Traditional Apprenticeships: Training in the modern Pagan Abbey

Kylemore Abbey in Ireland

My recent activities[i] have unexpectedly netted alot of inquiries from those wishing to study under me. Explaining different levels of involvement so frequently has helped refine the details better in my own mind, which is the major reward for the teacher, isn't it? In this case, we are specifically referring to the training in healing and other technology, often associated with women, primarily from the European Aboriginal traditions[ii], that is taught at our pagan Abbeys[iii]. However, traditional apprenticeships have many common elements, including the relationship between teacher and student, which we will also explore.

Lessons or sessions and apprenticeships are two different streams. For the first, they are in-depth teaching opportunities to learn the intricacies of stillroom work for a more hobby use, perhaps as an introduction, or for personal healing. I do them usually for groups, with a full lecture and demo[iv], and in my home on an individual basis. They require alot of prep and materials on my part, so I often have to charge for them. Depending on materials and tech, as well as what kind of detailed help the student requires, fees can range from $25-100/hour: the higher level being full health consultations. 'Course, I also trade for doing dishes, for example, since my dishwasher broke down... This is also traditional, since most people don’t have chickens to trade anymore...

Apprenticeship on the other hand is for those who believe this might be their Calling. It involves a far more intense and thorough program, with the expectation that apprentices repay their teaching in sweat equity rather than cash, and often continuing on to practice professionally. It is longer, too, and harder, usually involving an eventual restructuring of one's life to take on this goal.[v]

I take applicants for both methods, and people can switch streams whenever they like, if they are able to. I don't take on apprentices who are healing themselves of a severe condition, for example. There is far too much going on in someone's life when they are healing to add the intensity of a full time apprenticeship, too. They stay Students until they are more fully recovered.

With both methods, the dropout rate is still pretty high. Similar to the attrition rate for mental health programs, if applicants give up, it's almost always in the first six weeks. Most people are not prepared for the revelations that occur when immersed into traditional healing, and what that means for themselves, their lives, their families, and how they fit in the world, or the world fits around them. It's a profound shift, and many people are simply not equipped to deal with it at that time. It's my job to help them with that, of course, but it's still too big a leap for many. 

It is especially intense for those who seek the apprenticeship stream. 

I take on very few apprentices. Since I also require the spiritual component, potential apprentices are accepted in similar ways to novitiates in other paths.[vi] Sometimes, they simply need to apply, and I am satisfied that they are ready to dedicate themselves and meet the challenge. Occationally, I allow them to commit to the apprenticeship stream only after a trial period, especially if they seem adamant on the surface but some underlying issues are holding them back or making progress difficult. In certain cases, an Initiation or personal trial is required, for those who require a more visceral acknowledgement of the contract and to prove they won't fail out when the hard work begins.

No matter how they arrive to the path, however, all apprentices are chosen for their dedication not just to healing others, but to their own personal growth, character, and empowerment. No one can heal anyone else, of course. Only patients heal themselves, no matter what you cut out of them or dose them with. Someone who feels they are done with suffering will die no matter how successful the treatment is, and others will rise from their deathbeds with remarkable courage if they have the will.[vii] The healing arts are to facilitate that recovery as much as possible. So I dislike the term Healer, since healing is entirely done by the patient (except laying on of hands, which I have yet to have proven to me), but since I can't really come up with a better term, it will have to suffice. 

Because of this, however, one of the best methods to increase chances in patient outcome, in traditional or conventional healing, is having a fully actualized Healer. This is self-evident, but not included at all in conventional training, though very much a part of traditional healing in many parts of the world.[viii] [ix] Someone who has actively worked to eradicate their flaws, like racial or sexist prejudices, is a better patient advocate, for example, and can hear the vulnerable in a more meaningful way.[x]  A healer who has cultivated humility will be more available to assist in vital procedures or discussions that other professionals might find beneath their dignity. A healer who practices Detached Compassion[xi] will be strong and kind to those who invoke great pity in others, and the “Wounded Healer” such as a shaman can devote far more energy and time to palliative care than those who are struggling with their own mortality. Modern conventional healers are trained largely as technicians, under the Body is a Machine model, which is totally different from nearly all forms of traditional healing, and while they have achieved certain miracles, it is a very new form of medicine. Like any youth, it seeks to make it own way without listening to its Elders, and only with maturity can we hope to integrate successful traditional wisdom with current practices.

