Eat. Pray. Love.  It’s what I do. I mastered the Eat part the minute I exited the womb. No surprises there.  I became present with the Pray part in my 20’s.  As I approach 30, I’ve been learning the Love part.  Elizabeth Gilbert found my letters and read each one out loud.  I’ve yet to purchase the book, but I’m more interersted in writing my own.

Finding yourself is one of the most ambitious of journeys.  Ambitious? Yeah, most people think that applying to Harvard is ambitious.  Or even learning to fly an airplane in your spare time is ambitious.  But finding yourself….is the most ambitious of all.  It takes ambition to look around and decide that it is no longer enough.  To feel the fear and anxiety of change and embrace it nonetheless.  To allow everyone in your life to serve as an untainted mirror and take long, sometimes painful looks at yourself and still smile because you know that there’s growth around the corner.  That’s ambition.

I wouldn’t be the first to say that I’ve been the most ambitious until recently.  My CV/Resume is impressive, but that has nothing to do with my ambition. I’ve been actively journeying with my Goddess for the past two years and that journey led me to today, starting off with a morning of the most Love Filled conversation with HIM.  Then an evening of catering and enjoying the oohs and aaahs as they devoured my food.  And finally, a nice comfortable seat in front of the big screen watching Julia Roberts sort out this thing called Life.

Eat. Pray. Love.  It’s what, I, call Culinary Coaching.  This incredible process that I intuited/created in which I help people re-create their relationship with food.  Typically that looks like a pimped out 1-on-1 cooking class with an integrative life coach session.  I’m a psychologist by degree, I’m a foodie-beauty by love, I am The Food Relationship Coach™ by chosen/given profession.  It looks different for everyone and the Truth is, I, myself am going through Culinary Coaching as well.  Food serves as an energetic gateway in which we discover, remember and recreate our desires, needs and Life….Working out our life on our plate.

All too often, we get caught up in our “togetherness” that we forget our humanity.  We lose our presence and we gobble down LIFE as if it owes us something. We check out when it no longer “tastes” good….forgetting that we are the Master Chefs creating every single meal.  We forget what it’s like to share our stories, our mishaps, our moments, our LIFE.  That process of being present…present with what and how you eat, present with what and how you live is all to important and when I help me…I help you.  So for the next 30 days, I want to use my virtual space to get more in touch with my inner space.  I welcome your presence, your comments, your reflections…..you = me.  Give thanks.

That’s me in my fly Rare Honey gear   I came to the Rare Honey Trunk Show to cater and deliver African and Indian inspired cupcakes to compliment the designer and her dopeness. I ended up modeling and expanding my wardrobe

When Shahnaz Hughson, owner of Bombay Gal, told me about the show, I instantly began thinking of the spices and flavors that provide the sweet soundtrack to India and the vast continent of Africa.  Cardamom. Cinnamon. Ginger. Coconut. Cloves. Allspice. Anise. The list goes on…..there were endless possibilities and these two places have a history of trade and informational exchange for millenia.

So what could I do? How could I bring home the essence of these two destinations in one palatable bite?  After all, eating is an experience.  The nature of it, compels your senses to commit acts of adultery against each other and then make up in one big foreplay of flavor and infinite bliss.

So after consideration and mind journeying to distant lands….I came back from India with Chai Tea Cupcakes and Africa with Coconut-Ginger Cupcakes….care for a bite?

Chai Tea with Honey Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Coconut-Ginger Cupcakes *vegan*

Fabulous. Creative. Delicious. Enticing. Decadent. Lavish. Beautiful. Valuable. Tasty. I could go on, but then I’d have to resort to some really creative language and sound effects because this English just isn’t enough to describe the time we had this past Friday at the Naturi Beauty Signature Premiere Sneak Peek Event: Decadence!

Oh wait…you didn’t hear about it? I mean with FB and Twitter and all….explease my q’s!  So let me catch you up to date. Decadence! is an intimate gathering and exploration of food ingredients and how they are used to nourish and beautify.

