As often happens on blog posting day, the day has escaped me. That is one reason why I post recipes — especially if I was not planning on posting one — the time of day comes when I need to be cooking dinner and I still have no idea what to post. I recently made a favorite recipe of mine and when I made it I didn’t think I was going to post about it. I know I say that all the time, but it is true. I was having company so I didn’t take a picture of the ingredients, the process, nor the meal. After having eaten it, I fell in love with it all over again. I decided while eating it for a second meal, when it was left over, to post about it. So I did take a picture at that time, but it is with leftover pasta and some of the noodles didn’t fare so well because I left it in the pan for a long time on the night I cooked it. Well, I did mention I had company and I didn’t rush back in the kitchen after eating to tidy up. Anyway, this is a great recipe for many reasons.
Since I teach Nia and I don’t have a corporate job I don’t experience all of the potlucks throughout the year and especially that happen over the holiday season, but this recipe is GREAT for potlucks. It is a meal that is scrumptious hot off the stove, but it is still really yummy if it is room temperature or even cold. You don’t have to worry with this dish that it is not piping hot. So it makes great leftovers. AND it is super, super, super simple.
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Walnuts and Ham Pasta
2-3 tbsp olive oil
3/4 – 1 cup chopped walnuts, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped/minced
1 package of linguine
1/2 lb cooked ham, chopped into little chunks (ABOUT pea size or bean size)
1/4 – 1/2 c Parmesan cheese
3-4 tbsp parsley
Heat the olive oil a little bit. Add the chopped walnuts to the oil. Cook the pasta according to the directions/your liking. After cooking the walnuts for a few minutes add 1/2 of the garlic. Cook two minutes. Add the ham chunks. Since the ham is already cooked you are basically just warming it up and cooking it a little bit more. When the ham is almost cooked to your liking add the rest of the garlic.
NOTE: Since the olive oil is serving as the “sauce” you may need to add more as you are cooking. It depends on how oily you want your pasta. This is one of those “recipes” — where how much you use of the ingredients is really up to your tastes.
After you have drained the cooked pasta, mix the pasta and walnut-ham-garlic mixture together. Top with the cheese and parsley.
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This recipe makes a HUGE amount of pasta. Keep that in mind and adjust accordingly. You might decide you want more walnuts or less ham. You know how the recipes are that I post . . . they are a guide . . . an idea . . . something to get you started. Make it once, then go from there . . . or start off with making it your own.
Let me know how yummy you think this is. AND let me know what you do to it!
I have allergies, hay fever some people call it. It is there all year round, but worse or “more active” during specific times of the year. Spring is a really sneezy time of year. Also anytime it rains and then there is sun right after. Also when it first starts to rain in the winter. And for about 10 years, during the month of March and the month of October, I can barely be around my cat. Just 30 seconds in her vicinity will set me off on a sneezing jag. The months that I am hyper sensitive to her have fluctuated the past three years. At this time, mid-November, I am having some lengthy sessions of sneezing after I get my snuggles in. As far as I know I have always been sensitive to cats and dogs, but that doesn’t stop me from having one and wanting one. It is just something I deal with. I used to take a combination decongestant-antihistamine every night, but now it is so difficult to get one. I feel as if I am a criminal by having to go to the pharmacist and be registered. Forget that. After they made it annoyingly difficult I would just purchase the antihistamines and for a long time I took that every night. Then I stopped. Now I just take it when my nose is so raw from rubbing it and sneezing that it hurts when I touch it. A few months ago I had a thought during one of my multi-sneeze sneezing jags. I thought I would ask you guys about it. Can a gluten sensitivity present as hay fever?
I have been resistant to jumping on the band wagon and claiming I have a sensitivity to gluten. I know many people who have obvious and more annoying symptoms. I know that a sensitivity and actually being allergic to gluten/Celiac Disease is very serious so I never really thought that my sneezing, congestion, itchiness, and inflammation could be because of a gluten sensitivity. But now I am thinking about it. Could it be?
If the wheat that is in our food supply and food “stuffs” is something that is barely related to the wheat of the past and it it being blamed for all types of health issues and primarily inflammation in the body it would make sense that gluten or wheat is causing allergy symptoms. Could it be the gluten is causing the allergy symptoms?
Or maybe the gluten is causing other “issues” (such as inflammation) in my body that does not allow my body to fight off the offending pollens so I end up having allergy attacks. Hmmmm . . . .That could be it.
But . . . . one of the reasons I had not linked it to gluten is I usually am ok in air conditioning. Hmmm . . . I just thought of that . . . . I have not been in air conditioning that much lately. When I am teaching a Nia class and I can turn the air on, it seems better. See, it is really difficult to pinpoint.
