Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

a few things for friday

Happy Friday!! I have a few gorgeous things to offer you today.

First, please try this recipe by Brittany at Eating Bird Food. She calls hers, “Mediterranean Diet Pesto Pasta Salad,” and it looks divine. The photo below is of my own finished product, which had lots of adaptations based on what I already had in my kitchen.

MAN you guys. So good and simple, so satisfying, so GREEN and decadent too. I used raw kale instead of arugula, almonds instead of walnuts, and frozen shelled edamame instead of peas, based on an idea my daughter gave me. (Just boil frozen veg in with dry pasta, genius! Why have I never done this?)

Basics:

  • whole wheat pasta
  • frozen peas, edamame, etc
  • fresh cherry tomatoes if you have some
  • lots of great olive oil, salt and pepper, also garlic
  • equal handsful of fresh basil and leafy green of choice (I went heavy with kale)
  • a good scoop of raw nuts for the pesto
  • lots of lemon juice
  • more leafy greens

I ate half of this warm and the rest once it had chilled. Both iterations are great. I will be making this again, all summer, with whatever extras I have on hand. Anything less would be a sad waste of basil season, as basil is the King of Herbs. Amen.

A note about making pesto in your blender: If you want to go easy on the grinding and pulsing and keep some texture in your leafy greens and raw nuts, do that. It is a good life decision, especially if the pesto is meant as a salad dressing. And if you’re shy with lemon juice, are you really living your life fully?

Okay, this might be an excellent take-along to a cookout if you’re gathering for Father’s Day this weekend!

Our festivities started today, with Handsome escaping the Commish just in time to make our 1:00 lunch date at Texas de Brazil in OKC. So luxurious for special occasions! This time we celebrated not only his early Father’s Day but also the culmination of a long-term project at work, a huge success and relief (soon a relief, at least). I am always proud of him; but lately, my seams are bursting. He is in a state of sleepy protein bliss as I type this.

Tomorrow we have a few fun things from which to choose (hopefully a long run for me early in the morning because my run today had to end at 9 miles), then on Sunday all of my family are descending on my parents for a rowdy and loving cookout. Even my little brother and his east coast bunch are here! They flew in for his 20th high school reunion. 

I predict so much good-hearted teasing, excellent grilled meats, and a few too many desserts. Our family is blessed with stellar men, each deserving of all the love and attention we can muster for Father’s Day. And food, obviously. They deserve a great meal.

I still want to tell you so much about The Book of Joy. Why don’t you go ahead and read it, and we will soon have a small online book club discussion about it? Okay? Ok. That will be awesome. 

How do we embrace the reality of our lives, deny nothing, but transcend the pain and suffering that is inescapable? And even when our lives are good, how do we live in joy when so many others are suffering? ~Douglas Abrams

Finally, friends, please take a few minutes to read Dee’s blog entry titled, “Why Do Gardens Matter?” Ahh Dee. I love you so much. My gardens feed me, certainly. In every possible way. Mind, body, and soul. Yes.

Her name is Corian-DEER. Please note the cilantro gone to seed, ok.

Thanks for clicking over and reading along, friends! I hope your weekend is off to much beauty, deep refreshment, and a tall stack of happy memories in the works.

“You become a person through other persons.”
~African teaching
XOXOXOXO

P.S. I am back to preparing a monthly “Bliss List” because it matters. I hope you curate some version of it, too.

 

 

 

friday 5 at the farm: yoga mantras by adriene

Hey friends, happy Friday AGAIN. And happy first Friday of a brand new month. And Happy Groundhog Day! According to tradition, we are supposed to expect six more weeks of cold weather. However. If you’re curious about what the Almanac has to say, read this. Our long-range forecast sounds ok.

Either way, it doesn’t matter. Time flies so quickly that all we really have to focus on is making the most of Every. Single. Day. If we fill them with enough Love and good things, six weeks can pass as beautifully as two.

Carpe the Diems, warm or cold, rain or shine! Gratitude in every circumstance, right? Count it All Joy as my husband says. 

Okay. Speaking of gratitude, I just wrapped up that luscious month of daily yoga practice with Adriene, having completed her new series called TRUE, and I adored it. She teaches, inspires, and just invites you to promote your own well being in deeper ways.  

For a Friday 5 this week I want to share some of my favorite mantras she offers on repeat.

