I first ‘e-met’ Brooke McAlary through the Simple Year program where we were both presenters.
When she asked to interview me for her podcast I jumped on it.
We had a wonderful chat about some of my favourite things… simplicity and cooking.
Anyway, I was inspired to read Brooke’s latest book, Slow after dipping back into her podcast.
I wasn’t sure I would get that much out of it, given I’ve been on this simplicity path for quite some time.
But I really love Brooke’s story and her approach and thought it would be a good reminder of the basics.
And I was right!
And wrong.
Right about the good reminder.
Wrong about not getting that much out of it.
The thing I found most helpful was the chapter on mindfulness.
Rather than make mindfulness this big project, Brooke encourages us to just fit mindfulness in wherever we can.
It’s all about just paying attention to the moment. Whatever the moment. And finding something to appreciate.
A simple practice that has made a big difference for me.
So I reached out to Brooke to answer a few quick questions…
3 quick questions with Brooke McAlary
1. What’s the story behind ‘Slow’? Why did you decide to write it now?
Slow is both deeply personal and super accessible, because it’s my own story of being forced to re-evaluate my pace of life after a diagnosis of severe post-natal depression, as well as being a collection of tools and strategies that anyone can adapt to find pockets of slow in their own busy lives.
Anytime I tell people what Slow is about, I get a variation of the same response: “Ohh yes, I need that.” It really does feel like the tide is turning, and where busy-ness and sleep deprivation used to be a badge of honour that we’d wear to show how important/successful/worthy we were, people are starting to question whether it is really necessary or healthy to be living life at 110%. So while the answer to your question of “Why now?” is because now is when a publisher wanted to publish it.
I’m also glad that now is when it happened. It feels really timely to be telling people about the benefits of slow in a time where so many of us are questioning fast.
2. What’s one of your favourite simple weeknight dinners when it’s been a long day?
We’re currently travelling around Canada, staying in Airbnbs, so I’ve really had to get back to basics in the kitchen because I’m never entirely sure what the kitchen situation will be when we arrive. That said I know we will always have a stove and a couple of different saucepans so one of my favourites is tamari-marinated tempeh coated in nutritional yeast, served with steamed veggies (broccoli, carrot, zucchini, cauliflower) and mashed sweet potato.
The tempeh is so easy – slice, splash with tamari, leave for a few minutes and then toss it through some nutritional yeast before lightly frying in coconut oil until crispy. It takes about 10 minutes from start to finish. If I put the sweet potato on to boil before I start on the tempeh, I can marinate it while I slice the veggies, steam the veggies while I’m frying the tempeh, and have everything on the table in less than 30 minutes.
(Even though my kids and husband do eat meat, this is one of the vegetarian meals they’re always happy to eat as the tempeh is super tasty and satisfying for everyone.)
3. What are the 6 ingredients you would never be without?
Tamari, tempeh, broccoli, nutritional yeast, sweet potato, cashews.
If Stonesoup readers want to find out more about you, where’s the best place(s) to go?
slowyourhome.com or @brookemcalary on Instagram are my favourite online hangs!
Have fun (and pay attention to the moment) in the kitchen!
With love,
Jules
ps. More Book Love…
- 8 Best Cookbooks for 2018
- 8 Best Cookbooks for 2017
- 13 Favourite Cookbooks of 2015
- 10 favourite cookbooks for 2012
- 5 of My Favourite Things!
- 14 Fun & Random Facts About Me
- The cookbooks archive