What do you think? Do any of you have issues with “hay fever”? Do you think it is tied to gluten? Have you don’t any type of experimentation? Does anyone have this issue?
Nia is a cardio dance exercise that I teach. It is more than that, but that is one way to describe it. One of the ways it is more than that, is, it is a practice. If you chose to treat it like a practice, as one might treat yoga as a practice, one would become aware of Nia’s 52 Moves. There are 52 moves that get choreographed into the Nia Routines. One of the moves is Traveling in Directions. This is a great move for many reasons.
One reason Traveling in Directions is great is because it is very easy. Another reason it is great is because it is very adaptable and can be used in almost every song and in every routine. The main way to travel in a direction is to simply walk. Using the Heel Lead technique just walk forward, then change the direction you are walking, then change the direction, etc. With the simplest of forms you look where you want to go before you move in that direction. So before your feet actually start going a different direction — LOOK. There is a little bit of thinking involved because we look before we go. Allow your arms to move freely. Step confidently in whichever direction you choose to look. Move your body as a whole.
The Nia Technique book states: “Practicing Traveling in Directions keeps your body agile for moving through space in all directions, able to change direction with ease.”
When we use this move in our routines we have a lot of fun playing with it. The move really is as easy as stated, the fun comes when changing directions quickly. You can be the leader of your own movement or sometimes you are being directed by the teacher. This makes agility one of the Nia sensations we practice with this move. Moving one way then quickly stopping and going another way. Stopping, changing, starting. Varying the speed at times will allow for additional Nia sensations such as strength and stability to come into play.
When Traveling in Directions on your own you become aware of the direction you want to go, then you look, then you go. As I said, there are times when you might be listening to the direction of the teacher, which would still mean you would need to become aware of the direction you want to go, but when being told where to go your body’s reaction is quicker. There is a quick look then a move in that direction. Less thought is involved for you as the participant because someone else thought of the direction you were going to go.
Often when this move is done in a class, quick thinking, quick moving, and quick reacting are additional skills that receive attention because we are dancing with others on the floor so we might have to switch our trajectory quickly to avoid a dance floor collision.
Modifications of the traveling can be done by going backwards or sinking low or even rising high. So many ways to travel in directions. All of them are great opportunities to try out the Nia Sensations, the more you do, the more ways you move your body. If you want you can even skip. Skipping in different directions adds a new dimension to the move.
Sometimes this move is choreographed into the Nia routine with specifics and sometimes is allowed more of a Free Dance. However it is added to the Nia workout it is a wonderful way to dance.
How would you Traveling in Directions to your current favorite song?
Nia is a cardio dance workout. Come to a class, dance, sweat, get a workout. Nia is also a practice, like yoga is a practice. Just like yoga you can go to a class, participate, and get a good workout in and go home. Or you can take some of the ideas and principles with you into your daily life. If you chose, you can decide to apply some of the body mind “stuff” to your daily life. All up to you. Now the reason I explain all that is because – keeping in mind that Nia is a practice (for those that want to take it that far) – there are a lot of things to, well, practice. And Nia HQ is great about creating and supplying continue education for its members. Also, it is great about writing articles to help people learn more about the practice of Nia. One such article that was recently posted is Move Beyond Your Comfort Zone.
It talks about how each individual has different comfort zones so that “moving beyond” would be something different to each individual. It reminds us that moving beyond the place where we feel comfortable is “the best thing to keep the body and brain strong”. It shares a story and gives examples of comfort zones. I do hope you click the link above and pop over to NiaNow to read it.
Here I am going to share other ways that Nia helps us do “the best thing to keep the body and brain strong” by helping us out of our comfort zone. One way is dancing to music we don’t like. I know . . . I can hear a lot of people say, “But WHY?” Well, that is part of moving out of our comfort zone. There seems to be some beats that just call to everyone. That one song that is popular on the radio that gets everyone’s foot tapping and head bobbing. Those songs are easy to dance to. The universal dance song. But the songs that come on that you might find yourself reaching for that tuning knob are great songs to step out of the comfort zone to dance to. They are the ones that your regular, normal, COMFORTABLE dance moves just might not fit with. The song that might have you using different muscles than you are used to. The song that might have you moving in an entirely different way . . . . away and out of your comfort zone. That is one reason why that Nia routine might have one of THOSE songs in it.
Then there is the song you just love. The second it begins to play in class you are so ready to just sink into it, then your teacher says to move in a way that is in COMPLETE contradiction to the tone of the song. “WHAT? You want me to do a strong block to this sweet, sweet melody?” Moving in a way that seems opposite from what the music is “telling” you can be WAY out of some people’s comfort zones. It is a great way to keep the body and brain strong.
