My Drunk Noodles (Veggie-Vegan Friendly Recipe)

Also known as: Pad Kee Mao, Pad Ki Mao, Pad Ke Mao, Pad Kimao

I love this dish and still will likely name my first born Pad Kee Mao.



To get your noodles drunk like this, you'll need 20-30min and:



1/2 package of wide rice stick noodles (vermicelle 400g bag)
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
1 teaspoon chili-garlic sauce
3 hot chili peppers chopped (Thai chiles if you can find them; and yes this part of the ingredient always makes me think of Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
1 teaspoon regular soy sauce
1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce
1 tablespoon cooking oil (I use canola)
1 red bell pepper sliced & diced
1/4 cup of green beans or broccoli
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves (Thai basil leaves if you can find them)

*If you're not a fan of your tongue being on fire, omit or reduce the 3 chili peppers.

Directions:

Break up the rice noodles. You can leave them long but I prefer smaller bites.

Follow the instructions on your rice noodles package to cook them. Generally for the 10mm large rice noodles, you toss them in boiling water for 3 minutes (yes, just three minutes), then rinse them under cold water to stop the cooking.

If you over cook them, they get very mushy.

Drain.

In a skillet/wok (non-stick preferably) heat your cooking oil. Cook the garlic and chile sauce for 3-4minutes.

Add the rice noodles to the oil, garlic, and chile sauce you have cooking and stir fry for 3 minutes.

Add the veggies (bell pepper and broccoli) and cook until tender.

Pour the sweet soy sauce and stir. The noodles should only be a light brown color. If they're too dark, it means it's too much sweet soy sauce and your mouth will complain about the overwhelming flavor. You can add the sweet soy sauce just a few drops at a time.

Add basil and the regular soy sauce and cook for just a few more minutes.

Turn off heat and allow it to sit for a few minutes.

And then serve...

*** My recipe serves two.

Notes:
* You can put whatever veggies you like into this dish. I'll substitute with yellow/orange bell peppers and another green veggie like green-beans for instance.

*This dish tastes great with fried bean curd, so if you have time to deep fry some bean curd, definitely add it to this dish. Only add it toward the end so that it can get flavored with the soy sauce and basil.

Chocolate Monkey Blueberry Smoothie (Vegan Friendly Recipe)

1 cup chocolate almond milk
1 banana
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

Directions:


Add all ingredients into blender and blend until smooth.

I sometimes add 1/2 cup of fresh baby spinach to this and use sunflower seeds instead of flaxseed for a flavor change.

You can pretty much use any kind of fruit you want. Frozen mango and pineapple are amongst my favorite smoothie makers.

***To make this into a frozen smoothie, add 6 to 8 ice-cubes after blending the ingredients together and blend until cubes are crushed.

Easy Chickpea Medley (Veg Recipe)

For the Veggie Lover in you...


To create this fresh party in your mouth you'll need about 15-20min and:

• 1 can (15ounce) of chick peas (soak in water for a few minutes and rinse)
• 1 bunch of parsley finely chopped
• 1 garlic crushed/finely chopped
• 1 small red onion finely chopped
• 2 small tomatoes diced
• 1 lime
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (can be substituted for whatever other vinegar you like)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Drain chickpeas and in a medium sized bowl combine with all the veggies (onion, tomato, garlic, parsley). Mix balsamic and olive oil together and add to bowl. Add the juice from the lime and stir. Sprinkle salt to taste.

You can play with this easy dish and switch up the veggies (i.e. cucumber and tomato with oregano and just olive oil will make it Greek-ish) while still getting your awesome dose of protein a la chickpea love.

