Dharmachakra Buddhist Center is a Buddhist meditation center in northern New Jersey. We offer instruction in meditation and Buddhist spiritual practice through meditation classes, meditation retreats and special meditation events. Meditation is for everyone, from those who seek relaxation to those who wish to follow the Buddhist spiritual path. We promote the teachings and ideals of Kadampa Buddhism in northern New Jersey

with Peter Kurczynski We have been told that the wisdom realizing the true nature of things, known as emptiness, gives rise to great joy and leads to enlightenment. But what does that mean? This day course will illustrate how to apply Buddhas teachings on wisdom directly to our joys as well as our obstacles. Put your pre-conceptions aside and discover how understanding emptiness is the ultimate solution to your worries and problems and is actually blissful! Learn more

Saturday, October 25; 10 am 3:30 pm at KMC NYC

with Peter Kurczynski We all want to have peaceful, satisfying relationships with our friends, our family and our co-workers. But all too often, we find our relationships to be a source of irritation or even anger. Buddhas teachings on the minds of love and attachment can help us to restore our relationships to what they should be: a chance for us to express our love for another person. In this series we will learn how letting go of the mind of attachment can transform our bad relationships into good ones.Learn more

Wednesdays, October 1,8,15; 7:30 9:00 pm atCoba Yoga

Feeling disillusioned, discouraged or disconnected from a higher purpose indicates a lack of spiritual direction in our lives. Wanting to learn to meditate, but being unable to maintain a consistent practice is another common problem. These and other symptoms are remedied by the structured program of meditation known as lamrim: the stages of the path to enlightenment. This series will explore the essential foundational meditations of lamrim. Through entering Buddhism we will bring practical and ultimate benefit to every aspect of our lives.

See the CALENDAR forthe class schedule

Starting May 21st classes will be offered at the Christ Episcopal Church in Ridgewood, close to the Ridgewood High School. This location is wheelchair accessible. Everyone is welcome!

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Meditation and Buddhism in New Jersey - Dharmachakra ...

LOCATION FOR CLASSES:

NEW JERSEY CENTER FOR HEALTHY LIVING

292 Bloomfield Ave. Montclair, NJ 07042 view map

CLASS CANCELATIONS DUE TO WEATHER:

Please call 973-746-6707 if you think your class may be canceled due to inclement weather. If your class is canceled, there will be a message on the greeting stating that class is canceled.

DROP-INS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME IN THE FOLLOWING CLASSES:

ONE-TIME TRIAL DROP-IN FOR YOGA CLASSES:

1 and half hour Yoga Classes: $25

1 hour classes: $20

As we celebrate our 38th year of providing the highest quality Yoga and Meditation classes to our students in Montclair and surrounding New Jersey communities, taught by the most experienced teachers in NJ, we want to thank all of our loyal students and clients. For me, and all of my staff, this has been a labor of love and a journey of growth and service. We teach classical Hatha Yoga, Meditation, Gentle and Restorative Yoga, Yamuna Body Rolling and many workshops. Every class is limited in size to enable our teachers to provide individualized support and direction to each student. Try one of our classes or workshops and discover that experience does make a difference.

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Yoga in Montclair | Montclair Yoga | Meditation Montclair ...

Everything on Native Foods Cafe's menu is vegan. The fast-casual chain is expanding across the country, capitalizing on Americans' growing enthusiasm to make more conscious choices about their food and converting meat lovers to what's been known as a hippie food movement by vegan-izing American classics such as the bacon cheeseburger and mac and cheese. The Washington store is the chain's 22nd and the first on the East Coast; it will soon be followed by another location in D.C.'s Penn Quarter.

Co-owner Andrea McGinty proudly points out that most people who stop in for a bite to eat aren't vegan, rather people looking for "a better way to eat." She prefers referring to the cafe's fare as plant-based, finding that it's less of a turn-off when explaining the concept to newbies.

"Native Foods serves fun comfort food that happens to be vegan," says McGinty, who is based in Chicago. McGinty and her business partner, Daniel Dolan, bought Native Foods from the company's founder in 2009. At the time there were just three restaurants, including the one in Palm Springs, Calif., where McGinty first discovered the cafe while on vacation 14 years ago.

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"There was still a stigma on this word vegan," she says. "I thought, this could be so much fun to do. Every time I introduced it to anybody, they loved the food."

She took on the restaurant with hopes of expanding and a conviction that vegan food could become mainstream. Her timing may have put the business in prime position to succeed. She took the business outside California with a store in Chicago that opened in 2011; McGinty wants to have 200 stores in the next two years. Meanwhile, Americans are adopting all manner of specialty diets, nixing gluten, going vegetarian on weeknights, seeking alternative forms of protein besides meat, and trying unfamiliar vegetables like kale and grains such as farro.

A 2011 report by The Hartman Group found that 6% of Millennials identify as vegetarians, compared to 5% of Gen X and Boomers combined, and 12% say they often opt for vegetarian meals, vs. 10% of Gen X and 5% of Boomers who say the same.

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Chain restaurant mainstreams vegan food

By Joe Yonan Editor, Food and Travel October 13 at 7:00 AM

If there was a vegetarian cookbook of the decade, it would have to be Plenty, Yotam Ottolenghis 2011 international bestseller, which has helped introduce scores of home cooks to the glories of zaatar, pomegranate molasses, preserved lemons and other formerly esoteric Middle Eastern ingredients. At the same time, it proved to any doubters that vegetarian cuisine can be wonderfully vibrant and exciting.