Playing with emotions and acting “as if” can be beyond some comfort zones. Allowing yourself to just let go and dance without caring what you look like or if your “form” is perfect can be a big step away from some people’s comfort zones. In one of my posts recently, I wrote about “messing up” . . . . . that can be MILES away from some people’s comfort zones. Sounding can really be a big stretch for some individuals. Not everyone is used to making noises while they workout.
These are just a few examples of what we do in Nia classes to help us step out of our comfort zones. As stated, the reason is to work the brain as well as the body. Moving out of our comfort zone helps mix it up. Keeps the body and brain moving in different ways. So the next time you feel resistance, let go and know you are doing something good for your body and brain.
Ooooo! Only TWO months left to fill up the Goodie Jar. It is never to late to note the good things so if you haven’t started yet, why not start NOW!?!?! I have a few good things to put into my jar today.
I had a fabulous conversation with a potential Nia student. I talk to a lot of potential participants, some actually do end up attending one of my Nia classes and some do not, but I have always had wonderful conversations. While I would love to have everyone I talk to come to one of my Nia classes and I would love to meet them, I still feel fortunate to have been able to talk to them on the phone. I love sharing about Nia and listening to their stories. So many are inspirational.
Also, I received a wonderful e-mail. The subject alone made me so happy. (“Nia rocks my world!”) How could it not? The rest of the e-mail made my face hurt (from SMILING)!!!!!!! I loved it so much, I printed it out and it is going in the goodie jar!
And, as some of you may know, our cat has Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) which is a chronic condition. Basically it means that the intestines are not working properly so the body does not absorb the required nutrients. When the body does not absorb what it needs it does not function the way it should. And when the intestines are not healthy there are other issues. So it is a matter of controlling symptoms and getting the body to a comfortable and a close-to-normal state as possible. It has been about three months since we started treating this and today is a good day. I think – as with many things – there will be days where she doesn’t feel as good as others. I think that is just the way it will be. But today we are half-way through our fifth day without vomit. When I wrote my post Spot Update we were almost up to a three day vomit-free period, but that was as long as we got. Now we are on our fifth day. That is really huge. Even if she throws up now we still made it almost FIVE DAYS! I am sure she is as happy about it as I am! To me four and half days vomit free is a darn good thing. See there really is no rule as to what you can put in your jar. THIS is a good thing for me. THIS makes me happy.
When I read about it on December 31, 2013, I will be happy.
What are you putting in your goodie jar? Any good things happen yesterday on Halloween?
Sometimes in Nia we do yoga poses, I have yet to do the sphinx in a Nia class, but I do include it in the Gentle Yoga class I am teaching. I think of it as a nice gently backbend. I think of it as a regal pose. I think of it as a spine lengthener and a back strengthener. I like the Sphinx Pose.
Although, according to Wiki, the Sphinx is not nice:
“A sphinx is a mythical creature with, as a minimum, the body of a lion and a human head. In Greek tradition, it has the haunches of a lion, the wings of a great bird, and the face of a woman. She is mythicised as treacherous and merciless. Those who cannot answer her riddle suffer a fate typical in such mythological stories . . . ”
Ha, I think I will stick with the idea of regal.
The Sphinx Pose is another prone pose, where you are lying on your belly. Your legs are together, touching, and straight out behind your body. Start face down, with your arms stretched out on the ground above you, as if you are reaching above your head. Before bending back, gently press your pelvis towards the earth, lengthening your tailbone towards your feet. As you lift your head and chest up off the ground, bring your arms back. Stop when your elbows are directly underneath your shoulders. Or you can bring your hands up by your ears and gently push up into the backbend. Adjusting your hands so that your elbows are directly under your shoulders. You are resting on your elbows and forearms, palms down, fingers together.
Continue to keep your legs together, while your toes are reaching toward the opposite wall/direction. Your back is active, while your arms are supportive. Reach with your chest somewhat upward and open. Your shoulders are back and your shoulder blades are pressing gently toward the earth.
Your gaze is forward and your posture is regal. You are strong and confident. Breathe into the pose. Hands, arms, neck, back, and legs are all active yet not tightly clenched.
Stay for a few breaths or as long as your practice dictates. Release and lower to the floor, allowing your head to turn to the side. Rest your head on your hands and repeat as desired.
This is a nice gently backbend that can be the next backbend after learning the locust pose, if your practice is one in which you are progressing from a small backbend to a “bigger” backbend. These (the Locust Post and the Sphinx Pose) can be preludes to the Cobra and the Upward Facing Dog. Of course, this is a great pose to practice even if you are already doing the other backbends.
