Banana oatmeal raisin walnut peanut butter spice vegan cookies

September 13th, 2009

The title lists most of the ingredients :) . I’ve been trying out various vegan recipes and came across one today which were pleasing to the eyes & taste-buds. I found the original recipe after a google search: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6605

I deviated, like always, from the original and have indicated my changes in brackets. Let me know if you try it and how they go for you!

Ingredients (use vegan versions) [umm, all of these ingredients are vegan by default i think]:
1  mashed banana [I used 2]
1 cup of brown sugar [I used 1/2 brown + 1/2 brown rice syrup + tablespoon of maple syrup]
1/2 of a cup of regular sugar [i left this out and reckoned that second banana would do the trick]
slightly less than 1/3 of a cup [about 1/4 of a cup plus 1 teaspoon) of oil (jumped the gun and used 1/3 exact, will hold back a bit next time]
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract [used 1]
1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon [eyed it, prob bit less or just 1. also added: allpsice, cardamom, nutmeg - all by feel/smell]
1 1/2 cups of flour [used whole wheat pastry flour]
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 of a teaspoon of salt
2 cups plus one my-sized handful (about 1/4 of a cup) of oats [so runny that i added another two handfuls at end]
3 tablespoons of water plus maybe a few more drops [didn't measure - used dash of soy milk, dash of water]
[handful + 1/2 of raisins, small handful of walnuts]
[single heaping or two spoons of peanut butter]

Directions:
Mix the vegan brown sugar, vegan sugar [or other replacement sweeteners], oil, and water [have personally never come across non-vegan sugar...].  Add the banana and vanilla [I mashed bananas afte adding it, but it might do well to mash them up well first].  then mix in the already pre-mixed together mixture of flour, baking soda, cinnamon [and other spices], and salt.  Stir in the oats.  If it is too thin, let stand a bit so the oats can absorb the excess liquid [hmm, i just added more oats].  Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 13 minutes [this time was just right, even 12 would do].  To check if they are done, flip one over and it should be browned.  Rip off a chunk to see it it is still raw.  I usually let them sit a bit before I take them off the cookie sheet because, well, I do not really know, but it makes me not cook them too long because they finish cooking outside of the oven.  I should mention to drop them by the tablespoon.

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i was told to move like a dragon

August 14th, 2009
Image by Xonkdesign*

Image by Xonkdesign*

I just had an(other) awesome kung-fu class today. Practicing pa kua, one of the internal styles of kung-fu, Master Joe came over and reminded me the body “moves like a dragon” in this particular form. It really transformed  how I moved and felt. Limbs naturally shifted position to allow for fluidity. Mind shifted in attitude in a similar way. I came home completely energized, ate dinner, washed all the dishes, super good wipe-down of the kitchen and then went for the broom! I love sweeping after a good class; it just feels different holding and moving it. It transforms the chore into a playful game of smooth movements, jabs, and awareness.

Learning martial arts, kung-fu in particular, is one of the most fortuitous decisions I made in life. Physical education, at least in public school, never ventured to teach the principles I learned in a few weeks of this art. Consider the following:

How do I:

  • breathe
  • think
  • stand
  • move

What are my:

  • strengths
  • weakness
  • fears
  • ambitions

Regarding my potential:

  • how much am i manifesting?
  • how do I increase it?

Shaolin-Do made me aware of these questions and provided knowledge in the form of techniques to experience and develop various aspects of myself. I began to see the personality of the animal styles as components of myself; naturally resonating with some and resisting others. Principles learned on the mat were applicable to all aspects of my life. If you get a chance to experience a class, even if just once, I highly recommend it. It could change the direction of your life.

*Credit for picture goes to Xonkdesign from this page.

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Learn Kung-Fu and Tai-Chi in Austin

August 14th, 2009

If you live in Austin and have been contemplating learning martial arts, there will be an open house at the North and South locations of Austin Shaolin-Do Kung Fu and Tai Chi this Saturday, August 15th. Come see demos and learn self-defense techniques from the instructors. It makes for an awesome & unique field trip if you have kids (and if you don’t)! It’s one of the best choices I made for self-development (read why)…

Starts at 1pm for Kung Fu and 2pm for Tai Chi.

