DINNER

Our evening meal is a chance to sit down, and celebrate. (Yes! Another day under our belt!) If we have the chance, sharing a meal socially can be a great way to feel connected with others. It’s also a lovely opportunity to pick up foodie inspiration.

Dining alone can be equally enriching. In the quietness of our own company, we can take our time to choose what we eat thoughtfully, in line with our body’s needs.

In Part One, we touched upon the mind’s limited capacity to conceive completely new concepts. However, for quite some distance along the path of self-understanding, the mind is the key tool we have at our disposal. It is therefore crucial to consume foods that are conducive to our mental clarity. Rather than offering specific food recommendations in this chapter, the focus will be on enhancing your sensitivity to flavours and foodstuffs so you can choose foods that feel amazing to eat.

GET SENSITISED: enhance your appreciation of food by spending five minutes practising the Undressed Banana Meditation (see here).

FOOD SHOP: head out with your healthiest self in mind and shop for ingredients that are fun to cook and offer the greatest good.

PREPARATION: Take a moment to note all of the wonderful smells, textures and colours available in the moment, observing how they evolve during the cooking process.

SITTING DOWN TO DINE: enjoy a few Easy Breaths before you begin your meal.

GO GENTLY: take the time to really relish each spoonful. Pop your cutlery down between mouthfuls so that you can appreciate each bite.

AFTER DINNER: in the time that follows your meal be sure to reflect on how the food you have eaten has contributed to your wellbeing.

TEA: close with a soothing cup of peppermint tea.

TIP: You might like to set a positive intention for your mealtime, for example, ‘Let this food keep me strong and healthy.’

Meditation: The Undressed Banana

(5 minutes)

Do this meditation before you set out to the shops. It can help you to cultivate your sensitivity or intuition so you can see how you respond to certain foods.

Ok, here goes:

• Take a banana. Sit in front of it. Hold it. Feel it. Put it down.
• Now, remove the label ‘banana’ from it.
• If in your mind you look and say, ‘Banana,’ now look and don’t say anything. Just experience it as it is.
• Sit with it.

This meditation might sound hilarious or ridiculous, but I promise there are goodies here. Through this exercise, we learn to experience the ‘beingness’ of the banana: seeing the reality of it, seeing it as it is, rather than a concept based on our memories and preconceptions of bananas.

With time, we might extend this ability to perceive the ‘beingness’ of things to our friends and loved ones too.

Getting Ready To Shop

Having made your shopping list, it’s time to prepare for your shop symbolically:

Option One

(1 hour)

You’ve got ages. A lazy Sunday morning, or a Friday evening are perfect for leisurely shopping.

You’re about to shop for food with your highest love and understanding in mind. You are intending to listen to your inner self, and spend time buying just the right things to nourish and fulfil you. To generate new cells and new blood.

Why not dress for the occasion and take time to put on something that inspires you? Something that, whenever you wear it, you are prone to having loving ideas about yourself. Ideas that are in line with your new mindful way of life. You might even do your hair too. This is an invitation to wear something that enlivens your sense of healthy eating.

Option Two

(5 minutes)

You’ve got no time, literally – you needed this shop yesterday. All the same, wash your face and hands, put on a spritz of cologne and a fresh jersey. Prepare yourself to make healthy choices.

Mindful Eating

Here are five key ways to apply a mindful living ethos to your mealtimes.

1. RELISH: once it’s eaten, it’s eaten – so take your time and savour every morsel without rushing to the end too quickly.
2. NOTICE: explore the many sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures of your food. Switch off the television and the smartphone so that you can give eating your full attention.
3. CELEBRATE: approach the plate, the knife and the spoon with revelry, and gratitude. This way, eating can become a celebration of life.
4. SHARE: take the opportunity to share your food with a friend or loved one. Eating together mindfully can be both a celebration and a reminder of your shared humanity. Here you both are, doing something people have done for millions of years. How very normal and reassuring. (By the way, when I gobble my dinner down, I notice my friend miraculously starts following suit. Staying present at mealtime, even if in company, helps me manage my own rhythm.)
5. RELAX: take five minutes before you start eating to do a simple breathing meditation. At best, you’ll feel a little lighter afterwards, and at the very least you’ll be a little more connected to your body’s needs.

Enough Is Enough

(60 seconds)

Sometimes food can be so tasty, though. It can be easy to overfill the plate, especially at key trigger times such as Christmas, holidays, birthdays or days of the week that end in ‘y’.