This pose is great to help strengthen the muscles in the back.
If necessary a rolled towel can be placed under your pubic bone in the shape of a U to provide cushion. The U would be “hugging the belly”.
Do you have backbends in your practice? Is sphinx one that you do? What backbends do you practice?
I forgot to post to my blog last night. That is the second Thursday this month. I got home from teaching my Nia class rather early since all I did afterwards was run in to pick up some spinach. Then I got busy planning firming up the routine for my Gentle Yoga class, yet, I still didn’t work on the post. As I was getting ready to leave I started typing one up. When I got back from class I was interested in getting dinner on the table. The evening just flew by. I remembered I didn’t post at about 15 minutes AFTER midnight! Oh well.
Here is my #34 Good Jar check in. It is my hope that even though you are not commenting on the check-in you are still participating in recognizing and jotting down the Good Things. There are only two and half more months to go.
I can’t wait to read them all at the end of the year.
If you have read any of my recipe posts you probably know I love leftovers. It just makes a lot of sense to me to cook once and have some of the meal left over for a quick meal later on. This is really a great help for people who are busy or who’s schedule does not allow for cooking every night. This week I am going to be busy three nights in a row. Two nights I am subbing Nia for Hot Hula and the third night I have Gentle Yoga. So Monday I did some cooking. Monday I actually prepared dinner that will be our dinner for a couple of nights, but I also prepared a lasagna. I froze it and I will put in the oven before I go to class one night this week, so it will be done around the time I get home. I will use time bake for that so we will see. But last night we had Crockpot Balsamic Pork.
I modified a chicken recipe I had seen on Facebook. First of all I used pork instead of chicken. I love chicken and I have been “missing” it. We haven’t had any for a while. Then the people-getting-sick-from-chicken thing came up and I was happy we hadn’t purchased any. Then I found some in our freezer hiding behind something and I was happy. It was purchased way before the latest issue and we had eaten the other chicken from the batch so I was so glad to have found it. So we had just had chicken and I didn’t feel comfortable buying any so I bought pork. I know that I like pork and balsamic so I thought it would work.
I rarely use my crockpot. Something about cooking meat for HOURS, just doesn’t sound good to me. This recipe called for FOUR hours on high. Well, I figured that pork would NOT need FOUR hours so I decided to try it for two and see how it looked.
The recipe also calls for dried basil, but for some reason I thought fresh would be better. Not sure why and not sure that it was.
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Crock Pot Balsamic Pork
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 heaping tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 heaping tsps dried minced onion
1/2 cup of fresh chopped basil
5 garlic cloves, pressed with garlic press
2 tblsp olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
7 thick cut boneless pork chops
chopped parsley for the top
Combine the first four ingredients in a small bowl, then spread over one side of pork, saving half for the other side. Use half the basil piling a little on each piece. Let the pork stand a bit. Then flip the pork over and use the rest of the dry ingredients and basil to coat the pork.
Use the garlic and the oil to coat the pot of the crockpot. Then place the pork inside. Pour the vinegar over.
An hour and 45 minutes later I turned my pot down to low so that I could keep preparing my salad for dinner and my lasagna for later. I think I will cook it less next time. I think turning it off at an hour and 45 minutes would have been better. Although our pork was not overcooked, we just prefer it a little less cooked.
I know the thing that people think is so great about crockpots is you put it on and forget it. Even though this is not hours and hours of “forgetting” it is still at least an hour and 45 minutes. I would think it could be the four hours on low.
This was good. My husband and I love garlic and that was a primary flavor . . . so I think if I want the balsamic to stand out more I will use less garlic. If I had used dried basil – as the original recipe calls for – this would have been a super simple meal. Adding the basil (washing and chopping) dropped it down to a simple meal.
It was good. I can see me making this again. And one day I will even try it with chicken. Last night we had it with a spinach salad and my favorite Smashed Potatoes! I did not take pictures of the finished product. I was doing too many things at the time!
Do you use a slow cooker/crockpot? What is your favorite thing to cook in the crockpot? Does meat you cook in a crockpot come out well done?
Hey! Yay! Two Fridays so far in October, two Goodie Jar – Check Ins! Yay! I do put things in my jar at least once a week, but there have been a couple of times when I forgot to post the check-in. At this time I am writing the check in on Thursday because I have a Nia call I want to participate in on Friday. I think I might get so involved in the call and its topic I will forget to post my check in.
So, how is it going? On last week’s check in a friend of mine commented that her jar would be over flowing because her daughter just had a daughter. First grand baby cute. Not everyone has such a huge GOOD THING. But that is kinda the point. The HUGE good things get document and noted in other ways . . . so sometimes it is the jar that reminds us of the little things.
