Do you value high-quality food?
Maybe that makes you a “foodie”?
I honestly don’t even know what that means, but I know I care about the quality of food I put in my mouth and sounds like you do too. I want it to be alive, full of life and as fresh as possible. I also know I don’t want to spend every waking moment preparing food. I’d rather be playing. This level of caring has evolved over decades of experiencing physical and mental sluggishness and slow digestion and a physical need and mental desire for lightness. Here’s the reality, I wasn’t raised on avocado and so you know, I don’t feel deprived because of it.
There may not have been a lot of dark leafy greens or avos in my childhood, but there was a lot of love and gratitude around eating, which is an important component of the whole experience. My son is now ingesting mad amounts of dark leafy greens and avocados, making up for my lack. The grand experiment is if he’ll ever shy away from them and since I believe it’s all an experiment, we are right in line.
Over the years I have invested hundreds of dollars in cookbooks and hundreds of hours in researching blog posts to create meal plans that work for me and (now) my family. I will one day write my own, but until then I want to share my current top three favorite cookbooks and why I love them so much.
The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook
I love everything about this book. It has a great intro and is organized by season, which makes meal planning and anticipating the seasonal changes easy in the kitchen. Her section on the gunas and food is rich with content and considerations as you pick and choose the best options for you and your family. From cauliflower leek soup to homemade nutella this is a great resource and inspiration for the kitchen.
Eat – Taste – Heal: An Ayurvedic Cookbook for Modern Living
This book is half resources on Ayurveda and practices to ignite your life and half recipes to balance your life. Since dosha essentially means “that which is out of balance” our food choices and our daily habits are either pulling us out of balance or drawing us back to the center. This book has beautiful pictures and great recipes.
The Oh She Glows Cookbook
This is not an Ayurvedic cookbook, but a plant-based resource that you will likely enjoy. I have yet to make something from this cookbook that I (or anyone in the family) doesn’t enjoy. Head straight to the “glo bars” on p215 and ENJOY.
There are so many great bloggers writing about food and sharing recipes along with the million cookbooks out there. That combined with our intuitive knowing and the brilliance of aligning our meal preparations with what is alive and well in our ecosystem, there is plenty of inspiration for meal planning if we know where to look. Sometimes we need or want a little help or nudge in this direction to keep things interesting and easy. If you want to go deeper into habits and lifestyle around meal planning and receive the “recipe of the month”, be sure to join the Easeful Living Community where we are doing our best to minimize stress, optimize time and maximize ease in the modern world.
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Rachel Peters is a yoga teacher, yoga health coach, lifestyle and habits expert, easeful living advocate, and lover of wild places. She leads others towards Embodying Ease through a yearlong wellness & lifestyle journey to dissolve perfectionism, embody daily habits that promote mental clarity, overall ease, and deeper connection to life on this wild ride of modern living. Learn MORE today!