North Location: 512-339-8978 2136 Rutland Dr, Suite D-1

South Location: 512-326-2989 3005 S. Lamar

Click here for more pics.

Theyre about to throw a front kick after blocking the groin and head.

They're about to throw a front kick after blocking the groin and head!

http://www.austinkungfu.com/images/pages/list_items/00000099.JPG

Theyre about to throw a front kick after blocking head and groin!

They're about to throw a front kick after blocking head and groin!

Posted in austin, kung-fu, tai-chi | No Comments »

Rice Field Art – amazing!

August 14th, 2009

Have you ever seen flower gardens which blossomed into beautiful, colorful shapes or images? The artwork below is the same concept using rice. The detail and style of the images stunned me. Thanks Johanna for sharing this with me!

————————-

AWESOME ART  WORK

Pretty amazing work of art!
(How do you step back and make those final  touches?)
Stunning crop art has sprung up across rice  fields in Japan.
But this is no alien creation – the designs  have been cleverly planted.

Farmers creating the huge displays use no  ink or dye. Instead,
different colours of rice plants have been  precisely and strategically arranged and grown in the paddy  fields.

As summer progresses and the plants shoot up, the  detailed artwork begins to emerge.


A Sengoku warrior on horseback has been created  from hundreds of thousands of rice plants,

 the colours created by using different  varieties, in Inakadate in Japan

The largest and  finest work is grown in the Aomori  village of  Inakadate, 600  miles north of Toyko,

 where the tradition began in  1993.

The village has now earned a reputation for its  agricultural artistry and this year

 the enormous pictures of Napoleon and a  Sengoku-period warrior,
both on horseback, are visible in a pair of  fields adjacent to the town hall.

More than 150,000 vistors  come to Inakadate,

 where just 8,700 people live, every summer to  see the extraordinary murals.

Each year hundreds of  volunteers and villagers

 plant four different varieties of rice in late  May across huge swathes of paddy fields.


Napolean on horseback can be seen from the  skies,

 created by precision planting and months of  planning between villagers and farmers in Inkadate


Fictional warrior Naoe Kanetsugu and his wife  Osen appear in fields in the town of Yonezawa, Japan

And over the  past few years, other villages have joined in with the plant  designs.

Another famous rice paddy art venue is in the town of  Yonezawa in the Yamagata  prefecture.

This year’s design shows the fictional 16th-century  samurai warrior Naoe Kanetsugu and his wife,

 Osen, whose lives feature in television series  Tenchijin.

Various artwork has popped up in other rice-farming  areas of Japan this year,

 including designs of deer dancers.

Smaller works of crop art can be seen in other  rice-farming areas of Japan such as this image of  Doraemon and deer dancers

The farmers create the murals by  planting little purple and yellow-leafed kodaimai rice

 along with their local green-leafed tsugaru  roman variety to create the coloured patterns between planting and  harvesting in September.

The murals in Inakadate cover 15,000  square metres of paddy fields.

 From ground level, the designs are invisible,  and viewers have to climb the mock castle tower of the village office to  get a glimpse of the work.

Rice-paddy art was started there in  1993 as a local revitalization project, an idea that grew out of  meetings of the village committee.



Closer to the image, the careful placement of  thousands of rice plants in the paddy fields can be  seen


The different varieties of rice plant grow  alongside each other to create the masterpieces

In the first nine  years, the village office workers and local farmers grew a simple design  of Mount  Iwaki every  year.

But their ideas grew more complicated and attracted  more attention.

 In 2005 agreements between landowners allowed  the creation of enormous rice paddy art.

A year later,  organisers used computers to precisely plot planting of the four  differently colored rice varieties that bring the images to  life.

