Massage your Kale (recipe inside)
COOKING CAN BE SUCH A SENSUAL THING. IN FACT, IT ALWAYS TASTES BETTER WHEN YOU APPROACH YOUR FOOD WITH THAT IN MIND.
Keep in mind that as you cook you're infusing the meals with your personal energy. This can be satisfying as you're preparing the food because, damn, it just feels good to connect with food in such a deep way. Get your hands dirty-
HERE ARE MY TOP THREE WAYS TO CREATE MORE MAGIC IN THE KITCHEN AT THE SAME TIME BRING MORE SENSUALITY INTO YOUR FOOD.
People will be banging down your door to sit at your dinner table and won't know why (wink, wink.)
A Feast for the Senses
Cooking can be such a sensual thing. In fact, it always tastes better when you approach your food with that in mind.
Keep in mind that as you cook you're infusing the meals with your personal energy. This can be satisfying as you're preparing the food because, damn, it just feels good to connect with food in such a deep way. Get your hands dirty-
Here are my top three ways to create more magic in the kitchen at the same time bring more sensuality into your food.
People will be banging down your door to sit at your dinner table and won't know why (wink, wink.)
1- For sensual food mind your energy as you cook.
Bring your MAGIC!
Photo credit: Heather Addley Photography
You are responsible for the energy you bring to everything you do, but what you're cooking for others it's even more of a responsibility. Cook when you're upset and it'll be lackluster, cook when you're angry and it may cause indigestion, or disharmony around the table.
However, cook when you're joyful and happy and it will be felt. Your guests may not realize why they're having such a good time, why the food tastes so wonderful.
Cook when you're in love and spread that feeling to the people who enjoy your food. Who knows the entanglements that will ignited as eyes lock across the table or maybe an argument can be muffled with a dash of love and compassion.
2- Touch your food, bring more of yourself to the meal
Feel it, knead it, massage it. Mix it with your hands so you can feel the ingredients blend. Love it, appreciate it as you work it into a meal as an artist makes magic with paint, song or word.
Squeeze the lemons by hand, tear with your hands when you can instead of always using the knife. Below I'm going to post the most sensual way to prepare and eat kale.
3- Music, music music!
Listen to music that moves you in whichever way you want to go. I don't mean to only play calming spa and yoga music. If you're feeling it and it makes you happy, play it.Sure, it's the music. Lyrics and tempos permeate the kitchen but most important is the mood of the one who's cooking.
SING!! I sing all the time when I cook! Dance around the kitchen too!
I used to and recently was reminded about that fact. I used to sing a LOT, I expressed my happiness and sometimes my blues. The soulfulness of the food soars if you listen to (or sing) music that moves you.
I'll use kale as an example. It can be tough and stringy. It can be bitter and hard to chew completely. Some people don't care for it.
Try using your hands to separate the leaves from the stem and tear it up into smaller bite sized pieces.
try this oil-based dressing as a massage medium for the deep leafy green vegetable that is so important to have in your diet.
Kale with Lemon, Dill & Shallot Dressing
2/3 c Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/3 c freshly squeezed lemon juiced
1 small shallot, finely diced
1 1/2 tsp fresh fill chopped
1/3 tsp raw honey
1/3 tsp salt
Add all ingredients to a small mason jar and shake, shake, shake!
Mason jars are the best!
Add the torn kale to a large mixing bowl and add 2 or 3 tbsp of the dressing.
Massage as long as you can, it does work muscles you never knew you had. I love massaging through a 4 minute song. That's perfect. You'll be able to tell when it's done. There will look like there is less because it does some of the digesting, it's much easier to digest/assimilate after it's had a good massage.
Above all, enjoy your time in the kitchen.
I know that cooking can be a chore, of course you'll have to cook when you don't feel like it, or you have some unpleasant feelings bubbling up.
My advice is to breathe your way through it and bring about a shift.
If you're tired make it simple, if you're angry then do some deep breathwork before you start.
Gather up ALL of the difficult feelings and breathe it in, hold it briefly and use it to "gather" all of those feelings and let them all out with a big outbreath: WHOOSH! Repeat as often as you need to.
You can also try to "table" the tough worries on your mind until after you cook.
There is no perfection, remember that. This is only a reminder to be conscious of these things.
Are you eating emotionally? Do you feel bad about yourself or guilty about the food you eat?
Are you feeling old and bland? Would you like to become beautiful in all ways? I can definitely help with that.
Kelly is a Certified Nutrition Beauty & Wellness Coach, Holistic Wellness Practitioner and Certified Crystal Healer (ACM-Advanced Crystal Master), She is here to help you find LOVE, vitality, and to feel comfortable in your body and find your groove through a body confident outlook and making permanent changes in your health, weight and life! Yes, it's possible to love yourself, love food, be body confident and also release weight, depression, anxiety and unhealthy habits to feel confident, healthy and fabulous!
She lives in Richmond Va. with her teen daughter, has the most awesome 23 year old son, cuddly pitbull and magical black cat.