hip Chick’s Guide to Macrobiotics got me onto whole grains and off dairy. Then John Robbins’ The Food Revolution got me off meat with its account of factory farm conditions. The China Study nudged me even further from animal product. It was simple. I did not want to contribute to my own poor health, I didn’t want to support this crazy meat factory industry, and heck – brown rice is a lot cheaper than steak!
That lasted for awhile and my health greatly improved. But here’s the thing. I don’t think it was because I stopped eating animal products – it was because I started eating real, whole, organic food.! Had I substituted my hamburgers with Boca Burgers and my ice cream with Soy Delicious, I don’t think I’d have had the recovery I did. Instead it was whole grains, dark leafy green vegetables, sweet root veggies and the like that brought me back to life, quite literally.
After learning about Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions I started reincorporating some meat into my diet. Sometimes it was with great intention – a small piece of grass fed beef purchased from a local farmer. Sometimes it was completely random, like bacon wrapped scallops hors d’oeuvres at an office party. Because they are SO good.
Basically, the pendulum swung back to center. It felt good to be able to enjoy food with my friends and not order the special vegetarian meal all the time. It felt good to enjoy meat again. And, well, I felt good. So here I am. I eat a little meat. And I try to make it the best quality, grass-fed or pastured stuff I can afford. That’s where I’m at.
Where are you?
For the omnivores out there, especially those who have found a grass-fed beef source, I encourage you to try this Beef Burgundy recipe. It’s so perfect for this time of year. If you haven’t had red meat in awhile, you’ll be shocked by how good grass-fed beef tastes. It’s better for you, better for the animals, better for the environment, and better for your local economy. So if you’re gonna do beef, do it right! It’s worth it. And if you don’t want to do beef, don’t. I have plenty of vegetarian recipes too. Every body is different!
Beef Burgundy Recipe from The Nourished Kitchen
I used whole wheat flour instead of sprouted grain flour, and I doubled this recipe in a gigantic pot. It was great. Thanks Jenny!
Yes, I do yoga. I buy organic food. Heck, I even belong to a CSA. But today someone called me a “nature queen” and my jaw almost hit the ground.
Please understand. I haven’t always been so…granola. The idea that I could be considered a nature queen really made me laugh out loud! For those of you who have known me longer than a few years, you know I used to live in Back Bay and refuse to cross the river into what I considered Birkenstock-wearing Cambridge. As if!
A nature queen? I think not. Only a few short years ago I was busy trying to land myself a window office at Arnold, the largest advertising agency in New England. I wore designer sunglasses, high heeled boots, and lipstick with ‘staying power’ so strong I had to use baby oil to remove it. I drank coffee. I drank martinis. I ate Chinese takeout. In the photo above, I was on a cruise with my co-workers for our big client, Royal Caribbean.
My stomach hurt the whole time.
Sometimes I had to lie down in the middle of the day, when I felt a dizzy spell coming on.
On the weekends, I rarely wanted to get out of bed. I was exhausted. My adrenals had a deficit larger than the US government’s. I was trying really hard. But I don’t remember being particularly happy. I just wanted to look good and play the part because…what else could I do?
I started doing yoga on a whim, and like any fast relationship one thing led to another. Soon I realized I could be eating better. I could be breathing better. I could be happier, if I made some small changes in my life.
Which led, of course, to larger changes. And now here I am, in my Earth shoes. I drive a Prius. My grains are whole, my produce is local. I wear a toe ring and get a kick out of AcroYoga. I shop with reusable bags. I’ve all but eliminated dairy, sugar and white flour from my diet. I make my living as a holistic health counselor for goodness sake.
And I no longer have a stomachache! I love the weekends and can’t remember the last time anxiety got the best of me.
But I still go out. I drink beer. I watch movies. I curse, I yell, I get upset. For all the changes I’ve made, I’m the same person I’ve always been, just more in control. And one thing is for sure. Nomatter how crunchy I get on my quest to live this one life well, I’m pretty sure I will never, ever, not shave my legs. That, to me, is what nature queens do.
