"Your mind is society's garbage bin" - Sadhguru

Bahn Mi Recipe (vegan or non-veg options)

Some of my absolute favorite flavors come from Vietnam.  Mind you I have never personally been there but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy all of the tastes from that region.  I mean the first time I had a big steamy bowl of Pho I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Or how about mock duck rice noodle salad- dreamy.  Then when I discovered Bahn Mi sandwiches I was beside myself.

 Until several years ago, Vietnamese restaurants were in regular rotation for going out.  My husband and I used to have a favorite Vietnamese restaurant that we would probably go to twice a month if not more.  Then the unthinkable happened- MSG. It was a beautiful summer night, we had just got done eating a satisfying bowl of veggie Pho and decided to enjoy the summer breeze with a stroll around the local lake.  As we were walking I started to notice that my hands were feeling swollen, but passed it off to the humidity.  About half way around the lake I mentioned something to my husband about how tight and swollen my hands were feeling and he said his hands were feeling the same way.  By the time we made it 3/4 of the way around I felt like a bonefide swollen sausage stuffed in it's casing.  And not just my hands but my whole body!  We laughed, we cried, we tried to get around of the rest of the lake in this miserable state. Darn you MSG!  I actually felt this way for 3 days!  That's a long time to feel stuffed and miserable.  And so from that day forth I have sworn off all MSG which means there are just a few Asian restaurants I will go to now.  They have to state, "no MSG" somewhere on the menus or I will call in advance and ask if they use MSG.  It's just not worth taking the risk.

If you don't already know MSG or Monosodium Glutamate, is a flavor enhancer and food additive that is put in many processed foods.  It is also extremely bad for you and cause for much concern. One of the best overviews of the very real dangers of MSG comes from Dr. Russell Blaylock, a board-certified neurosurgeon and author of “Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills.” In it he explains that MSG is an excitotoxin, which means it overexcites your cells to the point of damage or death, causing brain damage to varying degrees -- and potentially even triggering or worsening learning disabilities, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease and more. YIKES!  From personal experience I know it to cause bloating, swelling, depression, mood swings, and I once had a friend who's mom cooked with it a lot and she said it made her eyebrows fall out.  This is definitely something to watch out for.  A word of advice, food should heal not kill.

The upside to all this is now I make all of these amazing dishes at home MSG free. Today I am going to share my recipe for Bahn Mi.  This is a meat filled sandwich, with Vietnamese flavors on a French baguette. Usually they are made with pork, chicken or sometimes beef but I am making it with seitan (mock duck).  Of course this recipe will work with any protein of your choice.  This is the kind of sandwich you really want to sink your teeth into and it will have you craving for more.

Vegan Bahn Mi Recipe(can be made non-veg with meat of choice)

For Slaw
2 large carrots
2-3 large diakon radish (same size as carrots), can substitute parsnips or turnips
1 small apple
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
3 Tbs maple syrup
2 Tbs siracha
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup cilantro (optional)

Thinly slice, julienne, or grate the the carrots, diakon and apple.  Place them in a zip lock bag then add the rest of the ingredients.  Close the bag and shake well until everything is thoroughly mixed.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. (This in effect pickles the vegetables and will last in your fridge up to 3 weeks.  It is also makes an excellent flavor addition to many types of sandwiches)

For Seitan (protein option)
2-3 cups seitan (or meat of choice), cut into slices not too small
3/4 cup water or broth
1/4 cup soy ( Braggs liquid aminos or tamari sauce also work)
2 Tbs molasses
2 Tbs maple syrup
1/2 tsp siracha
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
2 Tbs toasted sesame oil

Add all the liquid together and mix.  Place seitan (meat) in cast iron skillet in a single layer.  You may need to make it in two batches.  Pour half the liquid over and cook on med-low until liquid is cooked off and seitan has texture. Set aside.

Other Ingredients

1 big loaf of baguette bread
cilantro sprigs
spinach
mayo or veganaise
red or yellow peppers sliced (optional)
extra siracha

Really this is your sandwich you can put anything you want on it.  After the slaw and seitan/meat are done build your sandwich to your liking. Bon appetite!



 

Silence- the medicine of healers

Whether you know me in person or just from reading this blog you may have noticed I am slightly obsessed with relaxation, quiet, silence. I didn't used to be this way.  In fact quite the opposite.  I used to be the type that always had to be doing something. Usually, 3 things at a time.  It was also at this time in my life that I was the most unhealthy (even though I told myself otherwise).  Doing was the norm for me and this idea of just being was a completely foreign concept. I was like most people are  nowadays because to be slow, restful, quiet or silent is almost a sin in our modern age.  Well guess what I have learned these last couple of years? All this go go going and constantly doing is killing us! Literally.