Let's pick just one example to illustrate. PTSD[xii], often induced in the Western world by childhood or adult sexual or physical abuse, is a far more common condition than it should be. In those drawn to paganism, which is my worldview, there is a much higher incidence of seekers who have been wounded in this way – closer to 85%. As many grew up in other traditions, this often represents a failure of their previous systems to satisfactorily contextualize their experiences. So it is with distressing frequency that I encounter this deeply rooted issue in my students and apprentices. For those who have not yet dealt with this in their lives, it can be a terrible blind spot that can influence how they treat others coming to them for help. Unable to deal with the darkness in themselves, they often miss the same symptoms in others, or the reason for them. As their Mistress, it is part of my duty to guide them come to terms with their pain in whatever manner they best respond to: from medicine and therapy to intense spiritual journeys.

So, when I take on apprentices, I train them as traditional professional pagan healing nonnes. (I currently don't train men as apprentices, for various reasons.[xiii]) This means not only studying for months or years to learn the traditional tech, but they also dedicate themselves to spiritual self-improvement. They examine their own lives for fatal flaws and empower themselves. Because of this, there is far less to cloud their judgements in their examinations of others, and they are more able to give of themselves with sincerity and reverence, and not simply as a drain on their resources. To that end, we emphasize knowledge, honour, duty, integrity, courage, discipline, deep personal self-examination in all the dark places, and ultimately, vows, if the dedicant choses to make this her life's work.

For method and technique, we have to adapt to the modern era we live in, but there is a plethora of material to build upon from the past [xiv] [xv] [xvi], as well as some current best practices. We use whatever resources are necessary, including other acknowledged professionals and accredited institutions. For example, our nuns learn how to 'read' a client, such as body clues, intuiting and micro-expressions[xvii], to better understand a client's actual issues, especially those they might not be willing to divulge, and investigate many other possibilities that most healers never know to look for. They also learn how to make the remedies themselves, like salves, decoctions, alcohols, poultices, candies, and healing foods, as well as put forward recommendations and train clients in their use. Some finish university degrees in our specialities, such as counselling and folklore. We also teach how to work within the laws and health requirements of each country, partner up with other members of the healing team, and not step on the toes of conventional med, the pharmaceutical industry, and food and drug administrations, which have a tendency to bite.

However, one of the most important reasons for me for the rigorous selection process and the choice of taking only a few apprentices is the personal trial they represent. By agreeing to be someone's Mistress, or mentor, or sifu, or yogini[xviii], you commit to a lifelong relationship. You must not only train them in your particular art, but also move them along in their spiritual and personal journey. As you help them discover themselves, you volunteer to be their Dark Mirror, which requires a great deal of trust and honesty on both sides. As the training continues, it becomes impossible not to have a close and ultimately vulnerable relationship. I still sit down with my first Mistress, who is now nearly 70, and we discuss everything from our sex lives to our fears, our dreams, and our successes. We give each other insights in as open and often blunt way as we can, because no one else knows us better, and almost no one is prepared to be as honest and genuinely helpful. To this day, it still helps both of us in our lives and continually assists us to become more developed and whole persons.

Fantasy novels are full of students who have betrayed their masters' trust and try to destroy them. However, the reality is not far from that myth. In this kind of intimate relationship, as such tend to become, the wrong selection of student can be a devastating blow. Whether it's your business secrets or proprietary formulations, or your personal life lessons that you have imparted as examples for training, an apprentice that proves him or herself unworthy of carrying such secrets can make a huge mess of your life or career. Like most close relationships, really... I have some experience in this kind of heartbreak, and it guides my reluctance, my selection and my occasional trials or character proofs for applicants. Sadly…

Student or apprentice, I take my role as a sacred trust, and do my very best to give that person what I feel they most need: whether it be simple healing knowledge, physical health, spiritual self-examination, business and social training, or character building and empowerment. Even if the healing must be done when they aren't aware of it, which is much harder… It can take a great personal toll, but the rewards of watching other people’s lives unfold beautifully are worth it, and can bring so much joy. I am always honoured to be asked to serve my clients and students, and with hard work, personal sacrifice and dedication, to train others go out into the world committed to serve, heal, and fight for justice.

