Recipe for Love - Divine Chocolate Pudding

Love resides within every living being. 


Although it is there, love is an aspect of life that must be cultivated.   To cultivate love, one place we can start is by loving ourselves.  Self-acceptance, for many of us, can be challenging.  However, by loving and accepting ourselves, without judgment -- who we are and where we are in our life's journey, is a powerful way for us to heal wounds, release pain, find forgiveness, and create a deeper connection with the divine.  Cultivate love by creating an internal conversation that says "I accept who I am.  I love who I am.  I accept where I am on life's journey.  By loving myself, I will continue to grow and be a healthy, whole human being."


Loving ourselves means that we are taking care of ourselves.  We are listening to the wisdom of our bodies.   We treat ourselves kindly.  We let loving-kindness be our guide as we interact with other people and the world which we all share.  As we open up to love, we need to know that we are worthy of love. 


Love is associated with the heart.  So, we can also cultivate love by opening our hearts.  By opening our hearts, we are letting love in, and we are letting love go...it flows outward into the world and is shared with other people.  Only after we have fully created love in ourselves, can we fully love others.  We cannot expect to be fulfilled by others first.  We must start with ourselves.  (It's like being on an airplane and putting on your oxygen mask first, before you help your neighbor.)  We must forgive and heal within ourselves through love and self-acceptance.  For, once we have discovered how to cultivate love in ourselves, we truly know how to create it with others.  Once we have experienced forgiveness and healing of ourselves, we are truly in a powerful place where we can cultivate love in the world and share love unconditionally with others. 

Photograph by Jon-Erik Lido


Recipe for Love

In a blender, combine...

• 1 ripe avocado
• meat of 1 young coconut
• enough coconut water to blend (about 1/3 cup)
• 1 inch of vanilla bean
• about 1/4 cup of agave (less or more according to taste; I used slightly less)
• heaping 1/4 cup of raw chocolate powder

Garnish with mint leaves.  Serve alone or with fresh cherries, raspberries, or strawberries.

Chocolate has long been associated with love.  It is the archetypal food of lovers.  As you prepare this recipe, you are invited to do so with an open heart.  Before you eat, consider offering up words of gratitude to the divine and a blessing for ever-present loving-kindness in the world.  Then as you eat it...if you are alone, consider loving yourself, honoring yourself, and accepting yourself without judgment.  If you are with someone, consider how you love each other and accept each other.  Cultivate love, let it grow, share it, give it away.

Recipe for Vitality and Vibrance - Avocado Swiss Chard

Go to the store and purchase Rainbow Swiss Chard.  Get ready to glow, re-energize, and have some fun.

Swiss chard is so colorful - bright, vibrant, and glowing.  It almost seems unnatural for a natural food to radiate the rainbow like this.  Bringing this food into our diet, with its radiant, vibrant, glowing colors, brings out these very qualities in us.  When we let our natural light shine, others sense and see this, and enjoy being around us.  When we feel good, we look good.  We look good when we eat foods rich in nutrients, antioxidants, and enzymes.  Eating vibrant foods puts us on the path to better health and vitality.  Eating live/raw foods rich in enzymes, means we are receiving the maximum energetic function of the food as well as its vitamins and minerals.  Having energy means we truly get to enjoy life, play, and have fun.  Creating vitality and vibrance helps us release stress and combat disease and degeneration.

According to the website of the World's Healthiest Foods, if vegetables received grades just based on nutrients, "swiss chard would be one of the vegetable valedictorians."  It is a great source of fiber, vitamins (including C, E, K, B2, B6, and B1), and minerals.  It promotes healthy lungs, bones, and supports immune function.  It is an excellent source of iron, has anti-inflammatory properties, and supports a healthy cardiovascular system.  

With it's colors, swiss chard is just fun to prepare and eat.  Preparing swiss chard reminds me of coloring with magic markers and the giant box of Crayola crayons that I used when I was a kid.  So, this is more than just food; this is an opportunity to get in touch with our inner child...the one who loves color and fun, who has energy and vitality, who loves to play.

Recipe for Vitality and Vibrance

First prepare the marinade/dressing:

• 3 TB (preferably first cold press) extra virgin olive oil
• 1 TB raw unpasteurized apple cider vinegar (Bragg's)
• 1-2 TB nama shoyu (soy sauce)
• 2 TB raw tahini
• chipotle seasoning (or Mrs. Dash, or something similar) - to taste
• chili powder or cayenne pepper - to taste
• 1 TB nutritional yeast (optional)

Wisk these ingredients together in a large bowl.


Then add:

• 1 batch of rainbow swiss chard - washed, chopped into bite-size pieces, including stalks.  Toss the chard until coated with the marinade/dressing.

Finally mix in:

• 1 fresh ripe avocado - cut into cubes 
• (optional) garnish with raw pistachios.

This recipe is easy to make and takes no more than about 15 minutes.  Its creamy texture is delicious and satisfying.  This is so much more than a normal salad.  This dish is the natural the neon light of food.

The Perfect Avocado

Often the avocados I find at the grocery store are either black and mushy (over-ripe) or very green and firm (unripe).  Sometimes they are black and firm (almost ripe).  Almost never are they perfectly ripe.  I think this is because perfection, especially of this delicate fruit, requires patience.

The perfect avocado is a fruit whose skin has turned black and gives slightly when you press on it.  Once it is open, the meat of the fruit is a glorious green (the only brown part is the pit) and the smell is ripe and lucious.  The meat of the fruit will slice easily with a knife and the pit will pop out if you give it a little squeeze (no knife required for removal).  While sometimes it is easy to get the perfect avocado, most of the time, you will have to practice patience.

Patience must be cultivated through practice.  Living in a world where there is so much immediate gratification, it is easy to forget about patience.  Patience is more than just waiting or even anticipation.  It is cultivating exactly whatever it is you want to create.  Patience is a guiding force for what is possible.  Being patient now means that more is possible later.  In the case of creating a perfect avocado, you will want to select one from the produce section that is slightly green and preferrable still has the stem (a little knob on the top) attached.  An unripe avocado should never be refrigerated, otherwise it will just go bad.  You can facilitate the process of creating a perfectly ripe avocado by putting it in a paper bag or by placing it next to ripening bananas.  A very green avocado might take up to five days to ripen.  An avocado that is black with a little bit of green will take one to three days.  Once the fruit is ripe, put it in the refrigerator and eat within a few days.  Enjoy the fruits of your labor!

So, although you may be able to purchase the perfect avocado (or if you are lucky enough, pluck one from a tree), most of the time you will have to create it.  Creating the perfect avocado requires more than time.  It requires patience of mind, body, and spirit.  As you are cultivating the ripening of your perfect avocado, you are also cultivating patience of mind, body, and spirit. 

When we are patient, it is possible to create glorious things.  We may find that our relationships improve - with other people and with ourselves.  As we are patient with others, we can deepen our listening and understanding of them - their perspective and who they are.  As we are patient with ourselves, we can deepen our awareness of who we are and what we want.  As we are patient with an avocado, we can create the perfect fruit, perfect for eating and nourishing every aspect of ourselves.