  1. “Tap into that inner smile.” This is better than faking happiness. It’s a private affirmation, and it can be a wellspring of energy, especially on days when it seems easier to be down. There is always joy available.
  2. “Breathe in sync with your movement.” For me, this has everything to do with mindfulness as I work around the farm. It helps me continue praying while staying connected to the animals or the task at hand. It also helps a lot with running.
  3. “Set your hands with a particular kind of love.” This calms me down when I try to do too many things at once. It reminds me to focus and be deliberate. 
  4. “Find freedom in the form, escape the pose.” Such a friendly, healthy nod toward individualizing any plan, any structure in adult life. This also serves as a reminder to pursue the marrow of any project, the deep meaning and essential benefits, not just the outward appearance of completion.
  5. “Find what feels good.” Probably the line for which she is best known, and with good reason. I dare you to find an aspect of daily life where this doesn’t help.  

Don’t you love these?

Something funny thing this past month was that so often what she offered as a meditation on any given day happened to really line up with that day’s Bible devotional (I’ve been reading Jesus Calling by Sarah Young). The echoes have been soothing. Fortifying.

Sad to think that so many years ago the internet was filled with warnings about how yoga contradicts Christianity.

How unfortunate to miss out on the harmony between body and spirit.

Morning glory vines doing some refreshing twists… xoxo I am excited to see this green again!

Ok!

If you have ever done yoga with Adriene, you probably have your own favorite mantras, so please share them! Did you follow a month of TRUE? Which days resonated with you, or did you discover a new pose or meditation that was magical for your body or spirit?

Have you decided to stick with a daily yoga practice in February and beyond? I have for sure. Everything about it feels sublime. 

Don’t fret over the groundhog. Just get stuff done and be happy.

And do more yoga.

“Let us be full in whatever posture it is we are doing,
Just as we should be full in whatever we do in our lives.”
~B.K.S. Iyengar
XOXOXOXO

 

nieces’ back to school, easy mug cakes, & a luscious rainy tuesday

Yesterday I happily set aside a bunch of Monday routines in order to spend some time with my two beautiful nieces on their last day of summer break.

Kenzie is entering fifth grade, and Chloe is entering sixth, and both attend school in Oklahoma City where they have year-round schedules.

As I was inhaling dramatically to offer them much needed comfort about the sad end of summer and the horrible bummers of being thrust back into early mornings and unoriginal uniforms, they both rocked my world with outbursts about how thrilled, excited, and motivated they are for the new school year.

I was like, wait, what?

Personally? I always loved school. The beginning especially was magical. But in recent years I have noticed so many kids bemoaning it. These girls are legitimately happy. Their burst of enthusiasm really caught me by surprise and made me proud of them.

As soon as I arrived, Chloe sat me down on the couch for what became a 45-minute backpack tour. She pulled out, modeled, and explained every notebook and accessory, every color scheme and organizing tool, all the details of her new gym bag (she gets to have volleyball practice before school, shower at the gym, and “clear her head” before study hall, be still my heart!) plus new shoes that aren’t too new, they’re broken in just perfectly.

Kenzie admitted to having a little more in her new back pack than she needed, but every item had a solid reason for being there. And she was very much infatuated with her chosen colors and patterns, too. The whole display was terribly endearing. Oh, and I got to bring her a belated birthday gift!

She is really into mermaids right now, so we gave her one of those plush tail blankets and I embroidered her a big tote bag to say, “Mermaid in Training.”

After luxuriating in back to school joy and the girls’ plans to make good first impressions, we made lunch. Chloe mixed up a chopped Asian salad for us to share, Kenzie toasted bagels, and I made each of us an omelette. We could have gone out to eat, but the girls surprised me again by saying they’d rather stay home to play cards, eat small foods, and just talk.

“Umm hello, where are the modern, bad attitude, spoiled preteens please?”

As we assembled our little bistro lunch, Chloe explained that volleyball season had just started and that this year it’s lasting longer and is a bigger deal than before. She is trying to take it more seriously, think of herself as an athlete now, and therefore really consider what food she puts in her body.

I KNOW. Obviously I will need to order her a copy of Matt Fitzgerald’s Endurance Diet, right?