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[i] http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/30/for-some-wiccans-halloween-is-a-real-witch/

[ii] http://gifts-of-nature.blogspot.com/2013/03/witch-heritage-101-european-aborignals.html

[iii] http://gifts-of-nature.blogspot.ca/2013/07/pagan-abbeys-practical-heritage-for.html

[iv] https://www.facebook.com/GiftsofNature

[v] http://gifts-of-nature.blogspot.ca/2011/01/my-transformation-guest-blog-from-my.html

[vi] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novitiate

[vii] http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/05/health/positive-thinking-deepak-chopra/

[viii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism

[ix] http://www.tibetanlanguage.org/bookstore/Tibetan_Medicine.html

[x] http://gifts-of-nature.blogspot.ca/2013/10/starved-for-content.html

[xi] http://wisdomquarterly.blogspot.ca/2012/11/detachment-and-compassion-in-buddhism.html

[xii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posttraumatic_stress_disorder

[xiii] http://bestpractices.diversityinc.com/platform/1934/docs/mentoring12.pdf

[xiv] http://www.amazon.com/Hildegard-von-Bingens-Physica-Translation/dp/0892816619

[xv] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_cream

[xvi]  "More than anything else, however, Brigid is renowned for her hospitality. The poor and the infirm come in their multitudes. She makes provision for the sick, tending to them with her knowledge of contemporary medicine. Kildare becomes a place of holy pilgrimage for all, from the prominent and powerful to the lowly and forgotten."

 http://www.allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic_saints/brigid.html

[xvii] http://www.paulekman.com/micro-expressions/

[xviii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru-shishya_tradition

Starved for content...

In case anyone was wondering what I've been up to, (what's she DOING?!), I am currently finishing up my Counselling Women and undergrad degree. It's been a long time coming. Like many women, I wasn't able to finish or further my studies when I was younger, so I'm finally rectifying that sad situation later in life. I never stopped my research, and I have some fabulous developments that I will be publishing later, and was in fact able to teach much of it in less academic settings. But that only goes so far, and to take my work to the next level, it's necessary to have the paperwork and degrees to back it up.

So, much of my current writing and research has gone into essays and such. For your edification, this is one of the short pieces I presented to my Issues in Women's Health prof. Mostly, the mechanics were not to her liking, rather than the content. I hope I have corrected enough of those mistakes for her to see my true brilliance shine through... Heh.

Statement 1:

Based on and using examples from your required readings, critically discuss notions of autonomy as they relate to women’s health care. Include some discussion of the conflicts that arise from ideal and actual conditions defining patient autonomy.

Patient autonomy has not always been of primary concern in conventional health care, but is now seen to play a vital role in outcomes and quality of care. Sherwin (1998) gives a comprehensive four point definition used to determine ideal autonomy in health care. The patient 1) must be sufficiently competent, 2) makes a reasonable choice from available options, 3) has adequate information and understanding of the choices, and 4) is free of coercion (p. 26).[1] However, these definitions are problematic in practice when examined in the context of classist or sexist institutional constructs.

For the first condition, competency is often defined by the dominant power group. Language and cultural barriers for example are often considered reason enough to question a patient’s competency or understanding when considering their care.  Rationality in particular is considered the usual yardstick of competency, especially, as Genevieve Lloyd (1984) shows, that that the agent demonstrate objectivity and emotional distance. However, since those traits are “constructed in opposition [to those] stereotypically assigned to women..[they] are often seen as simply incapable of rationality” (as cited by Sherman, p. 26)  Competency, therefore, is often already defined as outside a woman’s capabilities, and autonomy becomes an impossibility.

The ideal for condition two, or reasonable selection of offered choices, appears straightforward enough. However, “the set of available options is constructed in ways that may already seriously limit the patient’s autonomy by prematurely excluding option the patient might have preferred.” (Sherwin, p.26) From dominant viewpoints to researchers to funding to primary care providers, pre-selection reducing women’s preferences occur at every significant point in the shaping process of offering health care options.

