Abundantly Grateful for a Full January! {Meditation, Food, and the Promise of a Spring Garden}

Happy last day of the first month of 2020! January went by in a blink, but after a rough start it was a pretty fantastic month. Let's see if I can do it justice by putting together a little recap of the highlights...

Deepak Chopra's Abundance Challenge

After joining in on the 21-Day Abundance Challenge hosted by @riverflows in the @naturalmedicine discord in December, I offered to lead another round in January. I don't always feel like I am a natural leader, but growth comes outside of our comfort zones so I knew that taking on the role would be a beneficial one for me. We rallied together a wonderful group of people to begin on January 10th and embark on another journey of self-reflection and meditation to begin the year. I had every intention of joining in again on all of the daily meditations and tasks after finding so much benefit from the first round, but I quickly fell off as my days got busier and busier.

However, despite my lack of following through with the challenge this second time around, the energy from the group carried me through and gave me so much more than I could ever have hoped for with just the simple task of sharing the daily tasks. Deepak Chopra has put together some amazing framework for us to really dive into and challenge our current perceptions. I have no doubt that my current abundance in my professional realm stems from the lessons I've learned throughout being involved in these last two rounds of the challenge. Thank you once again to all who joined, even if it was just to poke your head in here and there! Many would think it would be a burden to have to check in daily for 21 days and keep track of the group, but it was more of a blessing in so many ways. 💚

The Kitchen's Still Open...

Though I shared my event recap post earlier this week (huge thanks for the support on that one peeps!) with the food I made to share with my nutrition guests, I've been a bit too busy to share much else by way of the daily deliciousness I serve up. Though I've pretty much stuck with basic bowls of farmers market goodies to get me through this wave of volume in my training load, I've still got plenty of goodies to share. I've managed to snag 3 heads of that stunning Romanesco broccoli, so that has been the highlight of the past few weeks.

It was so good roasted, I was literally eating it right off the sheet pan while it was still warm from the oven. Though it made a great side dish when paired with my yellow split pea curry cooked in the Wonderbag! @fionasfavourites and @lizelle, I think it needs a few tweaks before I pop up a recipe using my new fave kitchen "appliance."

I also made a repeat of the salad that I made last year when I bought my first head of Romanesco. Dang, that did NOT disappoint! Double the crucifers with florets of the fractal broccoli, raw cauliflower blitzed in the food processor, sliced radishes, chickpeas, greens, cabbage microgreens in a lovely purple hue, all covered in a radish green and pineapple dressing. Shoot I wish I still had some of this one.

I used my latest head of the veggie in a stew pictured above. Probably not the most eye-catching of the dishes, but when winter keeps peeking in and out it still hits the spot. I think the turmeric and chili powder made everything look a bit monochromatic, but what the heck, these dishes can't all be zingers. (that link is for you specifically, @dandays) Though did you see @puravidaville's return to the @foodfightfriday kitchen earlier? That one for sure is a keeper.

The highlight of this week was a quick attempt at a Buddha bowl to pack for my lunches on the go. Super simple, but boy did this combo come out to be a winner! Napa cabbage slaw, black rice, adzuki beans, roasted Brussels sprouts and a cashew dressing (cashew butter, miso, rice wine vinegar, ginger and a little water to thin it out). I think the adzuki beans might just be my current favourite legume. They cook up to a nice texture, and have just a bit of a sweet undertone. I definitely need to work on some more ways to work them into the meal plan.

Garden Dreaming

Finally, speaking of beans, after oogling over all the beautiful heirloom seeds in the Baker Creek Seed Catalog we got for Christmas, I finally ordered some new varieties to attempt to grow in our garden this year. I tried to find some slightly different varieties than I usually find at the farmers market. We're still learning to be more proficient in our gardening skills, but it brings me a lot of joy just thinking about the things we might grow!

We've got a few things started already for early spring, like the humongous kohlrabi variety above. The seedlings have already popped up, so we'll be transplanting outside in no time. @dksart likes to make use of old beer cans to help get the seedlings going while he recycles.

May not look like much yet, but if we get anywhere close to some of the success we had last year, I'll be pretty happy. Looking forward to joining in on many more of @simplymike's Garden Journal Challenges this year. I still have butternut squash in the freezer! I think we'll be coming up on getting some more seeds started pretty soon. The BF also has plans to get some scrap wood to make a table to help with his gardening tasks. He also made a handy sheet so we know what's coming up soon...

So, as you can see a lot is going on in the P2P household at the moment. All good things, though it does cut in to my Steeming sometimes. I struggle with wanting to take the time to comment and read all of the other fantastic articles around here, as I know many others do, as well. As of right now next week should be a little bit slower I think, so hopefully I can catch up a bit more. I'm due another recap on the @vegansofsteemit page with all of the wonderful #fruitsandveggiesmonday entries over the last month, and @yourtop3 is about to drop the next round of fun tomorrow!

I'm going to keep doing my best to ride the wave of abundant good energy to make February just as successful as January! First up, celebrating one very special soon-to-be-four-year-old tomorrow...

Happy Weekend Friends!

Banners by @woman-onthe-wing, @dksart and @bearone for @steemusa