With Thanksgiving coming up next week, I wanted to share my idea of a raw salad dressing with you. I have tried one salad dressing called Liquid Gold Elixir from page 102 of The Raw Food Detox Diet and I didn't like it. It called for lemon juice, garlic cloves, ginger, soy sauce, raw honey and olive oil. To me the lemon and soy sauce were too strong of a taste. I don't really care that much for oil and vinegar salad dressings and the taste of this one was similar to that. I like Ranch salad dressing on my salads. On page 113 of The Raw Food Detox Diet there is a recipe for Raw Ranch Dressing but I haven't tried to make it yet.
I started experimenting and came up with the following recipe with avocados that I especially like. That is the fun part of eating raw---experimenting with new ways of combining foods.
Avocado Salad Dressing:
In a blender, combine the following ingredients and Pulse until well blended.
2 avocados
juice of 1 lemon
1 cup water
1 teaspoon (or to taste) McCormick Lemon and Herb Seasoning
6 Tablespoons (more or less to suit your taste) honey
Store in the refrigerator. You can also add any other herbs that you like. So far, I have added dill weed and celery seeds.
Avocados are good and good for you. I am working to include more raw foods into my diet. Stephen Hopson from Adversity University ( http://www.adversityuniversityblog.com/2008/11/20/end-of-the-week-gratitude-theme-53/ )has been my inspiration for including more raw foods into my diet.
The Singleton clan is coming to our house for Thanksgiving. They haven't been here in two years for Thanksgiving so the house is getting a thorough reorganizing and cleaning. I am looking forward to their visit. I am still making the traditional Thanksgiving Dinner for everyone else. I will eat my salads and raw veggies and fruits along with a Quorn meatless and soy-free turk'y roast that I bought for myself. With The Raw Food Detox Diet, I can still have the turk'y roast as long as I eat it for supper. Natalia Rose uses food combining in her book. I was already familiar with the concept of food combining from years ago.
To all of my American readers, I wish for you a glorious Thanksgiving Day with family and friends.
Patricia
Friday, November 21, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
A Week Of Introspection
I don't get my feelings hurt by another person very often because somethings just aren't that important. Today I did and I immediately felt tears come to my eyes and start to fall. As a person who was raised to not feel, I don't always know what to do. Just letting myself cry seems wrong to me somehow so I stop the tears.
It seems this has been a week of introspection. Here are the thoughts that have been going through my mind. Maybe some of you have the answers. I don't.
When the tears started, I was feeling left out and unworthy and little---little as in a disappointed child, a hurt child who was feeling left out and not good enough. Even writing this, the tears want to come. Why does it always come back to the inner child who obviously still hasn't healed? I guess that I just answered part of the question. How long does it take to heal the inner child? Will she ever be completely healed? Will she always be hanging around waiting for someone else to come along and hurt her? I don't know how to change any of that. As much work as I have done on myself, the inner feelings still wait in ambush to spring out of hiding when she is given the next opportunity to express her hurt. It isn't as if the hurt hasn't been expressed over and over again through the years of counseling and talking. Does it ever completely go away or change to joy and laughter? Can you have joy and laughter without the hurt and tears?
Is it as simple as making a decision to stop hurting? Is it as simple as deciding to not feel empty and worthless any more? If I decide to just feel happy am I being true to myself or am I just in denial of what I really feel?
I can feel like I am happier than I have ever been for awhile. Then sadness starts to creep in. Is this the way life is because we live in a world of duality as some religions teach. Can you really be happy all the time? I haven't found that to be true for me.
Can I stop myself from getting my feelings hurt by a simple decision to not feel that way? Am I not being true to myself by not feeling hurt and let down? Feelings are such a mystery to me.
Patricia
It seems this has been a week of introspection. Here are the thoughts that have been going through my mind. Maybe some of you have the answers. I don't.
When the tears started, I was feeling left out and unworthy and little---little as in a disappointed child, a hurt child who was feeling left out and not good enough. Even writing this, the tears want to come. Why does it always come back to the inner child who obviously still hasn't healed? I guess that I just answered part of the question. How long does it take to heal the inner child? Will she ever be completely healed? Will she always be hanging around waiting for someone else to come along and hurt her? I don't know how to change any of that. As much work as I have done on myself, the inner feelings still wait in ambush to spring out of hiding when she is given the next opportunity to express her hurt. It isn't as if the hurt hasn't been expressed over and over again through the years of counseling and talking. Does it ever completely go away or change to joy and laughter? Can you have joy and laughter without the hurt and tears?
Is it as simple as making a decision to stop hurting? Is it as simple as deciding to not feel empty and worthless any more? If I decide to just feel happy am I being true to myself or am I just in denial of what I really feel?
I can feel like I am happier than I have ever been for awhile. Then sadness starts to creep in. Is this the way life is because we live in a world of duality as some religions teach. Can you really be happy all the time? I haven't found that to be true for me.
Can I stop myself from getting my feelings hurt by a simple decision to not feel that way? Am I not being true to myself by not feeling hurt and let down? Feelings are such a mystery to me.
Patricia
Thursday, November 6, 2008
The Power Of Your Words
"There is power in the words that we speak. Whether we speak words of encouragement and wisdom to one another or words that bring tears to someone's eyes, we acknowledge the power of words." From Marianne Williamson on A Course in Miracles at Oprah.
