On the heels of our latest pasta recipe, here’s a sensational recipe for dinner when you want something really rich and creamy! Dill, garlic, fresh fennel and garden peas, team with a cashew and pine nut sauce that’s oh-so-luscious, tastes so good, and, in my humble opinion rivals or tops a traditional cooked Primavera cheese sauce. Dish up onto a plate of glorious greens, dig in and savor a feast!

Ingredients: Make 2 large entree salads, or 4-6 side salads
5 cups Spiralized zucchini pasta
1/4 cup fresh garden peas (snap peas would also work)
1/4 cup matchstick carrots
4 tablespoons green onions, thinly sliced
4 tablespoons fennel bulb, finely chopped
6 very thin slices of leek, rings separated
A bed of your favorite fresh greens

Directions
Make pasta using a Spiralizer, or use a hand-held julienne slicer.
Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
Using a separate bowl, shell peas or thinly slice snap peas, julienne carrots, and thinly slice fennel, green onions, and leeks, and mix.
Before adding these to the zucchini pasta, set aside a small portion for a final garnish. Combine all veggies now, and mix.
Set aside while you make the sauce.

Ingredients for Primavera Sauce
1/2 cup pure water
1/2 cup cashews
1/4 cup pine nuts
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons stoneground mustard
1 tablespoon dried lemon thyme
1 teaspoon dried dill
1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1/4 teaspoon Himalayan salt
1-2 cloves garlic

Directions for Sauce
Put water, cashews, pine nuts, lemon juice, garlic, apple cider vinegar, dill, lemon thyme, black pepper, and Himalayan salt into the blender and blend until creamy.
Combine sauce with veggies and mix well to evenly coat.
Put 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan.
Add veggies, and warm to desired temperature, stirring constantly.
Dish up onto plates. Add garnish.
Drizzle balsamic vinegar on top, and add more freshly cracked black pepper.

Getting caught up in all the drama that’s going on in the world right now can happen in a heartbeat. Even a few photos on Facebook can be a trigger for me. And there’s certainly plenty out there to shock and challenge any person to their core. So how can this be a good thing?

It’s been proven that a few people who maintain a high, positive energy can offset hundreds of times the amount of negative energies. Because of this truth it feels more important than ever to keep the love and inner peace channel open! This free-flowing stream is where creative answers bubble up, allowing positive solutions to come forth.

As long as I maintain a state of harmony, all’s well. The minute I move away from this, my outlook changes in the blink of an eye. Suddenly I’m reacting, being the effect, and I’m definitely not feeling happy. Staying in my center strengthens me. And it helps, it really does! Conversely, if I’m in a state of fear, I’ve shut down and the flow is blocked. Focusing on gratitude and the beauty of light and love is like having the gates of goodness re-opening—and I know you all know how this feels from your personal experiences—it feels amazing!

So often when facing news of yet another disaster, or the horrible fate of animals, I may wonder what can I do? This is precisely when I can actually do something, by being a center for positivity. Keeping the flame alive can help in unknown ways—I’ll probably never know exactly how it helps, but I know in my heart that it makes a difference. Given that we all have freedom of choice in what we feel, think, and do, I choose love, which brings health.

On a simpler, everyday level, being good to myself through conscious choices for health and body care is one way to stay in harmony and balance, and to keep life moving along smoothly. Choosing the best foods, being with friends who nurture, and maintaining daily practices that build, not diminish—have a cumulative effect of creating an expanded space where I can give more, to help more, to become more of the person I want to be.

Join with me in the upward spiral of peace and love!! To actually become, and BE, that which we long to see in the world. Changing ourselves changes the world! It happens one person at a time, then suddenly an evolutionary movement bursts forth. Love works for the good of the whole, and we are a part of the whole. We don’t need to direct love (it knows far more than we do!), or worry about the outcome—our job is just to BE it—a profusion of love!