Love Rules

Happy Valentine's Day from Hungry Yogi! This is a picture of me and my beloved, Ben, taken exactly one year ago, last Valentine's Day, in New York City.

But this year, we aren't in New York. I spent the morning assisting my friend Rachel Klapper as she taught a Valentine's Day Partner Yoga class at Fusion Studio in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Her husband is in Italy so I stood in as her partner, and Ben, frankly, doesn't do yoga. However, all the couples in the class--husbands and wives, mothers and daughters, friends--had a great time doing partner poses together. It was inspiring and heart-opening, as Anusara classes always are.

At the end of the class, for Savasana, Rachel played my favorite Shantala song, and in the spirit of the day, I will leave you with this short quote from that song:

Because the one I love lives inside of you, I lean as close to you as I can.

Lean close to your loved ones today. And eat some chocolate. It's an aphrodisiac, you know. ;-)

Love, blessings, and Namaste!

Salad Day

This morning, I went to a Barkan Yoga class at the gym, and it was quite a challenge after my Iyengar class yesterday--my poor muscles! After I ran errands, went grocery shopping, and finally got back home, I knew I had to fortify myself immediately, so I made this beautiful salad.

First, I drained 3 ounces of extra firm tofu, then sauteed it with a little Bragg's. I added a red bell pepper, cut into strips, and a handful of sliced mushrooms. While those were cooking, I filled a bowl with lettuce, cherry tomatoes, chopped cucumbers, 1/4 of a good avocado cut into cubes, and a little bit of olive oil vinaigrette. Tossed that, then topped with the warm tofu/veg mixture and a handful of crumbled chips. Yum. Now I'm full, fortified, and ready to clean the house.

Losers...but also Winners

The bet is over. Big shock--we lost. Again. But that's o.k. because we feel like we learned a lot, and we still spent way less money than we would have spent if we hadn't done this second annual experiment. We took the Martins out for dinner at La Reyna, a great little family owned Mexican restaurant. Everyone was happy. Then we went home and sort of watched the Super Bowl--mostly to see whether the commercials were worth the money they paid to be played in that time slot (some were relatively funny). That's about as sports-oriented as we get in this house.

I also went to the store on February 1st, but shopped so smartly that my $160 bought groceries worth well over $200. Coupons, sales, specials... I didn't buy things we didn't really need for the meals I planned for the week, and although I did indulge in a few splurges, they were still fairly sensible. Apparently, Nick spent some significant cash that day--way more than I did. Did we learn more than they did? Does that make us winners, in a way? Ben says we didn't lose. We came in second. That sounds good to me.

Yesterday I was craving BBQ tofu lollipops and fried potatoes, so I made them for my dinner, along with snow peas and bok choy sauteed in sesame oil and tamari. If I can eat like this and still be thrifty, I will be happy.