Together at the Table: A New Winter Snack

by Meredith Blanks Paterson

Today I want to tell you about my rather unholy obsession with... dun dun dun... kale. I love it. I used to hate it, but that was because I didn't know how to prepare it. It can be a finicky little green, but when it's treated well, it becomes so tasty, and I can feel it healing my body. I'm actually craving it daily now.

My latest trick-- you may be far ahead of me on this-- is kale chips. Kids will love helping out with these! There is a very special moment when the kale actually changes color in this recipe.

There are lots of great recipe variations out there. Experiment with different seasonings and let me know what you come up with.

Ingredients:
1 bunch kale
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon sea salt (or less--to taste)

Supplies:
cookie sheet
parchment paper (optional)
large bowl
salad spinner (optional, but very helpful)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Kid-friendly: Wash the kale thoroughly. Separate the leaves from the tough stems.  Kids will love ripping the leaves off. I like to save the stems for juicing or to put in long-cooking soups when they'll have time to soften substantially.
3. Kid-friendly: Dry the leaves in a salad spinner and/or with towels. They need to be really dry. Kids are the perfect salad spinning assistants.
4. Kid-friendly: Put the dry leaves in a big bowl and take a picture (mental or with a camera). Pour in the olive oil and use your hands to mix the oil and leaves. Notice how the leaves turn a beautiful bright green when they've been massaged.
5. Kid-friendly: Spread the leaves out in a single layer on the cookie sheet. You may have two batches, depending on the size of your kale bunch.
6. Kid-friendly: Sprinkle with salt.
7. Place in the oven for 8-10 minutes. I suggest checking after 8 minutes. The aim is for crispy but not brown or burnt.
8. Let them cool and enjoy them with your favorite holiday movie! (Perfect popcorn replacement!)

(vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, corn-free, soy-free)

Mindful Holidays

Damla plays in double boat/barco doble/navasana with variation.

by Damla Eytemiz

While holiday events may encourage us to eat, drink, and be merry, we can be mindful about how we participate. Moderation in all things is necessary. Here are some of my reflections on how to have a great healthy holiday. 

Exercise regularly. Eat well. Holiday doesn’t mean you have to cut your exercise time, change your schedule or eating habits. Instead, try adding more activity in your life to cope with holiday stress. Exercise helps you to relax and reduce your stress. Plus, if you do attend more gatherings with delicious foods, the added activity will help prevent possible seasonal weight gain.

Connect the season to your activities: dance to your favorite carols, walk around the neighborhood and marvel at the decorations, make snowballs, work with your kids to make healthy holiday snacks and teach them how to make OHMazing choices no matter the season.

Oranges are examples of "candy from the Earth."

At a recent class in La Palmera mall for the TideTurner's event, Yogiños: Yoga for Youth® founder and CEO, Beth Reese, and I passed out clementine oranges reminding kids to eat "candy form the earth." Fruit has sugar in it, too! The difference is the sugar is natural and the pulp and fiber in fruit forces our body to digest the sugar more slowly than in foods with added sugar.



Damla Eytemiz is from Turkey and she is trilingual in Turkish, English and German. She started Yoga in 2010, and she has been doing Pilates since 2007. She loves sports and thinks kids should put “Yoga” in their lives so that they can readily work through life’s challenges and be happier kids.  

Poised for Possibility: Strike a Pose to Rock the Butte

Meredith (right) and I have tons of fun transforming
traditional asanas into playful partner poses!

by Elizabeth Reese, Ph.D., RYT, RCYT

It's no secret that I love to practice yoga-off-the-mat: brushing my teeth, waiting for coffee, in-line anywhere, traveling.... you name it! I also enjoy traveling to new places to meet new friends and experience yoga, like Yoga Rocks the Butte Festival for all ages including FAMILIES in February!

Try this pose with your family and friends then SEND ME PICTURES to enter a drawing to win a pass to YOGA ROCKS THE BUTTE!

One of my favorite poses to play with is Arbol/Vrksasana/Tree. We offer instructions in English and Spanish to extend our limbs to as many friends as possible.

• Start in Mountain Pose with feet strong (think about your four points of contact)
• Reach forward to grab your right ankle. Put bottom of right foot against upper left thigh

  

  Teachers play "Mirror Tree" pose to extend the
  asana into pratyhara or cultivation of the senses.

• Keep a firm foundation while tightening hips & belly for strength
• Place hands on hips & lengthen your body.
• Hands meet at heart center in Anjali Mudra.
  
• Comienza en pose de Montaña con los pies fuertemente plantados en el piso (piensa en tus cuatro puntos de contacto)
• Estírate hacia adelante para agarrar tu tobillo derecho. Coloca la planta del pie derecho contra la parte superior del muslo izquierdo.
• Mantén una base firme al mismo tiempo que tensas las caderas y la panza para obtener mayor fuerza.



Andersen, my 4 year old Yogiña, sports
Vrksasana almost anywhere, anytime!

• Coloca las manos en las caderas y estira tu cuerpo.



Middle school yogis play in Arbol and add a ball or sandbag
to turn the pose into the OHMazing™ game, Tree Toss.

• Las manos se encuentran en el centro a la altura del corazón para Anjali Mudra.

Our Teacher Training in Crested Butte found us hiking and
striking Tree pose along the way. Join us at Yoga for the Peaceful
in June for another Teacher Training among the mountains!

Elizabeth Reese, Ph.D., RYT, RCYT, is the founder and executive director of Yogiños: Yoga for Youth®. She is a teacher with over 20 years of experiences leading learners of all ages in creative problem solving, self-reflection and empowerment. With her doctorate degree in art museum education, Reese is the visual arts columnist for the Corpus Christi Caller Times, a visiting instructor at Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi, and the author of several articles and book chapters as well as co-author of the book, Experience Art: Teaching and Learning through Works of Art. Her teaching credentials also include windsurfing and skiing.

Together at the Table: Allergic to the Holidays

by Meredith Blanks Paterson

Holidays are fraught with emotion for everyone, and those emotions can be particularly heightened around the subject of food. Holiday celebrations revolve around food, and the preparation and eating of the food is a ritual sacred to many households. 

When you or a family member has food sensitivities, food allergies, and special dietary needs, the weight of those traditions suddenly becomes more apparent, and you fear doing anything to disturb them. I play the zero-sum game with myself each time. Which is worse, getting sick or calling attention to myself with my special food? Typing that question makes me sad, but I consider it at each social meal.

Gluten-Free Easily is hosting an
extravaganza of allergy-friendly holiday recipes
to help create new traditions.

If you have a child with food allergies, the holidays mean well-meaning relatives offering spoons to lick and handfuls of treats at all hours of the day. You worry that hyper-vigilance won't be enough, and that maybe staying home is always the best option.

Several online resources have helped me handle both the emotional side of social eating-- the fear, the shame, the anxiety-- and the practical how-tos of what to bring when I go out to eat or to a friend or family member's house. These resources have also helped me realize that there are so many things that I can eat instead of focusing only on what I have had to remove from my diet. They make me feel excited about food again.

If you need a place to start, this post from Adventures of a Gluten-Free Mom really resonated with me and made me realize that making myself sick was not worth it.



Here are some resources that I have found helpful. Most cover multiple food allergies and sensitivities. Lots of great recipes and advice in each link.

Adventures of a Gluten-Free Mom
Elana's Pantry
M.A.G
The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen
Gluten-Free Easily

What are your tips for handling the holidays on a special diet? Share with us any resources and recipes you have found.