Good morning!
Well, last night I finally understood the ‘LOVE’ Part of Eat Pray Love! bahaha. I can’t wait to see how they cast for the role of her love interest in the movie…! He has a tall order to fill.
This morning, I started off my day in a strange manner.
I sat and I smiled.
That was it.
For ten– funny-awkward-uncomfortable-uplifting-memory inspiring-I don’t know if I can smile any longer– minutes.
I sat and I smiled.
Let me explain.
Wednesday night, I was reading Eat Pray Love.
[Side note: I know this is starting to sound like ‘One night at bandcamp’…but let’s just go with it.]
I was reading the Bali book and I came across the section where Ketut Liyer, the famous Bali Medicine Man, teaches Elizabeth a new way to meditate.
Ketut says: “To meditate, only you must smile. Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy. Even smile in your liver. Practice tonight at hotel. Not to hurry. not to try too hard. Too serious, you make you sick. You can calling the good energy with a smile…Let your conscience be your guide.” [p. 231]
When I read this part in the book I giggled to myself. Sitting and smiling? Was he joking? Obviously, I had to try it out and see what all the hype was about.
So I sat down on my yoga mat and I closed my eyes and smiled. I pretended I was smiling on a beach.
I laughed a little bit at the absurdity of it all. I thought about what Eric would say if he saw me there. He would shake his head and walk away secretly grinning to himself.
And then before I knew it, I started to feel relaxed…and calm…and happy. As soon as I started to smile, my mood lifted and happy memories starting popping into my head out of the blue. When my mouth got a bit tired, I just let it relax into a neutral, yet slightly uplifted, position.
It was the first time I have meditated and not felt pressure to halt all my thoughts. I just sat back and noticed the positive thoughts and energy filling my mind. It was quite an unusual yet relaxing way to start the morning!
I was feeling so good I decided it was a pancake kinda morning!
Blueberry Carob Pancakes
Adapted from Eat, Drink, & Be, Vegan.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup whole grain spelt flour
- Dash sea salt
- 3 tbsp carob powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2/3 cup Almond milk
- Oil, for greasing frying pan
- 1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen.
Directions: Grease and preheat a skillet over medium heat. Mix dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. In a small bowl, mix together wet ingredients (leaving out blueberries). Add wet to dry and whisk well. Stir in blueberries. Pour 1/3 of the batter onto a frying pan. Cook on one side until bubbles pop and then flip. Makes 3 medium-large sized pancakes.
I mashed a banana and layered it on top for the ‘syrup’ and I sprinkled some coconut and cacao nibs on for good measure!
Banana and blueberry = magic combo, no?
Then I stacked them and cut in half to show you the middle. Look at how gooey and delicious they are!
These were so good! I loved the combo of all the flavours. The blueberries, carob power, and spelt made these extra healthy pancakes too. No sugar high after eating these.
Have a great Friday (and start to your Civic Day long weekend if you are Canadian!!). I’m off for market madness!
Aww – sounds like a lovely morning – and those pancakes look delicious!
i’m loving the morning recipe-specific posts! it makes it so easy to find them again so i can make them :) these sound incredible…what’s the main difference between carob and cocoa powder taste-wise? i’d love to try it, but good ol’ chocolate always wins!
So glad you decided to give meditation another go!
Have a fantastic long weekend! I’m SO excited for it!!
Now I want to try the smiling thing!! :-D
OMG, a recipe like this just might get me eating some cooked food again. While I do eat the occasional cooked veggie, I’m mostly raw and happy. I never would’ve even considered eating pancakes again. I didn’t even eat them before I was a raw vegan, due to sensitivities to flour. I need to look into that spelt flour.
This would be a great winter weekend breakfast. Yuuuuuuuuummmm.
So many of your recipes might help me start to bridge the gap between my healthy eating, and my family’s full blown standard American diet. Thanks for the inspiration!!
Ten minutes to yourself followed by pancakes sounds like a good way to start Friday!!
What an interesting way to meditate. I have a hard time meditating because my thoughts just keep reeling but this might be better for me, since there is no pressure as long as you’re staying positive all over. :)
The pancakes look great! I had some vegan pancakes this morning and loved them. I thought they were so hearty.
The dark rich color of the pancakes has me drooling and thinking of pumpernickel!
I love that you sat and smiled and think I shall try I too!
Your recipes are all so great! You need to open a bakery or something. ;-)
This post and its title made me smile A LOT.
I love baking and cooking with blueberries — I love the way they explode and make everything blue/purple. So delicious too.
There is indeed power in just smiling — it makes me think of funny things, or touching moments, you know? No matter how bad of a mood I am in, J will try to make me laugh or smile. it works every time and I can quickly get over bad feelings.
Okay. I definitely need to buy carob powder! These look great. I can totally see how sitting and smiling for 10min would make you feel totally at ease and also let you laugh at yourself a little bit. :)
you are so stinkin’ cute. i’ll have to try…and i will also be imagining myself on a beach. :) my reward for finishing “animal spirits” (my required econ class read) is to get eat pray love. can’t wait!
Those pancakes look good. :)
I’ve gotta try that smiling thing… sounds interesting. :)
Mmmm…pancakes! I love blueberries, but can’t quite get into carob powder yet. My mom swears she doesn’t notice a difference between carob and cocoa. Maybe my taste buds aren’t trained yet?
Good luck with market preparations!
I think a smile has the power to change our mood and help others around us cheer up a bit too (for at least a moment). Today when I was out on a walk I tried to focus on smiling as much as possible and smiling to every single person I passed. It felt great!
I would feel odd though sitting in my room smiling nonstop 10 minutes straight though. But hey, if it works…why not?!
These pancakes look amazing! Everything about them makes me want to take back the oats I ate this morning and make those instead.
This part made me giggle: “…and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy.” I totally think smiling can lift my mood, but bringing good energy to clean out the dirty stuff? A little too New Agey for me.
What a coincidence! I just had these exact same pancakes this morning (minus the banana syrup). They are truly amazing! My VOO had gone a bit awry (too much protein powder), and tasted horrible, so I had to make these instead. And they were delish! Thank you for this pancake recipe, it is by far the best vegan one I’ve found.
I totally agree with Tina’s comment above about how smiling can change our mood!
I am so happy you started talking about Eat Pray Love because I have also just started reading it (still only in Italy!) but I too have had some of those laugh out loud moments that would probably make other people think I was crazy! Not sure if you remember it, but the bit when she’s eating lamb intestines with Luca Spaghetti, and he says that Ghandi could have eaten them, even though he was vegetarian….. I won’t write the rest because I don’t want to pollute your blog with profanity but that part had me almost in tears! :)
I’m at that part right now too! Have to say Ketut might be my fav character in the whole book. Can’t wait to try this for myself, if it does indeed work. I need it today!
What a great idea! I need some positive energy!
The pancakes look amazing!!