The third condition of patient autonomy, that of adequate information to understand the choices, ties in with the choices available.  In “the information that has been deemed worthy of study…and, significantly, what questions are neglected; systemic bias unquestionably influences these polices.” (Sherman, p. 27). Patients most often do not have the expertise to question providers to gain the information they need, and providers often do not have the perspective as a member of that group or experience treating those members, and in many cases, the time available, to be able to volunteer the information relevant to the patient’s situation.

The fourth condition, in such a dominant patriarchal culture, is the most obviously problematic. Oppression permeates almost every aspect of a woman’s choice and agency. No matter how liberated a woman has worked to become, “[i]t’s hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.” (Sally Kempton, Esquire, 1970)  Every choice, therefore, can be subconsciously influenced by the culture around her, and those decisions reinforced. Standards of beauty, self-worth related to fertility, and negative views of aging for example can all influence treatment choices, including the desirability and presentations of those treatments and the risks involved.

For women especially, the challenges of navigating and expressing autonomy in a system where they are overtly and subtly coerced, with stereotyped beliefs that reinforce their lack of competency, and with choices designed by those who do not consider women’s preferences, makes accessing health care a frustrating and often dangerous journey.

Statement 2:

Based on and using examples from your required readings, critically discuss how gender expectations affect both paid and unpaid providers of health care. Include some analysis of ways in which the needs of women health care providers can be met.

Gender expectations are a vital and primary consideration in the delivery and quality of care of patients, and the working conditions of health care delivery. How could it not be? “Approximately 80% of paid health care workers in Canada are women… Women make up the overwhelming majority of hospital workers…Women are also the overwhelming majority of health care workers employed in nursing homes, residential facilities or private homes”, according to Armstrong et al. (2009b)[2] As for  unpaid workers providing health care, usually to older relatives, Letvak, S. (March 2001) reminds us that “72% of caregivers are women."[3].

Not only do these disproportionate demands on time create stress for the women caregivers, for those who have made a career out of it, the inherent sexism of their expected roles can create further difficulties. As Letvak suggests from G J Clifford, “the predominance of women in such professions as social work and nursing has led to their identification with that other domain of female exclusivity, the housewife.”[4]  Letvak also quotes from P E B Valentine, that nursing in particular, “being identified with a docile female role…has led to a ghettoization of the career field. Ghettoization segregates people by race, ethnicity, lifestyle, or socioeconomic status and reinforces negative stereotypes“[5] which has made it progress against the gender expectations of the so-called nurturing professions nearly impossible, even today.

Mothers who are paid or unpaid caregivers are in the worst straits. As Letvak reports from Faludi, “70% of women with young children also participate in the labor force. Women still shoulder 70% of all household duties”[6]  Women’s unpaid care hours re excluded from paid labour and other duties, however, as “Sixty percent of women caregivers work 35 or more hours per week outside of the home in addition to caring for an older adult family member”[7] as Letvak enumerates from Jenkins.  Why are women disproportionately burdened with the health care needs of patients in our culture, yet also expected to perform all their other duties as well? It is considered acceptable in a sexist social context, because “[t]he very image of nursing maintains the stereotype of nurturing, self-sacrificing females who will always meet the needs of others.”

Clearly, this is detrimental to women, and the families and patients they care for, and comprises the health of all concerned.  But what is to be done?  As Lessard et al. suggests, by fully engaging the women involved in paid and unpaid care in the policy process[8] as part of the solution, some remedies automatically present themselves.  Recognizing and valuing women’s caregiving services could reduce frustration and result in more appropriate services and programs, including possible subsidies or other support for unpaid caregivers.[9]  Letvak suggests other support suggestions for paid caregivers, such as flexible working hours, job sharing, part-time work with benefits, and other innovations on hours worked, including more flexible time off for those with kids in school or whose families become ill.[10]

As the fashion for neocon privatization of public services shows no signs of slowing down in health care, it appears that women will be forced to take on even more of the burden than they have in the past. The time for improvement is now, increasing the quality level of care, staff, and saving the system money. Without considered improvements in the conventional health delivery system, patient care and professional nursing and its quality will continue to decrease, homecare will necessarily increase, the burden shifting more to families and their women, reducing the health of all concerned, and therefore, our collective health.  With a rapidly ageing population, it is of vital importance.

