Sweet Potato & Red Lentil Soup - Chloe's Countertop

SO much has been happening lately- time is flying and I’ve barely had the time to remember to breath. Ok, lets re-word that. I am trying to apply the things that I am learning everyday. One of these things is to practice gratitude and to live from a place of love and gratitude. Thus, negative thinking out, positivity IN! So, time has been flying, but I have definitely being doing lots of things that I love and that make me happy and I truly just haven’t felt that inspiration to write a blog post. It’s less about procrastination and more about just not feeling it. I am trying to listen to my intuition and follow my gut as much as possible so I can really strengthen that feeling. I’ve been putting more of my energy and love into other things. But, I have still been cooking a bunch!

I was talking to someone amazing, successful and incredible in the beginning of this week and she shared with me something that she just recently acquired at the Awesomeness Fest 2012 that was held in London. There were a ton of amazing, famous, talented people there- so she says. Definitely something I would love to put into my mental vision board as an event I would love to be invited to attend someday. Anyways, one of the things she shared with me was this idea of “Living in Flow”. This teaching is based loosely, on The Secret, and a lot of the thought and theories related to it. Basically, there are four quadrants of life and the key to living in “flow” is to have balance between all 4 quadrants. These 4 bodies are the mental, emotional, spiritual and physical. So- it may seem a little obvious or silly, but once you really get into it and brainstorm what these quadrants are and how much time you put into each one, everyday, it may start to make more sense. By balancing the bodies out, you will end up eliminating a lot of guilt, or procrastination, or feelings of regret- from your life. For me, I know that I have a lot of work when it comes to working on the spiritual and some on the physical. It depends on how you define these bodies as well though. At the moment, I think of spiritual as meditation. and I think of physical as exercise. However, physical could also mean food/nutrition- in which case, I have to say, I think I’m doing a good job of spending quite a lot of time in that area. So, brainstorm it out- play with it. I think it’s a pretty fun, and relevant exercise and a great key to your holistic (emphasis on “whole”) success.

Recently, one of my good friends, Amber Baker, introduced me to an incredible entrepreneur, cook and published author, Sara Forte and her new recipe book The Sprouted Kitchen. This is a really great recipe book full of lots of delicious ideas and meals that are great for anyone (she has a variety of gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian and meat recipes). One of the best things about Sprouted Kitchen is the photos and style of the book. Her husband is a photographer so it’s a collaboration of both their talents and you can really tell that this is a book of their love and it means a lot to them. I’ve tried a few of her recipes and am super excited to cook my way through the whole book (perhaps with the exception of the meat dishes, although- I will just invite people over to test them out). So far, my favorite recipe is the Smoky Red Lentil Soup. I am really excited to share this recipe with you! It’s SO simple and honestly one of the most delicious, hearty soups I have had in a while. I love soup so much! One day I would love to publish a book just on soups. They are the bulk of my diet throughout the winter season. I’ve changed up the recipe a little bit, so if you want the original recipe (and I recommend you do this anyways because everyone should have the Forte’s book handy in their household) you should get your butt to Chapters, Indigo or Amazon and grab your copy, NOW!