Hungry for A Simple Life
The little things
I met this Danish woman last year who I’d asked for recommendations of the best places to try and things to experience while I spent my time in Copenhagen.
As to she replied: “Hm…I don’t know. I don’t really do much, I mainly stick to the same places and explore mostly when I’m traveling elsewhere. It’s strange to me how we often don’t see things as openly in the places we live as we do when we wander.”
This reminded me of something I’d learned in a psychology course:
I learned that adults tend to turn from “re-runs” with television shows because they know what to expect.
Whereas children mostly adhere to them because they see it as an opportunity to find something new they’d not noticed before.
In short, for the adult, repetition signifies a perishing of curiosity.
Since I’ve quit my job and decided on a more grounded summer, I’ve had an abundance of time on my hands.
Insanity was sure to follow, so, I’ve been seeking to add more into my life that grounds me, keeps me intrigued, and of things that help maintain passion in various areas of my life:
Things I’ve Been Loving Recently (and highly recommend)
What I find that grounds me the most is attuning to my senses; my personal favorite: taste!
I’ve been cooking a lot more recently (thanks to Pinterest) that I often feel as if I have my own restaurant or host a cooking show.
Slowly, I’m beginning to fall in love with ingredients. Which sounds anticlimactic, but just last year, I’d merely be living off of dinosaur chicken nuggets and macaroni for 20+ years of my life (which only contained salt).
Cauliflower is a staple food that I must always have on hand — it’s such a versatile food and healthy alternative that I cannot live without!
Cauliflower makes my kitchen go around.
I’ve been loving cauliflower wings (some would say too much) ever since learning how to make them crispy.
I also tried a cauliflower risotto which I dream of daily.
I’ve always wanted to try risotto ever since hearing of its existence on The Fault in Our Stars and let me tell you…love at first bite doesn’t even begin to describe how amazing it is!
As I mentioned, a majority of my life with food merely contained salt. For one, I preferred bland taste, and two, I can’t stomach a majority of spices.
Herbs, however, have opened a whole new world for me. Having a garden of countless rows of herbs lives within my deepest daydreams!
I’m just starting to ease into parsley, but [one of] the herb[s] that has my entire heart is rosemary.
I first tried rosemary sprinkled on the edge of a ham from Trader Joe’s, which was unfortunately distasteful (it tasted like a sausage flavored mint), but the rosemary shown eager for another chance.
I recently bought rosemary crackers (also Trader Joe’s) which have truly put rosemary back on my radar. I don’t even know how to describe rosemary, but it tastes akin to how enlightenment feels.
This week I have homemade cauliflower gnocchi with a white rosemary cream sauce on my dinner list…I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
I also plan to make (and finally try) ratatouille with a homemade rosemary tomato sauce and watch Ratatouille while losing myself in rosemary heaven.
Dinner party and movie night anyone?
Before I continue on, I want to share that I have, thankfully, and finally, found a love for pepper to pair with my salt.
Again, I say…some would say almost too much.
I love to drown my eggs in pepper!
Another herb I’ve realized that I’ve been neglecting is mint.
I had a dragon fruit mojito mocktail from a nearby juice bar recently and the mint just completely pulled everything together…along with the lime!
Which brought me to my newest love: mocktails.
I’ve never had the greatest relationship with alcohol (I more so allowed it to devour me from the inside out for years), so finding an alternative was promising.
I’ve also worked at various coffee shops throughout my life, so concocting drinks is in my blood and gives me an astounding amount of joy.
Along with that, who knew that sparkling water was so life changing?
Picture this: a perfectly warm June afternoon by the pool with a cherry-lime sparkling water, a few mint leaves (or a lot), maybe some blueberries or cherries weaving through the ice, and a lime for garnish as the sun kisses your lively skin.
Mocktails are taking over my life and I’m okay with it.
Mint is also perfectly paired with cucumber water as well — sparkling or not!
Speaking of beverages, this may not come off as a surprise, but I cannot recommend Emma Chamberlain’s coffee enough!
It has such a bold, smooth, and unique flavor to coffee that I can’t find anywhere else. A few selections of bags are sold at Sprouts, but my favorite (the otter cake batter blend) is only online, but worth the wait!
I love to pair it with Trader Joe’s lavender-blueberry almond milk or Sprouts’ cookie butter creamer.
Another item from Trader Joe’s that pairs well with coffee that I’m learning to love is their sfogliatella (I Googled how to pronounce this, and I still haven’t a clue…my mouth doesn’t move that way!), also known as a lobster tail pastry.
It’s an Italian pastry, shaped as a clam shell.
The one’s that Trader Joe’s sells has a candied orange filling, which I wasn’t too fond of, but the texture of the outer layer is what stole my heart.
I have a weird preference for how something feels when I bite it…Embarrassingly enough, I used to chew on my blankets as a kid (so much so that there’d be holes in them), which is where I believe my satisfaction of biting into things comes from.