Of course, we can still write down the big things and put them in the jar. Anything you want. Anything that will make you smile when you read it and say, “Yeah, that is/was a good thing!”
May your Good Thing Jar overflow!
I have already posted this, but I when I opened Facebook a minute ago I saw I was tagged in a status. I just had to add it to this post because to me it is a GOOD THING! Ha, ha, ha, ha! Thanks, Danielle!
Jimmy Fallon has Ylvis on Late Night doing a “live” version of The Fox!
And, if you want you can hear for yourself that Ylvis is Correct . . . . he has “what the fox say” down pat!
I am playing a game on my iPad that is a hidden object kind of game. I like games where I don’t have to concentrate a lot, ya know, think too much – a little is good, but I like it to be fun. I have other things I have to think about so my games I want to be brainless and easy. This is kind of like that. Just look at pictures and pick out the objects. To me it is cool because it is not the same as the hidden objects games of my youth where the object is drawn into the scene. This game is tricky because the object are not necessarily hidden. Yeah, I know, they are right there in plain sight sometimes and it is still a challenge to see them. I find that really funny. I actually employ a theory of my husband’s about a phenomenon to play this game. It makes me laugh whenever I think of it. Especially when it works. My husband’s theory is: You can’t see what is not there.
That sounds obvious right? And it is, in reality you cannot see what is not there, but what he means when he says that is “I can’t see what I THINK is not there.” But the belief is so strong — it (the object you seek) is not there. So we don’t even bother with the “think” we just say, “I can’t see it because it is not there.” Because no matter what, once you believe it is not there it might as well not be.
My husband will often look for something then say, “Honey, can you look for the XXX (whatever) because I have been looking and it is not there.” Then I walk over without even looking and pick it up and give it to him. He says, “See? Sorry.” I say, “That’s ok. I get it.” Once you think it is not there — IT IS NOT THERE!
When I told him I was going to post about this he said it wasn’t originally his theory. He can’t remember whose it is. He kinda thinks it might have come from Sonny. Yeah, Sonny as in Sonny and Cher. But he can’t remember.
When you are looking for something that might truly not be there then this theory is difficult to get around. But in my game I can easily get around it. I know that the object on the list is there. So I have found myself thinking, “I will never find it.” Then I remember I can’t see things that aren’t there and I can’t see things if I think I can’t see them. So I take a breath and remind myself it is there and I can find it, and usually I find the object. I know it might sound silly to post about applying a theory to a game, but ya know, most of the time thinking is just a practice so if I practice it in a game situation, I can learn to practice it in real life. I just think it is funny because I believe the theory to be true so I work to counteract it in the game.
Also with the game I am not sure what the object will look like. So it is a good practice for opening my ideals of what things look like. Again, just a practice. As an example the object list might say bell. What did you picture? Bells can look a lot of different ways. As I typed this I thought of one of those bells that one used to ding for service. But it could be a bell like the liberty bell, or a school bell. You don’t always know. So in addition to letting go of not being able to see it because I THINK it is not there or I can never find it, I have to be open to recognizing what it might actually look like.
Ha. Just had a thought . . . just right now as I am typing . . . these ideas can be tied to Nia. Nia is not familiar to a lot of people so some think they will not get a good workout in a Nia class. Well, if that is what you think . . . then that is what you will get. If you walk in knowing it is a good workout then you will be able to participate fully. Also, when the participate releases the idea of what a workout “SHOULD” look like, they will be surprised that our skipping, moving, bending, dancing, etc. is great exercise.
So yeah, the theory can be applied to a lot of things so in some cases, when you don’t have a spouse to “see” it for you, you can be aware of the phenomenon and work to counteract it for yourself.
So are you aware of this phenomenon? Do you feel like this happens to you?
As often happens on blog posting day, the day has escaped me. That is one reason why I post recipes — especially if I was not planning on posting one — the time of day comes when I need to be cooking dinner and I still have no idea what to post. I recently made a favorite recipe of mine and when I made it I didn’t think I was going to post about it. I know I say that all the time, but it is true. I was having company so I didn’t take a picture of the ingredients, the process, nor the meal. After having eaten it, I fell in love with it all over again. I decided while eating it for a second meal, when it was left over, to post about it. So I did take a picture at that time, but it is with leftover pasta and some of the noodles didn’t fare so well because I left it in the pan for a long time on the night I cooked it. Well, I did mention I had company and I didn’t rush back in the kitchen after eating to tidy up. Anyway, this is a great recipe for many reasons.
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