Recently people have been asking for more vegan recipes, so this past Friday night, while my boys watched a movie, I made up this recipe for vegan risotto. Of all my regular spiritual practices, one of my favorites is cooking with love in my heart. When we prepare food in a loving way, the meal is then infused with spiritual vibrations that are healing to those who eat the food.

To help yourself get in a loving state for cooking, light a candle or some incense, turn on some music, or sit quietly for a few minutes before you begin. If you notice any agitations in your being, simply cultivate the Witness part of your consciousness and intend to cook with love in your heart, even if you are temporarily in a funky or contracted state. Remembering “this too shall shift” helps me a lot in those moments. Regardless of your mood, I do hope you will enjoy preparing and eating this vegan risotto.

~ Please buy organic whenever possible.
It is better for this sacred earth,
and it is better for our beloved bodies. ~

Vegan Risotto Ingredients

1 ½ cups long grain brown rice
½ cup wild rice
1 vegan vegetable bouillon cube
¼ cup flax oil
1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tsp. Himalayan krystal salt
1 tsp. black pepper
2 Tablespoons fresh ginger root, chopped finely
2 Tablespoons grapeseed oil
2 small red onions, chopped
15 crimini mushrooms, chopped
5-9 cloves of garlic, chopped finely (or more – or less – depending on how much you love garlic!)
parsley (Italian leaf preferred)
arugula

Soak rice overnight and cook in the soaking water with a pinch of Himalayan krystal salt and the vegan vegetable bouillon cube. While rice is cooking, sauté onions, mushrooms, and garlic in the grapeseed oil. Combine cooked rice and mushroom sauté with the flax oil, yeast, salt, pepper, and ginger. Toss well. Serve topped with parsley and arugula. Enjoy!

May all beings everywhere have food to eat each day.

May all beings know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photos of Teja’s table and vegan risotto by Teja Shankara.

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Cultivating gratitude is such an important spiritual practice. The next time you feel funky or sad, tune in to all of the things that you are grateful for, and see if that helps to transform your state. Lately I’ve seen the phrase “attitude of gratitude,” and I think that is a wonderful intention for life.

Today I am feeling incredible Gratitude for so many things. A few examples from my gratitude list: this cup of hot banch tea with maple syrup that I’m sipping as I type, the new flower clip I’m wearing in my headband (from Cute as a Button Design), the sun shining on the pine tree outside, the Reiki energy healings that I gave this morning, my bright sons, and the abundance of produce I bought at the farmers’ market yesterday. I could go on and on and on and on, and… ON!

From this state of gratitude I plan to pour pure organic pomegranate juice for my sons and me tonight, so we can raise our glasses high at the Fall Equinox at 8:08pm (PST). And while we sleep tonight, the Harvest Moon will bless this land with its Light.

I also give thanks today for all of you who read this Teja Blog. I write these articles with the intention to spread Light. Recently several people have expressed their gratitude for this blog, and for that I bow down with Gratitude.

Happy Harvest Moon to you all.

May all beings everywhere have food to eat each day.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photos of Fall Abundance and Autumn Teja by Teja Shankara.

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Yesterday my dear friend Judy and I attended a World Peace Prayer circle. It was a very nice gathering, and afterwards she joined me for a little kirtan (call-and-response singing) at my temple cottage. I played harmonium and sang “Shiva~Parvati, Namo Namah” and she sang the same back to me while playing a drum. We ended our chant session with a sweet chant to Sita~Ram. I could feel the healing sound vibrations buzzing in the room after she left, and I felt so grateful that my life is now filled with so much God.

I turned on my new Reiki CD, “Reiki healing WAVES” by Parijat, and enjoyed cooking myself a tasty vegan dinner. When the food was ready, I said out lout, “Dinner’s ready, honey,” and then I answered myself out loud, “Okay, honey!” Do you ever joke out loud with yourself like that?

When I sat down to eat, I was delighted by the taste sensations, so I took a photo and planned to write out the recipe, but then I got distracted by a 3-hour skype video call with my dearest soul sister Ananda. This morning I don’t recall the exact amounts of the ingredients, so I will just share how I made the vegan tempeh dinner, and you can adjust the amounts to suit your tastes.

