Here’s what this past week looked like:
Outdoor painting with Cooper & Lucy.
In my family, my mom and I have always been outnumbered by men. One adult male and two growing boys meant that anytime my mom put out a platter of smoked salmon & cream cheese for a party, there would be no smoked salmon left by the time it was our turn to get some. I think their mental cue for leave some for the rest of the party was always dominated by the how much salmon can I pile on top of this bagel cue.
After many years of suffering with measly smoked salmon scraps, I finally found the solution! Take away the plate of sliced smoked salmon and put the salmon IN the cream cheese. Dudes will still want to load it onto their bagel, but I’m pretty sure you’ll find some cream cheese left by the time you get to the appetizer table. There’s nothing worse than spending a ton of money on smoked salmon when you never get to try it.
This cream cheese is also PACKED with flavor and perfect for a party because you can do it ahead of time. The last thing you want is the stress of fanning out salmon slices when someone shows up to your party ridiculously early. Am I right?
When you’re deep in an organizing project and you look around the room you just destroyed, it’s best to just STOP. Before you get thoroughly overwhelmed, take a breather and make something good to eat. Don’t examine your stuff!
Just LEAVE.
The act of taking a break and chopping up vegetables, grilling steak outdoors and composing a bunch of colors on a plate will not only give you a nice break from the chaos in the other room, it will give you fuel to power through.
Don’t think of the pile of papers you need to shred. Don’t agonize over how much stuff you’ve accumulated in the past few years. Just eat this delicious salad. It’s spicy, hearty and kinda light!
We spent so much of this weekend going through our unwanted items. Lucky for us, this bright/colorful salad was the light at the end of the tunnel.
Now excuse me while I get back to work sorting all the stuff I need to shred.
Here’s what this past week looked like:
We had thunder & lightning this week…and some amazing clouds to prove it.
This week on the Joy the Baker podcast, we go over your 5 fave things homework, answer questions AND give you homework for this week like It’s Nobody’s Blazeness!
Aaaaaaaand I think I might be done with my kitchen organizing project. Just a few more things to go. Here’s this week’s installment!
(that image up there is from my Instagram stream! You can follow me @tracyshutterbean. That temporary tattoo is from tattly. Casey totally thought it was real for a minute. HA!)
I’m a huge snacker. My most favorite snacks are carb based. I’m sure you would have guessed as much. I simply cannot pass up a good cracker situation. It’s even better if there’s cheese up on those crackers. While I’m eating cheese & crackers I almost ALWAYS imagine there being a diet where all you eat is cheese & crackers. Can you imagine? I can. It would be fantastic.
But in real life…snacking can get you in trouble if you’re not careful. What you’re supposed to do is snack to tie you over until you have a legitimate meal. Stay on top of your hunger or else you find yourself like me…almost eating 2 dinners because you didn’t arm yourself at 3pm with something that contains protein & crunch. That’s where these Dry Roasted Edamame & Cranberries enter the picture. When it’s 3pm and you’re craving something salty & sweet, these will do the trick. The edamame are salty and crunchy and the tangy/ tart/sweet cranberries balance things out in a trailmix kinda way. Is it wrong to eat the whole batch? I dunno. I did it and I survived….until dinner.