Feeling blessed! I want to give a big shout out and love to the wonderful Keli Roberts! Thanks again for your lovely gift! I am soooo grateful and blessed to have one of your custom made knit caps to wear.
Skip Jennings & Gwen Keannelly
Welcome to The Lotus Kitchen, a place of being and a space of the mind where yoga and vegetarian cooking entwine. This book intends to offer more than a gingerly curated collection of healthy and boldly flavored recipes; it’s a beacon that shines light toward an awakened way of life. A journey that encourages you to explore an engaged and meaningful pathway to empowerment through yoga and enhance your existing practice with thoughtful food preparation and mindful eating.
Look for more Lotus Kitchen Recipes soon online and in stores.
Sweet Beet Soup
Beets are a gift for the body temple. They provide an energy boost, purify the blood, offer tryptophan to nurture mental health and contain vitamins A and C and niacin. They’re available year round and this soup is a colorful way to nourish guests and self.
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium red onions
1 (4 inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled
6 cloves garlic, peeled
8 cups vegetable stock
2 pounds beets
2 pounds carrots
Pinch of kosher salt
½ teaspoon white pepper
Roughly chop the carrots, beets, red onions, peeled ginger and garlic. Toss with olive oil and place on sheet pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast for about one hour until tender. Move to soup pot and add the stock. Simmer over medium heat until the carrots are tender. Puree and season with salt and pepper. Serves 6
The Practice: Beets are also a top source of nitrates, which when converted to nitric oxide actually expands veins and arteries, allowing more blood to flow and carry oxygen to the brain. This makes beets a perfect wisdom food. Yoga stimulates the mind that creates clarity in one’s life. The Hatha yoga pose shoulder stand or any inverted pose is for brain health. The upside down poses allows oxygen to flow to the brain, while releasing pressure from the legs. Shoulder stand is an excellent yoga pose. Like the beets it nourishes the brain with well-needed oxygen and rich blood flow.
Shoulder Stand Pose (Salamba Sarvangasana) Instruction: Lie flat on your mat and breathe easy. Place both feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart with toes facing forward. Tuck your chin towards the chest and place your hands to the side of the body on the floor. Lift your hips and knees to the sky; raise your hands to your lumbar spine. Steady your body by placing the weight of your body onto the elbows and shoulders. When ready, extend the leg toward the sky. While practicing the shoulder stand, visualize the oxygen flowing to the brain with ease and grace. Create a mantra that incorporates the affirmations that the brain is full of oxygen; therefore thoughts are clear.
This month we’ll focus on “Celebrating Light” and we’ll begin with “The Illuminated Life” as this Week’s Meditative Thought
Living an illuminated life is a journey surrendered to the revealing of God. Every moment, every breath is dedicated to seeing the unfolding of the Divine Mind, not only in our lives, but also in every person, place, or situation that we come in contact with. Once you are aware that we live, move, and have our being in God, this is the beginning of the illuminated life. God is everywhere present, always active, knows all divine things, and is all-powerful, and this is the consciousness of the illuminated life.
Your Action Plan: Today and for the remaining week, live your life with the awareness of God in your life. Live the illuminated life every breath you take. Take a moment and recognize the power that live within you. Awareness is key so today stay awake.
This week we build upon the freedom we gain from our Affirmative Prayer . When we speak an affirmation or affirmative prayer we choose to be an active participant with the co-creator with the Universe. When we speak with this authority we begin to be part of the fabric of the reality around us and lose the chains of bondage that makes us powerless in the events that seem outside our control. Just praying to a God outside of us, hoping that a blessing will come…is powerless. When we realize our oneness with the Universe, it empower our lives. An Affirmative Prayer is the knowing that you have everything you need and that you’re free to live your fullest life.
This week’s Action Plan: All week seek to pray to God that lives within you and aim to speak to Spirit like you would to an old friend, because it is. The Universe is part of you and has been with you since before time, and it will never leave you.
Peace and Blessings,
– Skip
Affirmative PrayerMost people believe in God, a Universal force that governs our existence. Prayer is a way to access and commune with that energy. In the past I used to pray to a God outside myself, asking and beseeching a gray, old father figure for the desires of my heart. Now I understand that God is within each and every being. I am one with this all-powerful force. I pray with an understanding that I am one with the source of life. I use a form of praying called, “Affirmative Prayer.”
