Laugh a little

In this world, there are two most difficult thing to do:

1 is inserting one's thoughts into other people's minds
2 is putting other people's money in your pocket
If:
Whoever does the first thing successfully is call Zen master
Whoever can do the second thing successfully is call owner
But if someone who can do both things successfully then call it 's...WIFE

Simplify, and Savor Life

This article is very helpful ; I want to share with people who follow my blog

‘The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.’ ~Thich Nhat Hanh

By Leo Babauta

These days we have an abundance of luxuries, but I’ve found that excess actually decreases my enjoyment of life.
Sure, we can get massive amounts of rich foods, feasting to our heart’s content, stuffing ourselves in alarming displays of gluttony … but is that really enjoyable on a regular basis?
And yes, television can be fun, and so can ridiculously large parts of the Internet, but if it’s always on, if we’re always connected, doesn’t that lower the fun factor?
Excesses lead to all kinds of problems, but the biggest problem is that life is less enjoyable.
I’ve been finding that simplifying things means I can savor life more fully.
Savoring life starts with a mindset. It’s a mindset that believes that excess, that rushing, that busy-ness, that distractedness, isn’t ideal. It’s a mindset that tries instead to:

• simplify
• do & consume less
• slow down
• be mindful & present
• savor things fully

It’s the little things that make life enjoyable: a walk with a loved one, a delicious book, a chilled plum, a newly blooming tree.
And by simplifying, we can savor life to the fullest.
Some ideas I’ve been considering lately:
1. Coffee: Instead of ordering a latte, mocha, cappuccino with whipped cream and cinnamon and shavings … simplify. Just get pure, good coffee (or espresso), brewed fresh with care and precision, with quality beans, freshly roasted. Make it yourself if you can. Drink it slowly, with little or nothing added, and enjoy it thoroughly.
2. Tea: I recently had tea with Jesse Jacobs, the owner of Samovar Tea Lounge, and he poured two different teas from tiny tea pots: Nishi Sencha 1st Flush and Bai Hao Oolong tea. It was fresh, hand-made tea from real leaves, not a tea bag, and it was simply delicious. Drink it slowly, with your eyes closed, fully appreciating the aroma … wonderful.
3. Workouts: I’ve been a fan of simpler workouts recently. While others might spend an hour to 90 minutes in the gym, going through a series of 10 different exercises, I just do 1-3 functional exercises, but with intensity. So I might do some sprint intervals, or a few rounds of pushups, pullups, and bodyweight squats. Or 400 meters of walking lunges. Let me tell you, that’s a simple but incredible workout. Another I like: five rounds 85-lb. squat thrusters (10 reps) alternated with pushups (10 reps). Today’s workout was three rounds of 15 burpees and 800-meter runs. No rest unless you need it. These are great workouts, but very simple, and very tough. I love them.
4. Sweets: I used to be a sugar addict. Now I still enjoy an occasional dessert, but in tiny portions, eaten very slowly. What I enjoy even more, though, is cold fruit. A chilled peach, some blueberries, a few strawberries, a plum: eat it one bite at a time, close your eyes with each bite, and enjoy to the fullest. So good.
5. Meals: While the trend these days is super-sized meals of greasy, fried things (more than two people need to eat actually), I have been enjoying smaller meals of simplicity. Just a few ingredients, fresh, whole, unprocessed, without chemicals or sauces. My meals usually include: a breakfast of steel-cut oats (cooked) with cinnamon, almonds, and berries; a lunch of yogurt, nuts, and fruit; a dinner of beans or tofu with quinoa and steamed veggies (or sauteed with garlic and olive oil). These simple meals are better because not only are they healthy, each ingredient can be tasted, its flavor fully enjoyed.
6. Reading: While the Internet is chock full of things to read, I’ve been enjoying the simplicity of a paper book, borrowed from the library or a friend (borrowing/sharing reduces natural resources consumed). When I read online, I read a single article at a time, using either the Readability or Clippable bookmarklet to remove distrations, and in full-screen mode in the Chrome browser (hit Cmd-Shift-F on the Mac version or F11 in Windows). It’s pure reading, no distractions, and lovely.

8 Effective Ways For Dealing With Difficult People

Life will always present us with awkward, difficult people; and unless you want to live in a Himalayan cave you will have to learn how to deal with these people. We should not let difficult people spoil our inner equanimity; with the right attitude we can maintain our peace of mind even when dealing with unpleasant people. These are some suggestions for dealing with awkward people.

1. Don’t Think about Them All the Time.

Sometimes when people cause us difficulties they start to dominate our thoughts; this makes their presence seem very close. However, it is best to think about them as little as possible. Instead, concentrate on things and people who inspire you. Thinking about difficult people is not going to change how they behave, but it will cause us unhappiness.

2. Don’t Expect to Change Them.

Awkward and unpleasant people are the least likely to be willing to change themselves. Don’t take it upon yourself to try and change their behaviour; you will all most certainly fail. Furthermore, they will probably resent your interference and this will create further difficulties. Instead we can maintain a cheerful detachment. If we don’t have any expectations, it becomes much easier to deal with.

