The Right Amount of Tension Produces Music!

I bought groceries at Walmart and spent $128.59.  There are a few items that I personally will not eat, but this is for the household.  This total also included two packages of chicken strips to dehydrate for Lucy.  So far she is liking the dehydrated chicken...since she would not eat the vegetarian dog food I made we are trying the raw chicken approach.  She is eating it pretty good.  I marinated it in Yacon syrup, lemon juice, and Italian seasoning and then dehydrated it overnight.

Tomorrow the Hot Springs Village Raw Food Group meets for our monthly potluck at our house.  I watched some Fully Raw Kristina videos to get some recipe ideas and decided to make Raw Vegan Tabbouleh, Vegan Ranch Dressing, Carrot Bacon, Raspberry Coconut Lemonade, and Creamy Lemon Garlic Pasta Alfredo.  Everyone is welcome to our potlucks.  Message me if you want to come.  Each person attending must bring a raw food dish to share or pay $5.00.  We may have someone talking to us about crystal mining tomorrow....it's not definite.  Either way, it will be a wonderful time of sharing.

After I decided on my recipes, Travis had to go to Food Wise and buy a few more grocery items.  He got cut flowers, lemons, parsley, and green onions.  Add to the grocery haul total - $14.38.

We finally got to try out our new coconut tool.  I cracked a coconut we bought last week at Food Wise, and then Travis used the tool to remove the coconut meat.  Travis said it worked better than anything he had ever tried before.  Here is the link to the one I bought:
Coconut Tool

Enjoying the early morning air.

Lesson from The Quintessence of Natural Living:
According to Keki Sidhwa, while the amount of stress to which we are exposed is increasing, our ability to handle stress is decreasing. Our modern lifestyle is causing our physical vitality and our mental and emotional strength to go down.  When we eat right and have better nutrition, we can withstand stress with more tranquility and poise.

Modern foods that are high in sugar rob us of B Vitamins which increases the likelihood of a nervous breakdown.  Overcooked foods that are deficient in minerals are another factor.  Sedentary habits and lack of exercise in the fresh air and sunshine rob our strength to face stress.  Drugs, including tobacco, alcohol. medicines, tea, coffee, and chocolate contribute to the problem.  Another culprit is getting caught up in the rat race and placing importance on false values.

The number one way to cope with the pressures of life is to relax and learn from our mistakes. Recreation is an essential part of a balanced life. It's important to have a change in activity.  If you work outside using physical labor, then you need poetry, music, and art to balance your life. If you work inside at a desk or doing creative work, then you need exercise and activity to find the balance.

The way to combat stress involves changing your mind and reorganizing your priorities.  Stress will always be part of life, because it is necessary in order to bring out your best.  Just like with the strings on the violin, though, there has to be the right degree of tension in order for the music to be produced.  You need enough stress to make your life interesting, but not enough to break you down.

Coming home.

Food prep for the day:
Lemongrass tea
Veggie cocktails for 2 ( 1 small package of carrots, 1 beet, 1 bunch of celery hearts, 1 apple)
Blended Salad ( 1 bunch of celery hearts, 1 tomato, 3 mini tricolor bell peppers, 1 small head of romaine lettuce, juice of 1 lemon, 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast, 3 Tbsp of sauerkraut)

MORNING: Lemongrass tea

LUNCH: green smoothie leftover from day before; watermelon; 1/2 avocado; walnuts

DINNER: veggie cocktail, blended salad; leftover fennel bean burger patty served on romaine leaves with sliced tomato, onion, and Bubbies dill pickles and a little mustard; leftover steamed potato, Kombucha, and a Lara Bar.

To health and happiness.