Something New

There are a lot of changes I’m making in 2011. Although it’s pretty cliche to make goals for the new year, I’m really optimistic about the new things and changes I’ve started so far.

One of the things I’ve been thinking about for a while is two-fold; first, taking photos for pleasure as opposed to taking them because someone is paying me to. I really can’t believe I lost touch with that so fast, since I’ve only started getting paid for this since May of last year. I already stopped taking pictures for fun because it made me feel guilty, as if, I should feel bad about using my camera for anything other than working directly or indirectly on behalf of “the business”. I actually came to this realization once the third week of December came along and I had nothing on my calendar… but didn’t think to go out and have fun with my camera like I used to. Believe it or not, I kinda suffered withdrawals from not having that rush of taking exciting photos and having something to edit. Secondly, I’ve been fighting the advice of nearly all successful photographers, to get personal on your photo blog for a while now, but it might be time to give it a try. I’m not a big proponent of putting my personal life out there for all to read about, plus, I’m really not sure if anyone would care! But I’ve decided I’ll give it a try to post something personal regularly, and see how it goes, if not only to have a visual log of the year, and remind myself to take photos just for me.

So, one of the things I was unhappy with in 2010 was my strange aversion to cooking for the first 3/4 of the year. I think it had a lot to do with all the traveling I did the year before, because getting used to eating out or on the go for every meal and not having a big mess to clean up is a bit addicting. I have gotten back into it recently, but instead of going to the store with a big laundry list of ingredients since carting 6 bags of food down the driveway and up stairs makes me want to off myself I’ve been into using what I have on hand, and buying fresh ingredients for a recipe or two at a time. I’m also on a health kick lately and wanted to use up all the food I have to make room for a cleanse I’m starting next week, so I found some recipes to concoct delightful/semi-healthy winter treats.

The first thing I made was a Spiced Chai Concentrate, which was very simple and made the house smell amazing.

I’m obsessed with my orange tree outside, and wish so much that it would bloom all year round because we eat them daily and use them in cooking, every chance we get.

And yes, we still have our tree up. It’s our tradition (not laziness at all) to take it down by Superbowl weekend.

Yeah, I spilled.

But OMG this Chai is to die for, and I agree with the Pioneer Woman, it’s way better than the overly sweetened Starbucks Chai and definitely a lot cheaper. I’m actually thinking about it right now and want to make another glass. When I’m on my cleanse I’ll use soy milk and leave out the brown sugar and use agave nectar instead.

The other recipe I made today was healthy granola, to have on hand for a quick, after workout snack or if I have a sudden sweet tooth.

P.S. I recently read the book “Naturally Thin” by Bethenny Frankel, which is where a lot of these ideas came from (cooking with what you have, doing a cleanse, and getting my health in order, in general). I highly recommend it to anyone who has issues with health and eating and working out, it’s really obvious stuff that we all know but something about it really puts it in perspective. I highly recommend it!

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