Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Lemon Pound Cake Without Butter



A few weeks ago, my youngest boy invited friends over.  I wanted to bake something for them, so I browsed through my recipes.

I found an orange pound cake recipe, only to realize a few minutes later, that I only had one orange left in the fridge. Oh, well. After pondering between the possibility of either running to the greengrocer or using lemons, which I did have, and luckily lots of them, I decided to go for a lemon pound cake, using the same recipe.

The results were equally delicious and very, very lemony. It's clearly a lemon lover kind of pound cake. Me! Are you one of us?


For this very easy-to-make cake you will need:

8 cups or 120 ml Canola Oil 
1 cup or 200 grams Granulated Sugar
2 cups or 250 grams Self-Raising Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
3 Eggs
Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour loaf pan.

In a bowl combine sugar, oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, and eggs, one by one. To that, add sifted flour and baking powder. Mix/beat until smooth. Pour batter into loaf pan. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a knife  or a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool and then turn out onto rack. Wait for the cake to cool completely, and then add glaze. 

*For the lemon glaze you will need: Read below why glaze is not in this photo.

2 cups confectioners' sugar
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Stir sugar with lemon juice. Done!


*The original orange cake recipe called for more oranges to make a syrup so I used lemons instead. The result was not sweet enough. Although I loved it, the little ones did not! The cake part, they loved. The lemon syrup was the problem area with not enough sweetness for little people. :) So, I decided that next time I make this cake I will be adding lemon glaze on top, in place of lemon syrup. Much sweeter...

Has this happened to you? Have you ever started a recipe and found later on that you didn't have all the ingredients? What did you do?




Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Mindfulness For When You Are Not Feeling OK




Today is one of those days for me. I've had a cold for the last 3 days and have been trying to "power through" it, as if it wasn't there. Though my stuffy nose, and sore throat, have been letting me know, loud and clear, that I do have a cold; I wasn't letting myself assume that, until I decided to look for a meditation practice for discomfort. 

After doing this UCLA meditation I realized I still have a looong way to go until I fully learn to apply mindfulness to my every day life. 

This particular meditation is simple, but powerful. It guides you to bring awareness to what you are feeling (in my case a stuffy nose that won't let me breathe normally) and helps you to let it be. Yes, the key is to let the discomfort be. That, was a breakthrough. I was expecting to get rid of the cold too soon. Sounds pretty obvious, but have you heard about big old denial? Well, it can be very powerful!

Somehow, trusting the process, and simply bringing awareness to what, and where you feel the difficulty in your body, is enough to help you feel OK with it, and also evaporates any traces of stress, or rush to get rid of it. (Go figure! ha!)

I hope you are feeling OK, and not in need of this meditation, but in case you do, give it a try! aaa....achooo!








Wednesday, March 9, 2016

How To Practice Caring Mindfulness: Cultivating Loving Kindness



In previous posts, I commented on why altruism is a win-win situation. How can we implement this in our practice for well-being?

Given that the benefits are clearly measurable, psychologists and therapists are turning to meditations that include loving kindness, and compassion.


Why cultivate loving kindness?

Because the practice of mindfulness, by itself, can be used incorrectly, and deviate from its original purpose, which is, not only to increase our well-being, but also that of others, and the place we live in: our planet. 

Matthieu Ricard wrote:
"A calm and clear mind is not in and of itself, a guarantee for ethical behavior. There can be mindful snipers and mindful psychopaths who maintain a calm and stable mind. But there cannot be caring snipers and caring psychopaths."

Compassion and neural changes.

Several studies have shown the benefits of practicing caring mindfulness. This one study in particular, led by positive psychologist, Barbara Frederickson, shows clear cut findings: 
"The practice of LKM (loving kindness meditation) led to shifts in people's daily experiences of a wide range of positive emotions, including love, joy, gratitude, contentment, hope, pride, interest, amusement, and awe. These increases in positive emotions were evident both within the trajectories of change in daily emotions over the span of 9 weeks and within a detailed analysis of a given morning 2 weeks after formal training ended."
The 140 adults who participated in this study also showed improvements in physical health.

Ricard puts it this way,
"Meditation gives you inner strength and confidence, and if you don't feel vulnerable, you can put that to the service of others. So it's not just about sitting and cultivating caring mindfulness. It's building up a way of being and then using it for the service of others."

Here's how you do it.

Got 9 minutes and 20 seconds to spare? 

UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) to the rescue! I like this loving kindness meditation  because it's very easy to follow and it leaves you with a good mood, and a sunny disposition. I hope you give it a try and let me know how it went! 



P.S. How to practice a Body Scan? and Mindful Eating.