If you want to use dry chickpeas, you can! But be sure to soak them overnight. Your teeth will thank you.

scribbles from a northern light...

when the thought “i want your happiness” reels across my mind, i feel as though i've reached that place i've longed to reach for days on end. i want your happiness...this entire spread of pure bliss and all that you love within it is yours. if i could carve the magic out of the ether and place it into your hands, and if i could collect these upward bound feelings and wrap you around in them...how i would. over and over again i would.

every one of your expressions reveals to me that face of love i long to see. you are my portrait of divine perfection. and i paint you with colors that only keep leaving me breathless.

lucky for me that who you are is always showing me the very self that i am. i never know my own strength until i see you expressing it. it's only when you appear that i even recognize myself. strange it is that i can not see my own face until yours appears to come and face me.

you are a precious window into the heart of love itself. and love only knows how i need you in this world. for you are the only reason that i am. and the game, well, it's all meaningless without the face of love.

never not yours,
miss july 25

that Forbidden fruit

If "I" is the seed, then thought is fruit. Was there really a forbidden fruit, it would be the thoughts born of "I." And it is only thought that implies what be "good" and what be "evil". For to eat of these thoughts, to attach and identify to these thoughts born of "I"-dentity, is to fall from the natural sate of timelessness.

All experiences are but the birthing and dying of thought forms, the play of concepts for the conceptual dream the mind projects - the personal story the "I" tells. Concepts but birth more concepts. The I-concept but births its own conceptual story. Yet concepts have never conceived of that indivisible Truth. As only the false unravels the false, the true Reality, your true nature, never even enters the equation.

When mind is kept quiet beginning with the movement of "I", all experiences dissolve at the root. There is no story.

What stands revealed then when the veiling power of the projecting mind is stilled?

In the essence of all that appears, nothing is added. Nothing is taken away. All is as it is, as it has always been. Here. Now.

But the movement of mind, "I", the stirring of thoughts makes it seem as though things are added or taken away. That things have come and gone. This is the brilliance of the mind-play!

Mind weaves the appearance that “this” yields “that” and “this road” leads to “that goal”. But Knowledge exposes the undivided Reality of all that appears here. Start from this ground. Start from this and all fear and trouble vanishes. The entire story vanishes!

Inquire. Turn attention around. Check the mind! When there is movement, check to see to whom it belongs.

Time and all that it appears to contain is for the story-starved mind. Time is nothing but a mode of thinking. And this mode of thinking appears to veil the ever-present realm of eternity itself.

The delusion of ignorance is trumped out by the delusion of Realization, of Awakening. Both are delusions. For when true "awakening" happens it is revelaed that there was no one to be awakened to begin with. Whether or not clouds form, the Sun stands ever alive, ever bright, and ever full of life. Whether or not identity is seen through, the inner-Self of existence is ever alive untouched by the play of "I" and the story it weaves.

Put down all concepts, lay aside all ideas, don't touch any appearing thought-form, and what remains?

At This indivisible foundation, nothing was ever forgotten, nor is anything ever realized. All is but the play of mind. All is but the fruit of mental projection.

Still the mind and let the reality that only Self is shine.

And so would go the instruction should there be a you to instruct.

i love my dog!

9 months ago this little bundle of cuteness entered my world.


i love her!
i love her bark!
i love her blue eyes!
i love how she crosses her front paws when she lies down. (a real lady i tell ya!)
i love how she picks something off the floor she knows she's not supposed to and darts out of the room top speed!
i love how she looks at me while she visualizes the treat i'm going to give her on account of her cuteness.
i love how she reacts to my brother.
i love how she wags her tail when she sees me.
i love the diamond on her forehead.
i love how she rests her head on my leg and gives me those puppy eyes (it works).
i love how she follows me from room to room.
i love how she tilts her head when she's not quite sure what i'm doing.
i love how she runs like somethings on fire.
i love how she sniffs my mouth and has no idea what "personal space" is.
i love how excited she gets when i let her off leash.
i love how she treats me like her furniture.
i love how she wiggles her bum.
i love how she reaches for the door knob.
i love how quickly she figures things out.


i love how everyone that meets her says "what a sweetie."
i love how she's so friendly to people.
i love how she fidgets on the spot when she's waiting for a treat or a toy.
i love that she sighs just like a person.
i love that she growls in her sleep.
i love how shy she gets when your face gets close to her.
i love how soft she is.
i love that my front door window frame is all chewed up.
i could go on....and on...


