Healing Broth Recipe

When winter arrives with its cold wind and ice and snow, many of us in the cold areas of Canada make big pots of soup and broth that can be frozen or canned, and pulled out to quickly make whatever soup is called for that day.  This easy to make healing broth is a good tonic for everyone to help keep the immune system strong.  This soup does not represent medical advice.  Readers are cautioned to seek out professional medical advice if they are feeling unwell or if they have ongoing illnesses.

HEALING BROTH

Ingredients: 4 carrots, chopped or 1 sweet potato, cubed 2 stalks of celery, roughly chopped

2 onions, sliced

1 cup parsley, finely chopped 1 cup of shiitake mushrooms,

fresh or dried (optional) 2 tomatoes, chopped (optional)

1 bulb of garlic (about 6-8 cloves), minced

1 inch of fresh ginger root

1 inch of fresh turmeric root

8 cups of water Optional: Chili peppers or red pepper flakes 

Directions: Place all the ingredients in a pot and bring to a gentle boil. Turn heat down to low and allow to simmer for about an hour. Strain and sip for a mineral rich, healing and restorative broth or leave the veggies in to enjoy as a light healing soup.

Blessings,

Judy

Right Eating

A surprisingly large portion of the Vinaya [monastic code]’s two hundred and fifty rules advocate a proper way to eat. “A lot of things are based on this idea of eating food properly,” the Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche taught his American students, “which is how to behave as a basically decent person.”  –Sandra Garson, "Food for Enlightenment" A Buddhist book often used for teaching.

The idea of right eating has been around for a long time.  However, for me, over the last several weeks, the need to eat the best food in the healthiest manner, has been pushing at me.  I want green, clean food.  I want food that is home made. And, I want food that boosts my immune system.  It feels that a strong immune system will be very important towards the end of 2011.

When I say I crave green – I am not saying that I will not eat meat.  I was reading a teaching about meat eating in Buddhism.  I’d like to share part of it with you.

In the days of the Buddha, the Buddhist monks wandered from village to village carrying minimum necessities, which included a begging bowl. They ate whatever food that was given to them, without preference and choice as a part of their effort to control greed and desires. Since choice meant desire, they shunned all preferences and choices in matters of living and practicing the Buddhist Dharma. The tolerated harsh conditions of life and accepted them as opportunities to practice the Eightfold Path. They observed the same discipline in matters of eating food. When they passed through a village and if someone offered them meat, they ate it dispassionately, without craving or contempt. 

The essential practice of Buddhism, which was based on the Four Noble Truth and The Eightfold Path precluded any possibility of seeking and desiring on the part of the monks. The teachings of the Buddha encouraged them to overcome their desires and live unconditionally with an ethical bent of mind. Thus there were no restrictions on meat eating in the early days of Buddhism. This practice continues till today in many schools of Buddhism. For the followers of the Buddha, right resolve or right intention is more important than the superficial display of morality, which is defined as "resolved on renunciation, on freedom from ill-will and on harmlessness.  

- from a teaching by Jayarm V

Everyone gets to make up their own mind about what they eat and how they eat it.  I believe that decision should come from the heart, not because someone says so.

May you choose what is right for you and may you allow others the same right.

Many blessings,

Judy