Wednesday, March 2, 2016

How To Practice Mindfulness: A Quick Exercise



How was your mindful eating practice? Were you able to focus on what, and how you were eating? If you did, even if it was for 30 seconds, it's a success. Pat yourself on the back. 

Today, I thought I'd share an exercise we can do in the car when we are waiting for the light to turn green. Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who was nominated by Martin Luther King Jr. for the Nobel Peace Prize, explained this at mindful.org

"...make use of the red light. You can sit back and relax--take the ten seconds the light is red to practice mindful breathing and release the tension in the body. So next time you 're stopped at a red light, you might like to sit back and practice... "Breathing in, I'm aware of my body. Breathing out, I release the tension in my body"  Peace is possible at that moment, and it can be practiced many times a day--in the workplace while you are driving, while you are cooking, while you are doing the dishes... It is always possible to practice releasing the tension in yourself."

What do you think? Is this helpful? Are you an anxious driver or a peaceful one? Let me know! In my case, I can get pretty anxious whenever I'm being late. Otherwise, I tend to remain calm and enjoy the ride. What about you?
Next wellness Wednesday will be about adding kindness to your everyday life. Stay tuned!




Wednesday, February 24, 2016

How To Practice Mindfulness: Eating Mindfully.




Mindfulness series are going strong with a post every Wednesday at Eclectic Alu. Have you practiced any of these techniques, yet? 

The best part of mindful eating is that it's good news. There are no diets here. There's no good or bad food. 

Although I've been learning about this for a while, I only was able to eat mindfully for half a meal. Which is a lot! Distractions come up and this things take time. It's a learning process. But I have noticed one thing. I'm starting to listen and understand what my body and my emotions are telling me. Am I really hungry? Am I thirsty? Am I anxious?

So, what is mindful eating? 

Mindful eating is the opposite to eating mindlessly, i.e, in front of the TV watching your favorite show, not being 100% sure whether it was you or not, the one who finished the empty pint of Ben & Jerry's resting on your coffee table.

It's applying the same core concepts we saw on previous mindfulness posts. Awareness, without judgement or criticism, and redirecting our mind to what we are feeling at the moment, only in this case, in relation to what we put into our mouths. We do this to stay connected to ourselves. To become aware and know our body.

Used for treating specific eating disorders, mindful eating involves paying full attention to the experience of eating and drinking. It's becoming aware of the smells, the textures, the colors of the food, whether it's hot or cold. Or even if it makes any sounds when we chew it. We maintain an awareness, throughout this experience, of what goes on inside and outside of our body. Room temperature, sounds, and so on. All this, without judgement or criticism. We are simply being aware.

As we practice, we will get distracted... 

In the process, I, more often than not, find hard to redirect my thoughts to what I'm eating or drinking at a specific moment. So letting those intrusive and distracting thoughts pass by is part of the trick.

Having said that, I'm already seeing the benefits. Whenever I see myself walking towards the cookie jar, I pause for a second and rethink the strategy. Do I really need another cookie? Would it feel nice if I ate a fruit? Am I hungry, or thirsty, or simply anxious? Don't get me wrong, we are talking about my food weakness here...If the answer is that I want a cookie then, by all means, I ENJOY it. 

However, the beauty of eating mindfully is that, in time, you will find yourself reaching for the "cookie jar" or (insert favorite food here) less and less. You will be listening to your emotions, your body, and its needs. And usually what you really need is food that provides nutrition. Luckily, if we listen, our wise body tends to make balanced food choices.

Mindful eating helps reconnect ourselves to what our body needs. It helps us become aware of what foods make us feel good and healthy and which ones make us feel sick or tired. Also we learn to detect whether we are satiated or not. 

One more thing!! I'm practicing mindful eating with my kids. There's no age limit to do so and it's highly beneficial.

Here's a guided meditation for mindful eating, if you are interested.

Thoughts? 



P.S. More on Mindfulness. 




Wednesday, February 17, 2016

How To Practice Mindfulness: Let's Go For A Walk.




Were you able to follow last week's 3 minute body scan meditation? In my case, although it sounds simple, it can be challenging to calm down this "restless monkey mind"!

As you may already know, these series of blog posts, on how to practice mindfulness, aim at providing you (and me) with tools to train your mind, and develop a set of skills to improve our overall well-being, while reducing negative emotions and hopefully respond with resilience to factors outside of our control.

Mindfulness of Walking

The principle to perform a walking meditation is similar to the one used for the body scan: basically bring awareness to what your body is doing. It's all about mindful meditative attention.

  • If you prefer, and it's possible where you are, remove your shoes. Please don't go barefoot down a snow covered street, ha! Find a place, where you can walk for, at least 10 steps.  It could be outside, or in the comfort of your own home.


  • Start by being still. Feel the connection of your feet to the ground. Notice your breath. Don't make any effort to change your breath flow. Simply notice how your body breathes.