Time and time again, when someone hears that I practice and teach yoga they say, “I can’t do yoga. I’m not flexible enough.”
That’s like saying, “I can’t eat, I’m not chewing enough!” Or, “I can’t swim. I’m not wet enough.”
You get my drift. Flexibility is a byproduct of yoga, not a prerequisite. And in my opinion, it’s something everyone can benefit from. I’m not just talking about physical benefits either. One of the major reasons I love my yoga practice is the calming effect on my mind. You heard it here first! Without yoga…I’m a disaster. Yoga is the key that unlocked the door for my whole life to unfold in a healthy way.
But maybe that’s just me. A fluke. Who knows.
Anyway, this past week I had the amazing opportunity. I spent 40 hours in a teacher training with David Swenson – an extremely well known Ashtanga instructor. Just as there are many forms of dance (ballet, jazz, modern) there are many forms of yoga. And David Swenson happens to be one of the top Ashtanga teachers in the world.
Ashtanga was the first style of yoga I fell in love with. It’s a set of poses that are learned and practiced in a particular order. There are other yoga styles out there with a set sequence – Bikram and Baptiste come to mind. But Ashtanga is the granddaddy of them all. Vinyasa flow, Power yoga, they’re all spinoffs. Ashtanga is old. Like, really old.
Sri K. Pattabhi Jois is known as the main figure in this tradition of yoga. He was a student of Krishnamacharya and taught for many years at his school, the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute, in Mysore, India. That sounds impressive but from what I gather it’s a pretty small yoga shala with some very old rugs. Can you imagine flying to Mysore, India to study with a guru? Well that’s exactly what David Swenson did, along with many others.
Earlier this year, Jois died at age 93. His family carries on the teaching at the shala in India, so you can still go and study at the source. Right. OR, you can find a yoga studio near you or buy David’s DVD. But as with all yoga, it’s pretty darn important to learn from a good teacher so you don’t hurt yourself!
When some people think of yoga, they think of pastel colors and stretching to new age music. But Ashtanga is much different. There’s no music except for the rhythmic sound of the breath in the room. There’s very little flowery language. It’s meant to be a self-practice, so as you learn you can take it with you anywhere and practice every day for the rest of your life. Except Saturdays. And moon days. And when you have your period.
Like I said, it’s a very old, traditional style.
I learned a lot this week about the poses and assisting others. And I loved hearing how someone like David Swenson started doing yoga when it was practically unheard of in the US. Now we have Yoga Journal magazine and Lululemon…but none of this existed back in the 60′s and 70′s. They would practice on carpet remnants instead of sticky mats! And he said that one time the neighbors called the police when they saw him practicing outside. The cops came, guns drawn, accusing David and his brother of devil worship. Can you imagine?
If you have never done yoga…well, why the heck not? It’s exactly the kind of mind-body exercise that most of us need, and the kind of physical activity that unwinds the body from it’s normal sitting-at-the-computer-or-on-the-couch position.
Oh wait, I remember. Because you’re not flexible enough. Oh, come on! Join me on Fridays for a yummy vinyasa class. (Live outside the Boston area? Well then you’ll just have to fly in! Or, find some yoga near you.)
In case you’re still thinking that you could never do yoga, David told us a story about Pattabhi Jois teaching yoga to quadriplegic students. He held their limbs in place while they breathed.
If you do practice yoga, what’s your favorite style? Have you ever tried Ashtanga? I like to sample from the yoga buffet – sometimes I do Ashtanga, usually I do Vinyasa, some Forrest, Yin Yoga and Restorative styles, and every now and then I’ll pop into an Anusara or Iyengar class.
Would you like to hear more about different yoga styles? Let me know in the comments!
Ok, so it’s the end of the work week, you’re cranky and tired of being stuffed in your office chair. Understandable. Come undo the the 9-5 with a delicious Friday Flow. Mmmmm yoga. This is currently my only yoga class that’s open to the public. No membership or previous yoga experience required, just come on over and let the weekend begin!
