Creamy Spring Pasta (Dairy-Free)

People really hate me when I say this: I’m not a big pasta person. I never really have been. Generally speaking, it just doesn’t do it for me.

But I was recently reminded of a recipe that I grew up with when my mom requested it for her birthday dinner. It felt nostalgic and also like a nod to the Spring that’s desperately trying to come through.

Instead of the half and half and/or heavy cream that’s typically used in a dish like this, I opted for cashew cream which provides the same rich, luscious mouth experience (I would argue, even more) than its dairy counterpart.

I also recently discovered a really delicious gluten-free pasta that’s made fresh and I have to say, that made the idea of pasta more appealing for me. It has simple ingredients and a really great texture. It’s made in Wisconsin and looks like it’s currently only available in the Midwest, so if you can find it I highly suggest it!

Typically, you’d garnish this dish with fresh Parmesan. I opted to grate macadamia nuts on top, but you could also use Brazil nuts. A microplane or zester works best here. I’ve also used this dairy-free Parmesan recipe before and that would work wonderfully.

This dish is heavy on the vegetables, full of healthy satiating fats from the cashews and overall provides a comforting, bright dish that will help you welcome Spring into your kitchen. Enjoy!

Creamy Spring Pasta

serves 4 / total time 30 minutes

cashew cream sauce
1.5 cups raw cashews, soaked overnight*
1 cup water
1 clove of garlic
Juice + zest of 1 lemon
½ tsp salt
A few grinds of pepper

pasta ingredients
6 strips of applewood smoked bacon, chopped**
3 shallots (or ½ red onion), thinly sliced
1 clove of garlic, minced
2-3 cups asparagus, chopped, approximately 1 lb
1 cup fresh or frozen peas
9 oz your favorite pasta

garnish
Fresh lemon zest
Black Pepper
Micro-planed brazil or macadamia nuts
Nutritional Yeast

directions

1. Get a pot of water for your pasta going on the stove.

2. First, make your cashew cream sauce. Add everything to a high-speed blender and blend on high for 1 minute, scarping down sides as necessary. Set aside.

3. In a large skillet over medium heat, add the bacon and shallots. Cook for 5-7 minutes until they’re both starting to get brown and crispy. Add the garlic for the last minute or so of cooking. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

4. In the same skillet, add the asparagus and turn up the heat slightly. Sauté your asparagus for about 3-5 minutes, until it turns bright green. Add the peas and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, until they turn bright green as well.

5. In the meantime, you may notice your pasta water boiling. Go ahead and cook your pasta according to the package instructions, drain and set aside.

6. Once the asparagus and peas are done cooking, turn the heat to low and add the cashew cream, the bacon/shallots and the pasta to the skillet. Stir the pasta mixture evenly, distributing the cream sauce to make sure everything is coated. If the cashew sauce gets too thick as it sits, add a few splashes of water until it's creamy again.

7. Divide into bowls and garnish with a little fresh lemon zest, your “parm” of choice and some fresh black pepper. Enjoy!
   
   * If you forget to soak overnight, cover the cashews in boiling water and allow to sit for at least 10 minutes.
   ** You can use regular bacon here, but the smoked flavor really makes this good.

How A Morning Ritual Keeps You Grounded in Times of Crisis

When the world is upending all around you, it’s really easy to write off your daily life and habits as insignificant. Which, in the face of a crisis - they seemingly are. 

It’s easy to say f*ck it to nearly all your healthy habits. Stress drives you to crave sugar and carbs, not vegetables. The thought of cultivating enough focus to read a book is overwhelming, and it’s much easier to zone out to the soothing familiarity of a Netflix binge. Working out is a stress-reliever for many people, but when our energy is so chaotic and frenetic, it can be hard to channel it into a meaningful activity.

I’m an advocate for everyone having a Morning Ritual all of the time, but in the face of our current global crisis, I’ve realized how this practice can be especially healing.

A Morning Ritual is a collection of practices performed at the start of the day that nourish the mind, body, and spirit. Those practices will vary from person to person, but usually involve some kind of contemplative time (meditation, journaling), movement (yoga, stretching, walking), perhaps some focus on breathing, and other soothing activities like reading or mindfully preparing breakfast.

