cauliflower hummus

I've mentioned before that I do not enjoy cooking. I do, however, love eating healthy and nourishing food that is easy to make. Here's the recipe for the cauliflower hummus I made last night. Mmm... good! Slice up all kinds of vegetables and use them instead of pita or crackers for even more nutritious goodness!

1/2 head's worth cauliflower florets, gently boiled until softened
3 cloves garlic
2 cups garbanzo beans
1/4 cup garbanzo bean cooking liquid, or more to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon paprika
1/8 cup lemon juice
Salt and black pepper, to taste
Dash of cayenne

Toss this into a food processor and blend until blended :) Enjoy!

Sunset Community Yoga

Here's the story of Sunset Community Yoga:

I had some people asking how they could practice with me without being a member or employee of somewhere I already teach. After some brainstorming, the talented arteest that is Julia Skerry and I decided that I could teach in her backyard and make the class open to anyone who was interested. This started back in the summer, and the sun was just starting to set around savasana time- perfect! Sunset Community and a handful of new yogis were born. I love it!

Unfortunately, summer has left the building and as of this week we're having to move the practice indoors. Space is quite limited and therefore class is already full. If we get a random nice day I will move class outside and open it up to everyone, but for now it must be indoors and smaller.

Until next summer, friends...

new playlist

• Bjork: Moon
• Billie Holliday: Warpaint
• Animal Collective: My Girls
• Taken By Trees: To Lose Someone
• Niki & The Dove: Gentle Roar (Mylo Mix)
• Niki & The Dove: The Fox
• Habanot Nechama: Jah
• Taken By Trees: Day By Day
• Taken By Trees: Julia
• Taken By Trees: Watch The Waves
• Lisa Hannigan: Ocean And A Rock
• Taken By Trees: Greyest Love Of All
• Eleni Mandell: Miracle Of Five

new playlist

Hey guys! Here's the playlist I used in my classes today. It's also the playlist I'll be using in my tomorrow, Friday and Saturday.

• Nightmares On Wax: Passion
• Adele: Lovesong
• Nightmares On Wax: Flip Ya Lid
• Nightmares On Wax: African Pirates
• Feist: Mushaboom
• Girish: Jaya Hanuman
• Eddie Vedder: Society
• Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova: All The Way Down
• Lykke Li: I Know Places
• Mofro: The Sun Is Shining Down
• Mumford & Sons: After The Storm
• Eleni Mandell: Moonglow, Lamp Low

Here's my schedule through September:
15: Tualatin 8:30am / Adidas 5:30pm / Pearl 24
16: Downtown 5:30pm
17: Hollywood 7:00am
18: Clogs N More Westmoreland 9:00am (employees only)
19: Clackamas 11:00am
20: Tualatin 8:30am / Adidas 5:30pm / Sunset Community Yoga 7:30pm
21: Clackamas 11:00am / McLoughlin 7:00pm
22: Tualatin 8:30am / Adidas 5:30pm / Pearl 7:30pm
23: NONE
24: Hollywood 7:00am
25: Clogs N More Westmoreland 9:00am (employees only)
26: Clackamas 11:00am
27: Tualatin 8:30am / Adidas 5:30pm
28: Clackamas 11:00am
I'm going to be in Pendleton, OR for The Yoga Roundup from the evening of Wednesday, the 28th through Sunday, October 2. There will be no Clogs N More Yoga class on Sunday, October 2.

smoothie

Today I skipped my morning smoothie in favor of a bagel. I know, I know- but I'm human and I enjoy bagels! I always feel much better when I start my day with loads of fresh fruits and vegetables, but today I'm almost kind of glad I waited until later in the day. I just took Kathryn Budig's Fallen Angel class on Yogaglo, and now I am listening to Mofro and enjoying a dee-vine smoothie. Here's what I used:

• handful of raw pumpkin seeds
• 3 raw beets (so excited I have a blender that can handle this now!)
• 1/2 small avocado
• splash of coconut milk
• chard
• banana
• apple
• a few grapes, maybe 6 or 8
• even fewer raspberries
• large handful of fresh, locally grown organic blueberries

Normally I would add more vegetables, and maybe a little less fruit (you know, the sugar and all...), but I used what I had. So delightful!

TRY IT!

Salutation Nation 2011

Greetings and Happy Saturday! It is HOT here in Portland today! I went to Salutation Nation this morning in Lake Oswego and it was a lot of fun. I tossed my mat down on a slight hill so I felt like I was leaning to the right the whole time, but Tiffany made an excellent point. Something along the lines of this: Yes, it's nice when you can come to your mat and have a beautiful, almost effortless practice, but reality isn't like that. The instant you re-enter the real world, people are honking at you, asking you to do twenty things in five minutes, etc. Whatever the obstacle may be, we all have them. So we should enjoy those moments on our mats when we're on a slant, or the sun is in our eyes, or we ran a few miles the day before and feel stiff, etc (again, insert obstacle of your choice here) because that's life. And that's yoga. One thing I love about Tiffany Cruikshank is her ability to salt and pepper in advanced poses in a non-threatening way. One of the poses she threw in today was eka pada koundinyasana from a revolved lunge. Either you did it or you didn't, and afterward Tiffany said, "It's already over! Nobody is going to care whether or not you did that pose. And when you leave here, nobody is even going to know." Tiffany is so eloquent. She's also deeply devoted to her own practice and passionate about what she does- that's what makes her a great teacher. 

I killed a few hours after S.N. breakfasting with a friend and wandering around before heading to another (free) yoga class. As hot as it is outside, it was a heated class and I actually felt pretty great about it. For a moment, it made it seem like it wasn't really so hot outside. 

In other news, many of you saw on my Facebook page that I recently purchased a new Kitchenaid blender! I am so excited about this because it can do so many great things! Just today I tossed some raw beets in there and it blended them up like a champ. Beets aren't my favorite addition to a smoothie, but they sure are good for you! I don't hate them, so I toss them in every so often. Have you been making smoothies this summer? Share your recipes with me! I'm always looking to try new things.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Namaste,
Tami