Inspiration is an interesting concept. For me, it feels like a high-speed train when it comes on. It is sudden, smooth, and the ideas just flow freely and continuously until a small stone interferes with the tracks and derails the whole thing. In my case, the stone is a distraction from the void. The void is my brain at its most open state. I read and browse online and in magazine for ideas that will inspire and speak to me: recipes and processes, interior design and decorating, fashion, makeup, stories. It's like taking mental notes and pictures, saving them to my brain for later use and they are filed away, mentally, as well as physically with post-its on in my favorite list on the computer. This is the background work. The actual exercising before seeing results. The research part of where inspiration can pull its ideas from. The actual inspiration portion is unplanned and timeless. I will have no idea how long it will last, because that stone could come from anywhere.
I definitely know myself and the ideal circumstances that must be met for inspiration to begin. First, I need my brain to stop thinking. I know that doesn't make sense, but it needs to be clear of all basic thoughts, concerns, worries, and general routine thinking. This isn't something that I can control by just thinking it either, because then, your concentration is focused on purging the brain, therein creating a new thought process in itself that acts as the stone.
A clear mind happens in generally 3 spaces: while driving, while running or working out, and before I fall asleep. For these reasons, I keep a pad of paper and pen with me and beside my bed at all times. Inspiration is a terrible thing to miss. When I am driving, my mind is subconsciously solving problems and planning its next move. These thoughts take little effort but enough to clear my mind of other things. During a run, I typically watch something on the tv at the gym, but my mind is again, partially aware that it must focus on my breathing, on my stride, on speed. The repetition calms the mind and the rush of endorphins I get when I break past the plateau and hit the "runner's high" is like a drug for the mind, LSD for the artist.
Before bed, the day is being put to rest. It is quiet, dark, rhythmic breathing beside me, white noise of the fans. My breathing slows, my body relaxes, and suddenly, the train picks up speed and I begin to write everything down.
I believe that all creative minds and artists have these moments. It's where their best ideas comes from and when people ask how they came up with those ideas, they cannot really explain it because the state of mind was hazy and open. The void needed the balance of brilliance, and so the ideas came.
Where am I going with this, you are likely asking yourself. Get to the food part! Well, here is where the cooking part comes in. How often do you ask yourself "what am I going to cook for dinner tonight?" or perhaps you are one of those very organized people that plans their week of meals and shops for those ingredients. I am a mix of in between.
Yesterday, while driving and while at the gym, I was inspired. I sat down with my note pad twice, and jotted down all of the ideas for meals that had come pouring in before I forgot them all. I adjusted my grocery list to suit these new themes and today, I am ready to buy what I need for the week. Now, the meals will still depend on my mood, but I had enough ideas that I can mix and match to suit them. I see this as problem solving (which I adore. It sooths me to figure out how to make a process run more smoothly, more efficiently, work better). Not only should the food taste good, look good, contain my 4 requirements (protein, carb, and 2 veggies, each being a different colour), but it should use up some leftover or item presently in the fridge or pantry as that falls into the budgetary constraints of the parameters as well (my goal is spending $120 or less on groceries in a 2 week period).
So, looking over my many pieces of paper, scrawled with numbered points, jotted down so quickly that the writing looks rather messy, I see that I have ended up with about 7 ideas. It's important to note that I only write down ideas on paper, with a pen. Again, I do consider myself an artist. I need that tactile quality of feeling the paper in my hand, holding a pen and watching the ink glide out. The same as I do when I am painting a canvas, or working with my hands and ingredients in the kitchen. Tactile is so important to the creating process.
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| Pages of notes: the beginning of meal planning |
My basic thoughts are now down on paper so I can relax and know that if the stone hits, I have already captured the image. This is the purge state. Getting as much down onto paper as possible, as quickly as possible, before the ideas are lost. The second part of the process involves organizing those thoughts into a more usable form. Here is where our whiteboard comes in. I bought a whiteboard to help us stay organized throughout the week. I started using it to also write down what we were having for dinner what night so that I could glance at it and if I had spare time and energy, could prep some of that meal ahead of time (chop and Tupperware up the veggies, or something).
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| Our whiteboard: Meals |
So, here is what I have come up with:
1) Pea soup with a grilled cheese, onion, hot pepper and hummus sandwiches (tuna could be added for protein) - keep in mind, almost everything I do here is from scratch so the pea soup would be homemade and the hummus would be as well.
2) Sweet potato oven fries, with chili (might use Yves ground round, with taco seasoning and maple beans to go with the sweetness of the potato). Topped with chopped peppers, black olives, a bit of light cheese, in small cast iron pans and broiled in the oven. Top with sour cream and green onion.
3) Veggie "lasagna". No noodles. Replace them with thin strips of baked eggplant and zucchini. Filling of ground round, fat free cottage cheese, light ricotta, pasta sauce (debating about making my own for it using canned tomatoes, roasted in the oven with garlic, fresh basil, then blended). Layered and baked.
4) Linda's Roast. My late aunt's recipe for pot roast using a can of golden mushroom soup, french onion soup mix, and a can of club soda. I'd do a pot roast using fresh mushrooms and adding carrots later to the cooking. Side of peas and Yorkshire Pudding.
5)Side dish (the main will come together based on this): coconut rice. I have made this before but instead of coconut milk to cook it in and adding sugar, I want to try it with leftover vanilla almond milk and adding some coconut extract instead.
6) Snack idea: I have never made samosas before but am craving them. Will stuff with peas, potato and possibly ground round if enough is left over. I need to find a good crust/dough recipe for them and also a chutney recipe for dipping them in. I have 2 peaches that need to be used up...
7) Dessert idea: a good friend of ours recently started seeing a girl whose a vegan, so in an effort to not have him freak out over the possibility of never cooking bacon for her, I began searching through my saved vegan cooking blogs for him. I stumbled across a recipe for Vegan Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream and it has been on my mind for over a week now. Our ice cream maker from my bridal shower is still waiting to be used (impatiently by me, I must add), so this might be a good first trial with it.
8) Snack/breakfast: orange sour cream and chocolate chip muffins. All of the ingredients I need are in the fridge and pantry as we speak.
I foresee making the pea soup and the muffins today. Grocery shopping will either take place this afternoon (if C loses the desire to dig more in the basement) or tomorrow if we work at breaking up concrete. The rest of the recipes will come as I get the few missing ingredients that I need.
My advice for the day? Buy a small notepad that you can carry in your car, or your purse or keep next to your bed and next time you think of something that seems brilliant, jot it down.