The above statement by Marianne Williamson and A Course in Miracles is true whether you are speaking those words to others or speaking those words to yourself. My words to myself over the past few days have been very negative with the result that I feel like someone has died inside of me. What is the topic that I have been dealing with in my mind the last few days? Judgments about myself that I was afraid a friend might make if she came to visit as she planned to do to see our Fall colors this week.
I have an older friend who wants to come to visit and see our gorgeous Fall colors. I am supposed to call her and let her know what it is the right time---when the colors are at their peak. Well that is this week. I haven't called her---why? Because my house is a mess. It is not up to company, by whose standards---mine. In my heart, I know that my friend isn't coming to visit my house. She is coming to visit me and no matter how bad my house looks, she won't say anything about it.
So where is the judgment coming from? Inside of my head, I hear my dad telling me how bad of a housekeeper and person I am. I am not a good housekeeper. I am a collector of things and of information so I have books and papers in stacks around my computer, my bookshelves and the couch where I sit at night to read and watch TV. I know that doesn't make me a bad person except that I still sometimes hear that voice in my head that says I am. Most of the time, it doesn't bother me and I know it isn't true. Other times, like this week, it does get to me. There are other things that I would rather do than housekeeping all the time. So I collect and stack until even I can't ignore it any longer, then I sort and put away and throw away and clean until all of the stacks are gone. Then I start all over again. I am not really lazy. There are just so many other things that I would rather be doing.
Now you know my biggest secret that you didn't know (unless you have visited my house unannounced). It doesn't bother me as much as it used to. I have learned that my friends will love me anyway no matter what my house looks like.
Why am I writing this? I started out fearing being judged by my friend. Then as I worked it out in my head, I realized that the judgments weren't about my friend. They were about me. Some part of me is still judging me by the standards that came from my dad when I was a child. I bought into his garbage then and I still am today. Yes, I could be a better housekeeper. I could hire someone to help out if I needed to. That isn't the real issue.
The real issue is the value that I put on myself, how I feel about myself inside. The real issue is the words spoken inside my head that still say "I am a bad person because . . ." I am not a bad person because of what my house looks like or doesn't look like. Any person that judges me for what my house looks like isn't a real friend anyway. I don't have any friends that judge me that way. I was doing it to myself, again. It always surprises me, these days, when I find a negative tape from my childhood that is still affecting me as an adult. This is another instance where I just need to love myself though the hurt until I can know that I am a good, loving person no matter what my background of abuse is. I will not continue to be a victim of that childhood.
Do you still have any of these tapes that occasionally catch you by surprise?
Patricia
The above statement by Marianne Williamson and A Course in Miracles is true whether you are speaking those words to others or speaking those words to yourself. My words to myself over the past few days have been very negative with the result that I feel like someone has died inside of me. What is the topic that I have been dealing with in my mind the last few days? Judgments about myself that I was afraid a friend might make if she came to visit as she planned to do to see our Fall colors this week.
I have an older friend who wants to come to visit and see our gorgeous Fall colors. I am supposed to call her and let her know what it is the right time---when the colors are at their peak. Well that is this week. I haven't called her---why? Because my house is a mess. It is not up to company, by whose standards---mine. In my heart, I know that my friend isn't coming to visit my house. She is coming to visit me and no matter how bad my house looks, she won't say anything about it.
So where is the judgment coming from? Inside of my head, I hear my dad telling me how bad of a housekeeper and person I am. I am not a good housekeeper. I am a collector of things and of information so I have books and papers in stacks around my computer, my bookshelves and the couch where I sit at night to read and watch TV. I know that doesn't make me a bad person except that I still sometimes hear that voice in my head that says I am. Most of the time, it doesn't bother me and I know it isn't true. Other times, like this week, it does get to me. There are other things that I would rather do than housekeeping all the time. So I collect and stack until even I can't ignore it any longer, then I sort and put away and throw away and clean until all of the stacks are gone. Then I start all over again. I am not really lazy. There are just so many other things that I would rather be doing.
Now you know my biggest secret that you didn't know (unless you have visited my house unannounced). It doesn't bother me as much as it used to. I have learned that my friends will love me anyway no matter what my house looks like.
Why am I writing this? I started out fearing being judged by my friend. Then as I worked it out in my head, I realized that the judgments weren't about my friend. They were about me. Some part of me is still judging me by the standards that came from my dad when I was a child. I bought into his garbage then and I still am today. Yes, I could be a better housekeeper. I could hire someone to help out if I needed to. That isn't the real issue.
The real issue is the value that I put on myself, how I feel about myself inside. The real issue is the words spoken inside my head that still say "I am a bad person because . . ." I am not a bad person because of what my house looks like or doesn't look like. Any person that judges me for what my house looks like isn't a real friend anyway. I don't have any friends that judge me that way. I was doing it to myself, again. It always surprises me, these days, when I find a negative tape from my childhood that is still affecting me as an adult. This is another instance where I just need to love myself though the hurt until I can know that I am a good, loving person no matter what my background of abuse is. I will not continue to be a victim of that childhood.
Do you still have any of these tapes that occasionally catch you by surprise?
Patricia
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