Author: The Galavanting Gastronome

Love writing about food and travel (www.thegalavantinggastronome.com) and my conversations with God (https://gitanjali.yoga). Born and raised in India. Sailor's daughter. Travel is in my DNA. Married to a scientist, who is a chemist professionally and in every other culinary way. Food, coffee, cocktails, BBQ, smoked meats, rubs, sauces...he experiments with it all - with way more wins than misses. We love the outdoors. Hiking, kayaking and camping make us happy. We are equal opportunity foodies. We love hole-in-the-wall little mom and pop places, and multi-coursed Michelin star meals as well. And, we love talking about what we love about the food, drink, coffee and anything else we get to try.

What Defines You?

by The Galavanting Gastronome, posted in Inspiration

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Last Friday I started what is going to be a 10 month long journey as a cohort of a leadership program called Emerging Leaders. This is designed to be a reflective, thoughtful, thought-provoking training with 15 of my peers to develop the next generation of leaders in the nonprofit sector. 

An honor system confidentiality agreement dictates that I cannot share with you what others confide in that safe, sacred space, but I can and will certainly be sharing my journey here and I hope you’ll come along for the ride. 

During an incredible orientation which started with a tour of a magnificent venue called Lotusland in Montecito, CA – a place obviously purposely chosen not just for the serenity and natural beauty but also for the inspiration that it provides you to just BE! It’s the place, where I’m told members go to just ‘Zen Out’ although I am not quite certain what that means. I imagine it means to just BE.MINDFUL. 

One of the exercises we had to do was to think of a word, a phrase or a group of words that we felt defined us – after considerable thought the words I chose were 

MIND.AFFIRM.ABUNDANT – and when I had to share with this group of complete strangers what this meant, I choked up! I couldn’t continue the first time and had to be allowed time to compose myself…I’m still working on why that happened…but when I did get to re-present to the group – here’s what I shared:

MIND – the most powerful tool at our disposal to create and have all that we ever want in this lifetime. It is our choice to use it or not.

AFFIRM: My dear coach and mentor Donna has dinned into me the power of affirmations – they work, even if you don’t believe them initially – they work! So create positive first person affirmations of EVERYTHING you want to attract or achieve in your life and don’t just say them – believe them…emote them!

ABUNDANT: If you employ your MIND to visualize and believe in your AFFIRMations you will fill your life with ABUNDANCE.

Wishing you abundance and peace

Appreciate where you are

by The Galavanting Gastronome, posted in Inspiration

20130106-082345.jpg Appreciate where you are. You are where you are because that’s what you needed to experience up to this point and that’s okay. Standing on the diving board of appreciation is a perfect place to launch from into the pool of your desires. Instead of beating yourself up because you are not where you want to be yet give yourself a break. Appreciating what is good builds more of what is good.” M.J. Durkin

Allow the Universe to deliver

by The Galavanting Gastronome, posted in Inspiration

Stop resisting everything and start “allowing” all the good the universe wants to deliver to you on a silver platter. It’s all there for you if you will let it in. You don’t have to work hard to deserve it – you already deserve to have a great life. You are supposed to feel good, have great relationships, have an alive and vibrant body and have enough money to do all the things that you want to do. That’s your natural state. Stop junking it up with all these resistant thoughts. Be light and easy. Have more fun. Savor more. Appreciate more of what you have that you like and more will flow to you – easily. – M.J. Durkin

Do you do ME time?

by The Galavanting Gastronome, posted in Family, Health

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So, the kids have been out of school since December 20 and we’ve had some serious fun these past couple of weeks…a mellow Christmas and New Year meant that we were feeling pretty rejuvenated; got some good projects done around the house, but also made time for play dates in the park, dinner with extended family and even afternoon naps (remember those?) – however being a mom to a nearly 6 and nearly 2 year old who decided during this break that he was no longer going to nap made for pretty active days…quiet time was sort of a joke!

I started work on the 2nd, but my daughter doesn’t start school till the 7th, so she came along with me wherever I went. My son reluctantly went back to daycare.

Today started as a usual day – however by 9.30 am it was pretty evident to me that I needed a break from everyone including my kids! I really needed a day away from people in general. I was on people overload! I wanted time to think, day dream, sit, enjoy coffee while it was still hot and oh yes…get my nails done without worrying that my daughter’s “nail polish train” at the salon wasn’t going to result in nail polish art splashed all over the floor. So I dropped off the little boy to daycare, and dropped off the little girl to her grandmother! (thanks Ma!!). I had one appointment which blissfully got canceled and then I had this glorious, sunny, warm Southern California day all to myself.

I had a lot of work to do, but I knew that I would be a lot more productive if I just took an hour or so to do nothing – so I took myself up to my gorgeous barely used sun room – left my phone where I couldn’t hear it vibrate or buzz and just sat on my barely used (cat occupied) couch. I went on a stroll through the boardwalk of my mind, allowing the soft breeze caress my face, listening to the sound of the ocean crash along the shore of my mind’s eye. I tried to recollect the last time I had done this, and I couldn’t. Thoughts of work, family, kids and commitments also popped into my head – I gently acknowledged them, and nudged them back out.

A while later, I was so rejuvenated from my mental beach walk that I powered through an intense project and then decided that my nails could use some attention. It turns out that the last time I paid them any attention was over 3 months ago! YIKES!

By the time I picked up my kids, I was so excited to see them – as though I hadn’t seen them for days! We had a really fun evening playing together.

So do your family a favor – tell them you need a break from them and go do something that is purely, strictly, exclusively, solely for YOU! They’ll appreciate it!

Quick weeknight Chicken Parm

by The Galavanting Gastronome, posted in Nutrition

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Spaghetti cooked per packet instructions
2 Chicken breast sliced to make them thinner (instead of pounding),
2 bowls- one with 1 beaten egg the other with bread crumbs,
pat chicken dry, dunk in egg, cover in crumbs, sauté in hot olive oil till brown on either side (2-3min ea)
Oven 425deg, pour some marinara sauce and spread in a Pyrex dish, add the semi-cooked chicken, top with olives, more marinara sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese,
Put back in the oven for 20min
Voilà! Bon Appetit!