Then for fun (because even athletes need to have fun) we made mug cakes. Have you tried this yet? They are as easy as the internet claims, and they are highly customizable and satisfying. I recently made a peanut butter variation at home for Handsome, and it murdered his sweet tooth that night. Mug cakes are a great trick to have up your sleeve if you’re trying to limit but not eliminate desserts.

Here is an easy starting point for a single serving chocolate mug cake. Obviously the sky’s the limit on what you add in before cooking or how you top it afterwards.

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 TB unsweetened cocoa

3 TB milk

3 TB vegetable oil (or melted butter)

1/4 tsp vanilla

All you do is coat a good sized coffee mug with nonstick oil spray, mix those 6 basic ingredients in it with a spoon, add what you want (like marshmallows, chopped nuts, a dollop of peanut butter, chocolate chips, broken up candy bars, etc), and microwave for 2 minutes. It comes out piping hot and not very gorgeous, but you can conceal the weird surface with all sorts of pretty, delicious things like cool whip or ice cream. I dare you to try it!

My half-day with the nieces ended with a raucous card game of “Baloney,” which was so fun. My nephew, their beloved big brother who grew up alongside my own two girls, and his girlfriend got home and joined us for that bit of nonsense. What great kids, in every way. I am so thankful for my family.

The rest of Monday was spent back at the farm making a dent in house work, which included a big effort clean the downstairs floors. Over the weekend I had grabbed this spray cleaner to try on our wood floors, and it smells nice and cleaned them okay, but zero gloss. What do you guys use for shining wood floors?

Then Handsome and I had a pretty romantic Monday night, to cap it all off. We have been binge-watching Mad Men and both love it so much. Neither of us got the foot rubs I mentioned in yesterday’s post, haha, but maybe that’s what Tuesday nights are for.

Now, midday Tuesday, I am diving back into projects around the house while the farm soaks up many hours of cool, gentle rain. Unheard of weather for August first in Oklahoma.

This morning I joined two local friends for a 6+ mile run, just as the rain got started, and it was pure heaven. This is one of days that helps you catch your breath and makes you crave deep cleaning, fresh sheets, Spanish guitar, and soup for dinner.

If I get caught up enough on housework, then my big fancy afternoon plan is to mellow the entire house, shower and even wear perfume (ha), then read somewhere quiet and cozy for as long as Klaus will tolerate it. Cross your fingers for me that the rain makes him sleepy. I am in the middle of three really good books right now, and everybody knows that rainy afternoons are best for reading.

Tomorrow afternoon I have two special guests coming to the farm, then in the evening my husband and I will be guests at our friends’ home for dinner. Very excited for all of that, and I will share stories and photos soon!

Happy Tuesday, friends. Keep on carpe-ing those diems!

“There shall be eternal summer
in the grateful heart.”
~Celia Thaxter
XOXOXOXO

 

 

greek relish (quick cheap & easy)

Do you ever crave something that’s cold and salty, tangy and juicy, something with a bite to it but also some delicateness, maybe a grassy freshness, something that will fill you up but not bring along a thousand calories? And while you could always use more veggies, you have already eaten enough actual salads that day, so how about something different?

Me too. Frequently. And I have a suggestion for you.

I realize this barely counts as a recipe. It’s just an excellent combination of average ingredients, really, and likely not too original. But I stumbled on this edible pleasure last Friday and wanted to share. I also want to document it for myself so that on some hungry, salt-craving, fresh-food needing summer afternoon this “recipe” might pop up and make me happy all over again.

Let’s call it “Greek Relish” or maybe “Grain-Free Tabloueh” or just “Olive Salad,” whatever you fancy.

It’s just green and black olives mixed with tomatoes and cucumber, a couple of flavor helpers (garlic, black pepper, oregano, and fresh parsley), all chopped up and refrigerated for a while. Easy peasy.

I ate mine greedily stuffed inside whole wheat pita bread, and it was perfect. Had it been diced more finely it would have made a really great dipping salsa for those tortilla chips.

I didn’t add any oils or dressings, just drizzled some of the green olives’ juice into the bowl (the black olives were drained).

All you need, just combine and chill:

  • 1 medium can black olives, drained & chopped
  • 1 similar sized jar of green olives, juice retained, chopped
  • 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
  • 1/2 cucumber, chopped
  • half bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
  • oregano, black pepper to taste

This was fast and easy, delicious, satisfying, and inexpensive! Surely you could get a bit fancier and use kalmatta olives, sun-dried tomatoes, maybe feta cheese and grilled chicken breast, etcetera, but I love having pantry staple ideas like this in my back pocket. Craving killers that do not require trips to the grocery store.