Nourish?  Yes, nourish.  I, put on my Personal Chef hat (cause you know I wear many) and cater a full course meal featuring the 2 key ingredients that we explore.  In this case, we explored chocolate, so I prepared Brownie Bliss Bites (Vegan) and Cacao Truffles (Raw Vegan).  Go ahead….I’ll wait while you wipe your lip.

Beautify? Yes, beautify.  Then I, put on my Kitchen Chemist hat and teach you how to make beauty products at home using everyday, accessible, nourishing and nurturing ingredients from your cupboard and fridge.  The best part? You get to take them home!  Last Friday’s participants indulged in a *Coco Choco Lip Scrub and a *Cacao Facial.  We even had a male participant and he digged it! Score

Not to worry…..notice that I said that this is a Naturi Beauty signature event and we will be hosting our next Decadence! in Washington DC.  Have Decadence! will travel

Are you ready for your full 2-hour Decadence! Affair?  I am! I mean a full catered meal focused on nourishing you with the same premium ingredients that we nurture your skin, face and hair. Dude! That’s friggin awesome and divinely decadent in my opinion.

Looking forward to seeing you in DC, ATL, NY, London and beyond…until then enjoy a few pics and a few beautiful recipes

Chocolate Lip Scrub

• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp coconut oil
• 1/4 tsp honey
• 1/4 tsp cacao/cocoa powder

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl until forms a paste. Store in a clean, dry lip gloss pot or mini container.
2. Apply a pea sized amount to bottom lip with finger and rub until gritty, rub both lips until texture begins smooth.  Lick remaining scrub..yummmm! Smile, your lips are kissable

Choco Coco Face Mask

• 1  tsp cacao/cocoa powder
• 2 tsp cormeal flour*
• 3 tsp coconut milk (if dry skin)
• OR
• 3 tsp water (if oily skin)

* if you cannot find cornmeal flour, then take equal parts cornmeal and flour and proces in blender. OR process cornmeal alone in food processor until fine.

1. Mix cacao/cocoa powder with cornmeal flour
2. Mix in water or coconut mik depending on skin type.
3. Apply to damp face and neck and rub in to exfoliate, rinse with lukewarm water.

Food has this way of redeeming itself.  No matter how many times you prepare it and seemingly mess it up, you can always start over and create a new batch of goodness.  It can burn, it can be too mushy, it can be too crisp, it can be too salty, it can be a bunch of things….but in the end you always know that you can start over or do something different the next time.

Einstein once said, “no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it”.  That totally makes sense and most of us get that when it comes to food.  We know that baking those sacred brownies for 50 minutes yields a dried, crunchy brown disaster so we learn to stick to 35-40 minutes so that our tastebuds can be constantly delighted with warm fudginess right? Right!

In that same vein we should treat our relationship with food, ourselves and people with a similar knowing.  If we want to yield a different result in our relationships, then we should shift our consciousness to bring about that which we desire.  Imagine that!

As The Food Relationship Coach ™, this very comment  yields a *side eye with my Culinary Coaching clients.  Typically followed by a solid list of reasons why they don’t like x-food and then they go on to put their foot down and make sure that I understand that they’ll never like x-food.  Fair enough. In which case I smile at the rant and their Absolute List and allow them to breathe and return to normal composure, because somehow during that speech they’ve managed to conjure up all of the emotions, ideas, memories and stories that have become associated with that food since they were x-age.

Usually, most come around and say…..”So, Shelley, what you’re saying is if I want to learn to enjoy beets (as their face contorts as if I suggested they enjoy dudu) then I need to shift my thoughts around them?

I say yes, as a matter of fact you do. Whatever story you told yourself about the beets, doesn’t have to be true anymore.  Perhaps that story was valid when you were eight and had no choice because you knew that your mom’s penetrative stare was more scary than you force swallowing this purple-red thing masquerading as food on your plate.

