First off, Happy Fall! Secondly, I am so thrilled to announce that I’m teaching the first EVER Deepening Your Yoga Practice workshop at the health club where I work in Arroyo Grande! This is HUGE not just for me and my students but for the world of yoga! Most people see healthclubs- wait, let’s call them what they really are- gyms, as a place for meatheads, frat guys and nearly-too-skinny girls to look at themselves repeatedly in the mirror while grunting and making notes on some chart, etc., etc. Sure those people exist and they are incredibly obnoxious and annoying but you know what? They are the people who need yoga most!!! 

Me at KCF!

I see these people lifting heavy weights, running for endless minutes on the Treadmill, swimming for 30 minutes and taking hard core Power classes without doing anything to counter the work on these huge muscle groups. And then when I finally convince them to take my yoga class, they come just once and complain that it’s too hard, they don’t know the names of the poses, why should they chant Om, what language am I speaking (Sanskrit) and again, why is it sooooo hard?

So when my boss Mark approached me about teaching a yoga workshop (anything I wanted) I thought it was a big leap for “gym yoga.” Now let me explain “gym yoga” before we go on. Most yoga teachers that I’ve worked with at gyms in the past had taken just a three day certification course and them BOOM! They’re a yoga teacher. No ridiculously hard anatomy classes. No embarrassing practice teaching sessions in front of peers. No reading of the Bhagavad Gita, The Yoga Sutras, nothing by B.K.S. Iyengar.

And then there’s me. Not to toot my own horn, but I’m gonna! I went to what is known in the Midwest as the “Harvard of yoga teacher training” at Moksha Yoga in Chicago and after a vigorous nine month program that consisted of spending 20 hours each weekend in the studio, I hopped a plane to Mysore, India where I could immerse myself in the practice of Ashtanga yoga with the now-late Guru Pattabhi Jois. It was the most incredible, humbling and life-changing trip I have ever been on and the generosity of the people from a Third World country was just mind-blowing.

Mind-blowing because most of the people had nothing to give but demanded that you take something, or eat a second helping or allow them to make you a Sari or a pair of leather flip-flops. Oh! And I still have those flip-flops from that first trip in 2005! So, if you live in the Nickel Cities or SLO area, you’re welcome to join my workshop, at Kennedy Club Fitness, member or non-member! You’ll develop a meditation and breathing practice, learn the Sanskrit names of poses, chant, and even learn how to stand on your head or balance on your hands! Get all the details here!

Let’s get to some yummy stuff shall we? Andy and I met our two friends in Atascadero on Sunday for the Windrose Farm Heirloom Tomato Festival. There were over 40 varieties of heirlooms to taste.. who knew there were even that many? They ranged in color from light pink to black, and from bright yellow to neon green. And since we were some of the last people to leave, the owner Barbara Spencer gave me a huge bag and told me to take whatever I wanted. She obviously doesn’t know me too well or she would’t have offered me that! I walked away with at least 10 pounds of tomatoes!

This next recipe I’m sharing with you is what I like to call “One Dish Dinner” because I cook it in one big glass baking dish so there’s only one dish to clean afterward. Easy peesy. I usually make this dinner without the chicken and I use big portobello mushrooms in place of them so if that’s more up your alley, I suggest that. It’s just as good and the chicken’s don’t really want us to eat them anyhow!

Herbs Provence is the key to this dish. It’s a mix of savory, marjoram, rosemary, thyme and oregano.

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One Dish Dinner Chicken Bake- serves two of more

Ingredients:

-6 boneless chicken thighs or use 6 big portobello mushrooms

-6 stalks celery, chopped (save the greens for a side salad)

-1 butterrnut squash, chopped into small cubes

-8 oz. mushrooms, sliced

-2 Gala apples, chopped into small cubes

-1 yellow squash, chopped

-4 medium sized red potatoes, chopped

-1/2 red onion, chopped

-1 green pepper, chopped

-2 T Herbs Provence

-2 T olive oil

-salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450. Chop up all the vegetables and place in a large baking dish with the exception of the butternut squash and the potatoes. Add some olive oil and stir well. Place the chicken thighs on top and then sprinkle the Herbs Provence on top. Place in the oven.

2. So technically I cheated and used 2 pans because I wanted to add butternut squash and it takes much longer for it to cook that all of the veggies combined. So on my oven top, I partially cooked the squash and potatoes together with some olive oil, in a covered pan, for about 8 minutes.

3. After that 8 minutes or when the squash and potatoes are partially cooked, toss them in on top of the chicken thighs and veggies and mix well. Return to the oven for another 30 minutes, (total oven time 40 minutes) and then enjoy!

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You guys know how I love salad so here’s an Easy Peesy one using the greens from the heads of the celery stalks. Simply chop-up the celery greens and add some onions and tomatoes.

Add a tiny bit of goat cheese, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper… you’re good to go!

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Lastly, I’ll tell you what I’m reading (Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan)I’ll leave you with a photo of my new favorite yoga pose. It’s a variation of Bakasana (Crow) where you balance only on the elbows. It’s so hard and fun at the same time, and it almost looks like I’m a little Ninja turtle with this rounded back!