---

[1] Sherwin, S. (!998). A relational approach to autonomy in health care. In S. Sherwin (Coord.), The politics of women’s health, Exploring agency and autonomy (pp.19-47) Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

[2] Armstrong et al (2009b). Hidden health care work and women. Canadian Women’s Health Network

[3] Letvak, S. (March 2001). Nurses as working women. AORN Journal, 73(3), 675–682.

[4] G J Clifford, "Women's liberation and women's professions reconsidering the past, present and future," in Women and Higher Education in American History: Essays from the Mount Holyoke College Sesquicentennial Symposia, ed J Faragher, F Howe (New York: W W Norton and Co, 1988) 165-182.

[5] P E B Valentine, "Nursing: A ghettoized profession relegated to women's sphere," International Journal of Nursing Studies 33 no 1 (1996) 98-106.

[6] Faludi, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women.

[7] C L Jenkins, "Women, work and caregiving: How do these roles affect women's wellbeing?" Journal of Women and Aging 9 no 3 (1997) 27-45.

[8] Lessard, D., Barylak, L., Cote, D., Martin, J., Lavoie, J., & Berube, L. (2001, Winter). Caregivers and support services: Becoming empowered. Centres of Excellence for Women’s Health Research Bulletin, 1(2), 12–14.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Letvak., S, (March, 2001)

Chinese Fried Rice - A Step by Step Photo Guide - Recipes: Organic & Vegetarian

I'm often asked what "you people" eat when the subject of diet comes up. Not that I usually bring it up myself, mainly because of questions like that...

Cookery is the homier dance partner of Still Room work and a vital component of what we teach. Most of our research and experiments in reClaiming appropriate technology focus on ancient and medieval European writings and practices. However, trying to reCreate the diet can be problematic. Most of the writings focus on specialty items, feast days, high caste foods and other unusual or rare dishes. Though the European settlers were mostly peasants, the current standard North American diet is no help, either in reCreating diets of the past or an evolution of the future. It's largely a corruption of the meat intensive "rich man's" food, coveted by the non-Native peasantry that ended up here, altered by poverty as well the traditional native foods found in their new home. It's high fat, high salt, low quality, limited variety, and mismatched combinations are one of the primary sources of illness in this culture. To be healthy and to encourage health, the cornerstone must be diet. Studies have shown that the best way to achieve that is proper knowledge and practice of cookery. Although we do attempt authentic medieval dishes, there are much more available traditional sources to draw upon in our day-to-day living. As part of the Global Peasant movement, we specialize in traditional peasant cuisine from around the world. Traditional peasant foods are tasty, incredibly inexpensive, and can usually have most ingredients locally sourced. They are traditionally organic and much more nutritious. Traditional foods from mature cuisines have also been time-tested sometimes for thousands of years with the correct and appropriate food pairings - combining the proper proteins, carbohydrates, and other best nutrition factors. In most parts of the world, peasants do not have access to large amounts of meat, as it is usually a higher caste or price item, and therefore most peasant cookery is intrinsically vegetarian. They usually require less cooking time or prep from limited fuel supplies, and so have less vitamin degradation than more longer cooking dishes. It has very little, if any, waste. Cooking as a Global Peasant is therefore one of the healthiest, cheapest, easiest, and most eco-friendly practices available.

I have been focusing on specific Chinese and Indian regions for the past few years. To ensure proper food combinations, I never mix cuisines in any one meal, unless it's a traditional fusion. Like Indian/Chinese! Which I now have to study up on...

Here's one of the dishes we enjoy regularly. It's incredibly simple and can easily be converted to a vegan version. It makes use of pre-cooked rice from previous meals, as well as pre-cut veggies from others, so it's non-wasteful and budget-stretching.


Chinese Fried Rice

This is such an easy dish!  If you have rice in the freezer, and choose to microwave it to defrost, it can take you about 7 min. start to finish to build this tasty, nutritious creation! Less if you have some cut, raw veggies sitting around...

Like many Chinese dishes, many of the ingredients are cooked separately, and then combined just before finishing. According to Jeff Smith in The Frugal Gourmet Cooks in Three Ancient Cuisines: China, Greece, and Rome , "in order to bring each food product in a particular dish to its own point of fulfillment, you must cook several ingredients separately, and then join them together in the wok at the last moment. In this way you have contrast in both flavor and texture, all in the same dish."