Ottolenghi, 45, is a wildly successful London chef-restaurateur with a column in the Guardian that for years focused on vegetarian cooking. But he isnt a vegetarian. Hes an Israeli-born omnivore with a lifelong appreciation of vegetables who brings his infectious curiosity and unerring palate to the subject of plant-based cooking. The author of two bestselling books (Ottolenghi and Jerusalem) with his Palestinian business partner, Sami Tamimi, hes back to meat-free dishes with Plenty More (Ten Speed Press).

The new book is arranged by cooking technique (chapters have titles like Tossed, Grilled, Roasted and Mashed). After trying and loving several recipes, I talked with Ottolenghi by telephone. Edited excerpts of our conversation follow.

How do you think differently about cooking vegetables from cooking meat?

Vegetables need a little bit more help than meat, I find. So I focus on things like char-grilling or roasting, which intensifies the flavor or adds a little smoky aroma, and marinating, leaving something in the marinade for quite a while. Those offer an extra dimension of flavor to vegetables.

What is key to me are the cooking techniques. Theres a kind of common knowledge about what it means to cook meat well: prime cuts cook very quickly, cheap cuts cook longer. That doesnt necessarily get applied to vegetables, and thats what Im trying to do here. If you take Brussels sprouts or cauliflower and you roast them or grill them or marinate or serve them raw and shred them, these are ways of achieving very, very different things.

Why do you think Plenty struck such a chord?

One reason is that the vegetables are put in a context where they can really make a statement. The other reason is that I use a set of Middle Eastern ingredients that I grew up with that are absolutely fantastic and were bound to be discovered anyway, and I implemented them in a modern context. I was in the right place at the right time. Tahini, for example, is such a key ingredient in Middle Eastern cooking, and five to 10 years ago most people didnt know about it and didnt cook with it. But to me, its almost as important in cooking as olive oil.

What are your new favorite ingredients, things you think might catch on next?

More:
Weeknight Vegetarian: Yotam Ottolenghi on Plenty More

Sometimes things dont go as planned and those moments often make for the best stories. Tripping columns offer readers a chance to share their wild adventures.

Holding a heavy steak knife was a forgotten art, and the medium-rare round eye in front of me looked like the Grand Canyons topography, with its nuances of red, brown and white. But Im a vegetarian, I hadnt eaten meant in nearly two years. What was I doing in La Cabrera, one of Buenos Aires trendiest steakhouses?

Lets rewind. Ill spare you the details about the vegetarian plane food that was surprisingly tasteless on the flight over (they gave us steamed vegetables and placed them between two buns, forgetting the sauce, not even bothering with salt and paper or butter for the bread). Bland is the word youre looking for.

I was starving by the time we got to the Chilean airport; in a moment of desperation, I ordered a coffee with a croissant from a random vendor. No croissants? No problem, I said, Ill take a vegetarian sandwich of any sort. Result: grilled cheese and ham. Of course...

I got sick the day after we landed with some sort of 24-hour stomach flu. After that, I tried to keep it minimal, drinking water and eating dried goods until I felt better. And when I did feel better, I was hungry. Real hungry.

Unfortunately, every restaurant we went to had vegetarian options that only left me begging for more: salads made of greens (they couldnt specify which greens), tomatoes with an olive or two, sprinkled with processed cheese. Or white toast with grilled cheese, panini style. I barely finished my plates.

Some restaurants had excellent vegetarian pizzas, falafel sandwiches and empanadas, but I grew tired of eating so much dough and got discouraged by how few vegetarian options there were to choose from. It was like being in a candy store where there were no caramels or licorice or Dulce de leche. An impossible situation.

I was hungry for a good meal. Starving.

So I ordered a steak and frites with a glass of Malbec.

When it arrived at last, I was on the edge of beastly hunger and could not see, could not even imagine, the cow that it once was. The smell of pepper, nuts and charcoal opened my nostrils wide I barely remembered that I was a vegetarian.

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I'm a vegetarian, what am I doing in Buenos Aires?

Sometimes it doesn't get better than a comforting bowl of soup. Check out these ideas for rich and hearty vegetarian one-dish meals:

Creamy mushroom and roasted onion soup: If you're craving a bowl of rich mushroom soup, this recipe delivers. No less than a pound of cremini mushrooms are simmered with garlic, shallots, onion and buttery Chardonnay for an aromatic base. Pure the mushrooms with heavy cream for a smooth, velvety finish, then stir in finely chopped roasted onion (the onion can be roasted ahead of time) at the end. A thin slice of Parmigiano-Reggiano completes each serving.

Sally Lunn's carrot, lentil and cumin soup: Rich and full of deep flavor, you might never guess this soup is vegetarian. Or that it comes together so quickly and easily. Sally Lunn's in Bath, England, was happy to share its recipe so you can have a little taste of Bath here at home.

Coral Tree Cafe's vegetable soup: Craving a hearty vegetable soup? Fresh vegetables simmered with barley in a hearty broth makes for a perfect one-dish meal. What's more, your guests might not even notice it's vegetarian.

CORAL TREE CAFES VEGETABLE SOUP

Total time: 1 hour | Serves 8 to 10

Note: Adapted from Coral Tree Cafe in Los Angeles.

2 tablespoons oil 2 cups diced carrots 2 cups diced onions 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme 3/4 cup pearl barley 1 quart vegetable broth 1 1/2 cups prepared marinara sauce 2 cups quartered mushrooms 2 cups diced zucchini Salt and pepper

1. Heat a medium, heavy-bottom pot over medium heat until hot. Add the oil, then add the carrots, onions, bell pepper, thyme and barley. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are golden-brown, about 18 minutes, taking care that the barley does not burn.

2. Stir in the vegetable broth and marinara. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer.

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Easy dinner recipes: Three rich soups for Meatless Monday