Ahimsa Baby

By sonia June 1, 2012 +Yogi, Cookies

AHIMSA, in sanskrit, means to do no harm. Kindness to others, self-love, and “the avoidance of violence”, ahimsa is the sign of a strong spirit.

Lately, something has just clicked. Not sure what. Not sure how to EXPLAIN what I am going through. But things are changing again and things are so awesomely good.

I have found this beautiful place of balance in my mind…not sure how long I’ll be here for, so I’m soaking it in, embracing it fully. My yoga practice is slowly transforming and perhaps it is taking my mind along with it. I’ve been able to SIMPLIFY – to love myself just as I come, with the all the sillyness, the weirdness, the wackyness. It’s almost as if parts of my mind have returned, back to a childlike state, when I knew nothing of judgement, guilt, insecurity, or doubt, of comparison or jealousy.

AND IN THIS NEW MINDSET, I’ve made more space in this little head of mine. Space to connect to others, to smile, to help others in the ways I would like to serve the world, to chase my aspirations. Sorry to go all “yogi” on here, just had to share my beautiful experience. I could get used to living like this.

So what does my life story have to do with these cookies?? EVERYTHING.

Hot, sticky, rainy, Saturday, I wasn’t feeling so hot. I had stayed out super late on Friday (thanks to my crazy friends who visited me from Boston…love them so much), and I just couldn’t seem to let myself relax and take a nap. So I walked into the kitchen, and let my heart lead the way.

WITHOUT THINKING, JUDGING, WORRYING, PLANNING, about what I was going to create, I just kept pulling out the things that FELT right.

Like peanut butter. Cinnamon. Sea Salt. Coffee. Dark chocolate. Oats. My mini bottle of Jim Bean.

I just grabbed a big bowl and started adding and mixing, took a taste, then kept adding and mixing, and tasting, and then adding more and mixing again. By the time I popped these guys into the oven, I had tasted so many different flavors, I had no idea whether they were even going to be good.

THANK GOODNESS, I got to share with my friends a.k.a. taste testers. To my surprise, people went pretty crazy about these cookies.

They brought comfort to our thunder-stormy-board-game party.

They were a much-needed pick-me-up for my friends’ four-hour bus ride back to Boston.

They brought us back to life after an intense hot-yoga class.

I did eat twelve in two days…ah well, AHIMSA BABY!

Recipe: AHIMSA Cookies

Summary: Oats, peanut butter, chocolate, coffee, cinnamon, and rum. Who knew they were such close pals?

Note: This recipe is what I THINK went into these cookies…I wasn’t paying incredibly close attention to measurements, so let me know how it goes 🙂

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2/3 cup peanut butter (I used TJ’s Valencia Sea Salt PB)
2 1/2 tbsp instant coffee
1 cup demerara sugar (raw kind, which is more natural than white sugar)
¼ cup brown sugar (all I had left)
2 eggs
1/3 cup soymilk (I only had soy, but regular milk will be fine)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp rum
½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp baking soda
4 cups oats
1/2 cup flour (I tossed in Millet flour)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Some grated dark chocolate
Some peanuts

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine butter, peanut butter, coffee, Demerara sugar, and brown sugars in a large bowl. Mix well.
Add in the eggs, vanilla, rum, and soy-milk. Mix well.
Add in cinnamon, sea salt, baking soda, flour, and oats until combined. Traditionally, you could mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, and then slowly combine into the butter mixture, but this time, I just tossed everything into the same one bowl.
Lastly, add chocolate chips, grated chocolate, and peanuts to taste. Batter should be quite thick and super tasty.
Scoop rounded spoonfuls of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. I like to make sure each one has a nice ratio of chocolate chips and peanuts to batter.
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, or until edges are golden brown.
Let cool.
Share with friends.