  • Notice your surroundings. Sounds? Sights? Smells? Is it cold? Hot? Let your thoughts and emotions be. Hold or clasp your hands at the front or at the back. Or let your arms be by your sides.


  • Shift your weight to the left leg and move your right foot forward, feel your right foot hit the ground. Now shift your weight to the right leg and lift your left foot forward, repeating the process. (Yes, I am aware that you may already know how to walk, haha!)


  • Continue with this mindful walking, paying attention to the soles of your feet, your heel, toe, heel toe moving, lifting, placing.


  • Find your own rhythm. Notice your breath, your spine, your torso, your head over it, and your shoulders and arms.


  • Notice any thoughts, become aware of them, and let them go by returning your attention to your mindful walking.


Now that you know what this is all about, next time you go on a walking trip to the store, try this technique. It's a great way to enjoy the experience of, actually having a body, that is able to take you places. 

As Dr. Seuss once said...Oh, The Places You'll Go!

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who will decide where to go..."

Let me know how your mindfulness practice goes! Have you tried any of these techniques yet? 

Stay tuned for next week's mindfulness practice post! It's one of those topics that extend to more meaningful levels of our daily lives...Hmm...very mysterious of me to put it that way.
  



P.S. How to mindfulness: Try This Easy Technique First and A Breathing Meditation. Also on Cultivating Well-Being






Wednesday, February 10, 2016

How To Practice Mindfulness: The Body Scan



How's your mindfulness practice going? Last "How To Practice Mindfulness" post explained a breathing technique. Although it seems easy, given that breathing is something we do without even thinking about it, I found that paying close attention only to my breath, wasn't exactly a piece of cake. I had to let go of a lot of thoughts. Lot's of butterflies flying in my garden! Especially with two boys on summer vacation! How was your breathing meditation? Did you give it a try?

If you are looking for another technique to become aware, and promote well-being and relaxation, while building internal energy, here goes another one:  the body scan meditation.

Ideally, practiced daily for about 20 minutes to half an hour, the body scan aims at bringing awareness to each individual part of the body, in order to finish the meditation connecting each part to the body as a whole.

How to practice a body scan? 

1. Lie on your back. Spread your legs out and your arms to the side, palms up.

2. Notice what it feels like to be supported by the ground.

3. Check in with your left toes and see how they feel. Are they tense, or cold? Direct your breaths. Focus on the point of your attention by breathing deep into your toes. Whatever that means to you. The idea is to promote awareness to each body part and see how they feel in a non-judgmental way. The objective is simple awareness.

4. Let your awareness continue upward to your arch, ankle, calf, knee, thigh and then do the same with your right leg.

5. Continue with your lower back, abdomen, chest and shoulders. Then arms, hands, neck and head.

6. After you have scanned each and every body part, focus on how fingers connect to hands, hands to arms, and so forth. See how the body is a perfect whole, that unites by breath, flowing in and out.

Here's a 3 minute  UCLA guided body scan meditation. Hope you can put this into practice, and maybe let me know how it goes? Until next week's post on how to practice mindfulness!




P.S. How to practice mindfulness: try this easy technique first.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

How To Practice Mindfulness: Breathing Meditation.



How was last week's practice? Were you able to remain fully present while doing your every day activities? I have to say I did better. I tried to be more aware. Sometimes I did, sometimes I forgot, but whenever I remained present I felt much more at ease. How did it work for you?

For today's weekly post on mindfulness techniques I thought we could practice a short breathing technique. It's also called meditation. Before you run out the door, I'll explain. Meditation is not a religion, nor is it part of a zen/mystic, new-era-thing.  It's simply a way of training the mind. The same way you train your body if you workout. 

Why would you want to train your mind? In the words of Matthieu Riccard (scientist and Buddhist monk * ) "the mind is a restless monkey". It's always producing thoughts and consequently bringing up emotions. Sometimes, these emotions, become too much to handle and we end up feeling stressed, anxious, with sleeping problems, uncontrollable anger, jealousy or even sadness. 

Meditating can be as simple as breathing mindfully. What I like about Matthieu Riccard's view of mindfulness is that he adds a critical component: cultivating loving kindness, compassion, altruism, or the wish for others to do well and flourish, simply because it's a win-win situation for all. He explains the difference between simple mindfulness and mindfulness with loving kindness and compassion, here. A sniper can be mindful too, you know? (!!)

How to breathe mindfully or meditate?

1. Sit comfortably. No need for advanced Yogi positions. 

2. Close your eyes if you want. Otherwise, relax your gaze. Become aware of the coming and going of the breath. How it feels. Pay attention to your stomach, your lungs, your nostrils. Is your jaw clinching? 

