Nourish Strala: A Together Project

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Hi Friends,

My goal with Strala Yoga, a decade go and today, is to help people connect to themselves and feel better. When you feel better all kinds of awesome things happen. You start to treat yourself better, treat others better and do better in the world. In my experience, this doesn’t happen with just starting a yoga practice. It matters how you practice yoga.

Ease is our secret to moving in a way that tunes you in, instead of tuning you out. Ease is the foundation of East Asian arts and sciences, way before yoga poses came into the picture. Ease is how we turn yoga into a pose based practice of end points into a moving flow where every moment matters. Ease is also the process that leads us to getting creative and excited about how we nourish ourselves.

In the spirit of nourishment, enjoy this FREE Self Love Yoga Flow

This was the basis of why I wrote Make Your Own Rules Diet, to share my story and to share the process of getting sensitized to how you feel, instead of following yet another failed diet system. Make Your Own Rules Cookbook was my follow up book, a celebration of recipes I’ve learned and gathered over the years from family and Strala family around the world. So many people I would meet on my travels would share with me a Make Your Own Rules version of their favorite family recipe. A healthier, simplified version that still captured the essence of their culture and their community. I was so overjoyed to infuse these recipes in my own life I couldn’t help but to share them.

In a recent Strala Yoga Training, we were chatting about food and getting sensitized, over lunch, naturally, and as a group we decided to use #nourishstrala across our blogs and social media to continue to inspire each other and recipe share based on feeling good. We have an opportunity to evolve how we nourish ourselves, together. Even in the yoga community, there is so much unbalanced eating and feelings toward food. This punishment and reward toxic cycle comes directly out of practicing rigidity and tension. We’ve seen countless times through the practice of EASE how you can change your feelings and relationship with food from one of fear to one of nourishment. Practice is first, the recipes are really the last part.

A big group of Strala Guides help people with forming a better relationship with food, in addition to leading yoga and other fields of interest. Whether you are a professional food coach, yoga teacher, healer or guide, we all have an opportunity to help those around us, connect better and nourish better. By being a good example of wellbeing you help so many, without any extra effort. We all are leaders, guides, friends and followers of each other. Let’s work together to nourish ourselves and those around us. Together we create lasting, positive change.

In the spirit of nourishment, enjoy this FREE Self Love Yoga Flow

I’m thrilled to share a few of the Strala community’s recipes below. If you like this we can keep them coming. Let us know. Use #nourishstrala so we can try out your recipes too!

Peruvian Style Pesto by Jessica Lock

You’ll Need

Noodles of your choice (or spiralized zucchini)
4 garlic cloves
1 onion
2 cups fresh basil
1 cup baby spinach
3/4 cup cashews
1 small handful of pine nuts (or walnuts)
1/2 small avocado (optional, for an extra creamy texture)
1/2 lemon juice
1/2 nutritional yeast
1/4 cup of almond milk approximately
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

Now What

1. Cook noodles according to package
2. Chop garlic and onion. Set aside
3. In a blender add a dash of olive oil (around 1/4 cup) + basil + spinach + cashews + pine nuts + avocado (optional) + lemon juice + nutritional yeast + unsweetened almond milk + salt and pepper to taste. Start blending low to high when appropriate. If mixture is too thick, add a dash of water, you want to be able to blend but not as watery as a smoothie! Set aside when ready
4. In a large saucepan, heat and add in oil (I used vegan butter). Stir in garlic and onion and cook until brown.
5. Then add in the blender mix. Stir in low heat for a little bit. Taste and check if seasoning is good. Remove from heat and add in the pasta and mix everything up!
6. Enjoy!