The point of a Morning Ritual is that it sets you up to own your day. It helps dissipate anxiety, worry and fear. It promotes feelings of peace and well-being. Instead of entering the day like a wild banshee with your smart phone in one hand and an overflowing cup of coffee in the other, you are able to enter your day with a little more grace. You’ve tended to your self and your spirit before the demands of the day start rolling in.

It’s exactly these kinds of things that get thrown out when life becomes unpredictable or scary. And it’s exactly these kinds of things that bring us back to our center.

Meditation is not easy anytime, but when your energy and focus are already fractured it can feel like sitting in motionless torture. All the more reason to do it. If for even a moment during your meditation, you can tap into the tiniest place of peace deep within you, if you can just see it glimmering in the distance, it’s worth it.

This is what the world needs. We do not need everyone running around panic-stricken, with their energy chaotic and their own fear bubbling up and spilling out over everyone else in the form of being rude to a grocery store employee or snapping at loved ones.

Life as we know it has been uprooted, and it leaves us feeling ungrounded. By this I mean you might not feel steady or stable. All the things that usually make you feel strong and secure are rapidly shifting, maybe even disappearing.

This results in anxiety, restlessness, feeling spacey or disconnected. A Morning Ritual will help bring you back down. It will quell your racing mind and heart.

Moments and practices like these are not insignificant. No matter if you’re an essential worker (thank you, thank you, thank you), learning how to work from home, learning how to not work at all, homeschooling your children, or caring for others - navigating these rapidly changing times requires you to be level-headed.

Now more than ever we need to find small ways to tend to our energy. The world needs us to show up as our best selves. Investing even just a little bit of time into our physical and mental health will go a really long way, especially in trying times.

Wondering where to start? Here’s a simple Morning Ritual to help quell anxiety and chaotic energy:

• The Brain Dump - you will need a pen and paper for this. One of my favorite journaling exercises, this where you put all the thoughts swirling around in your head onto the page. There is no correct way to do this, no proper order. It doesn’t have to follow any sort of narrative. In fact, I prefer making a bullet list. Start by identifying the thoughts that are making you anxious. What or who are you worried about? What are you frustrated with? What’s making you feel scared? Run through all of these thoughts and write them down. Get them out of your brain and onto the page.
  
  

• Get Quiet - now that you’ve dispelled some of those noisy thoughts, allow yourself space to get quiet. Get into a comfortable position - it doesn’t really matter what that looks like. You can lie down, sit cross legged, sit on a chair. Close your eyes and settle into whatever position you’re in. Start focusing on your breath, notice how it comes in and goes out. This is where you want your attention - on your breath. Your mind will probably definitely wander. When this happens, notice it. Then redirect your attention to your breath. Keep doing this, always coming back to your breath, for at least five minutes but keep at it as long as you’d like. Much like a snowglobe, this simple act of sitting still in silence allows your energy to settle.
  
  

• Send it out - you’re going to send out love, healing and protection. You can list specific people you’re thinking of or you can send out these thoughts to all beings. Some might call this prayer. I just know it feels good to imagine light emanating out from me and spreading all over the planet. Our attitudes, thoughts and beliefs matter (think about the placebo effect). Their effect starts with our daily experience and ripples outwards.

This is a suggestion. You know what nourishes your soul, what makes you feel calm and grounded. Do those things and do them regularly. There’s no better time than now.

2019 Reflections

2019 has brought more questions than answers. And to be quite honest, I thought it would be just the opposite.

My world shattered open this year. I really thought I was going to tie it up in a neat little bow.

Here’s what happened: on the first day of 2019 I decided to end my relationship of six years. There were a few issues that were big and bothering me, but mostly I did it because I had a deep gut feeling that this wasn’t it. I saw myself in five years fighting the same battles and I didn’t want that.

Second big life change: I moved back to the Midwest. Somehow I didn't see this breakup fully happening without a complete removal of myself from the situation. I also felt the pull to reconnect with family and friends that I had become distant with.

I road tripped from Washington State back to Chicago. I did the first half of my trip on my own, which was an experience in itself. I drove through literal mountains and snow storms. I found myself in the shadiest Motel 6 in remote New Mexico where I was one of the only women, one of the only white people and listened to a domestic dispute in the room next to me all night. I proved to myself how resilient I was - how I could drive by myself for 13 hours, handle anything the road threw at me, navigate the unknown safely. It was an incredible high punctuated by moments of absolute beauty on the road.