3. Thoughts will come. Become aware of the thought, of the fact that you are being distracted by it, and let it go. Don't elaborate. Let thoughts pass by, like butterflies visiting flowers in the garden. Let thoughts go. 

4. Return your awareness to your breathing.  

Here's a great UCLA five minute guided breathing meditation. Enjoy, and let me know how it goes! Until next week's post on how to practice mindfulness!



P.S. How to practice mindfulness: Body Scan Meditation



* Due to my background in Professional Counseling, my interest in mindfulness occurred as a consequence of trying to explain and simplify the components of well-being so that I could write clearly about them. By doing so, I came across the work of Matthieu Riccard, who has made (and is making) such an impactful contribution to the psychology of well-being.

Monday, February 1, 2016

How To Make Carrot Cake


















I made this cake for my birthday recently - that's how much I like this recipe -. However, you may already know, but something happened that day that prevented us from eating this absolutely delicious cake. Long story short, I can't wait to make it again soon.

I got this recipe from Belén Canalejo at Balamoda.net. She is a lovely, Spanish, fashion & lifestyle blogger and vlogger who has four children: three boys and a girl. If you are looking into brushing up on your Spanish skills, have a look at her YouTube channel. This is the video in which she explains how to make this exact, same cake. She is warm, real and fun. I'm pretty sure you'll like her too.  

For the cake, you will need:

Dry Ingredients

2 1/2 cups or 300 grams sifted flour
1/2 tsp  baking soda
pinch salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp powdered ginger
2 tsp powdered cinnamon
  

Wet Ingredients

1 1/4 cups or 250 grams granulated sugar
1 cup or 230 grams mild olive oil
4 medium eggs


Add these two after blending the dry with the wet

3 cups or 250 grams grated carrots
1 cup or 100 grams nuts


For the icing and filling, you will need:

18 ounces or 500 grams cream cheese
5 ounces or 150 grams unsalted butter
15 ounces or 450 grams icing (aka powdered or confectioner's) sugar 




Sift dry ingredients in one bowl. In a mixing bowl, mix the wet ingredients.  Fold dry ingredients into the wet and blend well. Fold in grated carrots and nuts.

Grease and flour a cake pan. Pour the batter in it and bake for between 30 and 47 minutes depending on your oven. Belén said 47 minutes but in my oven the cake only needed 25 minutes. So, check on the cake when you reach minute 25, just in case.

While the cake is in the oven, make the filling. Beat butter with powdered sugar and cream cheese. I would add 1 Tbsp of vanilla extract next time. Refrigerate it until needed.

Once the cake is done, let it cool completely. Then, carefully cut it into two layers. With a spatula, evenly spread about half of the filling, or the amount that you wish, on the bottom layer. Then, center second layer on top and spread the remainder of icing to cover top and sides of cake.

I sprinkled 2 bars of processed chocolate on top to decorate. You can grate chocolate too, if you prefer. 

Do you like carrot cakes? Have you ever baked one? How's your recipe different from mine? I'd really like to know (as usual).

Thank you for reading.



P.S. How to make a cheese plate + video  and Healthy (er) blueberry muffins recipe







Wednesday, January 27, 2016

How To Practice Mindfulness: Try This Easy Technique First.



These series of weekly posts, about mindfulness techniques, will explain one technique per week in hopes that you (and me) will put them into practice, and may be check in next week to see how that went.   

First things first...What is mindfulness?


Mindfulness is being aware of your thoughts, your body, and feelings. It involves being in the present moment, with the experience, in a non judgmental way.  

What is it good for?

It's a powerful healing tool used for stress reduction, anxiety, sleep problems and many other clinical conditions.

How to Start? Easy Technique First.

I'd say, in order to ease into mindfulness, practice Informal Mindfulness. Have you ever multi tasked your way into the dining room, bringing more than you can handle to the table, only to realize, a few seconds later, that you have dropped half of what you were carrying and even managed to hit your thumb against a chair? (?!) I have! 

Informal mindfulness would be the exact opposite to multitasking. Single-tasking is achieved by doing one thing at a time and being fully present, paying attention to what ever it is that you are doing at a specific moment in time.

Leave the autopilot for another day. Start practicing mindfulness by engaging all your senses and be fully present when you pet your dog, drink your favorite cup of coffee, play a card game with your kids, or even do the dishes. Breathe, inhale and exhale peacefully while you are at it. Be fully present. Acknowledge moment to moment sensations. 

Put this into practice, cultivate mindfulness, by focusing your attention on your sensations during your everyday activities, and see what good things this technique unfolds. (No more thumb hitting for me, please!)

Stay tuned for more formal techniques next week! Have you ever practiced mindfulness? Are you keen on multitasking :/?