The brain is a very sophisticated computer.  There is built in software and programmed software. All of us get some of the same software but then as we grow we begin to do our own programming from our thoughts, teachings, habits, etc.  You don't need to tell your heart to pump it is already pre-programmed to do so involuntarily.  In yoga dis-ease in the body could be considered as bad programming. 

 Yoga explains that at the bottom of all thinking is a state of  SILENCE- the abode of bliss, knowledge, freedom and energy.  This is our casual state.  The nearer you go to it the greater the bliss and energy.  To be happy and cheerful, to be healthy and ever enthusiastic is our birth right.  All other conditions are superficial.  They are at the surface level, the gross level.  And in the right sense therefore it is all artificial, unnatural.  To be unhappy, miserable, anxious etc. is unnatural.

You may not believe it.  You may not care for such wisdom.  But as we say, please be a scientist.  Experiment on it.   If it works, take it, or else leave it. -Swami Vivekanada

For most, the idea that bliss, knowledge, freedom, health and energy are our natural states seems like a foreign and unrealistic ideal.  However, yoga is a science.  In order to truly know a thing you must have experience with it.  Do not take anybody's word for it- not even mine. Here's an example.  Say you want to learn calculus.  You are given a problem and also the option of being given the answer to the problem.  Would you know calculus if you just simply repeated the answer you were given?  Or would you learn it by doing it yourself?  Life is the same way.  If someone tells you that this is the way, or the answer, or the solution but you have no experience with that how do you know it is true?  See most of us operate on blind faith in others.  If doctor says you have 6 months to live, who said you have to believe him?  Has he lived in your body, with your thoughts, faith, life-style, or resolve?  He is just making an educated guess.  You are the only one who can truly know the truth.  Your truth.  But how do you know your truth unless you experiment, experience, try, work-it-out, dive in, discover, fail, learn and grow?  How do you know what or who you are unless you go in to find out?  If I told you that the square root of 4576 is 12, would you automatically believe me because I posted it in a blog?  Is it easier to take someone else's answers as your own rather than do the work yourself?  Going in and getting silent is the process of learning your true self - happy, healthy, wise, full of energy etc.

Tension is who we are trying to be, relaxation is who we are.

Unhappiness, dis-ease, misery etc. are all surface layer experiences.  These are experiences of trying to be who we are not. In turn, this stress produces cortisone (is known to turn off or suppress immune cells), adrenaline, high blood pressure, and increased blood glucose which in turn over time begins to overwhelm the immune system and break us down.

 In recent years there has been a growing awareness that the way we feel can influence our body's immune mechanisms.  This suggests that there are connections between the nervous system and the immune system.  Repeated  or on-going stress breaks down our immune system...  Most people think that cancer is this powerful invader in the body.  Actually, cellular biology tells us the opposite is true.  A cancerous cell is, in fact, a weak and confused cell with incorrect genetic information.  Genetic predisposition, carcinogenic substances, radiation, diet and- more important than any of these- the mental and emotional factors, are responsible for cancer.  Stress suppresses the immune defense system and allows the cancer cells (they exist in all our bodies) to rapidly reproduce themselves into a life threatening tumor. If the immune system is restored to a normal level, cancerous cells get destroyed to restore the cancer patient to normal health. -Swami Vivekananda

You don't need a super-human immune system to fight cancer, you need a normal one.  That's it. Nothing fancy just your God given immune system, natural birth right, to keep you healthy.  And this is where silence becomes so important.  Moving into the deep states of silence is like pressing the restart button.  It clears out the 3 fold tensions- mental, emotional and physical.  From a scientific point of view silence, quiet, and relaxation allow the parasympathetic nervous system to  go to work and flush out, rebuild, restore, and renew all the damage that the sympathetic nervous system has done.

There are 3 states of silence.  The first state is a low state related to coma, hibernation, alcoholic unconsciousness and the likes.  This for the most part is not the silence I am talking about.  The second state is better which includes deep sleep, yoga nidra (yogic sleep), super conscious states,  forms of mediation and Samadhi.  Most of us will spend  most of our silent time in this second state.  The final state is total merger.  These states move from dullness and stagnation (coma) to more subtle, expansive, brighter, dynamic, and effortless,  to even more blissful, calm, peaceful, and serene.  The deeper you go and the more you uncoil the greater freedom, knowledge, and creativity you have.

If you read my last post, Swami Tejomayananda stated," Nobody will give you rest. You must learn to take it". It has been said that "resting is rusting" and "change of work is relaxation"- is that your experience with relaxation?  Relaxation is action people! In fact it is one of the most powerful self healing states there is! The longer you spend in silence, the more you will notice yourself start to uncoil and go deeper into states of happiness and health.  But don't take my word for it- try it yourself.