I use a small carbon steel wok for this. It's just the right size, imparts some iron, is highly efficient, and needs very little oil to cook with.  One of the perfect Global Peasant cooking tools!  I use my wok for everything.  A small wok is one of the best kitchen investments you will ever make, if you don't have one already...

Don't forget to use a high heat cooking oil, like peanut, walnut, sunflower, or safflower.  Soy oil won't cut it, since it is completely non-nutritive.  Canola tastes weird, even when organic, and olive should never be cooked, as it degrades into transfats so quickly.

2-3 cups previously cooked rice, defrosted or partly dried
 
I use organic Jasmine rice with nearly all of my Chinese meals. The flavour is incomparable with any other type of Western or conventionally grown rice, as well as being more nutritious and eco-friendly. I usually steam extra for a meal, and put any we don't eat into the freezer. It's vital to this recipe that the rice sit overnight or is left in the freezer to dry out a bit. Wet or fresh rice will clump and not come out right.

1-2 fresh eggs

Feel free to leave these out if you are feeling vegany. I know that eggs often revolt me, but personally, this dish seems a bit incomplete without them. I haven't tried substituting tofu, though...  Again, organic, local eggs are the clear choice for so many reasons, not the least of which is that they are safer and healthier. The chickens are not constantly exposed to broad spectrum antibiotics, and organic eggs are seven times less likely to contain salmonella.

Start by cooking the eggs. Use very little oil.  I find too much makes the eggs a bit greasy. Stir fry. The effect you are looking for is a bit like scrambled eggs. Set aside.

frozen or fresh peas

I find peas to be integral to the dish. I can't even make it without them. If they are frozen, I put them in first for a minute or so. Then the remainder of the veggies. It's the only time I cut up carrots like those little cubed frozen ones. It's more fun, and rather like the take-out style. Same with the mushrooms, and sometimes the peppers. Onions, scallions, whatever you like! I often use pre-cut veggies from a previous meal, say from tacos or falafel. Anything we didn't use gets saved for a day or two, and goes into fried rice or omelets.

Veggies should be about the same size, for ease of cooking time and for the look of the dish.

This is the time to sprinkle in your seasonings.  Salt, pepper, and maybe some five-spice powder, fennel or anise. After a few minutes of cooking, set aside on the same plate as the eggs.
 

Defrosted jasmine rice in wok

Time for the rice!


Make sure it's pretty well thawed, and stir fry with a bit of oil to remove any clumps.  Add the soy sauce or tamari.  Again, only organic is recommended, since it is made with non-GMO soybeans, which should be avoided.  Just a little!  A tablespoon or two.  It's easy to overdo it, and your guests often add a bit more to their taste at the table.

 

Rice sprinkled with tamari

After cooking for a few minutes, it should be pretty cooked through and mixed with no lumps.

 

Rice stir fried.

   

Now add the rest of the ingredients. Stir fry for a few moments, reheating and distributing evenly.



Your dish is complete! I usually just serve it in the wok itself. Eat alone for satisfying lunch or snack, or as an accompaniment to a larger meal.

Now I'm all hungry...

Chinese Spicy Eggplant - Recipes: Organic & Vegan

Part of the training in the Abbey Stillroom involves cookery. Not only do we have all the ingredients, but we have to know how to use them to make ourselves and our families healthy, as well as provide the means for our clients to change their lifestyles. It also works out that you really get to make the most of your grocery budget.

One of the components of our training is learning how to use and access as much Organic as we can, as inexpensively as possible. Organics have been proven to have nearly double the vitamins, minerals, and other essentials of conventionally grown, so you get more bang for your buck at nearly the same price. There is almost no chance of toxin and GMO contamination, so for us, it's a no-brainer. It's also the only way for an individual to encourage farmers to grow sustainably, by voting for durable practices with your dollar.

One of most often given pieces of advice to improve health in this culture lately seems to be: cut down on your meat! I've been vegetarian for nearly 20 years now, and my children are raised that way. They certainly haven't suffered. In my work with the Greens, I've had the honour of meeting Deputy Leader Georges Laraque several times. He is one of our famous hockey celebrities and a touted vegan. His physique is most impressive. I can assure you - a vegan diet does not rob you of anything but unwanted fat, toxins, and cholesterol.

