A Simple Celebration

All of the nutritional programs at The Chopra Center for Well Being, established in La Jolla, California, in 1996 by Deepak Chopra. M.D., are guided by the principle that health is more than the absence of disease; it is, rather, a state of dynamic harmony among body, mind, and spirit. Ginna Bell Bragg, an experienced chef and teacher, was chosen by Dr. Chopra to create and oversee the Center's kitchen and its widely acclaimed nutritional program. She and Dr. Chopra's partner at the center, Dr. David Simon, have collaborated to create A Simple Celebration, a healthy, delicious, and easy-to-use vegetarian cookbook that incorporates Ayurvedic healthcare principles into more than 140 scrumptious recipes. Each dish is designed to nourish you and help keep your physical, mental, and spiritual energies in balance. Ayurvedic cooking has a reverence for nutritious food for the manner in which it is prepared as well as for its health benefits, believing that the simple act of eating creates a ritual of celebration. Bragg and Simon refer to this as Kitchen tantra, where the life force of the preparer merges with the life force of the food to create delicious, life-affirming meals. A Simple Celebration includes a test to reveal your body type and all the information you need to know how to use different foods to bring your body into harmony with your mind. A balance of tastes chart shows how each of the recipes in this book can be changed to balance the needs of each body type.