Searching for Zen
A lot of people ask me where the “zen” in The Zen of Slow Cooking comes from, so I 
thought I would share a little bit of my story…
When I first started to slow cook I wasn’t searching for good food – I was looking for an easy fix to my mealtime dilemma and a way to reduce my “mom guilt” for not always having fresh, home cooked meals. But over time I could see that I was really seeking peace and quiet allowing a little more zen in my kitchen.
A few years passed and I realized if I wanted to have peace in my home that I needed to embody that energy or as Gandhi said I had to “be the change I wanted to see in the world.” So I enrolled in an “Introduction to Meditation” class and began a wonderful relationship with my teacher Ramaa Krishnan. I have to admit that while I totally agreed with and valued her instruction and opinion of meditation, I couldn’t seem to find 5 minutes a day to sit still after my weekly class ended. Over the months I slowly made progress – not with an enough of a practice to see any sort of permanent change in my outlook, but I started to experience moments of serenity.
During a second round of meditation classes she asked us to practice a daily Sadhana – “a discipline that combines the head and the heart in the journey towards a goal.”
My ears pricked up and my heart started to race! Daily homework! How could I do that when I could barely find 5 minutes to sit in silence?
Ramaa elaborated, a daily Sadhana could be;
- walking your dog without bringing your cell phone
- driving to work without turning on your radio
- folding your laundry in silence
- cutting up your vegetables without talking on the phone
This is where I got excited! With my new slow cooking routine, I could do this. The next day my daily Sadhana became my slow cooking preparation time.
The sense of peace that surrounded that entire process was truly liberating. I took that practice into other areas of my life.
I noticed something else too – the quality of my food really improved. I do have to give some credit to my daughter’s gentle prodding (in other words threatening to become a vegetarian after too many pot roasts), but with her input, and my new slow cooking routine, I started to adapt some of my favorite recipes from Ina Gartner (Barefoot Contessa), The Silver Palate and Noteworthy for my slow cooker.
With this final step, I could see the improvements in my home life:
- quality home cooked meals ready for my family each night.
- a period of calm during my daily meal prep Sadhana.
- free time to assist my children in their key after school hours.
- more variety in my meals and a daughter who was still interested in a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, but no longer found my meals a driving factor in her decision.
So take a few moments to try one of our recipes, have fun and enjoy the journey!
Looking Ahead
Save your French bread for next weeks Thanksgiving stuffing recipe.
Zen Moment
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
– Martin Luther King, Jr
Meg