So how do you make your relationship with beets right again? Well first, you have to want to.  Thus all of my clients who seek out Culinary Coaching, whether consciously or unconsciously are seeking a shift in their relationship with food.  A powerful method that I employ is from Hawaii and it’s the Ho’oponopono and it means to make it right! In this technique I ask clients to close their eyes, imagine their “forbidden food” and all of the stories around it and simply say “I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you.”  Over and over again.

After such a revelation, I sometimes get another *side eye and this dumbfounded look, like “I came here to cook and eat not to talk to food!”  And I say yes, cooking and eating is the end result of a beautiful relationship, it’s like the part when you’re dating and you realize that you really do want to spend time with Him or Her.  This process heals you while you nourish and nurture your relationship with food.  It brings about a growth in which you look back and realize that the 8 year old girl isn’t here anymore, neither is her scolding mother.  There’s just you in all your perfection and those beautiful juicy purple-red beets that once looked like they bled because of your internal weeping and now they shine because of your healing glow.

And then even after all of the healing, your taste buds just may discover that they’re not beet-friendly after all. I mean you don’t have to like the taste of everything, but this time the story you tell yourself about beets is a healthier one.

So for my none beet friendly readers….I have a delicious carrot recipe! Now you know how much I love my sweets   So during the Edible Destination Show at the National Black Arts Festival, I made a Tunisian inspired Orange Carrot Salad.  Fresh, sweet with a hint of cinnamon spice and glazed with Agave….fit for a Summer Goddess….dig in.

Tunisian Orange Carrot Salad

• 2 lb carrots, finely shredded
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 1/2 cup orange juice, fresh (1 orange juiced)
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Combine all carrots and raisins in large bowl
2. Mix in zest and spices
3. Pour agave nectar and orange juice and combine and serve

If you follow me on Twitter or on Facebook, then you know that 2 weekends ago, all my buzz was dedicated to my Live Edible Destination show at the National Black Arts Festival.  I’ve been attending this festival since I was a little girl and imagine my wide tooth grin when they asked me to be a featured chef in their Healthy Cooking Pavilion tent?!?!  Sponsored by Publix…Attended by Thousands…Chefed by Me and a few other top notch culinary friends.  We traveled to North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean through my dishes such as Smoked Corn Pimiento Cous Cous, Tomato Tamarind Kofta and my infamous Jerk Salmon Cakes! Was I stoked? Completely….See for yourself

Special thanks to Lynn of Pink Siren Media for the awesome footage and promo

Hey! Guess what? I have shoulder shimmying, tooth grinning, hand clapping great news! Yours truly is a Lifesytle columnist over at Afroniquely You.  Yep, your girl Sasha-Shae is allowing me to hang out in her virtual space and  entertain questions on natural beauty, natural foods, natural living and overall natural YUMMMMINESSS once a month.  That may increase, because I know we all love to live beautifully and we may not want to wait an entire month to find out how, right? Right!

Anyhoo, if you’re dropping by from Afroniquely You, I welcome you and send a magnificent hello!  I invite you to Stick around (via your subscription if you so desire , there are loads of yummy recipes like this Brazilian inspired one and oh yeah, this Chocolate one. Total Decadence in full effect.

Natural Beauty remedies like this sweet honey one and oh, you totally have to check out this this Chocolate one too. Yep! Chocolate keeps us beautiful (despite what the dermatologists say #imjustsayin)

If you’re already a Naturi Beauty, I thank you and it’s nice to share you on the web in more places than one.

Have a succulent day beautiful people and I look forward to Naptural Living with you and you and you.

