Each week I make time for creativity – stuff that’s not client work but just for me. Here’s what I got this past week…
Photography
On Friday I woke up to snow here in NYC so after my girls left for school I went out with my camera. I found a perfect spot and thought to myself – I wish I had someone to stand right here so I can photograph them.
Ask and it is Given!!
Just like that the painter in my building came over to see what I was doing and expressed an interest in being photographed.
He’s always friendly and happy and I always felt like there was more to him than met the eye. He opened up and told me his story about coming from “the hood” and the challenges he overcame. I told him he should write a book! When he’s in the building painting he’s listening to music a lot of the time. I asked him if he’d be open to listening to some inspirational audios and he said yes. I’m going to make a list for him of my faves. It’s amazing what you learn about people when you take the time to speak with them.
Always looking for ways to make a difference in someone’s life! Going to make prints for him of some of the images I created.
Drawing
I’m in a 3 week online course called MATS MBA – Make Art That Sells – Money Badass. I’m absolutely loving it! It combines all of the topics I love including creativity, business, mindset and specifically MONEY mindset!! This was a drawing from an exercise before the official start of the class – Cup of Dreams to get you thinking about what your dream business would look like.
Cooking
I made this red lentil soup from a recipe on The Food Network. Years ago when Food Network was still new, there was a great show called Calling All Cooks where they would go into regular people’s homes and they would cook a recipe that was meaningful to their family. I loved that show and hearing all of the stories connected to the food.
I made this years ago then remembered it and made it again. It’s super easy and you may even think it’s a bit bland since there aren’t many ingredients. The thing that makes this soup great are all the toppings that go with it – white vinegar, fresh cilantro, caramelized onions and shredded potatoes. You can make all or just the ones you prefer. There are no rules!!
My Modifications:
I personally love drizzling a bit of white distilled vinegar on top – it really punches up the flavor but I didn’t add the green chilies – didn’t have any so it was straight up vinegar. I made potato latkes to go with it and didn’t add any bread cubes. My vegan daughter really enjoys this soup!!
Since it’s been cold, I wanted to continue with the soup theme and try something new. One of my go-to sites for food inspo is Pinch of Yum. That’s where I found this Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo. My non vegan daughter liked this one!!
My Modifications:
Their recipe calls for eggs to thicken up the soup. I skipped that part and still found it thick enough. By the next day as you can see in the following photo, all of the liquid was absorbed into the orzo. It still tasted good although not very soupy. I used kale because I didn’t have spinach. I used regular orzo instead of wheat also because that’s what I had.
Did you make time for creativity? Let me know what you did in the comments…
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