A sfogliatella has almost a croissant outer layer that is layered in the way you’d expect a clam shell to be, ridges and all, which felt amazing between my teeth.
The “croissant” part tasted akin to a buttered croissant, though more in a subtle sense, but I truly have been taken by the texture of the pastry in lieu of its taste.
If, however, it was filled with an almond cream, this pastry would probably be the only thing I’d live off of!
Perhaps a baking day is needed…
To keep myself from losing my mind in the habitual completely, I’ve also had to seek things that help me stay intrigued and captivated while on my toes for something grand that could come from the ordinary.
With this, I’ve been loving podcasts (mainly Emma Chamberlain’s) to keep my mind occupied with something that didn’t require me to glare at a screen.
It’s nice too because I could listen to a podcast while doing something else (cooking, laundry, going on a walk, etc.) that kept my attention present.
Don’t get me wrong, I love, love, love music and like to listen to it while doing every task as well, but I find that when I listen to music, I more so ruminate, which can oft impact my mood.
While listening to a podcast, I am allowed to hand over my thinking and find out what’s in another’s mind, which is definitely more than necessary!
Another thing I’ve been doing, which has helped me in various ways, is having a Pinterest day.
A Pinterest day is where I go through my never-ending boards/pins and pick something from a few to try/do.
For example: I’d pick a hairstyle I’ve been wanting to try, put together an outfit idea I had saved, and make a meal I’ve had saved for way too long.
Not only have I been (slowly) shrinking my boards and their pins, but I also feel like myself — I’m doing things that align with what makes me happy and feel free, how could I not feel at home?
Since I have an abundance of time on my hands, I’ve also been trying to use the void as a means to catch up on things I’ve always wanted to do but hadn’t.
A couple years back, Coach released a spring handbag that made me feel as if I couldn’t live without…I think then the bag was over $100, so I decided it was a must that I carry on and only dream of this bag, sadly.
The price has gone down some by now, but still, $70 for a handbag is not really a fair trade in my eyes.
Instead, I used the bag as inspiration and (finally) embroidered my own canvas bag with a similar print. Though it took a week or so, I am beyond proud of my bag and love it even more than I ever could have, knowing that I saved about $65 and that I put love and care into making it!
Celebrating my wins, whether big or small, has also helped me in maintaining stamina and hunger.
On the opposing side, I also found that doing nothing helps in maintaining curiosity in day-to-day life.
Dolce far niente…the sweetness of doing nothing, the pleasure of idleness.
An Italian phenomenon that gives me a space to allow my thoughts to roam free as I watch (without judgement) and allow ideas, inspiration, and/or solutions to show themselves without force.
At face value, this may seem as a meditation practice, which, it could be depending on the way you perceive it, but it doesn’t have to be.
As many, I get intrusive thoughts throughout the day, my mind tends to wander and desire a moment for rumination, but instead of engaging with those thoughts in the moment, I allow myself to put them in a “holding space” in my brain until I have a moment to do nothing.
Only then do I allow my distant thoughts to roam freely.
This has helped me in not accepting a thought the moment it shows itself, making me feel more in control of selecting my thoughts and my emotions more deliberately.
For passion, I’ve been trying to see my already chosen ones in a new light.
For example: I love butterflies and am currently reading a book on various popular species throughout the southwest.
To add some pizzazz to this passion, I’ve also been searching for each butterfly’s symbolism.
It wasn’t for any particular reason at first, but once I started seeing these butterflies around, it’d be as a reminder.
Let’s say the Gulf Fritillary — symbolizes various things such as transformation/renewal, beauty in hardship, and grace within inner strength — graciously passes me by.
When I see this vibrantly tangerine butterfly, I am reminded that no chapter in our lives are permanent, that there is strength in weakness, and beauty in perseverance.
With this, I’ve come to love butterflies even more and am grateful for each of their presence at any given time.
The last thing I’ve been loving recently that has taken another of my passions to a greater level is the color red.
Fashion is a contrasted passion for me simply because I prefer comfort over extravagance, yet still wish to dress in a way that is unique to me.
For that reason, it’s a passion that I struggle to find balance with from time to time.
With the color red, I always admired it for its resemblance of mystery and elegance.
Though, I’d always refrain from wearing it because it washes me out completely; I had to admit, it was not my color.
Though, with attempting to add more pizzazz to my outfit choices, I was able to incorporate red in more subtle ways that wouldn’t take over my pigment in a dimming sense.
Red scrunchie, bralette, red detail on my socks, bags, paint on my toes, etc.
These small details helped me rekindle my love and friendship with the color red along with adding more to a simple outfit while maintaining its comfort.
I always admired travel for its chance to try, see, and experience new things.
Little did I know that I held this power of change in my own home.
We all do, we just have to be hungry enough to find it.
I know I am…maybe a rosemary pasta for lunch!