i just love her to pieces ~

you still on the blue pill?

is it strange to turn on the radio and then begin to wonder what it is you're listening to? i am an appreciator of words. but nowadays everything i listen to makes me go...blah. and just like that. blah.

every story i hear in a song, every movie i watch, by the end of it leaves me a little blank. i guess i'm longing to see something closer to what i now see this world to be.

i can't wait till you make that movie!

what would our music and our shows and our movies look like if the dominant paradigm was "the world is a projection of my own mind" or "i create my reality"?

in my view, it would look like this...

we would no longer sing about how "he'd" done us wrong 'cause we'd believe that "he" was just a mirror of our own mental or internal state. that "he" actually has no existence apart from our own mind. and that "she" really was just his own vibration coming to stare him in the face.

we wouldn't bitch and moan about the past 'cause we'd know we created it by the power of our own thoughts. we wouldn't make movies about robbers and bandits because everyone would be meditating & visualizing while on their bed and drawing to themselves everything they needed.

we'd be one giant magic show.

we wouldn't have comics 'cause we'd all find that super-powers really weren't all that super but rather common to all beings.

Morpheus: I know exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know, you can't explain. But you feel it. You felt it your entire life. That there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there. Like a splinter in your mind -- driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Neo: The Matrix?

Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is?

(Neo nods his head.)

Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere, it is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, or when go to church or when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind.

(long pause, sighs)

Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back.

(In his left hand, Morpheus shows a blue pill.)

Morpheus: You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.

(a red pill is shown in his other hand)

You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

(Long pause; Neo begins to reach for the red pill)

Remember -- all I am offering is the truth, nothing more.

we wouldn't have good guys and bad guys 'cause we would have woken up to the realization that these two forces are just a product of our own divisive mind. there is no good or bad, right or wrong, for it is only our mind that makes it so. and there is no he or she, but i'll keep tellin' you the story until you can see through me.

my music list now contains more of "chants of the infinite" and instrumentals than it does songs with words in them. i am still a fan of "the monkey and the lion" and other great hits by the makepeace lovers (who are all my boyfriends by the way - true story). why you may wonder? well lines like "we live in our own mind, together we are at peace, but separate we are not" speak to me on a deeper level.

for the most part my itunes has become a library of audiobooks and music of the wordless kind. while i chant "om mani padme hum" as i drive myself to run errands, i think about the colorful streams of energy beams that are swirling all around me.

and then when i turn on the radio and hear "she she lick me like a lollipop" and "you cut me open and i keep bleeding" i giggle and wonder if Morpheus is on his way.

things i like alotabit part II

getting lov-e-mails :)

my bundle of endless love

free 30min massage courtesy of work


"i'm glad" - the black keys

what was right with it?

Alternate title for this blog would be: "I don't get me"

Release and relief can only come from a shift in your perception. I like understanding why I'm experiencing and interpreting certain situations the way that I do.

It's strange this tendency to interpret passing scenes in such a skewed manner, leaning on the negative, is a habit worth examining in every aspect of life. Be it relationships, finances, careers, and whatever aspect of this human experience you participate in, our recollections seem to hold the undercurrent of “all that has gone wrong for me.”

well, let's pause for a moment. What was right with this passing scene? What was joyful in it? What was amazing about it?

I mean how often do we pause and say that the universe got it wrong, that in all its precision and obvious intelligent design, that it's brought us to the wrong place, wrong time, and wrong situations with the wrong people?

They who can praise their past experiences, are the one's who are truly at peace with all that once was.

I don't know how fully open you can be to life while still harboring old delusions. Whatever your past experiences has birthed, whatever beliefs you've formed in your state of ignorance (not realizing that this entire design is a vast spread of Love), whatever insecure outlook you've adopted, may still be hanging about if you haven't taken the chance to "neutralize" it.