T.G.I.Flow Yoga Starts September 25, 2009
Fridays at 5:45pm
Moving Celebrations (at the Armory)
Free parking lot and accessible by MBTA www.movingcelebrations.com
**Don’t miss your chance to win free Massa Organics brown rice! Entries accepted until June 4th. Enter now!**
Imagine you just came up to me in the street and asked me:
“Hi Michelle, how are you?”
And imagine this was my answer:
“Eh. I have so much to do today. I had a doctor’s appointment at 8am and sat in the waiting room for over an hour!”
Now imagine that instead THIS was my answer:
“I’m well, thanks. You know what, I’m almost all done reading this new book and it’s great. Do you want to borrow it?”
Lately I’ve become pretty interested in the energy we give off and the energy we take in. While this sounds all flowerchild at first, I find that most of my private clients ‘get’ this idea of energy instinctively. And I’m sure everyone does.
How does it feel to hear my story of the doctor’s office, versus my offer to borrow a book? Choosing to look on the bright side really works – not as a distraction from the dark side, but to purposefully shift your energy. I might still think in my head “Boy that sucked sitting in the waiting room all morning.” But by not speaking those words, I don’t reiterate the negative thought in my own mind and I don’t share that negative energy with you.
Simple enough.
Here are three ways I’ve found to rein in my thinking when negativity runs rampant:
1. Accept what is.
This is something I learned from my yoga teacher training and it’s been invaluable. As soon as you accept a situation and stop hoping it changes or trying to change it, you can relax. If I freak out because I’m late to a meeting – am I still late? Yup. If I can’t change it, I might as well accept it as truth.
2. Take responsibility for everything.
This doesn’t mean you suddenly have to do ALL the laundry. This just means that in every situation, there is at least a piece of it that you are responsible for. When you stop thinking like a victim, you start to feel in control. If I’m late to a meeting I could blame my husband for asking a favor of me before I left. I could start conjuring up all the reason why I hate the fact I have to go to this meeting. Or, I can take responsibility for my lateness because I took too long drying my hair and chose to do that instead of getting out of the house. But man, my hair looks good!
2. Find little loves in life.
I call my three cats my Little Loves because…they are. But there are lots of little loves or joys in life that I’m pretty sure we don’t always recognize. My husband actually taught me this. He always notices small things – the pattern on a rooftop or a conversation two people are having behind us. What do you love? For me, it’s the way my kitties purr at night. And I love how my zen alarm clock chimes me awake in the morning. I especially love the water pressure in our shower. It’s perfect.
What about you? How can you tap into little loves and new ways of thinking to turn on magnificent energy in your life?
Generally, I avoid them. What a pain the butt, turning my hands pink for days and staining the countertop! But there have been some beautiful looking organic beets at the store lately, catching my eye, whispering sweet nothings as I passed by with my cart.
I had to have them.
Beets are fabulously full of healthy nutrients including: folate, manganese, fiber, potassium, iron and copper. But what I love most about them is their natural sugars. Beets are extremely high in sugar, yet super low in calories. This is something every food manufacturer strives for but only Mother Nature has perfected!
Now one funny thing about beets is that most recipes call for using the round root part of the plant and ignore those gorgeous green leaves on top. Shame! Beet greens are healthy and tasty and go great with the beets themselves…duh. See, it’s Mother Nature again, being such a smarty pants to pair these things together, naturally. With some careful preparation and a few seasonings, my beets came together in a lovely salad and nothing got stained in the process. So go for it:
Beets From Top to Bottom with Mint adapted from Three Bowls Cookbook by David Scott and Tom Pappas
2 lbs. bunch of beets, scrubbed
1 lemon, juiced
1 lime, juiced
1 big handful of mint leaves, rinsed and chopped roughly
1 Tbl. olive oil
S+P to taste
1. Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400 degrees.
2. Chop greens off of beet bulbs and set aside.
3. Wrap beets in aluminum foil, tightly seal and bake for 1 hour or until fork-tender. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature.