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teaching yoga in austin

August 13th, 2009

http://yoga.kaanchan.net/austin

sankalpa: intention, resolve

well, this sankalpa is about to make full circle (and a half). the seeds of yoga were planted in me by swami vivekananda (of ramakrishna order, via his printed lectures)  in nepal around 1998. in austin i took classes and began making steps to become a yoga practitioner and teacher. during this last trip to nepal i became an accredited teacher in Satyananda Yoga. and now, if i can gather enough students, i’ll be teaching in about a week! it only took 10 years :)

i smile recalling a saying from Swami Satyananda – “all may fail but the sankalpa will not fail” (i’ll have to look up the exact wording…)

oh yeah, if you know anyone in austin interested in learning fundamental yoga practices, point them here: http://yoga.kaanchan.net/austin

aum

peace

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Idea: Request local libraries to subscribe to Yoga Magazine

August 4th, 2009

*This post is a work in progress. Comments will be read and integrated as applicable.*

Background: Yoga Magazine shares yogic knowledge and content on a monthly basis. The content is searchable online in addition to the standard paper format. Articles range from personal, direct from masters, research, and more.

Goal: The intention of this effort to persuade local libraries to purchase a subscription to this journal. If, for whatever reason(s), the library will not purchase a subscription, the next goal is to have them accept a donated subscription.

Approach: In the context of Austin, TX, there are two main library types. One is the public library system and the other is the university library system. The first appeals to the general public and the latter to a scholarly or academic audience. In both cases the approach is the following:

  1. Find out if a subscription is already purchased.
  2. If a subscription is not in place, inquire about procedure for requesting a journal/subscription. Two common ways discovered thus far are:
    • Send a proposal to the periodicals librarian for the library.
    • Make an online request via the libraries websiteIn both the above cases, it is useful to have a proposal which outlines the benefits library users will gain by having this journal available. The proposal should correlate how the magazine content addresses the audience’s needs and even the libraries’ intentions (research library may differ from public library, for example). Proposals which have been written and sent so far can be found here – <todo: insert link for past proposals on GoogleDocs>. Be sure to include contact/purchase options if the proposal passes.

Challenges: todo

Outcomes: todo

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Vegan Golden Vanilla Cake

August 3rd, 2009

Thanks Lisa for this recipe!

It turned out well. If the batter seems runny, let it sit 5 minutes, it thickens just fine after a bit. I replaced whole wheat flour for all purpose which made it less light, but still tasty enough to have three in a row!

I haven’t tried the frosting, yet. Let me know how this works you for y’all…

aum

—

Vegan Golden Vanilla Cake

2 Cups soymilk

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

2 ½ cups all purpose flour

4 tablespoons cornstarch

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2/3 cup canola oil

1 ½ cup sugar (can reduce to 1 ¼ )

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ teaspoon almond extract

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 176 C, and lightly grease baking pan (if using non –stick baking pan oil isn’t necessary)
  2. Whisk the soy milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside a few minutes to get good and curdled (meaning it will thicken)
  3. Beat together the soy milk mixture, oil, sugar, vanilla, and other extracts, in a large bowl. Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda , and salt and mix until no large lumps remain (a few lumps is ok, don’t over mix the batter or bubbles will develop in the baking)
  4. Fill the baking pan two-thirds of the way and bake for 20-22 minutes till done. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.

Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting (Good with Golden Vanilla Cake)

Ingredients

½ cup vegan margarine

1 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar

1 ¼ teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons soymilk

Directions

Beat the margarine until soft and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes. Add the vanilla and soymilk, beat for another 5 minutes until fluffy. Chill, and spread over cake.

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Where did that idea go?

August 3rd, 2009

Background: I settled for bed the other night with a yoga nidra recording playing. As I continued to relax an idea floated to the surface. It wasn’t just any idea, it was an insight, something worth noting, something worth blogging about! It was so good I told myself, “don’t get out of bed, you’ll remember it tomorrow.” So I repeated it one last time to myself, and smiling, continued the yoga nidra.

