Gratitude and Lingonberries

I am a little late on my gratitude the day after Thanksgiving.

But let this be a reminder that gratitude is a daily healthy practice that can facilitate mental health. Positive psychology demonstrates for us that gratitude is closely linked to greater happiness, optimism, and healthier relationships.

I have a lot to be grateful for this year.

Lungs for scuba diving. Wit for Cards Against Humanity. Heart for Frida Kahlo’s house. Legs for climbing Teotihuacan. A nose for cacao butter. Strength for legal assistant job. Creativity for psychotherapist job. Ears for Marta Gomez. Shoulders for teaching me to balance strength and flexibility.

New friends at home and abroad. Brother traveling through Guatemala and Mexico with me. Talking with my Guatemalan “Tio”.

Lessons in love. Coconut oil. Art galleries of San Miguel de Allende. Time with family, especially grandparents. Magnesium. Coaching from a soul sister. Teaching English to Chinese. Free iphone. Existential therapy workshop. New York. Yoga teacher training. Spending the night in a tree house. Health. Shakespeare in the Park. Beach sandcastles and mermaids with Tulum family…

But one seemingly small generosity from my favorite Swedish family stands out.

I’ll spare you the why, but a couple of months ago, I was frantically trying to figure out where I was going to live. I needed a temporary abode, while I looked for a place to buy.

Then a phone call or a Facebook message (I don’t remember the order) with one of my best friends, Martin, happened. “Yeah, we’ve got you covered.” he told me. I questioned how this legal assistant/social worker was going to pay to rent his parents’ (second home) Gold Coast condo, but he assured me it would be worked out. It was.

It seems like such a small gesture, but you see, I don’t know his parents well. Quite frankly, I wasn’t sure I had seen them since the Swedish American Museum gathering at the “ABBA the Music” concert I had gone to a decade earlier.

They didn’t have to open their home to me and they could have requested a much higher rent. But they have graciously let me stay and take care of their cozy condo on the 20th floor with a spectacular view of the city.

What this means to me is…

I feel inspired to cook and experiment with new foods every day in this sacred space of a kitchen. I share my creations with my fellow yoga trainees and colleagues every chance I get.

I wake up at the break of dawn every morning naturally because I leave the curtains open as I say goodnight to the city lights.

I get unabating silence, which I LOVE, with the exception of the occasional evening when the winter wind howls me into to a past life in Kansas.

And I have a heated parking garage, which might be one of my favorite luxuries yet.

What it really means is that Martin’s parents have big Swedish hearts filled with generosity, trust, and little concern for attachment. After two years of gypsy living, I value being grounded in a comfortable space that much more. Maybe that’s why I am especially grateful for them this year.

So, in the spirit of gratitude, I have taken my Tahini-Almond Chocolate recipe and created a Lingonberry Chocolate variation to highlight this powerful anti-oxidant of a Scandinavian berry.

Lingonberry and Tahini-Almond Gratitude Chocolate 

Makes approximately 24 chocolates using a mini-muffin pan.

Ingredients:

• 1 c. organic raw cacao butter (www.sunburstsuperfoods.com or www.iherb.com)
• 1 c. organic raw cacao powder
• 1/4 c. organic raw honey
• 1/8 tsp. pink Himalayan salt (or sea salt)
• 2-3 tbsp. Lingonberry jam (Or try real lingonberries!)

Tahini-Almond Mixture:

• 1/2 c. raw blanched almonds
• 4-5 tbsp tahini
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/4/c. filtered water

Crafting Your Chocolate:
1. Create a “double boiler” by placing cacao in a bowl on top of a pot of boiling water. This is important. You want to melt the cacao butter down, not cook it. WARNING: This will be one of the most tantalizing aromas you have ever experienced in your life.

2. Take liquid cacao butter, honey, and salt and mix in a small bowl. Slowly add in cacao powder a little bit at a time as you mix until smooth.

3. Pour approximately one centimeter of chocolate into the bottom of each tin and place in freezer. (This should be half the chocolate.)

4. In a food processor, combine almonds, tahini, coconut oil, and water. Blend until smooth.

5. Taking small dollops of the tahini-almond mixture, mold into small balls and flatten into patties that are smaller than the bottom of the mini-muffin pan. (If the bottom of your muffin pan is 4 centimeters, keep them smaller than 3 centimeters.)

6.Remove chocolates from freezer. Place tahini-almond patties in the center of each chocolate and top with a dab of lingonberry jam. I suggest you try 1/3 tahini-almond only, 1/3 lingonberry only, and 1/3 mixed tahini-almond-lingonberry. You can see the variation in mine below. Cover each completely with remaining chocolate.

7. Top with some kind of small morsel for easy identification and aesthetic appeal. I used almonds and pick Himalayan salt. Freeze for 10-15 minutes. Note: These should hold together just fine outside of the refrigerator or freezer.