4. When cool enough to touch, unwrap and hold beet under running tap water as you use your fingers to peel the skin off. When all are peeled, chop into big chunks and place in a large bowl.
5. Rinse beet greens and chop. Add to the bowl.
6. Add mint, lemon, lime, oil, S+P and mix well.
This salad keeps well if you have leftovers, just cover and keep refrigerated.
It’s a great recipe so I hope you get to try it this summer. But remember, you can eat all the beets, all the broccoli, all the sprouts in the world…and if you’re unhappy in your life or career or relationship you really can’t thrive. Right? In my work with clients, we call these lifestyle aspects “Primary Foods.” So forget food for a second. What do you LOVE to do? What nourishes you more than food ever could?
Sometimes it’s hard to remember to do the things you love. It sometimes it feels silly to admit your love of sewing doll clothes or collecting rocks. Why is that?
One thing I love to do is sing. I have a terrible, terrible singing voice but I love to sing anyway. It’s a tough one because I can’t be in a band or join a chorus…I need to sing somewhere that my voice can’t be heard and it doesn’t matter if I’m on key. That’s why I fell in love with kirtan – traditional call-and-response chanting from the yoga tradition. The energy in a room full of people singing together is amazing. And no one can hear me above the sound of the instruments and all the voices. Perfect!
Last Friday my yoga studio here in Boston hosted a kirtan with Girish.
Sorry for dimly lit iPhone picture, but here’s Girish!
Skipping a night of the usual Friday happenings, I headed on down and sang my little heart out. I felt badly for the people sitting next to me, but otherwise it felt so good to belt it out! Girish sang and played the harmonium while his drummer played all sorts of percussion instruments. People in the crowd sang and danced and broke out their own mini instruments and I felt like, truly, no one cared if I was off key. It felt like everyone was so alive and happy and without judgement, suspended from real life for just a few hours.
That’s right folks, we’ve moved from blogger over to a real deal, full on website, combining my blog with everything you need to take advantage of health counseling and yoga services. Welcome! The site is new but the blogging will be about the same for those of you who have been with me for awhile.
Now is the time to update your feeds and bookmarks, so please take a minute to do that before getting all excited about the giveaway. Also, consider signing up for my new newsletter in the box at the left.
To welcome you all to Find Your Balance Health Counseling and Yoga, I’m pleased to offer my first blogger giveaway: the Kripalu Cookbook full of gourmet vegetarian recipes! While I do not follow a strict vegetarian diet I believe we can always benefit from incorporating more veggies into our meals. And there are some great ideas in this book.
Kripalu is the largest residential yoga institution in America…in the world? Maybe that too. If you’ve ever been or know someone who has, you’ll agree the food is one of the best parts of any of their programs. Delicious stuff. After my last trip I bought this cookbook for me, my mom, and now…you
I will hold a random drawing on April 8, 2009 at 10:00 am EST. The random number entry will be chosen by http://www.random.org/integers. The winner will have to provide a mailing address for me to mail the book too. (Sorry, US residents only!)
Here are the ways to get entered into the drawing. First, you must leave a comment on this post with your name, email address and answer to this question: What is your greatest health challenge? Earn additional entries by:
1. Signing up for a free health history consultation (email me)
2. Pre-enrolling for one of my upcoming Sunday Cooking Clubs (see events page)
3. Signing up for my newsletter (box on the left)
4. Subscribing to my RSS feed or blog by email (let me know in the comments)
5. Following me (MPfennighaus) on Twitter (let me know who you are in the comments)
6. Retweeting this contest on Twitter and including @MPfennighaus
7. Link to this contest from your blog (let me know in the comments)
That’s it, get to it kiddos. And don’t forget to change your feed and bookmark settings to this new site. Look forward to your entries!
It’s been one heck of a busy but awesome week. For not working, I sure am working a lot. I’m starting up my business officially as Find Your Balance Health Counseling and Yoga. Like I mentioned before, the site will be up soon but until then all my blog posts will remain here on Blogger. (Conveniently, because you are already here.) And at the end of this post there is an invitation for all of you in the Boston area to come to my new Sunday Cooking Club and some info about an awesome yoga retreat with my friend Lauren.
