Sunday, October 25, 2009

VeganMoFo 25: Yoga Retreat Food!

I just got home from leading a wonderful yoga retreat with my friend Delana. We spent the weekend at a super beautiful spot called Land of Medicine Buddha. It's just about 5 minutes from my house, but it really felt like a wonderful get-away.

The food at LMB is so totally delicious, and is always all vegetarian. For our retreat, Delana graciously went along with my request that the food be all vegan. The LMB staff cooked up some really delicious meals for us!

I forgot to get a good picture of the oatmeal bar, but in the mornings they make a big delicious pot of oatmeal, and then they have nuts, and prunes, and peanut butter, and jam, and brown sugar, and flax meal, and dried apricots, and nut milks, and so on and so on. It's amazing.
New revelation = peanut butter in oatmeal. Amazing!

Dinner: Thai Coconut Veggie Stew, Kale Pesto, Green Salad with vinaigrette, and (not pictured) some great Banana Bread for dessert. That Kale Pesto was seriously something special. I loved it, and kept going back for more! At first, I thought "Oh! Maybe this would be a way I could get Mr. VE&Ts to enjoy some kale!" and then I remember that crazy Mr. VE&Ts doesn't like pesto either. More for me!

Lunch: Marinated Baked Tofu, Roasted Broccoli, Lemon-scented Quinoa Salad, Green Salad with Carrot-Ginger Dressing.

I made some special Lunch Cookies. See, the LMB folks make great desserts for dinnertime, but they don't make desserts for lunch time. When we had our retreat in the Spring, a few folks (*cough* Rachel!) were mentioning how much they wanted a sweetie after lunch. Naturally, I agreed... So this time around I made a big double batch of my Chocolate Cherry Pecan cookies, my own twist off one of Dreena Burton's cookie recipes.

Dinner: Cream of Cauliflower Soup, Green Salad with Green Pepper and Olive Dressing, Warm Bread...

... plus Chocolate Chip & Apricot Cookies for dessert! PLUS fruit salad. mmmm!

My favorite meal of the weekend was also the last one. This was SO GOOD: Fragrant Baked Rice, Gingery Black Beans, Roasted Kabocha Squash on Bed of Greens (freak out!), Salad with Orange-Sesame Vinaigrette, Warm Bread... Sigh. What a happy belly!

Our weekend of yoga was a great success... great people, great yoga, and great food. What a pretty place, huh?? It's all tucked away in the redwoods.


{Also, special thanks for Mr. VE&Ts for pushing "publish post" yesterday so that I can maintain my MoFo integrity this month! What a guy!}



9 comments:

  1. Aww Mr. VE&T is so cool. I'd love to go to a yoga retreat- especially one with such amazing food! What style do you practice? I haven't tried many styles, but I love taking anusara classes at the studio near my house.

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  2. I'm glad you had a great retreat!

    Kale... oy... I'm also not a huge kale fan. It's okay, but there are so many greens I love more!

    Oatmeal bar, on the other hand... excellent idea! I would eat oatmeal every day if I weren't too lazy to wash out the oatmeal pan that frequently.

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  3. Yum -- an oatmeal bar sounds amazing! I love the peanut butter idea too.

    Quick blogger tip to file away if you're ever away again in October... if you forward date your post (at the bottom of your post under "post options") and then click "publish post", the post won't show up online until the actual date and time you set. I just learned that. It's pretty cool!

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  4. Wow, that's some yummy food at the retreat! The oatmeal bar sounds incredible! :-)

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  5. Food always tsstes better on retreat. I've been introduced to some foods on retreats--steamed kale is one--that are now a regular part of my diet. I almost always make kale just the way I had it on retreat--steamed and drizzled with toasted sesame oil and sprinkled with gomasio, a simple Japanese seasoning of sesame seeds and salt. My meditation retreat group also has a morning oatmeal bar. It was there that I discovered the beauty of stewed prunes. Perfect on oatmeal.

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  6. Glad your retreat went well - that oatmeal bar sounds like my dream come true!

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  7. How wonderful to be able to attend a function where you can eat every single thing!

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  8. wow-that retreat sounds wonderful - and delicious!!

    Amey, you know I love you, but I have to ask- HOW MUCH work does it take to squish tofu with a spatula? I know you're not too lazy for that! Come ON!

    =)

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  9. Anonymous1:50 PM

    Wow, it all looks amazing! If you get their kale pesto recipe, please post it! That sounds great.

    Speaking of kale, have you tried kale chips?: http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2009/02/tuscan_kale_chips
    Maybe Mr. VE&Ts would like them if he likes other chips?

    -- jen e.

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