My brother flew out and met me in Albuquerque to drive the rest of the way back to Chicago. That time with him was priceless. We drove and adventured and endured a car break down in the middle of Oklahoma in 14 degree weather (on his birthday - poor dude). We also went to an amazing hot springs resort in New Mexico, ate ridiculously good barbecue in Oklahoma City, and got birthday beers at a Ruby Tuesday’s in Missouri.

Then I was here. Not quite where I grew up, but close. Living in my mother’s house that she bought with her fiancé the year before (very grateful for this safe landing pad 🙏). I got a dog. I got a “real” job. I turned 30.

I didn’t know exactly what my plan was, but I trusted it would be revealed to me as I went along, staying dedicated to my practices, my mental health, my physical health. Nine months later, I’m still waiting for that plan to be revealed to me and I’m slowly realizing I might need to take a little more action than I have been. I keep thinking this or that will pull me in one direction or another. I get a job somewhere else. A romantic pursuit that’s been in limbo will help me steer my course.

But the scariest thing I’ve realized is: it’s up to me. I’ve got to make the moves. I can’t wait for the wind to blow me one way or the other, I can't let someone else’s feelings about me dictate whether I’ll stay here or go somewhere else.

I’ve had countless breakthroughs and epiphanies this year. See - it’s not like I’ve been doing nothing. I’ve really dedicated myself to my spirituality, my healing, my personal growth. That’s hard to see from the outside and even harder to explain to people. But this time of discomfort and confusion is a container for growth, as painful as that is sometimes.

I’ve realized that my identities really dictate how I navigate this world and if I want to live a whole-hearted life I have to let go of some of these identities. And the process of separating ourselves from how we identify and present ourselves to the world is really fucking painful. For me some of the big ones are:

• I’ve always prided myself on being reliable - this isn’t always in my best interest since sometimes I will disregard my own needs and boundaries to maintain my identity of being reliable.

• I’m not messy. “I have my shit together” - this has been an image I’ve always put out and people have always told me that I “have my shit together”. Well guess what? I don’t and I’m not going to waste my energy creating the image of togetherness. Feelings are messy, life is messy and I'm no exception. I’ve kept it clean so that it’s easier for other people to stomach.

• I don’t know if I ever put out the image that I know exactly what I’m doing career wise but I think most people know that I love health, food and nutrition. But this is another area of my life that has broken open - I have so many interests. I love being outside, in nature. I love hiking. I love writing. I love teaching. I love speaking and hosting workshops. I love meditation, mindfulness yoga, kundalini. How do I make this into my life’s work? I’m working on it. The more I search for jobs and opportunities, the more I’m hit with the realization that I don’t see myself fitting in on any kind of traditional career path. I think I’m going to have to make my own. And that’s scary as shit.

Allowing myself to be messy and full of unknowns and being honest with people about it all is terrifying. I’ve always been “fine” and going forward, all I want is to be honest. I’m not fine. Most of us aren’t - and that is OKAY. Does that mean I’m unhappy? Absolutely not. That’s a practice I’ve also been cultivating this year - feeling good and grateful even if my circumstances aren’t what I want them to be and trusting that what I want will be mine and that these periods of discomfort are a necessary part of the process. I also find so much joy in the little things - time with Hank (my dog), nature walks, running, my morning bevvie, meditation, journaling, reading, nights out with friends.

No one knows what they’re doing, we’re all figuring it out and I’d love for us all the be a little more messy and honest about.

One a different note, it has been such a gift to spend time with my family and friends here. That has truly been the highlight. I’m also grateful for all the amazing people and new friends I’ve made here.

This has been a hell of year and I’m so ready for the next one.

I also wanted to leave you with some of the books that have really helped me along my path this year. These are great no matter where you are in your spiritual/life journey, but especially wonderful if you’re going through a weird time:

• When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron

• A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

• Super Attractor by Gabrielle Bernstein

• Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Wishing you all a wonderful 2020 - here’s to taking your power back and creating the life you want to live 💕