Instead of begging for something, affirmative prayer states the truth of life. Affirmative prayer declares our unification with God. I believe we have everything we need. Affirmative prayer is a tool to anchor that belief. It is no longer whom I am praying to, it is where I am praying from. I am praying from a place of knowing that I am Love, Joy, Abundance, Wholeness, Peace, Order, Balance, Gratitude, Oneness, and Compassion. Affirmative prayer is a prayer field anchored by the universe, immersed in God.
This week’s Action Plan: All this week during your prayer time, practice affirmative prayer. Speak the truth of who you are. Say, “I am Abundance, Love, Joy, Grace, Compassion, Creativity, Wholeness, and Prosperity.” Take the time to journal your feelings and the vibration affirmative prayer gives you.
Skip Jennings & Gwen Keannelly
– Skip
This month we’ll focus on Faith, Hope Prayer and Gratitude as our theme with “Practice” being the key this week. Most researchers agree that to do something for 30 days in a routine can become part of your consciousness. I invite you this month to explore the practices that empower your life, experiencing prayer, meditation, affirmations, and a commitment to physical activity. It doesn’t matter what you believe; just know that there is one universal force that expresses itself in so many ways. For the next 30 days focus on the space we practice from, not who we practice to. Make a commitment to pray for your family and friends, and be grateful for the people in your life.
This week’s action plan. Throughout the week, take take all your cares and worries to prayer. Write a letter to God. Tell the Universe about what ails you. Now imagine a God bigger than your problems.
Skip Jennings & Gwen Keannelly
Today’s Vegan recipe, Curried Quinoa, is from my upcoming book, The Lotus Kitchen with Gwen Kenneally. Curry powder is famously known for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. In addition to the health benefits this dish is a textural delight. The crunch of slivered almonds, the chewy raisins, the snap of green peppers and the sweetness of the peas offer a pleasing and harmonious dance on the palate while the protein in the quinoa satisfies the need for protein.
In addition, most of the recipes in the book are paired with a practice and yoga balance piece and this one has one at the bottom of the recipe.
Enjoy,
-Skip
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• 2 cups quinoa
• 4 cups water
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
• ½ cup raisins
• 2 large tomatoes
• 4 carrots, grated
• 1 cup sweet peas
• 1 green bell pepper
• 4 teaspoons curry powder
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ½ cup cilantro, chopped
• Kosher Salt
In a good sized pot sauté quinoa kernels in a little bit of olive oil for 4 minutes, then pour in water, cover and let boil 15 minutes until absorbed. Cut up vegetables while you wait. When water is absorbed, fluff with a fork and add spices, vegetables (except for shredded carrots and cilantro), almonds and raisins. After stirring a good 30 seconds on heat, remove, dish into bowls, and garnish with carrots and cilantro. Serves 4-6
Quinoa is a fairly mild and bland grain until it’s seasoned. Curry is a hot spicy powder that you would likely not eat on its own. Separately they don’t work, but together they are the culinary Yin-Yang, balancing each other perfectly. Yoga is all about recognizing the balance. In a twisting lunge, you can feel the battle between stretching and strengthening. While one side is stretching the other side is releasing into a deep stretch until finally there is a realization that there is no battle at all, just the expression of pure balance.
Twisting Side-angle Pose (Parsvakonasana) Instruction: Coming from Warrior 1, place the hands into Namaste also knows and Anjali mudra (AHN-jah-lee MOO-dra) the praying hand position (hand over the heart). Lift the torso and twist towards the opposite side of the body, crossing the elbow over the knee, continuing to expand the twist by looking toward the sky.
Renew the MindToday, we close out the week renewing the mind. As we focus on our body connection the idea is to train the body and make the decision to renew and restore your thinking by aligning what you do with what you think. All physical practices are design for the renewing of the mind.
Today’s Affirmation: Just for this moment… just for this breath, say to yourself, “I renew my mind, body, and spirit with the Love of God”.
Have a terrific weekend,
-Skip