3. Don’t feel guilt.

If people create problems in our life we can start to feel guilty, even though we have done nothing wrong. In cases like this we have to be detached; it is not our fault problems are created. As long as we seek to maintain a good attitude, that is all that matters.

If you want to transform your life

Radically,

Then immediately give up

Your false sense of teeming guilt.

~ Sri Chinmoy [1]

4. Silence is a powerful weapon.

When people say unreasonable things, the natural instinct is to try and argue with them. However, this draws us into their weird perspective. In many circumstances, it may be appropriate to maintain silence and not respond to what they say and do. By being silent, we are effectively ignoring them without having to criticise their actions. In silence their is great power; when we ignore them, they lose influence. Silence also gives us time to think a more measured and detached response, for later.

5. Retain your Humour.

Don’t feel obliged to take every situation seriously. Try to see the funny side. If people behave in a ridiculous way, don’t despair – just see the absurd behaviour as a humorous situation. The comical aspect of the TV programme, The Office came simply from ordinary people behaving in unreasonable ways.

6. Don’t seek to Avoid them.

If you have to work with a difficult people, the solution is rarely to move job. The likelihood is that you will find difficult people wherever you work. If you try to avoid difficult people, you will be permanently on the move. The thing to do is to change your attitude; rather than feeling depressed and guilty, we can see it is an opportunity for our self improvement. Through learning to deal with difficulty people, we will learn many valuable life skills.

7. Offer Goodwill.

If we can offer goodwill even to difficult people, we will make tremendous progress. Unpleasant people may deserve criticism, but, this will not help the situation. Even the most difficult person may have one or two good qualities. Try to mentions these; subconsciously they will appreciate our goodwill. This remains the most effective way to bring out the best in others – even if it may seem to take a very long time.

8. Don’t Try to Impress or Gain favour.

Sometimes, whatever we do, people will look at the negative side and criticise us. This can cause us to seek even harder to seek their approval. But, this can cause us to ignore our basic values, and sometimes even if we change, we still don’t gain their approval anyway. There is much more dignity in being true to ourselves, and being happy with our choices. If some difficult people don’t appreciate our actions, no harm. We can never expect to receive everyone’s approval.

[1] Sri Chinmoy, Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, Part 40, Agni Press, 1982.

From the internet

Just say hi

If you are viewing my cooking and baking blog, enjoyasimplelife.blogspot.com, for the first time or are a frequent viewer, I have not made additional entries to the blog for quite some time.  The reason for this is that I have made a move to a new home in a different state, and the cooking arrangements are not quite ideal at this time. There are additional reasons that should be resolved soon. When this happens, I will gladly post additional easy-to-follow, photo-illustrated entries that I am certain you will enjoy preparing for yourself and others. In the meantime, I have already published more than 1400 recipes on this website that you can have access to now at no cost to you except your time and your own desire to try something new. To search for something of your liking, simply enter a word or group of words, such as shrimp, chicken, egg rolls, or dipping sauce, etc., in the search box in the upper left-hand corner of this page. Then click the magnifying glass search symbol to the right of the word(s). Immediately, all the recipes I have in my blog that contain the word or words just entered will appear in the order they were posted.

Occasionally, depending on the search engine, such as Google, other websites will appear before my blog address. You may need to look for the words, Enjoy Life, when looking for my blog as you scroll down the entries that appear first. Good luck! And thanks for visiting my blog.

Lan

Quick Ham and Corn Muffins

Since October of 2018, I have been very busy moving from Washington state to Florida. During this time I have to stabilize my new home with new kitchen which is not familiar with what I had in my old home.Therefore, I did not have time to cook nutritious dishes to send to my blog visitors. Today, by chance, I had to make a quick breakfast for some of my friends who were living in  the Fisher house reserved for all the Veterans families who has the love one being under the treatment in the VA hospital . When I have time I will introduce this house. This is an easy muffin recipe that I posted many time in my blog. However, I used the ham and corn left from the party in the fisher house couple days ago. All my friends at the Fisher house love this muffins and they asked me to post this recipe eventhough I did not have a chance to photo it.

Ingredients;
Dried ingredients:
1 and 1/3 cup All purpose flower
1 cup self rising corn meal
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 stp black pepper
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 cup cooked corn or frozen corn
1/2 cup diced ham
Wet ingredients:
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Equipment
12 muffins liner and muffin pan
Directions:
If using the frozen corn, use the sauce pan to cook the corn in boiling water for 1 minutes.
Line the muffins paper cup in the muffin pan
In the mixing bowl mix all the dried ingredients together  and wisk well.
Combine the wet ingredients in the Blender (I use the Vitamix or any blender that is available to you). Blend for 15 second.
Pour the well blend egg-milk-oil into the dried ingredient and using the spatular to mix until it combine (do not overmix the batter). Use the large spoon to divide the batter evenly into the muffin liner about 2/3 full. Bake in the preheat oven set for 350 for 20 to 25 minutes or until gloden and just firm to the touch . Serve warm or cool

One-Pot Teriyaki Chicken with Rice and Vegetables

An easy choice to make for dinner is one-pot chicken and rice. Most of the groceries now are carrying the ready-made chicken with rice, dinners, which are showing choices from different Asian cuisines. I like this simple meal because I can use frozen stir-fried vegetables to save time and is economical. A whole bag of frozen vegetables can be used for many dishes throughout many meals. The teriyaki sauce can be purchased or is very easily created at home. This one-pot meal recipe here is a fantastic dish to serve.