What a blast of a weekend!  For all of you who had a chance to hang out with me at the National Black Arts Festival this past weekend, I am so grateful to have shared your energy and fed you pure decadence in return.  We took multiple Edible Destinations to the Caribbean, Latin America and North Africa.  We explored those regions bite by bite with dishes such as Guava Glazed Vegan Chicken, Tomato Tamarind Kofta, Tunisian Citrus Carrot Salad, Smoked Corn-Pimiento Cous Cous…mouth watering yet?  Those recipes and pictures will be featured in upcoming posts but for now I want to take you on the sweet journey that we took to Latin America starting with one very interesting green fruit?…vegetable?…fruit?….yeah fruit!

photo courtesy of Kendro of Rhythm Section

We’ve all had interesting encounters with avocadoes.  It’s seemingly one of those things you either hate or love….you know kind of like Kim of Atlanta Housewives when she tasted guacamole for the first time.  Welllll maybe not quite as bad, but definitely one of those foods that has a different appeal.  Speaking of appeal, you should have seen the audiences face when I spoke of dessert and started the sacred massacre of the avocado as the main ingredient.  It was a mix of subtle shock, absolute horror spiked with a little bit of extreme glee from the fan club.  Yeah it was totally a bold move!  Then I busted out the limes, zest and all, and began to explain the promise of complete deliciousness that was in store.

I created this dessert on a whim based off of something that I ate at my fave Mexican spot #becauseidothat and thought it fitting to test on the unsuspecting festival-goers.  The recipe…discover it below.  The verdict…..sheer delight!

photo courtesy of an audience member posted on Facebook

Avocado Lime Mousse

• 3 ripe hass avocadoes, cubed
• 2 limes zested
• 2 limes juiced
• 1.5 cans condensed milk
• 1/2 can Table Cream
• 4 TB cornstarch

1. Place all contents in a blender or food processor and whip for 3-5 minutes
2. Pause intermittently and scrape sides if needed
3. Spoon into dishes, serves 4-6
4. Smile….you’re having avocado for dessert

*If you want to a vegan version of this awesome dessert, substitute the condensed milk with the vegan version here and omit the Table Cream.  All ingredients remain the same.  The consistency may vary.

Let’s face it. It’s July and it’s hot on this side of the equator.  While many are fanning feverishly, running to the nearest AC or complaining of the sweat that threatens their Dominican blow out…I am creating a solution.  I’ve known for a long time that I have a very different relationship to heat and the Sun.  I seek the sunniest spot and do the unthinkable…I sit in it.  I ride around with my windows down sans AC (it works) but I actually like the heated wind touching my body like warm massaging hands.  I marvel at how my skin bronzes beautifully and sweat barely seems to drip as I saunter through crowded, heated streets.  Don’t get it twisted though, I too like the feeling of coolness.   But not because I seek it in excess due to overheating, but because the temperature play on and in my body is quite….well let’s just say the Scorpio in me digs it *wink.

My friend over at Kush and Khemet Revue dedicated a post honoring her love for mangoes while growing up in Trinidad. While I did not have the pleasure of growing up in the lush tropical setting where mangoes are as plentiful as air, I did have the honor of choosing a wonderful Jamaican mother who made sure that I knew of all the goodness that mangoes bring.  It is within the mango, that I have created the solution.  Yes, the mango is my key to cool edible fun food play and perhaps your key to salvation from this incredible heat.

Mango Basil Popsicles.  An adult version of the childhood favorite, peppered with minty basil and sweetened with succulent mango pulp, frozen into one desirable treat…..(aren’t my models fabulous!)

Mango Basil Lime Popsicles

• 1 (12 0z.) bag of frozen mango halves, defrosted (Trader Joe’s)
• 1/2 cup fresh basil, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup lime juice, fresh squeezed
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup agave nectar (if necessary for sweetening)

1. Blend (blender) or Process in (Food Processor)
2. Fill 3/4 full in popsicle molds, ice cube molds work as well
3. Freeze overnight
4. Yields 2 cups liquid and 2-4 popsicle molds or approx. dozen ice cubes

That’s me in my newly laundered purple dress.  The dress is pretty fly, but even flyer is the fact that I washed it in my own laundry powder.  I’ve been wanting to give Tide and Purex the boot for a long time.  They’re such polar opposites but I chose either/or based on my capital flow at the time.  Then there were my Seventh Generation days, you know the brand that claims it’s all for the environment and super green…yeah that one.  But they all had one thing in common.  No ingredient list. Well they kinda put an ingredient list together with random percentages and sub-group headings, but nothing specific.  No they wouldn’t dare.  I have to ask questions when brands aren’t up front and specific.  What’s the harm in saying that you use Chemical X and Carcinogen Type II in your product…Cancer! That’s the problem or having babies with three eyes down the line.  Yeah, that’s a problem too.  And with BP reminding us that we’re one spill away from wiping out our water supply….(which by the way this isn’t new, those fiends have been spilling oil for years) but our freshly packaged Dasani bottles keep us in our “safety” nets believing that water is plentiful.