I served this at an impromptu bonfire party we hosted last Friday and everyone who tried it loved it. I can’t wait to make this again.

Welcome to warm weather, cold food, easy eating, healthy season!!

Over and out!
XOXOXOXO

 

creamy coconut-pumpkin soup with chicken

A few days ago my friend Meredith posted to snap chat an intriguing soup she had discovered at her office’s cafeteria. She raved over the soup’s deliciousness, vowed to crack the code, and hooked me. I stalked her snaps and Facebook until, on a particularly bitter cold afternoon this past weekend, she reported having deduced the recipe and thereby warmed her house and tummy. We saw each other at a holiday party shortly afterward and she offered some details.

cp-soup-full-bowl-sq-c

Thank goodness for friends who are adventurous and love to cook! Because, dear reader, I have a new favorite: Creamy Coconut-Pumpkin Soup with Chicken. It is as weird and perfect as you might expect, and although I just yesterday inhaled this glorious food for His-and-Hers Soup Night at the Farm, I already cannot wait to make it again. So good.

I actually, literally, no joke, licked my bowl clean. Not sorry. Also, three cheers for using Christmas china on weeknights as often as possible.

cp-soup-empty-bowl-c

The building blocks for this simple luxury are pumpkin puree and coconut milk, with plenty of unusual (to me) spices, add chicken breast (because protein!). The recipe came together fragrantly in less than the time it took to make chicken and dumplings for my guy, and I suspect it would do well in a slow cooker, too, which you can bet I’ll be trying soon. 

If we gotta do winter let’s do it cozy, okay? OK. And let’s not skimp on vitamins and fiber. OK. 

soup-sticker

What You Need:

  • olive oil
  • salt, black pepper, garlic powder (optional)
  • ground cayenne pepper, turmeric, ground ginger, curry if you have it (I did not)
  • 3 celery stalks, diced, and a few cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 can pumpkin puree
  • 1/3 cup of coconut milk
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 1 fully cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast

cp-soup-celery-c

cp-soup-spices-c

 

What You Do:

  1. Sautee the celery and garlic till tender, adding spices as you go.
  2. Add the pumpkin puree, coconut milk, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. Spice again, to taste.
  3. Add the fully cooked chicken and stir, taste, season, etc. It is ready to eat when it is all blended well and tastes good to you.
  4. Devour it all guiltlessly, knowing you are providing your hard-working body with gorgeous phyto-nutrients, hefty fiber, immunity-boosting spice, and that ever-important protein.

Other Gorgeous Ideas:

  • Add roasted pumpkin seeds. (I forgot we had a can of these in the pantry!! Would have been so nice and crunchy.)
  • Add lime juice.
  • Include some onion with your garlic and celery. The Lazy W is “not in the onion business,” as my Grandpa says, due to an allergy. But I know all about the cooking trinity.
  • Roast or saute some diced fresh pumpkin and let that simmer and soften more in the liquids. Mer said her original bowl of soup featured this and it was delicious, tender like cooked potatoes. Yum! I will try this soon. In fact in my kitchen right now is one final pumpkin from our Lazy W pumpkin patch that needs to be used. Destiny.
  • Drizzle the finished soup with a little extra coconut milk.
  • Fresh basil, yaaaaasssss.
  • shrimp instead of chicken? Maybe…

Things I Adore About This Soup:

  • It fills you up. Thoroughly. It is immensely satisfying on a cold, hard-working winter day. 
  • The creamy decadence is achieved with neither butter nor heavy cream or anything like that. I am a coconut milk convert.
  • The spicy heat was a welcome reprieve from so many standard savory flavors lately. Perfect for when you crave something different but not something too different.
  • It’s sweet without being sugary.
  • Back to the bowl-licking: fewer dishes to wash!
  • It’s a fast weeknight recipe if you have the chicken already cooked, and you can make it in small batches like this or just add cans and make more. Easy! I love that. 

Thank you, beautiful Mer, for sharing your soup discovery and for doing the leg work of cracking the code! I am obsessed. My mouth actually watered while typing this blog post. 

Have a cozy week, friends! I hope your final days of Christmas prep are clicking along joyfully.

XOXOXOXO