guest post! holly w.

Greetings dear Meals & Moves readers!

I can’t even tell you how excited I am to be posting on my girl Janetha’s blog! I know I don’t have pretty sun-kissed blond hair (mine’s brown and curly – deal with it) or cute lil’ puppers (it’s not my fault I am scared of dogs – blame it on the 7-ft. show poodle that attacked me when I was little), but please, follow along with me as we take a lil’ journey through Everythingtarianville…

However, I should probably start by introducing myself. My name is Holly, and I write the healthy living blog The Healthy Everythingtarian. As the name suggests, I follow a general life policy of inclusion. I like trying new things – new foods, new workouts, new adventures, new ideas – and have a general ill will towards restriction. You see, I find that once I say I can’t have something, I just want it that much more. When I stopped excluding things (ahem, from namely my diet), my cravings and such disappeared. Hey, it works for me.

Back to the task at hand. When the fabulous and hilarious Janetha said she wanted to hear about a favorite meal or favorite move of mine, I immediately started brainstorming. My favorite meal is actually ice cream. Yeah, that wouldn’t work on a health blog. My favorite move? The mom dance. Hmmmm…I didn’t know how that would fly either.

Then magically appearing out of the vast expanse that it my brain, I knew exactly what meal and exactly what move I needed to write about. So, in true Janetha style, here I go…

meal

After graduating from college, I spent just under a year teaching English in Thailand. It was obviously an amazing experience – the culture, traveling, teaching, people and of course – food! – were all unforgettable.

While there, I took a Thai cooking class – ummm, ALOY (which means delicious in Thai)! One of the fabulous dishes we learned to cook was Gang Pehd Gai Yang, or Roasted Chicken in Red Curry. This gal LOVES a good curry!

So, here you lucky ducks go: an authentic Thai red curry recipe! If you can’t find some of these ingredients in the regular grocery store, don’t be afraid to head to your local Asian market. They are well-stocked with all these goods (and other fun eats)!

Gang Pehd Gai Yang (Roasted Chicken in Red Curry)

6 ounces roasted chicken, roughly diced

2 tbsp. red curry paste

1 cup coconut cream

1 ½ cups coconut milk

1 eggplant, diced

10 Thai eggplants, halved

6 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 cup pineapple, diced

4 Kaffir lime leaves

2 branches sweet Thai basil

1-2 jalapeno chilis, seeded and diced

4 tsp. fish sauce

2 tsp. palm sugar (or regular white sugar)

Bring the coconut cream to a full boil over medium to high heat – do not stir.

Add red curry paste and stir well, until fragrant. Add the kaffir lime leaves (tear to release the aroma), chicken, coconut milk, fish sauce and sugar. Bring to another boil.

While the liquid is cooking, chop your vegetables and add the eggplants, tomatoes and pineapple. Let simmer until the vegetables are cooked.

Last, add the chili, sweet basil and stir. Remove from heat.

Divide into two bowls and serve with rice. Enjoy!

Makes two servings

moves

Besides traveling, one of my other true loves in life is yoga. Quite frankly, I could talk all day about the benefits of this ancient practice, but you’ve probably heard them all: increased flexibility, muscle toning, relaxation, longer life span… Bottom line – yoga rules.

Even though I don’t make it to class as much as I like, yoga is quite often my savior.  After a bad day, I may reluctantly trudge to class and curse the fact that I don’t really want to work out.  However, 60 minutes later, I am a new woman: breathless, tomato-faced, joyful and happy.  Think a smaller, white girl version of Buddha. There are four poses which I do almost everyday, that also happen to be my favorites.

#1: Forward fold (Uttanasana II)

#2: Downward dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

#3: Triangle (Trikonasana)

#4: Child’s pose (Balasana)

These are all basic poses I find great for decompressing, stretching and regaining some semblance of sanity in the midst of those seemingly unending crazy days. My all-time favorite pose is triangle – I don’t know why but it’s so cathartic.  It just feels good.  I dare you to try one…or all of them!

So there you have it kiddos – some tempting Thai food and beautiful basic yoga. Those are some of my favorite meals and moves….what is your favorite meal and favorite move?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you are having tons of fun in Seattle Miss Janetha!

Lotsa love to all,

Holly