Ingredients:

2 cups of jasmin rice, washed and drained

2 chicken breasts, cubed

1/3 cup teriyaki sauce*

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 knob of fresh ginger, minced

1 cup chopped white onion

2 cups of frozen vegetables

1 cup fresh pineapple, cubed

 2 cups chicken broth

Seasonings:

1 tsp soy sauce

1/4 tsp salt and black pepper

1 tbs peanut oil

Directions:

Mix the chicken breasts with teriyaki sauce, onions, garlic, and ginger. Marinate until ready to use.

In sauté pan, heat oil. Add the chicken. Stir and cook until fragrant.

In a rice cooker, add rice and chicken broth (you might have to use a little less chicken broth to this recipe because the frozen vegetables tend to have some water when they cook). Add cooked chicken and the vegetables. Stir to mix.

Cover the rice cooker and follow the instructions for your rice cooker.

Fluff the rice with a fork when it is done cooking. Adjust the seasonings before serving.

Also, sprinkle with some green onion and chopped cilantro.

*To make teriyaki sauce:

Combine 1/3 cup with equal amounts of soy sauce, mirin, sake, and 3 tbs sugar. Mix well. Pour sauce into the sauce pan and cook over moderate heat. Then simmer over low heat until the sauce reduces by one quarter. Let cool completely before storing in the refrigerator in a glass jar with lid.

*If you have a one-pot rice cooker plus with other functions that sells at Costco, this recipe is even easier to make. Use the sauté function to cook the chicken, then add the rest of the ingredients and use the white rice function to finish the recipe.

Everything is Changeable

Looking at life, we notice how it changes and how it continually moves between extremes and contrasts. We notice rise and fall, success and failure, loss and gain; we experience honor and contempt, praise and blame; and we feel how our hearts respond to all that happiness and sorrow, delight and despair, disappointment and satisfaction, fear and hope. These mighty waves of emotion carry us up, fling us down, and no sooner we find some rest, then we are carried by the power of a new wave again. How can we expect a footing on the crest of the waves? Where shall we erect the building of our life in the midst of this ever-restless ocean of existence?

This is a world where any little joy that is allotted to beings is secured only after many disappointments, failures and defeats. This is a world where scanty joy grows amidst sickness, desperation and death. This is a world where beings who a short while ago were connected with us by sympathetic joy are at the next moment in want of our compassion. Such a world as this needs equanimity. This is the nature of the world where we live with our intimate friends and the next day they become our enemies to harm us.

The Buddha described the world as an unending flux of becoming. All is changeable, continuous transformation, ceaseless mutation, and a moving stream. Everything exists from moment to moment. Everything is a recurring rotation of coming into being and then passing out of existence. Everything is moving from birth to death. The matter or material forms in which life does or does not express itself, are also a continuous movement or change towards decay. This teaching of the impermanent nature of everything is one of the main pivots of Buddhism. Nothing on earth partakes of the character of absolute reality. That there will be no death of what is born is impossible. Whatever is subject to origination is subject also to destruction. Change is the very constituent of reality.

In accepting the law of impermanence or change, the Buddha denies the existence of eternal substance. Matter and spirit are false abstractions that, in reality, are only changing factors (Dhamma) which are connected and which arise in functional dependence on each other.

Today, scientists have accepted the law of change that was discovered by the Buddha. Scientists postulate that there is nothing substantial, solid and tangible in the world. Everything is a vortex of energy, never remaining the same for two consecutive moments. The whole wide world is caught up in this whirl and vortex of change. One of the theories postulated by scientists is the prospect of the ultimate coldness following upon the death or destruction of the sun. Buddhists are not dismayed by this prospect. The Buddha taught that universes or world cycles arise and pass away in endless succession, just as the lives of individuals do. Our world will most certainly come to an end. It has happened before with previous worlds and it will happen again.

'The world is a passing phenomenon. We all belong to the world of time. Every written word, every carved stone, every painted picture, the structure of civilization, every generation of man, vanishes away like the leaves and flowers of forgotten summers. What exists is changeable and what is not changeable does not exist.'

Thus all gods and human beings and animals and material forms -- everything in this universe -- is subject to the law of impermanence. Buddhism teaches us:

'The body like a lump of foam;
The feelings like a water bubble;
Perception like a mirage;
Volitional activities like a plantain tree;
And Consciousness like jugglery.' (Samyutta Nikaya) Everything is Changeable

Everything is changeable from "what Buddists believe, K.Sri Dhammananda, buddist Cultural Center.