The Art of Zen Living

This has got to be one of the best, tastiest and easiest recipes I’ve had in a long time.

1 pound dry black beans

1 Pound carrots

6 Stalks celery

1 green pepper

1 medium onion

6 roma tomatoes (medium size)

2 cloves garlic

2 Tbsp chili powder

1 Tbsp cumin

Pepper and season salt to taste

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My loving kindness mantra gets good usage on any average day, but today was something special.  You’d think that perhaps I did a lot of driving in rush hour, or had a difference of opinion with a friend, or waited in line at a government service only to be told I had to go do something else first and come back.

My friend, it was nothing of the sort.  I went shopping with the intention to eat moderately healthy.  I wanted to see what the average shopper was up against in sorting through it all.  I went to WalMart - both because the prices there, according to my grocery guide, were likely to be lowest on the things I wanted, and because it was somewhere that a significant percentage of America shops.  Frugal and educational (for me) and relevant.

I wasn’t annoyed at Walmart.  The store was clean, and not too crowded.  The shelves looked a little picked over (for instance, I didn’t get the spaghetti squash that was on my list) but the things I wanted there was no problem finding.  Well, sort of.

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My sister looks at things differently than I do, and often will see things I don’t.  We were talking about how sustainability fits into frugality, and she asked why I wasn’t posting about my bread baking experiences.  She made an excellent point that home made bread is not only frugal and healthy, it’s also one of the very basic tasks that we no longer do for ourselves.  Two months ago, I couldn’t have baked a loaf of bread - my sister still can’t bake one.  I’ve learned to bake regular bread, a nice “no knead” bread that has sort of an artisan texture to it, and Irish soda bread.  I’ve been having a blast trying new things (as an example, my basic bread recipe seems a little dry for my taste, so my next loaf is going to include a bit of olive oil for moisture) and learning different baking tricks.  My sister suggested I do a series of articles on my adventures with bread - her reasoning was that if I could do it, then anyone could.  Sometimes I think she sees me as kind of a big, sweet semi-trained chimp.  I’m not sure she wouldn’t be mostly right.

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