So yes, back to my freshly, laundered purple dress.  I wear it proudly, not only because I look good in it, but because I know that the waters that rinsed it, are waters that are renewable and I wouldn’t mind using that same recycled water that will ultimately flow back through my pipe in the next recipe that I concoct.  Talk about #peaceofmind, now I’m passing it on to you.

Laundry Detergent

• 8 cups of baking soda (or an entire 4 lb box, found in the laundry aisle)
• 6 cups Borax (also found in laundry aisle_
• 4 cups grated castille or glycerin soap (I used 2 bars of Dr. Bronners lavender, try unscented for sensitive skin)
• 3 TB of essential oil (I used a mix of rosemary, lavender, ylang ylang, and bergamot, simply because it smells like the Goddess that I am)

1. Grate soap either by hand or food processor attachement.  (I did it by hand because I love labor and intensity *giggle)
2. Combine first 3 ingredients in mixing bowl and whisk
3. Add essential oils and whisk again.
4. Store in an airtight container with lid.
5. Use 1/8 cup per load

*Double this recipe for family sized households.  According to Natural Home Magazine it makes enough to last for a year!

They say there is a Point of No Return.  No collecting $200 after passing Go.  There’s just a path, that we either create along the way, or create before we arrive and spend a lifetime trying to find it again.  Either ways, step by step, we find ourselves walking, crawling, marching, running, moseying, tip toeing along the way.  And in that journey, we experience that which we call Life.

I’ve debated since the start of this blog how personal I’d become. After all it’s supposed to be about Food and Beauty, right? Being too truthful and honest is scary.  I mean do I really wanna talk about my own inner workings especially when it’s so much easier to offer a tasty recipe or the next dope beauty treatment.

Why? You see I have dreams, goals, manifestations #callitwhatyouwant that are gonna come true.  Like soon. Real soon.  And I worry that being super honest,  controversial, hyper sensitive and the like will cause a disruption in my empire building that is Naturi Beauty.  I ask myself questions, like is there really safety in safety?  If so, who are the safety police that make sure that I still get to advance even if I do offend someone all in the name of being safe?  Well I asked repeatedly and for the record #itdoesn’texist.

In paying homage to my parents I revealed the birth of a foodie-beauty revolution.  It’s on the brink, brewing inside of me, threatening to burst. What’s the hold up, you ask? Me. I’m the block, the cement, the stubborn brick that just won’t move.  Perhaps my greatest fear isn’t that I’ll interrupt my flow at all….instead…perhaps the fear is that my flow is unstoppable, Earth defying like the Nile, nourishing like the Amazon, life-creating like Yemanja.  Yeah perhaps that’s it.  To print it in public, read it out loud, and own it is perhaps a little scarier.  But nothing is as scary as not having honored the vision that was birthed before me.

So I’ve reached my Point of No Return.  Once you know, you must go.  I’m ready to be a more evolved version of me.  I’m ready to tirelessly do what Naturi Beauty demands.  I’m ready to transition fully with full trust that the Universe is conspiring for all of my desires.  I’m ready to explore food and it’s Tantric nature like no other chef before me. I’m ready to define beauty and self-care in ways that honor our femininity and sensuality.  I’m ready to merge my desires with my fear, because within them, my fear has no choice but to return to the light.  `

As far as not collecting $200 and still having to pass Go….it’s all good.  In this journey and process I know I’ll collect much more than that.

Thanks and I love you for reading, for sharing, for commenting, for allowing me to unfold.