If you have found portion control, calorie counting and willpower to be less than entirely helpful in your bid to stop overeating, why not experiment with a little surrender?

Not many people like being told what to do. Some people even find that the moment they aren’t supposed to be doing something, it suddenly becomes essential. Usually, if you think you shouldn’t be doing something (like overeating) you will likely try to do it quickly in a kind of food trance, or in a semi-secretive fashion to avoid the dissonance that goes with doing something you’ve judged to be bad.

Have you seen this happen? If this sounds like you, then why not let go of any prejudices you have as to what you will eat, and ease up on the reins a little. It doesn’t mean that you go out and eat any old rubbish, but try giving yourself full permission in the moment to listen to your body.

Sometimes Science Can Really Help

Are there some foods that feel better to you than others?

Sometimes a certain type of food feels good in the moment, but then it doesn’t agree with us in the days that follow. Mindful eating is about calm, conscious eating, and it is also about developing a continued sensitivity towards the ways that food influences your wellbeing in the days that follow your meal. (Be aware, though, that a meditative approach to food shouldn’t replace or exclude the guidance of a qualified healthcare professional.)

TIP: Take five minutes each day to note your foodie reflections in your journal.

Food to Share

Here’re a couple of perfect recipes to share around the table or to keep in the fridge to use in your work lunchboxes.

The English Garden

Serves 2

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 handful curly kale

1 handful broccoli florets

½ courgette, sliced into thin sticks

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 small spring onions, chopped

1 small knob of ginger, finely chopped

1 handful fresh peas

¼ small leek, finely chopped.

Several basil leaves, chopped

1 poached egg (e.g. organic free-range duck egg)

Method: lightly stir-fry all the ingredients, except the egg, in the coconut oil for around eight to ten minutes or until the vegetables soften. When the green vegetables are as soft as you’d like them to be, tip them into a bowl. Pop a poached egg on top and serve with a few fresh basil leaves.

TIP: This meal reminds me of the English countryside as described by John Clare in his poems. Lots of luscious green and sweet peas and rogue hens running around the place.

Persian Pearls

I love this simple, fruity dish. Basically, it’s quinoa with multi-coloured dried fruits and vegetable ‘pearls’. When served in a big bowl, it looks as though you’ve just taken a scoop from a gem-peppered treasure trove, released from deep under the earth. Which, when you think about it, you have!

Serves 3 (2 for dinner, and 1 for lunch the next day!)

½ cup quinoa

1 cup water for cooking the quinoa

1 handful pistachios

1 handful dried cranberries

1 handful fresh blueberries

1 large carrot, chopped into small, slim sticks

6 yellow baby tomatoes or 15 dried mango pieces

Seeds of ½ pomegranate

A tiny pinch of cinnamon, turmeric and ground cardamom

½ cup white beans, cooked

½ tsp brown sugar

Method: cook the quinoa according to the instructions on the pack in the boiling water. When ready, remove from the heat and drain the water. Immediately stir the other ingredients into the pot and place the lid on so as to allow it to steam and cool naturally. Serve with a handful of finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley.

Moonlit Soup

This filling soup cooks quickly and freezes well, which can be really handy if you need to rustle up a wholesome meal late one evening.

Serves 2

1 red onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 green chili pepper, finely chopped

2 sticks celery, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 tbsp coconut oil

2 cups black beans, cooked

3 cherry tomatoes, chopped

1 cup vegetable stock

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 cup water

Black pepper, to taste

Himalayan pink salt, to taste

2 tbsp crème fraîche, scoop of avocado or 2 poached eggs, to serve

Sprinkling of fresh coriander, chopped, to serve

Method: sauté the onion, garlic, chilli, celery and carrot in a pan in the coconut oil for five minutes until tender. Add the cooked black beans, chopped tomatoes and vegetable stock. Simmer for a further five minutes. Add the chia seeds. Blend the mix until smooth, adding water to taste. Season with plenty of black pepper and Himalayan pink salt to taste. Complete this dark, rich soup by adding either a poached egg, a scoop of avocado, or a dollop of crème fraiche, and a sprinkling of coriander on top to serve.

TIP: Read the short poem ‘The Listeners’ by Walter De La Mare and imagine all the people around the world, travelling by moonlight tonight!