May the gash on my forehead continue to let the true light of this life in...

storyless

how can it not be me
when i'm all you've ever seen

i'd go on, but i'm not as good at the storytelling.

i bent over to to kiss my dog and stabbed the center of my forehead. i have a nice tiny gash right where the third eye sits. maybe the universe is now saying that i'm seeing a little more clearly.

my surroundings ask for definitions. what do i do and who do i do it with? perhaps from now on, my answer will simply be...God.

the scenes carry on and the wonders continue. i'm somewhere between the land of loving it and being dead to it. it gives meaning to the Sufi "die before you die" or the Saint's assertion "i die daily."

to live in the storyless Way and yet to be invited to tell stories every which way you turn is a strange place in which to dwell.

i seldom speak of the stories dancing before me. i prefer to run my mouth on the topic of the mental tricks that are the stories we live out.

so what shall i say when the queries come?

oh i know this one...

blind sight

oh believer how this world deludes you so
how illusion has gripped you by the throat
and how phantoms whisper
deadened sound into your ears
why do your concepts trouble you?
why do your judgments torment you?
seek solace in the nature of this mirage
it is all unreal
for all that appears
only does so to your blindfolded eyes
awake from your darkness believer
see at once
that
God alone Is

gods of music

the gods have decided to bathe me with good fortune these days. i'd never turn down free music.

day 1: frank vignola's rhythm machine killed me by strumming the super mario brothers theme.

james taylor was...heavenly.

day 2: akon played on the scissor lift, the Holmes Brothers took me somewhere with "god be with you, until we meet again," and wyclef will be gone 'till november but not before putting the guitar on her lap and playing it with his mouth.

we kicked around in the rain, and sang "dolla dolla loonie," but the best part of it all, is that i spotted my future husband:


akon's dj, benny-d.

our babies will have killer mohawks

God be with you, all ways ~

Be Still

(Painting: Angela Ferreira)

"are you okay" is delirious language. the human's very mode of relating indulges the insecure mind, the mind that has not turned inward to see the Reality of all that appears here and now. stories steeped in ignorance are offered as gestures of connecting, when in truth all personal stories but veil the inherent unity and total wellness of all that appears.

wake up from this inherited dream and see the untouched ever-present and thriving life force that appears as all things. call it Being. Suchness. Buddha Nature. God. Source. Love. Void. Emptiness. this is all that lives here, and this is wholeness, peace, and freedom. to live at the surface appearance of this reality is to sleep in darkness in your waking state. live at the essence of all appearances, then you shall know what all this is.

Be Still and know your own nature. for in truth, there is only total Well-Being here. all esle is illusion, the projections of an insecure and deluded mind.

Be Still and know...


your Self.

~ in memory of "me" ~

(totally irrelevant aside: my friend asked about the "~" in my messages and email signatures etc, and i said "it just looks pretty!" if i could doodle hearts and flowers in blogs, i would. so please just imagine that i did)


as it goes...it is only a dream character that twists and turns in this dream. and this dream character is that ever persistent "me" with a story.

"i will get this some day" is me-mory at play.

identity, the sense of a separate self-centre, is memory manifest. whatever thought arises carries the content of either some past scene or some future imagining, and it's only in this appearing thought form that an individual, a "me", appears.

so “me” is always just a me-mory. there’s nothing to it but stored images, active patterns of stored energy that are brought to life by the light of attention. this "me" requires a timeline – it requires time to be born, time to thread its story of yesterdays woes. but time does not exist, and without past and future, without a starting point and a destination, there is no story, there is no "me" or anyone else for that matter.

does being here right now in this immediate instant require an identity? for functioning to carry on, for hearing, seeing, tasting, focusing, walking to carry on, does there need to be an identity with some sort of a story?

when time is recognized for what it is, a mental concept, a mode of thinking, the peace of simply being presents itself. Presence is absolutely free of all identity and the baggage that comes with it. thinking is story. thinking is time. thought is origin, progress, and destination. the whole personal story is contained in the movement of thought and has no reality apart from the movement of thought.