First, if you remember to marinate the tempeh earlier in the day, it tastes better, but if not, then just marinate it while you’re cutting the onions. Tempeh is a fermented soybean food, and I have read that it is a healthier option than tofu. It has a really wonderful nutty flavor, too.

Sauté two small sweet onions (chopped in strips) in toasted sesame oil. Once the onions soften, add the tempeh (cut in strips), along with its marinade (toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, a little water, garlic powder, ginger powder, black pepper, orange zest). Cover and let cook for ten minutes, then turn tempeh strips over and put chopped kale on top with the juice of about one-fourth of the orange. I put about 4 big Russian kale leaves and stems. Cover and let cook for about ten more minutes. Serve with rice. I made a combination of brown and wild rice that was really delicious with this vegan tempeh dinner.

Let me know how your version turns out!

May all beings have food to eat each day.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of Teja’s vegan tempeh dinner by Teja Shankara.

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Last night my older son had an interesting dream, in which we were in a boat on the ocean, and a woman was offering us fish and butter. Due to my vegan diet, I said no, and then suggested to the boys that we dive down and find some seaweed to eat instead!

Why do I choose to eat a vegan diet? I choose to not eat meat, fish, eggs, and dairy for many reasons: because I care about the suffering of the creatures, because I care about the environment of this Beloved Mother Earth, and because I care about the health of my body.

There is no denying that the creatures suffer. No matter how “humanely” or organically the animal products are produced, the creatures still suffer. More than doing a lot of research (and there is plenty of information available for the scientific types), I turned inward and meditated on the fish and animals, and then I could no longer find any justification for eating animal products.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “Spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants.” And Dexter Scott King, son of Martin Luther King, Jr., said the following: "Veganism has given me a higher level of awareness and spirituality." (Vegetarian Times, 10/95) I have found this to be true as well. Since I shifted to a vegan diet, my meditation practice has deepened and I feel more mentally clear and more spiritually awake. Now I more keenly sense the interconnectedness of all things.

Regarding the environment, I recently joined a page on Facebook, called The Green Club, which has very good information, including the fact that livestock production contributes more to global warming than all of the cars and trucks combined. For that reason, a town in Belgium has declared Thursdays to be meat and fish free days, and Paul McCartney has started a major campaign called Meat Free Monday.

There are also many studies indicating that vegans enjoy improved physical health. I feel so much bliss in my being when I am cooking organic vegan foods, and that bliss vibration goes into the food and then into the beings who eat the food. I am grateful that my son dreamt that I was suggesting we dive for seaweed instead of eating fish and butter. I see that as a positive sign, that he is integrating my vegan ethics into his being.

May all beings have food to eat each day. May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of organic produce from farmers’ market by Teja Shankara.

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While my parents were visiting Ashland for my cousin’s wedding last week, we had a cool and rainy day. At first I witnessed myself feeling a bit funky over the weather, but then I surrendered and made the best of it. For some reason, dressing a bit bohemian often cheers my mood, so I put on a bright red shirt, a floral skirt over a pair of jeans, and a colorful silk headband over my head. Thus adorned, I enjoyed an interesting conversation about life and death, at the coffee shop with my Mom and my older son.

As we walked home in the light mist, I suddenly became inspired to cook a pot of soup for everyone. I could hardly wait to get home to go through my kitchen and create a soup with whatever was on hand. Often called “stone soup,” my version included leftover garbanzo beans and brown rice, onions, garlic, kale, oregano, basil, cumin powder, cinnamon, clove powder, medjool dates, raisins, a can of pumpkin and even a can of baked beans! Before I started cooking, I lit several candles in the kitchen and waved a stick of incense about the cottage. I also turned on the lively music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelly (with The Quintet of the Hot Club of France) ~ an album called “Souvenirs” that is sure to uplift the foulest of moods. (To hear the first song, click on “Honeysuckle Rose” here.)

