This last week zoomed by for me. I had a few freelance projects that took up a lot of time, but I did find moments to take a few noteworthy photos that I shared on instagram.
Surprisingly, I seem to have found plenty of time to do some meaningful cooking this week. Since September I’ve been following a “Paleo” style diet, which essentially means that I don’t eat grains (especially wheat) or refined sugars (and I limit natural sugars for the most part too). I do eat some dairy, which is a Paleo-purist no-no, but I don’t have a bad reaction to it, so I do eat some cheese, and cream, and butter.
Does that sound awful to you? Well, truthfully, before I started I thought it would be SO HARD, but I gave it a shot for a month, and then I was hooked. Mostly I was surprised by how easy it is to maintain once you get going with it, and I have a ton of fun trying out new recipes.
This week, I made kale chips, fish salad “tacos”, and BROWNIES! Yes, brownies. Seriously. They are good.
I made these kale chips and ate them all within 24 hours. Ok, maybe it was more like 12 hours.
I had some leftover roasted tile fish, so I decided to make a fish salad. I stuffed it into some crisp romaine leaves for some paleo “tacos” with beet and carrot salad on the side.
Brownies! I made these as a trial run. My mom’s birthday is on Thursday, and she’s eating Paleo style too, so I thought it would be fun to have a wheat-free birthday treat. These are made with almond meal and sweetened with dates! If you’d like to try to make a batch for yourself, see the recipe on my friend Val’s blog, Oh Hopscotch!
Besides eating and working, I also found the time to be creative. I had a good time messing up my clean studio, doodling recklessly in my big sketchbook, and working on the pages of a collaborative sketchbook I’m a part of.
the bottom two images are a little sneak preview of the pages in the collaborative sketchbook, “portrait : landscape” that I’m a part of.
I got a fun surprise in the mail this week too. My first mailart from Kati Driscoll, a talented artist from Delaware.
I was so excited to open the big envelope this present came in, and was so happy to see the bright red bow around a big box that was just for me! I knew I was going to get spoiled, so I decided to take some photos of the box. and then Otto with the box. and then of all the envelopes that were in the box. i didn’t pause to take photos of the actual stuff that was in the envelopes, so I snapped a shot of the aftermath.
Lastly, I took a couple of photos of some quiet moments. One with Otto basking in the sun, and another while waiting at a stop light on a very blustery day.
There were several days where I didn’t have a chance to take any photos at all, but I captured some happy, inspiring moments. I’m looking forward to see what this week has to offer!