The Charmed Monday Minute: 5/26/08

Greetings this Memorial Day -- This is my first week to send The Minute without Joya (my able assistant) so we'll see how well I do. Several of you have written to me offering to do virtual assistant work and I thank you so much. I think I'll be looking for someone local who can help me deal with the paper mail, shipping, etc., but thanks from my heart for offering. I'm finishing up two weeks in NYC and it has been glorious. I walked in off the street at 8:02 last Tuesday night and got a 5th row center ticket for Gypsy (fabulous, amazing, carried me away), and yesterday William was in town and we got 5th row center seats for Spring Awakening from the half-price ticket booth. (Spring Awakening has lots of young love, sex, and death. It's a new kind of Broadway musical. William didn't care for it. I must admit I did.) In any case, these great seats are an indication to me that New York is inviting us back. We have looked at apartments to buy and we are in process there. I'll let you know what's up when something is certain. In the meantime, your prayers and good thoughts are greatly appreciated. Know that I'm holding all my readers and friends in the Light as well. My very best, Victoria Book of the Week Lillian Butler and Eddie Robinson, owners of Raw Soul Restaurant in Harlem where I took the "cooking" class in April have a new book out called Health Journey: Your Personal Road Map for Vibrant Living and Youthful Aging. It's a compact and jam-packed guide to natural living, vegan/whole-foods nutrition, and raw foods. Topics include hydration, food combining, juice fasting, exercise, making changes last, and a terrific recipe section featuring ultra-flavorful dishes from the restaurant's menu. This book is well researched, an easy read, and exquisitely balanced in the way that Lillian and Eddie are able to both call it as they see it and still respect their readers at whatever point they find themselves. I'm about to read it a second time. Order online at http://www.rawsoul.com or by phone: 212-491-5859; the cost is $21.95 plus $4.50 shipping. (And stay tuned: Ms. Lillian will be my radio guest in September or October.) Recipe of the Week I've taken this recipe from the featured book, Health Journey by Lillian Butler and Eddie Robinson. It's Ms. Lillian's Down Home Greens, one of the dishes we prepared in the class I took at Raw Soul. We all know how nutritious dark, leafy greens are but getting enough of them in our diets can be difficult. Either we didn't grow up eating them and don't know what to do with them, or we did grow up eating them but they were overcooked, over-salted, and seasoned with pork fat or bacon. Here's a way to enjoy greens with no cooking at all, and they are incredibly delicious. (Parenthetical remarks are mine.) Ms. Lillian's Down Home Greens (4 servings) 4 bunches collard greens 4 bunches kale or mustard greens Flax oil to coat greens 2 large diced garlic cloves 1 diced sweet onion Juice from 1 lemon 1 Tbls. apple cider vinegar 2 Tbls. agave nectar (a honey-like, low-Glycemic-Index sweetener made from cactus - available at health food stores) 1 Tbls. chili powder 1 Tbls. cumin 1 Tbls. Celtic sea salt (this is a minimally refined, mineral-rich salt; if you don't have any, use regular sea salt but cut the amount to 2 teaspoons) 1 tsp. cayenne 10 sliced Shitake mushrooms (I've used reconstituted dry Shitakes when I didn't have fresh) Wash and cut greens, removing stems. Coat greens with oil. Add seasonings. Mix well with hands. Taste. Adjust flavors. Add mushrooms. Let marinate overnight in refrigerator. These greens get better with time, so make enough for a few days. You won't miss the cooked version. (In class, Ms. Lillian had us really massage the greens, allowing the pressure, as well as the acid from the lemon and vinegar, to tenderize them the way cooking would have. This enabled us to enjoy the dish that evening without the overnight wait.) If You Have a Book in You ... Book consultant Jennifer Wilkov is a powerhouse who may be able to help you become an author (or a better-selling one). I took advantage of one of her offerings, "Lunch with Jennifer," and found it a remarkable experience. She has an uncanny ability to zero in on what is working for a writer and what isn't, on a practical, psychological, and spiritual level. I know that I'll be more successful as a result of working with Jennifer, which is why I want to let you know about her. She does phone coaching all over the country and also offers fabulous teleclasses, some of them free of charge. She doesn't confine her work to established authors either, and she can be a great help to new writers and to people who don't think of themselves as writers but who know that there's a memoir or a novel or a business book that they're supposed to get out into the world. Read more and be in touch on her site: www.yourbookisyourhook.com Coming on 'A Charmed Life' Radio, www.healthylife.net My live radio show is coming up this Wednesday, May 28, noon Eastern time, 11 Central, 10 Mountain, 9 a.m. Pacific. My guest will be Jennifer Cornbleet, author of Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People (she came up with the amazing brownie recipe I gave you a couple of months ago and on which I'm still getting positive feedback). We'll talk about getting more fresh produce in our diets, what raw foods are all about, the basics of raw food prep, and Jennifer will share some of her simple, scrumptious recipes. You can read more about Jennifer on her site: www.learnrawfood.com. The link is to the show is http://www.healthylife.net. If you can't listen live, all shows are archived and available for you to hear or download at your convenience. Where I'll Be Sunday & Monday June 8 and 9 (and returning July 20-21) - I'm doing the evening lectures on "Younger by the Day" and "How to Live a More Spiritual Life" at the New Age Health Spa, Neversink, NY, www.newagehealthspa.com Thur. June 19-Sunday June 22 - North American Vegetarian Society Summerfest, Johnstown, PA, www.navs.org. They'll have me working a lot and doing various lectures throughout the week on health, well-being, aging well, making peace with food and weight, and bringing your ethics into the real world without being insufferable about it.