After serving the soup to my parents and brothers and sons, I reveled in the bliss of our cozy kitchen lunch. Outside it was grey and dreary, but inside we were warm, dry, and blessed to eat soup, salad, and bread.

With nearly one billion people starving on the planet, each time I eat such good organic vegan food, I am filled with gratitude.

May all beings everywhere have food to eat each day. May all beings know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of Teja by Teja’s older son. Photo of cozy kitchen lunch by Teja Shankara.

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Balance. That is the angel card I picked for this week, as I am juggling many balls: my parents visiting for my cousin’s wedding; taking care of boys and household chores; cooking vegan meals, giving Reiki sessions, writing blog articles, doing spiritual practices… and so on! I am continually amazed at how I pick the perfect card each week. (Angel cards, by Kathy Tyler and Joy Drake, Narada Productions, Inc., Milwaukee, WI, 1981.)

Tuning into the perfection of the Universe is a good practice when one is trying to balance so many things. However, even though in the big picture I ‘get’ that everything is happening perfectly, there are so many things occurring on Earth that don’t seem so perfect. For example, a few days ago, while I was buying pink nailpolish to wear on my toenails to the wedding, a fire was raging near the store and several Ashland homes caught on fire that night. And in the news they were saying that the flood situation in Pakistan is worse than the Haiti earthquake. And somehow I’m supposed to just keep enjoying my life, when so many people are suffering? How to balance the feelings of despair and compassion with the need to just keep doing our own lives, where-ever we are? I understand that giving in to despair won’t help anyone, and that by continuing to evolve myself through spiritual practices, I can help others by radiating Love out in all directions… but it’s still sometimes difficult to embrace this beautiful life I’m in, while others are suffering.

Somehow I continue to – more or less – keep it all in balance. Sometimes I do forget things though… Like last week, when my dear friend Thomas and I took another evening picnic up to Mt. Ashland, I forgot the plates and forks! We laughed heartily as we ate the delicious vegan meal on the lids, using the big serving spoons as utensils. But again, in the big scheme of things, when almost one billion people are starving on the planet, it doesn’t really matter that I forgot the plates and forks. With humility, I offer incredible gratitude for all of the blessings and abundance in my simple, yet joyous, yogini life.

May all beings everywhere have food to eat each day. May all beings know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of Teja by Thomas Stekkinger. Photo of vegan sunset picnic on Mt. Ashland by Teja Shankara.

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This past weekend I experienced so much delight at the Peace Village Festival in Ashland. Many thanks to Larry Morningstar, and to his fabulous tribe of helpers! I bow to the incredible Beauty of the community here.

On Saturday, while giving Reiki energy healings in the Casbah tent, I felt so connected with the Oneness of all Life. Then I stepped out into the sunshine and felt the sun’s warmth radiating over the sacred land of the Jackson Wellsprings. Maybe someday I will live on that land, since I feel so at home there. For now, I feel super blessed that I get to offer the weekly Radiance Rising Circles in the Wellsprings community room. Much gratitude to Gerry Lehrberger for supporting these Monday evening circles.

Down in the meadow behind the pools, many colorful booths created a little village, where I found a pair of beautiful blue and silver pants sewn in India and an anklet made in Bali that sounds like rain sticks when I walk. My boys enjoyed looking at the rocks and gemstones, and trying out the hula-hoops. Later we placed a blanket in the grass and ate yummy vegan food while listening to the wonderful live music. 

On Sunday afternoon I gave more Reiki energy healings, and even as the Universe took note of how much I love giving Reiki, I silently sent out the intention to be blessed with opportunities for giving more and more and more Reiki healings. I then headed down to the village, feeling open to all of Life. Standing barefoot in the grass, absorbing the sun’s rays deep into my being, swaying to reggae music, and eating a sweet organic apple, I shared smiles with the bright beings around me.

Later, as the stars came out, I enjoyed dancing with many beloved friends to the awesome songs of the Alice DiMicele Band. Alice dubbed us the “Peace Village Choir,” as we sang along with her inspiring lyrics: “Whoh, oh, I’m made out of water. Water is the only thing that can quench my thirst. I’m always trying to get back to the water, from that very first breath on my day of birth.”