More from Jes Lock here

 

Kofta Korma Curry by Shuki

You’ll Need

For the Kofta

2 cups of cauliflower florets
1/2 a large carrot chopped into chunks
1 cup of plain mashed potatoes
1 handful of cilantro
1/4 cup of coarsely ground breadcrumbs
1/4 cup of chickpea flour
1 tsp of toasted cumin seeds
1 tsp of salt
1/2 tbsp of garam masala
2 tsp of garlic paste
1 tsp of ginger paste
1 tsp neutral tasting oil

Korma Sauce

1 ½  cups of plain unsweetened cashew milk
1 tbsp Oil
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tsp of garlic paste
1 tsp  of ginger
1 tbsp of Garam masala
1 Bay leaf
1 whole cinnamon stick
3 cardamom pods
3 cloves
½ tbsp raw cane sugar
2 pinches of salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper

Now What

For the Kofta:

1. Preheat your oven to  450 degrees F.
2. Ground up veggies and, and cilantro in a food processor by pulsing and scraping down the sides of the container until you have a nice course mixture. You want make sure you don’t grind the ingredients up so much that you make a paste.
3. Place mixture in large mixing bowl. Sift in chickpea flour. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Add more oil if the mixture is looking too dry or more chickpea flour if mixture is looking too wet.
4.Spoon out a portion of the mixture and form in to balls with your hands. Use an ice cream scoop to ensure all of the balls come out to the same size. Place the balls on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Place in the oven for 15 minutes (turning
the sheet around halfway through) or until the balls are lightly browned.
5. Take out of oven when ready and set aside.

For the Korma:

1.Place a large pot on high heat. When the pan is hot add in oil, along with onions, garlic and ginger paste, salt, sugar, cinnamon sticks, cardamom, cloves, and bay leafs. Turn the heat to low and mix well so all ingredients are incorporated. Let the onions soften and caramelize.
2. Add in cashew milk and garam masala and stir well until milk gets bubbly but does not boil. Do a taste test and add a tad more salt and sugar if needed. Korma is meant to have a subtle sweetness and savory note.
3. In a serving bowl ladle the sauce on the bottom, being careful to pick out the whole herbs and spices you used (bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves). Place the kofta gently one by one in the sauce, softly rolling them around to get coated and absorbed by the sauce.
4. Top with chopped cilantro and freshly ground black pepper. Serve with warm fluffy Naan and enjoy!

More from Shukie here

 

Peanut (or Almond Butter) Freezer Fudge by Tara

You’ll Need

¼ cup coconut oil
1 cup of almond (or other nut) butter
1 tablespoon raw honey
½ teaspoon sea salt
handful dark chocolate chips
handful crushed dark chocolate bar

Now What

1.Soften the coconut oil by setting the container in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes. Then mix together the coconut oil, almond butter, honey, salt, and dark chocolate chips in a large bowl.
2. Pour the mixture into a glass dish lined with cling film, and top with the crushed chocolate bar.
3. Freeze the fudge for at least an hour, then cut into squares and serve. Don’t forget to keep leftover fudge (if you have any…) in the freezer. You can also skip the chocolate chips and bar and go classic, and easy. It works without honey too.

Chickpea Cookies & Truffle Balls by Christine Bonde

You’ll Need

for approx. 8 chickpeas cookies + 10 truffle balls
300 g of soaked and cooked chickpeas
75 g whole grain rice
100 g of coconut sugar
75 g almond butter
2½ tablespoons of cocoa powder
½ teaspoon vanilla powder
½ teaspoon of Ceylon cinnamon
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon flour salt
15 g coarse dark chocolate
Coarse coconut flour to roll the truffles in

Tip : Add 1 teaspoon of romaine to the truffle balls if you like them to taste even more like those from the baker

Now What

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees (hot air).
Blend all the ingredients (chocolate and coconut flour) together in a food processor until the dough collects.
Divide the dough in two and three half to approx. 10 truffle balls and roll them into the coconut flour. They taste the best after they have been in bed for at least an hour.
Form 8 balls of the other half and press them gently lightly. Place them on a baking tray with baking paper. Spread the coarse chocolate on the 8 cookies and push it gently into the dough.
Bag your chocolate cookies for 25 minutes (maybe 30 minutes if they are slightly thicker) and let them cool off on a cold baker.

More from Christine Bonde here

Show us your #nourishstrala and don’t forget to practice ease.

Enjoy this FREE Self Care in the Kitchen Chat

xo
Tara