♥Hi Friends!

In my previous post I said things like “much to cover” and “time and change” and “painful” which can all seem a little overwhelming.  At least for me it seemed a little overwhelming in the beginning of learning all this SPIRIT/BODY/MIND stuff.  All right honestly, it was a lot overwhelming.  I felt as if I needed to change everything all at once and that everyone around me needed to hop on board and think just like me!  Ha!  Good luck with that Katie!  Talk about overload.  Talk about overwhelming!  But it’s like anything else we choose to tackle, it gets easier and becomes more natural.  In fact, for me anyways, I realized that I was actually peeling back layers of myself, getting rid of extra baggage, and learning more about who the real me was.  Even now it’s almost as if I can see myself, more and more, little by little as I continue HEALING, like God does.  Like who I really am and Whose I really am.  It’s amazing!  The cool thing is, because of who (children of God) and Whose (God’s) we are, we are all open to the whisperings of the Spirit to help us.  So cool!!!

Back to overwhelming.  Last month or so, I remembered the analogy of how to eat an elephant.  (Although I want to clarify that I would never eat an elephant as they are adorable and were my #4’s (a son) favorite animal as a child and even now as a 16 year old, and we have a nice collection of elephants!)  You know how it goes.  Eating an elephant can seem very overwhelming.  You can’t eat it whole.  It only works one bite at a time, little by little, over a long period of time.  And I would imagine that it’s sometimes very difficult to eat an elephant.  There’s probably some very unpleasant and messy things about it, even obstacles if you will (bones, tusks, etc).  I would assume we’d get better at it, learn which parts taste best and are most tender, what spices and cooking techniques make it more tolerable, maybe even tasty.  You get my idea.  But we just keep plugging away, day after day, one bite at a time, little by little, tough parts, “bones and all” (sorry that line from “Sandlot” just came to me and seemed very fitting.)  Eventually we finish our meal.

Not too much later it dawned on me how that analogy fits right along with the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Atonement.  They are principles of action, urging us to keep trying, filling in our imperfections and elevating our failures.  As we move forward, imperfectly (so always pick yourself up and  cut yourself some slack), day by day, little by little, we encounter obstacles, learn and grow and become better.    So expect overwhelming and hard sometimes but don’t worry if you aren’t perfect.  No matter your circumstances, just pray hard, keep trying and do your best!  Heavenly Father wants to help you “eat and elephant” (hooray) and continue down His “Happy Path”.  Bon Appetit!

♥Love you!

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Here’s another yummy plant-based recipe that whips up pretty quickly and is full of healthy, nutrient dense, raw greens (go phytonutrients) and nuts (go omegas)!  I have one child who likes it really saucy (she’s a little saucy and fun herself) and the rest who tend to like it less saucy.  These amounts are for the majority in our household, so if you don’t think it’s strong enough, cut back on the pasta.  Remember the trick:  Don’t tell them it’s healthy and if they like it, add it to the rotation.  Another hint:  If they don’t like it, put the recipe away and save it.  Our tastes slowly change as our diets change.  So, if they don’t like it now, they may like it later.

GREEN PESTO PASTA

• 2  12 oz packages of ‘Tinkyada Organic Brown Rice Pasta’* or 1 ½ lbs whole grain pasta of choice
• 1/4 cup raw pine nuts**
• 1/4 cup raw almonds**
• 1 1/2 cups spinach
• 1 cup basil (or parsley in a pinch***)
• 1/2 small-medium sized lemon (all parts)
• ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese****
• 2 cloves garlic with skins
• 2 Tbsp avocado oil or extra virgin olive oil
• 2 Tbsp purified water
• 1 tsp Real Salt or ½ tsp sea salt
• pepper
• mushrooms (opt.)

Start cooking pasta, according to directions.  Cut lemon in to several small pieces.  In food processor, process lemon and remaining ingredients (except mushrooms) in food processor.  Remember to keep the skin on the garlic cloves since they have nutrients in them too and will break up nicely in the food processor.  Slice mushrooms and saute in nonstick pan.  I cook them on low and they don’t need any oil or water.  And as they cook I dump off the excess water until they are done.  After pasta is done cooking, drain and rinse and place in large bowl.  Toss with pesto and mushrooms.   Salt and pepper as needed.  You can double the recipe (for a big family) or freeze half of the pesto for another day.  Just let it unthaw on the counter to room temperature and add to hot pasta and mushrooms so the foods in it are still raw and retain their raw healing properties.   Enjoy!!!

*We love this pasta because it’s a hearty, firm, almost white tasting pasta, but it’s good for you and gluten-free for those who need it.  Just remember to cook it al dente!

**I buy my raw almonds, pecans, walnuts and pine nuts at Costco.

***Parsley will change the taste a little but is much more economical sometimes.  For those who live around me, you can get a larger container of organic basil in the produce section at Smith’s Marketplace.  They may have it at other Smith’s.

****I buy my parmesan at Costco in the block.  It stays better longer and is less costly.

 

In this batch I used parley.  I don’t like parley very much but it’s what we had.  We warmed the leftovers with a little bit more parmesan and garlic salt and it was pretty delish.  But I definitely recommend basil!

 

This is a double batch.  It’s delish!