Despite all the work, I’ve made time to cook. Max really loved these burgers, declaring them the best thing I ever made. Wait, what? What about my homemade raviolis? My soups, my cookies? Well, I have to agree these were amazing. I ran across the recipe on Gourmet magazine’s website, but of course changed a few things to keep costs down.
The biggest change I made was to serve the patties over whole rye instead of sandwiching on rye bread. Call me crazy but it worked out great, and sauerkraut was a perfect match to round out the meal. You might look at this and say, “Hey Michelle, Miss Health Counselor, where’s the vegetable?” And I will tell you, it’s ALL vegetable, baby.
Mushroom Kasha Burgers with Chipotle Mayonnaise adapted from Gourmet Magazine For rye: 2 cups whole rye kernels 4 cups water 1 sheet nori, finely cut with scissors olive oil, apple cider vinegar, tamari and S+P to taste
For burgers: 2/3 cup water 1/3 cup coarse kasha (whole roasted buckwheat groats) 8 oz portabella mushrooms, including stems 24 oz. white mushrooms 1 cup finely chopped onion 1 cup finely chopped red cabbage 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 3 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley 1 teaspoon tamari 1 and 1/2 cups panko or breadcrumbs, divided 1 large egg, lightly beaten 1/4 cup ghee, butter or olive oil 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1 tablespoon Tabasco chipotle sauce, or any spicy sauce you have 1 cup sauerkraut
1. Optional but recommended: Soak rye in a bowl of water overnight with a splash of vinegar. Drain and rinse before cooking.
2. Add rye to a pot with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until all water is absorbed, about 1 hour. While you wait, prepare the burgers.
3. Bring water to a boil in small pot, then stir in kasha. Cover and reduce heat to low, then cook until kasha is tender and water is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and cool.
4. Break mushrooms/portabellas into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped, then transfer to a bowl. You may want to do this in batches.
5. Cook onion and red cabbage in butter in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 min. Add chopped mushroom mixture, garlic, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until any liquid mushrooms give off is evaporated and mushrooms begin to brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer mixture to a large bowl, then stir in kasha, parsley, tamari, and 1/2 cup panko. Mix well. Cool 10 minutes, then stir in egg until combined.
6. Get a cookie sheet ready. Put remaining 1 cup bread crumbs in a shallow bowl.
7. Form mushroom mixture into a 3/4-inch-thick patties (3 1/2 inches in diameter), then dredge in panko, knocking off excess, and transfer to cookie sheet. Chill patties in refrigerator for about 1 hour.
8. Heat ghee in cleaned skillet over medium-high heat, then fry patties, turning over once, until deep golden, about 4 minutes total. (You can also use oil but I prefer ghee which has a higher smoking point and creates less drama with the fire alarm). Carefully transfer patties to dishes or a platter. They will be soft, but if they crumble its ok, they still taste good!
7. Meanwhile, whisk together mayonnaise and chipotle sauce. Add oil, vinegars and seasoning to the rye once it’s done cooking and stir well. Serve burgers over rye with chipotle mayo on top and sauerkraut on the side. Serves about 4.
Ok, onto the invitation for all of you in the Boston area! I am going to start hosting a Sunday Cooking Club, held once per month. The upcoming dates are April 5th and May 3rd. If you are interested check out http://findyourbalancehealth.com/sundaycookingclub.
And you are all invited to check out my friend Lauren’s yoga retreat for June 25th – June 28th. It will be held in New Hampshire at Newfound Lake. If you’d like more details see her website or contact Lauren at info@laurenegavian.com.
I help busy people find balance in their over-worked, over-stressed lives. Trust me, it's not an all-or-nothing situation! A few shifts in diet and lifestyle can rock your world like they did mine. (And if you're a health coach, I can help you do the same for your own clients.) Read on
