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This morning I caught myself idea shopping on Pinterest. I’ll be honest, some weeks I’m totally lacking ideas when it comes time to make our family’s menu and grocery list. I get stuck in a rut with the same once-good, now-a-bit-too-often-sad recipes. Have you been there too?
As I printed off my fresh ideas this morning, I was struck by how much life is just like a new recipe.
Simple can be better – I’m a fan of the 5 ingredients or less recipes or the recipes made with ingredients I can pronounce and are all in my pantry. When life gets hectic, sometimes we need to focus on the basics, on the simple things. We need to adjust how we look at the things we already have before adding new things to the mix.
Good can take you out of your comfort zone – I didn’t grow up eating cilantro, black beans, sweat potatoes or using spices like cumin. But, because I tried new recipes, some that took me way out of my culinary comfort zone, I found new things that I liked. Life can be the same. It may take you stretching out of your comfort zone to find something new you truly enjoy.
Yours might be nothing like the next persons – Sure it may have been easy for the person who posted those adorable panda cupcakes to make them so charming. Yours may look more like a Pinterest-fail post. In life, you may find yourself seeing how things have turned out for your friends or coworkers and wonder why their lives look so neat and tidy but yours doesn’t. It’s ok. Sometimes we’re the ones with the cute cupcake and sometimes we’re not. It really does balance out in the end. Maybe panda cupcakes aren’t your thing. Try again, or try something different.
Things might not be as good as they seem – Have you ever notice how wonderfully delicious some recipes look… and then you try them? They may be nowhere near as spectacular as the image showed. Life can be just the same – just take a quick look on Facebook. The posts and images there tend to be the fun, happy moments, the highlights of our day or week. But, if we’re honest with ourselves, we have a whole lot of challenges in life that just aren’t reflected in those images. We need to keep it in perspective – we can appreciate the good and not linger on the things that don’t turn out the way we’d like.
Your ingredients matter – What you put into a recipe impacts what you get out. What you put into life, truly impacts what you get out. If something doesn’t work out, you make adjustments and keep going. If life isn’t ‘turning out’ the way you want, take a look at what consumes your time, what goes in to your daily life? What needs to change so that you like what you “make” at the end of the day?
I’m all for trying new recipes. It gets me out of the culinary funk that I can fall into. It wasn’t until this week pouring over recipes on Pinterest that the value of those new recipes hit home. As I try the recipes I’ve found this week, I’m refreshing my outlook on life. I’m not looking for it to be perfect, to stay in my comfort zone, or to like things exactly how they came out. But, I will look for the lessons, learn from what doesn’t work out, and I’ll focus on the basic, best ingredients.
If you’re looking for new recipes whether it’s for the kitchen or on being encouraged, why not sign up to get my blog regularly or check out my Pinterest. I’d love to have you join me there too.
I welcome your thoughts and comments. Join the conversation! What do you think about new recipes? Has my post made you ponder life a bit too? Let me know!
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