Time Management seems to be on everyone’s mind: from learning how to regulate oneself whilst working from home to managing online schooling for children to working in your spiritual/exercise/health routine. That is a lot of balls in the air! If you are accustomed to an outside structure offering support, space, and a blueprint to manage your day, this can be a quite the learning curve. Luckily we all have to eat! The following recipe helps one slow down the external and internal hustle, gives perspective, and fluidity in breaking your day into small bits you can examine and reassemble in the most beneficial way. And delicious to boot!
Watercress with Warm Wild Mushrooms
3 to 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 to 11/2 pounds mushrooms of choice (see below for options) cut uniformly
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
3 cups fresh watercress, tough stems removed
4 tablespoons vinaigrette of choice (I like balsamic)
Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Working in batches, add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper to taste, and sauté for about 5 minutes or until the mushrooms have softened and exuded their liquid and the pan is almost dry. Remove from the heat and stir in the garlic and thyme. Taste, and if necessary, season with additional salt and pepper. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the mushrooms to a colander placed in a mixing bowl and drain. There should be no juices left if cooked correctly.
Place the clean, trimmed watercress in a large mixing bowl. Add the warm mushrooms and drizzle with just enough vinaigrette to season lightly. Apply salt and pepper to taste (if needed) and toss to blend. Serve immediately.
Narrative: When you’re feeling over-stimulated by ordinary daily events, this recipe facilitates the ability to partake in life without being swept away by the multitude of dizzying aspects that flow through your day. It allows you to firmly ground yourself, take a breath, feel solid in yourself, and condense the information all around you into usable, manageable bits.
You might serve this dish when your life is so harried you don’t know which end is up, and you see no end in sight. This recipe will create an island of repose where you can catch your breath and filter what is required of you in order of importance, allowing you to know what to move on and what to put on the back burner, creating a more manageable day. This dish tonifies the energetic body and offsets fatigue that sleep alone cannot quench.
Getting to Know Your Plant Allies
Explore the food signatures below and feel into what mushrooms are most supportive at this time and use those for this savory dish.
Chanterelle Mushroom
This aromatic, fleshy wild mushroom helps you shift the pattern of taking on too much responsibility (this looks different for everyone), pushing yourself too hard, and waking up early but feeling tired and not refreshed, leading to a dulling of the emotional body and the mind.
Cremini Mushroom
A cross between a white button and a portobello, cremini heals the energy of attacking the negative in yourself so that you can see and feel yourself in a gentler light, cultivating compassion for having those lessthan-desirable traits and allowing kindness and softness to be a healing balm to relentless self-criticism.
Portobello/Portabella Mushroom
This mushroom helps you dwell in your center and not diminish the essential parts of yourself to make another person comfortable or happy. It supports you in defining your own needs while acknowledging others’ needs.
Royal Trumpet Mushroom
Looking exactly like its name, this savory fungus instills consistency in achievement and energy output so you don’t vacillate between doing too little and doing too much. It supports time management in all ways.
Watercress
A cousin of kale and broccoli, watercress is an aquatic and semiaquatic green that’s beneficial for those who are easily over stimulated by the ordinary events of day-to-day life. It facilitates flowing awareness and the ability to partake in life without being swept away by the sensorial aspects.
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Remember you are what you eat! If learning how to cook in this manner is interesting to you, you may explore further in Candice Covington's new book Vibrational Nutrition: Understanding the Energetic Signature of Foods