Since March, I’ve found myself delving deeper into food- from eggless recipes to how to cook radishes and beets. Today’s recap is a little food heavy so just FYI.
This week, given that it’s the beginning of a new month, I received my mini fruit/veggie box from Fresh Picks. There was a little surprise in there for me. Wanna know?
I wish I found it first but I didn’t. As I lounged on the couch, my husband called out to me to come over to the kitchen. He had cut open the mini watermelon we received and what did he find?
A yellow-fleshed watermelon. Yes!
Being the adventurous one, I tasted first. It was slightly sweet and a little different but still like watermelon.
My husband instantly pulled out his phone to research this. We discovered that yellow watermelon was cultivated several years before experimentation led to its pink-fleshed counterpart.
What a cool find. That’s it for my food discovery of the week.
Here’s a recap from my week-
- Recipes Tried- Zucchini Muffins & Shroom Toast
- Conserving Your Energy
- Documenting Family Stories & Recipes
- Great Resources I Stumbled On This Week
Recipes Tried This Week
Zucchini Muffins
Oh, I need to share one more on food before we go on. Y’all know what a big foodie I am right. I made double chocolate zucchini muffins for the very first time. It’s zucchini season now so I’ve been making a ton of zucchini muffins.
My husband is not particularly fond of seeing tiny green strips in the muffin so I knew I had to devise another way to get him to eat these zucchini muffins.
That’s why I was very happy to find that I could mask the zucchini by making Sallys’ double chocolate zucchini muffins. These are fudgy, delicious and so tasty.
Since I know you’ll be asking me for the recipe, here it is. I’m sugar conscious so I used half the quantity of sugar required for the recipe. Let me know how it goes if you decide to try it.
Shitake Shroom Toast
We usually have sandwiches for breakfast at least once a week. It’s usually avocado toast, a tuna sandwich or egg salad. This week, I decided to switch it up. Here’s my simple recipe.
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 6 pieces of shitake mushroom
- 4 slices of bread (I used sourdough)
- 1/2 cup sweet onion
- 1/2 cup red bell pepper
Method
- Wash all produce and slice them
- Saute onions and red pepper for about 2-3 minutes
- Add the mushrooms. Season with sea salt, garlic powder and black pepper.
- Stir fry for about 5-7 minutes until the onions is slightly caramelized.
- Toast sourdough bread
- Pile the mushroom mixture on top of the toast and serve with your preferred drink
If you’re looking for a meatless recipe or a new way to eat your breakfast toast, try this mushroom toast recipe and you won’t be disappointed.
Conserving Your Energy
On Thursday, during my 20-minute walk, I listened to Christy Wright’s July 28th podcast episode on conserving energy. She shared 5 tips. Most times, we talk about time management but forget about energy conservation. Also very key. It’s a great episode which you should listen to if you have time to spare. I’ve shared the link below under the great resources section.
My main takeaway from the conversation was the importance of fixing a regular bedtime and wake up time. When you do this, you are training your body and taking the weight off your brain to think through every single activity. Your body knows when it should expect rest. With time, you’ll notice that your eyes will start to shut around that fixed time. Also, if you have a fixed wake-up time, you can develop morning routines that will make you feel better physically and emotionally.
My goal this coming week is to have a consistent sleep and wake up time. If you’re interested in learning more about creating morning routines, I highly recommend The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. I read this 3 years ago but I might need to read it again for reinforcement.
Documenting Family Stories & Recipes
Every week, I look forward to Cup of Jo’s weekly newsletter. I find her content well -rounded and propelling. One idea jumped at me and it was about secret family recipes. I enjoyed reading the comments – some families gave out specific recipes only when someone got married and others never got their hands on the “secret” recipes because it died with whoever created it. How sad!
This got me thinking about my own family. We need to compile our family recipes and create a family cookbook. That’s a project I can and should work on. My maternal grandma is in her 80’s and she is a phenomenal cook. I need to find a way to document all her mouthwatering recipes.
Today, I mentioned the idea to my mom and told her to start writing her recipes. Wish me luck, as I embark on this mini-project. I can’t wait to see where this takes me.
Do you have any family recipes that have been passed down generations? Share in the comments below. I’d love to know.
Still along the lines of documenting, in my quiet time this week, this verse spoke to me from the Psalms.
Psalm 145:4 (NLT)
Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts;
let them proclaim your power.
It will be delightful to hear stories of ways God has moved/showed up for my family in generations past.
I want to be intentional about sharing my testimonies and listening to testimonies from my family.
I also asked my mom to start writing about miracles she’s seen in her lifetime. So many assignments for my mom this week :)
If this is something that sounds interesting to you, you can start in a small way.
Write simple notes of personal testimonies and shove it in a jar. When it’s thanksgiving or the end of the year, sit down with your favorite drink and background music, and read every single note you wrote down. You’ll be amazed at your blessings.
Count your blessings! Name them one by one. And it will surprise you what the Lord has done! That’s a song right! Taking you back. Click here for the song.
Great Resources Stumbled Upon This Week
- TED talk by Candy Chang who pioneered the “Before I Die, I Want to… ” wall movement
- This talk is under 7 minutes- short and sweet.
- It might be a cool idea to complete the sentence yourself. What do you want to do before you die?
- TED talk by Paul Tasner on becoming an entrepreneur at 70
- Great talk on recreating his career as a senior
- He shared a great statistic that I knew nothing about. Businesses started by older entrepreneurs have a 70% success rate compared to a 28% rate for those started by younger entrepreneurs.
- 5 Ways to Conserve Your Energy– The Christy Wright Show Podcast
- Great talk on going back to the basics. Here’s the only tip I’ll give you- early to bed, early to rise… Finish the rest!
That’s all from me. Have a phenomenal week!
Lisa's Experiences & Reflections 