A Cookbook Review: Eat with Intention

Eat With Intention. That is Cassandra Bodzak’s mantra, the author of the book Eat With Intention: Recipes and Meditations for a LIfe That Lights You Up. This book is a not your traditional cookbook about dictating how to eat or live your life but  it teaches you how to lead a lifestyle of wholesome, pure, happiness. Bodzak struggled for years with unhealthy dieting, stomach pains, and food allergies, leading her to change her lifestyle to listen to her body. She teaches us her wisdom in this beautifully arranged book. You learn not only how to make healthy food but how to nourish your body through self-love, how to incorporate meditation and thoughts of daily gratitude. This plant based book has everything you need to treat your body right! 

The book starts off with some delicious juices and smoothies that are colors of the rainbow. Since it was National Green Juice Day yesterday, here are two delicious green juices from he book.

Focus Potion (from book)

Distractions are everywhere these days, especially with smart phones and social media vying for our attention throughout the day. My daily focusing weapon is always my meditation and reciting what I’m here to do. What’s your mission statement? I’ll give you a hint: For all of us, at its core, it is being a living example of love incarnate. When we adjust our focus through our divine purpose, we have a lot more power when it comes to steering clear of mindless distractions. This potion is a bit of a secret weapon of mine for days when shiny objects are getting the better of me. The sweet combination of grapes with the alkalizing punch of kale and celery perks you up while magical rosemary focuses all that good energy in the area you need it!

DIVINE PURPOSE VISUALIZATION
Sit in easy pose with your eyes closed and focused on your third-eye point (the space between your eyebrows). Take long, deep breaths in through your nose and out your mouth. Feel your body come into a calm balance. Now, bring what your purpose on this planet is to the top of your mind. If you are unclear of what your purpose is, use “I am here to be love,” because that is all of our main purpose. Allow it to be your mantra for a few moments, letting it roll around your head, down your spine, and through your breath flow. Now bring to mind what this would look like to you. How do you behave? How do people around you feel and act? What’s the ripple effect in the world? Allow these images to flood your mind for the next 3 to 5 minutes before bringing yourself back to your original purpose statement, taking a deep breath in, holding it, and releasing it.

Yield: 1 serving
INGREDIENTS
3 celery stalks
2 cups (134 g) baby kale
1 cup (150 g) grapes
3 drops rosemary essential oil
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, to garnish
1. Put celery, kale, and grapes into a juicer and juice into a large glass.
2. Stir in the rosemary oil, garnish with sprigs of rosemary, and serve immediately.

Radiance Juice (from book)

Roald Dahl famously said: “If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” I couldn’t agree more. Beauty starts from within and permeates outward. Thinking thoughts that nourish your soul and eating foods that nourish your body are more effective than the most luxurious makeup money can buy. You can’t fake true radiance. This juice is packed with nutrients that will get you glowing from the inside out! Pineapple juice promotes healthy skin and helps prevent acne; watercress is also great for your overall health with its high levels of vitamin C; and cucumber has cooling and moisturizing properties.

RADIANT HEART MEDITATION
In this exercise, we are going to pull energy into our heart center and allow it to saturate every cell of our being, filling us with light and allowing our inner radiance to pour outward as it overflows.
Begin by sitting in easy pose and breathing long and deep. Close your eyes and focus on your heart center while using your hands to slowly and steadily pull the energy surrounding you into your heart. Your hands should stay at heart height and move from the sides of your body inward, as if you are catching a ball and bringing it into your heart. Feel the light in your heart expand and grow brighter with each motion. Continue for at least 3 minutes, gradually building up to 11 minutes. Take a deep breath in and bring your hands into your heart, right palm on top of left. Feel the energy pulsing through your heart center and allow it to distribute throughout your entire being. Imagine it filling up each cell with its loving light energy. Exhale.

Yield: 1 serving
INGREDIENTS
½ cup (17 g) watercress
2 cucumbers, peeled
2 limes, peeled
1 cup (166 g) pineapple chunks
1. Starting with the watercress, juice all the ingredients into a large glass.
2. Lightly stir and serve immediately

I tried out one of the Berry Green smoothie recipe, although unfortunately I didn’t have berries, so I used papaya instead, which also has a lot of healthy vitamins, antioxidants, and live enzyme. It came out delicious! All you really need are a few ingredients and a blender! It was the perfect post-workout meal and flu-recovery meal.

As you can see I made mine a smoothie bowl instead of just the smoothie to make it a little more substantial so I can eat it as my post-workout brekky. So delicious! You can really add anything you want.

If you want to see more delicious, wholesome recipes, go buy this cookbook. It’s definitely a great read and an even better eat 😉

xx

Jennifer Higa