 

We don't have to re-invent the wheel here. Lentils made up to look like meatloaf or carrots shedded in one's lasagne just seem forced to me. There are many traditional mature cuisines around the world that are solely or largely vegan in composition.  I personally specialize in Indian and Chinese styles which already have a fully developed vegan and vegetarian repertoire.

So, to bow to the will of my Etsy Alberta Teammates, as well as my apprentices, I will publish a few of the tasty, nutritious, resturant quality foods that come out of my kitchen.  For those that looking to start making changes in their diet or unfamilar with some of the ingredients, I will go into a bit of detail for each inclusion.

If you don't choose to use, or can't find, organic ingredients, double the amounts for garlic, onion, salt, and soy sauce, and halve the amount of sugar.

Chinese Spicy Eggplant

One white medium organic onion chopped fairly fine.

5-6 cloves of organic garlic chopped fairly fine.

1 large or several small organic or local hothouse eggplant

Slice off end and cut into thick french fry fingers.

Pour about an inch organic olive oil into wok and begin to heat.

I use a carbon steel wok, which does actually impart some iron into the food.  Leave sauce or silverware in it overnight sometime and see the difference.  So keep your cookingware very much in mind as a source of health or harm in your diet.
 

Eggplants in particular are known for their ability to absorb oil and other elements in cooking. I won't relate the famous legend of the origin of the name İmam bayıldı. Because you are ingesting all that oil and not just cooking something in a tablespoon of it, why not make it a vector for your health? In all my eggplant recipes, I use organic olive oil. The problem with olive oil, of course, is that it deteriorates very quickly under heat, and loses much of value. It really can't be deepfryed with, and shouldn't actually be heated up much at all. But if you get the eggplant in as quickly as possible, it has a chance to absorb all that goodness to it's core before the omegas are destroyed.

Toss as many eggplant slices in as can reasonably fit. Cook until limp, soaking up as much oil as they can, and slightly brown. Fish out with a slotted spoon, set aside, and continue until all the slices are done.  Try not to cook skin side down, as it makes them a little chewy.  Don't worry if they aren't cooked all the way through.  We aren't finished with them yet...  Add oil as necessary around the sides after you pop the pieces in so that they have a chance to absorb some of the oil before it even has a chance to get warm.

When all the slices are done, pop in the onions and garlic.  Add a touch more oil if necessary.  Fry for about 30 seconds or until they go limp and slightly brown.  Return the eggplant to the wok.  Now add 2 tbsp organic soy sauce. I use organic Tamari.  A traditional form of brewing leaves it far more flavourful and darker than ordinary soy sauce, and much less salty.  If concerned about GMO's, it's even more important to use organic soy products, since there is such a high rate of contamination of the soy bean crop in North America.  Always check the label.  That's how I learned that Asian Family has fabulous dark and light traditional soy sauces made from organic soy beans!  Why isn't that right on the front?  They don't even advertise that! Seriously...  What a marketing problem...

a 1/2 tbsp organic whole sugar
about 1 tbsp chilli/garlic paste
I use alot more than that, of course, but I like it hot.  The easiest to find chilli/garlic paste in my area is the one with the Rooster on it.  There is almost no English on the label so I have no idea what to call it other than that.  They are always an orange red, and some still have whole chili seeds in them.  My local Safeway has even started carrying it in the Asian foods aisle!

and speaking of Asian Family..
1 tbsp Asian Family Black Bean Sauce.  You can get away without this ingredient by adding about a tsp more of organic sugar and 1/2 tsp Celtic Sea Salt, but I have found that it's the only thing that nearly replicates the flavour of our local famous veggie restaurant Padmanadi's.  Otherwise, I might have to start making my own fermented black beans.  I'm kinda hands-on crazy, but not quite that much yet...

Let simmer until more of the liquid is absorbed, about 5 min, stirring occationally.  Serve with organic jasmine rice or organic steamed buns.

Since I make the buns myself, I can give out that recipe, too, if there is enough interest...

This recipe is adapted from the marvelous book Chinese Vegetarian Cookery, which has been my constant companion lo' these many yars.  Invest in it, if you really want to learn the basics...

One of my easy recipes to help you on your path to frugal healthy living everyday!