doubt is contained in thought. uncertainty is contained in thought. insecurity is contained in thought. elevation is contained in thought. from good to bad and back, from past to future, is all contained in thought.

the unchanging reality is not the appearance but rather the essence of all appearances. the appearance is relative. it's ever-changing. it's malleable. it's a seeming story. but the essence of all appearances, That is the common reality, That is the ground of security and certainty, That is the ground of fearlessness, acceptance, and effortless allowance. and That is all that is right here and right now, ever at rest, ever in peace, and always prior to the movement of thought. always prior to "me."

me-mory is time-bound. so let's let "me" rest in peace...here. now.

"In your mind's browser, clear your cache.
Now delete your history.
Now navigate to a blank web page."

Freedom always rests beyond "me"...it's a blank page ;)

things i like alotabit

best email i've gotten this week:

hey kid i have a new word for you, ALOTABIT. used in a sentence "I DONT LIKE YOU A LITTLE BIT, I LIKE YOU A-LOT-ABIT"

so things i like alotabit:

socks that remind me

eating poutine @ 9:30am

tea kettle race @ work

every kind of cheesecake

this beautiful booger

playing with this little booger

my neighbors 8wk old chihuahua



slam poet Rives...gosh he's awesome

oh yeah...and God

i like God alotabit

i like you, you're Sunny ~

attention is an interesting phenomenon. you can’t really explain what it is or what it looks like. you just know that it is by the power of your attention that you can perceive anything in this environment. it’s only when you put your attention on something that you can consciously hear it, see it, or process it on any level. anything passively registered by the senses isn't experienced in the same way we experience what we're actively paying attention to. it’s only when you’re paying attention to your thoughts that you know what the content is about. it’s only when you’re paying attention to a conversation taking place in a room that you know what’s being said. it’s only through the focusing of attention that we can "experience" anything.

i like to think of attention as the focusing of the life-force that created this universe, these bodies, and everything that appears in this design. whatever attention is, it is a powerful creative energy. where ever attention lands, whatever you direct attention toward, that object being paid attention to comes into focus and expands. it's organized. it's clarified. it's made real to your sense-experience! it grows! it lives!* (*please read "it lives" in some sort offrankenstein like exaggeration here)

another way i look at attention is i liken it to sunlight. sunlight, cast from the sun, nourishes and activates or stimulates living things so that they can thrive and grow and come into being. unfold. and in the same way, our attention, which is cast from the light of pure Being, where ever it lands, nourishes and organizes otherwise jumbled information into something that makes sense to us, something that is alive for us. attention makes our experiences "grow big like trees"* (*please use cave-man accent here)!

this is where it gets even more awesome from my view!

we have the ability to shift our attention around. we have the ability to turn away from one type of information and tune into something else. we have the ability to turn our attention away from negative or low frequency thoughts (fear etc.) and we have the ability to redirect our attention to the more constructive or high frequency thoughts (unity, etc.) that are available to us. we have the ability to turn our attention away from conversation and behavior that is of no use to what and how we want to experience, who and what we want to be, and put it toward something better for us. we can navigate our attention just as we would if we were driving a car. we can navigate away from obstacles and unhealthy information and steer our attention toward the things we want to experience, the things that are better for us, the thoughts we want to process, the conversations we want to have, the blogs we want to read, the relationships we want to experience and so on.

it is by directing your attention on what you want to experience that you bring more of those experiences into your life. your attention is like the magnet that pulls things toward you. if you spend your moments focused on negativity, then you merely draw more negativity into your life. oh what fun! if you spend your scenes being inconsistent on where your attention lands, then you draw inconsistencies into your life. if you focus your attention on the Love underneath this light-filled dance...well, go on and find out what happens.

i think now that i've likened attention to sunlight, a car, and magnets, this blog is totally rad.

and so are you.

let's hug!