When we practice cultivating the witness, it is very important to pay great attention to the things that expand us in life. Lately I have been practicing this by posting appreciation vignettes on Facebook, which I end with the phrase, “i love my life.” At the 2010 Peace Village Festival in Ashland, I witnessed myself in a state of Bliss, absolutely lovin’ my life.

May you also notice the things that expand you into states of Bliss.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

http://www.facebook.com/tejashankara

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Today’s date is 8-9-10. That has a nice ring to it. It kind of makes me feel like a little schoolgirl again. In this blog, I will offer the recipe for the garbanzo beans I cooked for the happy Mt. Ashland picnic dinner. (See my last two blog posts for the other recipes from that dinner.)

I really enjoyed cooking the food for that evening adventure. I was so excited to be getting out of town (for a few hours), that I cooked the food with a lot of love and inspiration.

One of my favorite spiritual practices is chanting (singing) while cooking delicious vegan meals. Lately I am really enjoying my new CD, “Light of the Sun,” by Mukti. As I cooked the garbanzo beans and chopped the vegetables, I sang along with Prajna Brianna Vieira. I especially love the song “Jai Jai Ma” in which she sings to Ammachi: “I don’t care about heaven, I don’t want to go that far – Only want to be just where you are – I don’t care about freedom, I just want to sing your name – Oh let me live just for your name…”

So, for the garbanzo beans, soak 2 cups overnight. Discard soaking water and add fresh water, so it covers the beans by about 1 inch. Bring to boil, then simmer covered for 1½ hours. Then add the following:

1½ teaspoons sea salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
1 Tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
optional: 1 or more cloves of minced garlic

Stir, and simmer covered for 30 minutes more.

Let me know how you like these beans. And, as always, please buy organic food whenever possible, to honor your body and to honor this precious Mother Earth.

May all beings everywhere have the food they need each day.

May all beings know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of sunset on Mt. Ashland by Teja Shankara.

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In yesterday’s blog, I posted the recipe for the vegan salad I made for the happy Mt. Ashland picnic dinner. Today I offer the recipe for the rice dish.

Soak overnight:  1½ cups long grain brown rice and ½ cup wild rice. Cook in the soaking water, along with 2 Tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil, sprinkle of Himalayan krystal salt, and 2 teaspoons ground cumin powder.

In a large bowl, mix the following:

1/3 cup raisins
8 medjool dates, pitted and chopped
2 Tablespoons raw ginger root, chopped finely
¼ teaspoon Himalayan krystal salt
1/16 teaspoon ground black pepper

Add the rice to that mixture and stir well.

Please let me know how you like this rice dish. And please buy organic food whenever possible.

May all beings everywhere have food to eat each day.

May all beings know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of trees on Mt. Ashland by Teja Shankara.

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In my last blog article, “Happy Teja,” I said that I would soon share the vegan recipes from that happy mountain picnic dinner. Today I will share the salad recipe, and then I will share the other recipes in the next few blogs.

For the salad, in a large bowl, combine the following:

juice of one lemon
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon Himalayan krystal salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

To that mixture, add the following:

1 heaping cup of purple cabbage, chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup of Italian leaf parsley, chopped (include top half of stems; discard bottom half of stems)
3 green onion tops, chopped
1 Tablespoon maple syrup

Mix well, then add lettuce. I used about ½ head of red leaf lettuce, but you could substitute green leaf lettuce or romaine lettuce. If you are serving more than two people, use the whole head of lettuce. Chop or tear lettuce in strips, then mix well with the above ingredients.

I hope you enjoy this salad…. Let me know your experience of it!

And, as always, please buy organic food whenever possible. It is so much better for our bodies… and for our beloved Mother Earth. May all beings everywhere have the food that they need each day. May we vision ourselves into a world where “starvation” is a word devoid of meaning.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Photos of vegan picnic dinner on Mt. Ashland by Teja Shankara.

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