Yes, you can guess the rest. I woke up the next mornin recalling I’d had a geat idea but the idea itself was nowhere to be found. So for two days now I’ve given my subconscious the mission to find and retrieve it, but no word yet…

Observations: I’ve noted on multiple occasions that memories in the waking state, are non-existent or challenging to recall in the dream state. When we can remember waking memories in dreams, this indicates greater lucidity and is a solid technique for triggering lucid dreams. And dream memories, e.g. dreams themselves, have a slippery quality. How often have you woken up from a dream only to have the details evaporate in seconds. Finally, I have also been aware of recalling previous dreams from within a dream; the memory seemed readily accessible.

Hypothesis: These experiences suggest to me that memories are stored in different spaces in the mind based on the mental state when the initial impression/thought/experience occurred. Waking in waking memory bank, dream in dream m.b. , deep in deep … And more specifically, maybe it works in terms of brain wave states: alpha, beta, theta, delta.

Hence, to get that idea back, I should try getting back into alpha (relaxed, reflecting). What are your experiences with memory retrieval in different states?


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Wisdom from the Dhammapadda

July 25th, 2009

Bhante Seelagawesi shared the following verses from chapter three of the  Dhammapadda, English translation, which I like very much. I made a simple recording of these verses for joy of listening to this wisdom over and over again (please excuse quality of the sound).

[Click here to download recording]

33. Just as a fletcher straightens an arrow shaft, even so the discerning man straightens his mind — so fickle and unsteady, so difficult to guard.

34. As a fish when pulled out of water and cast on land throbs and quivers, even so is this mind agitated. Hence should one abandon the realm of Mara.

35. Wonderful, indeed, it is to subdue the mind, so difficult to subdue, ever swift, and seizing whatever it desires. A tamed mind brings happiness.

36. Let the discerning man guard the mind, so difficult to detect and extremely subtle, seizing whatever it desires. A guarded mind brings happiness.

37. Dwelling in the cave (of the heart), the mind, without form, wanders far and alone. Those who subdue this mind are liberated from the bonds of Mara.

38. Wisdom never becomes perfect in one whose mind is not steadfast, who knows not the Good Teaching and whose faith wavers.

39. There is no fear for an awakened one, whose mind is not sodden (by lust) nor afflicted (by hate), and who has gone beyond both merit and demerit. [6]

40. Realizing that this body is as fragile as a clay pot, and fortifying this mind like a well-fortified city, fight out Mara with the sword of wisdom. Then, guarding the conquest, remain unattached.

41. Ere long, alas! this body will lie upon the earth, unheeded and lifeless, like a useless log.

42. Whatever harm an enemy may do to an enemy, or a hater to a hater, an ill-directed mind inflicts on oneself a greater harm.

43. Neither mother, father, nor any other relative can do one greater good than one’s own well-directed mind.

“Cittavagga: The Mind” (Dhp III), translated from the Pali by Acharya Buddharakkhita. Access to Insight, June 7, 2009, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.03.budd.html.

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Cleaned the inside-outside of this donut we call a body

March 20th, 2009

Our body is like a donut in that a hole runs through the center of it – mount (&nose) to anus. The entire inner lining can be viewed as the outer surface. Now we clean the exterior surface of our bodies pretty regularly, so why not this tube that runs through us? It actually contains some of the grimiest stuff <imagine the grime at this point until I insert some pics :) >.

There is a yogic cleansing technique, or shatkarma, called laghoo shankhaprakshalana. It involves drinking salt water, doing specific exercises, and after three rounds, sitting on the toilet. All the water will come out. Not in the form of urine but straight from the anus! It’s pretty amazing.

The second stage involves drinking salt water then regurgitating it immediately,  either by abdominal muscle control or with the aid of a finger.

Finally, the nasal passages are irrigated with the help of a neti pot.

By the end of the process, which takes about an hour or less, your cleaned end to end.

We performed the cleanse this morning as the weather is warm and suitable for the practice. The body feels very light and clean. I ate breakfast at 7am and passed it out at 6:30pm, fully digested!

– Please don’t take the description above as steps to do it yourself. The cleanse should be done under the guidance of a qualified and experienced teacher! Aum

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