27 March 2011

Balance


What kind of balance do you aim for with your meals? I'm definitely no expert on this topic, so I'd love if others would share their views and thoughts in the comments. It's something I've been thinking about a lot lately and really being mindful of when I create meals for our family.


We are friends with an amazing family that is very inspiring to us with our food. Whenever I feel like I've gotten lazy with our meals and haven't been eating as well as I know we should, it only takes one meal at the community home of these friends to steer me back in the right direction and fill me with inspiration.


My inspiration from this community kitchen always leads me to consider the balance of what is in our meals. A few hours spent, nourished by the energy of being part of the cooking experience in this community space and then being blessed to share in the feasting of the variety of dishes offered from various backgrounds, cultures, beliefs and food modalities, is always so nourishing to not only my body and soul but also my mind.


After a recent visit again to this community, I looked at what I offer my family with each meal and the balance within that. My inspiration from this community leads me to try to offer with our main meal each day; a soaked and cooked grain, raw salad greens dressed with apple cider vinegar, lightly steamed veggies and a main meal dish. Our main meal dish varies a little from the vegan community kitchen, as we are omnivores, but often we do also enjoy bean and pulse based main meal dishes. We cook any salt into our meals, as we believe that raw salt (whatever the kind you use - whether a whole salt or otherwise) is very abrasive on the digestive system and needs to be cooked. The salt we use is Himalayan salt. Our meal is always offered with the condiments of Gomasio and Tahini Sauce. I thought I had shared a post on Gomasio on this blog, but it appears not, as I cannot find it to link to. I will have to very soon share the recipe and benefits of Gomasio.


The community kitchen that provides this amazing inspiration for me is Macrobiotic inspired, so I do see that in the culmination of what is offered at any meal there, is always an offering from each of the 'seven essential components'. Macrobiotics is something that I have moseyed around the edge of for a while and I am really finding myself increasingly interested in researching and finding out more about this health modality belief.


I'd love to hear what the balance is of the meals that you create and offer for your family.

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