Day 3 Cyndi's Nirahara Samyama Diary: Eating Food Day

The importance of tuning into Nithyanada's satsang was strongly felt this morning when I tuned into the replay of yesterday's satsang.  I could feel the energy flowing in me, I feel it was his blessings he gives to the Nirahara Samyamas, and likely everyone. It was a very peaceful, blissful feeling similar to participating in a Oneness Blessing or Oneness Meditation session. I missed most of the Live satsang last evening because I fell asleep in the unusual heat we are having in the Pacific Northwest and our duplex was around 86°.

Even though I am not a devotee of Nithyananda's, I truly respect and appreciate his spiritual wisdom and status because of what I have learned and experienced with him, just online! During my Nirahara Samyama in Nov. 2014, I had a lot of realizations about food and judgements around diet that I feel were attributable to the intention and blessings that Swami Nithyananda nurtures the Niraharis with.

As I said in the first post of this diary, I am personally convinced that eating is part of the programs we have. Swamiji is giving not only a new program of "living foodfree", but also helping to clear the old programs around "I must have food to survive."

Today is a day to eat normally. From my experience, it is best to eat light before or after fasting, juicing or drinking just liquids. I intended to eat all raw today, yet we had some yummy leftover seaweed soup and jasmine rice, so I had that for breakfast. One of my food beliefs is that weekly seaweed soup is a great source of minerals! So far I have been cooking it, but could make a raw version.

At lunch we visited a friend to stock up on Dynamically Enhanced Structured Water (more about that later, it's a big topic!), and she gave us a sandwich to share of true sourdough bread with her seasoned grilled tofu, tomato and Veganaise. It was yummy! She sent us home with some raw pesto she made and other food goodies. With the food from a stop at the Olympia Food Co-op, I made a raw dinner.

. . . And I got soo busy making raw yummies, I totally missed the Live Satsang! 7 am IST (6:30pm PDT or 5:30pm PST) is a busy time for me. I did catch some of the replay later in the evening.

Fresh Corn & Blueberry Salad

Corn cut from 1.5 ears corn or more!
1 Tbs diced pablano pepper
1 Tbs diced red onion
1/2 C blueberries

Toss all together and top with:
Sprinkle celtic sea salt & cayenne
Spinach for garnish (or serve on bed of spinach)

Zucchini Noodle Pesto Pasta

Spiralize 1 zucchini and let sit in strainer for liquid to drain, pat with clean or paper towel before topping with pesto.

Nadja's Pesto

3 cloves garlic

1/3 C brazil nuts  soaked

1/3 C sunflower seeds  -  soaked overnight

1 C pumpkin seeds - soaked overnight

1 C cilantro

1 C parsley

4 Tbs lemon juice plus salt-pepper

2/3 C olive oil

Blend cilantro, parsley, oil in blender

Add garlic, nuts, seeds, salt, pepper, lemon juice

Blend into paste

Garnish with Tomato wedges

The Pizza Pasta recipe was inspired by Markus Rothkranz, as the lovabale Tony, sharing his IncrediPizza recipe. It's one of the best raw recipe videos yet! Be sure to watch it below (click on the Youtube logo to make it bigger). I made his pepperoni and pizza sauce recipes; I sadly forgot the dates in the sauce until after I'd plated it and modified the pepperoni recipe slightly with more spices and using Agar Agar.

You can order Markus and Cara Brotman's Love on a Plate: the Gourmet Uncookbook here. Great inspiration for simple raw foods to eat after the samyama . . . or anytime!

Zucchini Noodle Pizza Pasta

Spiralize 1 zucchini and let sit in strainer for liquid to drain, pat with clean or paper towel before topping with sauce. 

Pizza Sauce

1 C sundried tomato (pre-soaked if not in oil; drained if in oil)

1 C fresh tomato

3 Tbs cashew milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp olive oil

2 dates

1 clove garlic

pinch sea salt, black pepper, cayennes, I added ground fresh oregano

Mix all in the blender. Sprinkle with 1 grated brazil nut (or other soaked, dried nuts). 

Note: Brazil nuts don't require soaking.

Pepperoni

1/3 C irish moss gel or Agar Agar gel

½ C  coconut meat (meat from 1 small young coconut)

2 Tbs sundried tomatoes

¼ C red bell pepper

1 Tbs chopped raisins

½ tsp red beet (I didn't have beet and it still had good color)

1 ½ Tbs Nama Shoyu (or soy sauce or coconut aminos)

I added about 1/2-1 tsp each: oregano, thyme, black pepper, chili powder

With a normal blender, I first briefly blended the agar agar gel, coconut meat and tomatoes. This didn't work so well, as it's not liquid enough, so I transferred it to a small food processor. Then I added and briefly blended the remaining ingredients. The idea is to leave chunky bits for texture. If you have a Blendtec or Vitamix, you can add all the ingredients and pulse it briefly. You can persevere with a normal blender, you will just have to stop and scrape down with a spatula often. 

For the Pizza Pasta, I served 3 balls of the raw pepperoni mix. To make pepperoni, spoon about a 1 1/2 teaspoon and shape 1/4" thick. Makes about 12 pepperoni. dehydrate for 10-12 hours, turning half way through, to a flexible texture. Store in the refrigerator. 

Irish moss? It holds it all together. I substituted with agar agar powder. The agar agar powder I got from the Asian store had sugar in it for a Jello-like desert. I used it anyway as that's what I had. I boiled 2/3 C water and added and whisked about 3 Tbs of the agar agar powder and gently boiled and whisked for 5 mins. To cool it, I put the small saucepan in the freezer. It solidified too much, so I warmed it on the stove, stirring with the whisk until it was a thick jam-like consistency like Markus' irish moss in his recipe video.

To learn more about using Agar Agar, this Raw tiramisu recipe from NouveauRaw.com would be a good place to learn, and she has another page of instructions.

Where to get coconut meat? You can buy fresh young coconuts at Asian stores. Locally, our Safeway and food co-ops carry them as well. Asian stores also sell frozen coconut, be careful to choose the one WITHOUT sugar. I think one frozen pack is about 1 C of meat.  Markus reports that Whole Foods and some other natural stores are now selling frozen coconut meat as well. 

What I did on Day 3 Nirahara Samyama:

- Eating Normal Day

Drink or Eat

Neem leaf powder (1/4 tsp w/ 1/4 tsp structured water)

Haritaki powder (1 tsp w/ 1 tsp structured water)

Structured Water and DE Structured Water

seaweed soup and jasmine rice

1/2 sourdough, tofu, veggie sandwich

Raw Dinner: corn salad, pesto pasta, pizza pasta

Raw pudding: chia seed, raw cacao, coconut cream, blueberries 

Activities

Surya Namaskar

21min Kriya Breathing

Cooked for family

Met someone to sell a craigslist item

Visit friend

shopping

Watched:

Nithyananda.tv Replay (part of it)

Observations

I remembered that Ajapa japa (chanting) is supposed to be a part of this process and is not included in the current instructions on the Facebook group. I’ll have to ask about that. You chant the moola mantra of Nithyananda’s to maintain the connection with him. You chant this and envision the words encircling your throat chakra.  

Otherwise, just busy with life today and, well, eating! 

For an introduction to the Nirahara Samyama process, read the first post of this diary here. For all the posts in this series, go here: Nirahara Samyama Diary July 2015