Afro-Therapeutic Movement and Dance! Healthy eating is just a part of the equation.

Come check me out on April 19th, 2010 at the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge.  My Afro-Therapeutic Dance and Movement workshop is a great way to get your body moving and release tension and stress at the same time.  Healthy eating is just a part of it.  You have to nourish the whole body with not only diet but also with some form of movement.  Click on the link below to get more information and register.   I hope to see you there.


Afro-Therapeutic Movement and Dance Registration

Genetically modified food information

Here is some information on the subject from a great company, Berlin Natural Bakery!  http://bit.ly/d9fdpM           

Healing the Body, Mind, and Spirit in the South.

What you will see here in this blog is a culmination of the past 20 years of training in the fields of Ballet and Modern Dance, Dance Movement Therapy, Pilates, Yoga, Reiki, and Intuitive Cooking. My writing has been featured in Tavis Smiley's book "Keeping the Faith", I've been on Dr. Phil. My local newspaper did a story on my vegetarian cooking, and I was offered a scholarship for a weeklong cooking intensive in Colorado. My life has been rich and grand and at this point I feel it is time to truly share it with the world. This world we live in is changing rapidly and as jobs and healthcare transform, so do we, the people whose contract states that this is our time. With transformation, there are some growing pains, we all have them, but know on the other end there is strength and a story that will help others move their mountains. Right now, it is imperative that we take care of ourselves, body, mind, and spirit; the food that we eat, the words that we speak, the energy we expend with our bodies. My heart is ready to open and help others walk onto a new path. I have been down many roads and have been blessed with teachers who have assisted me in building my arsenal of awesome tools. In Dr. Wayne Dyers book on the Tao he talks about filling a need, being of service. Many people here in the South need healthy tools for better living. So my prayer for now is that the Universe guide me and help me to help as many people as I can begin to walk a path toward healing, body, mind, and spirit.

New Video!

Check out the new video of me and my oldest cooking something yummy!  Videos are to the left.

It's a food to love thing: Lasagna!

I love to experiment with food.  It's my therapy, it's my passion!  The other day my son asked if I was

going to cook a Lasagna.  I hadn't planned on it but ran out to the store to get some ingredients for the project.  No shopping list I thought about what I wanted in this particular batch.  Hmmm, sometimes you have to go with what you feel when you cook.  Recipes are fine but once you get the feel for them, add your own personality to the dish.  Don't be afraid.  I bet you will find you come up with some tasty treats for your family that become a signature dish that gets handed down to your kids and then theirs.  Cooking should be fun, not a chore.  When I don't feel like cooking I order out or bake some chick'n patties with fries.  I sometimes think people are so afraid they are going to get it wrong.  If you just trust in  yourself and your ability to create, your dishes will turn out just fine.  Here are some pics of my Lasagna layer by layer.  Note the cheeze used is hand made and is what I use for my Mac and Cheeze.  Here is the recipe:

3/4 cup of flour
3/4 cup of nutritional yeast
1/2 cup safflower or any vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups of vegetable broth plus more to thin the sauce when necessary ( I use bullion cubes)
2 tsp mustard
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp paprika
a few dashes of nutmeg
salt and white pepper to taste
( you can adjust the taste as needed)

In a large saucepan toast the flour and nutritional yeast over a low heat until it smells nutty.( Do not burn or the sauce will taste funny).  Add oil and stir until fully incorporated (if not fully coated add a little more oil).  With a large whisk, whisk in the vegetable broth carefully.  You don't want to have any lumps so keep whisking.  If the sauce is very thick add more broth.  You want it to coat a spoon and drip off a little.  Not too think, but not too watery.  Next add your flavorings, mustard, garlic powder, paprika, nutmeg, salt and pepper.  Adjust as necessary.  Once finished pour on noodles for mac and cheeze or pour on layers for lasagna.

Also for my almond Parmesan which is the topping on my Lasagna:
Equal parts ground almonds and nutritional yeast.  Dash of salt and any type of pepper to taste.

Black Eyed Peas and Broccoli

Greetings from South Louisiana!  It's beautiful here, still a bit of a chill in the air but very nice.  I am finally getting around to posting my dinner adventures from a few weeks ago.  Check out the You Tube video to the left and watch a snippet of what I cooked.  Acutally it started cooking a mushroom gravy.  Sauteeing some mushrooms with onions and other aromatics, adding a touch of flour, then adding some vegetable broth to make a gravy.  Then I realized that I didn't have enough to feed everyone so I found two bags of frozen black eyed peas to add to the mix, added more water, seasoned to taste and voila'!  I have a pressure cooker so the 45 minutes it would have taken to cook the peas only took 20.   Add some broccoli as a side dish with a salad and you got some good eatin' there. 

I also cooked spaghetti that night with Nate's meatless meatballs.  Sometimes I try to cook a lot in one night so I can take a day or two break from cooking. Check out the pics, Enjoy!

Farmers Market Finds

New video time!  Just a short blurb about things at my local farmer's market. It should be to your left or on You Tube, southernveggirl.   I love that place, always nice people and good things to eat.  Also check out my pics.  From the top clockwise:  Local orange farmer, my favorite health food market, creole tomatoes, my farmers market finds, Ponchatoula strawberries.  Enjoy!