So this month, I set out with two goals: to blog at least once a week and to take pictures of what we ate for dinner (with a description) every night for a month. The first is fairly self-explanatory; you can see what I wrote about the purpose of the second goal below:
Goal: take a picture of dinner with description every night for a month.
Three purposes for this:
[a]. Not only posting pictures of my culinary successes, but also failures, and nights of take-out. Getting out of the mentality of a polished-and-perfect social media image (not quite ready to do a selfie a day or a picture of my house a day, so food-selfies it is).
[b] Fostering creativity in the kitchen and forcing me to think creatively and if you do it with me, sharing creativity.
[c] a visual representation of gratitude and thanksgiving for the abundance that we do have, even if it's take-out or hot dogs. A reminder that we have the privilege of eating delicious, abundant, diverse food EVERY day, not just on the creative ones. No shaming and no competition intended, just gratitude and creativity.
You can see the album here. I used the hashtag #eatingthankful and #october_eats to remind me of the purpose of the project.
So here we are, on the 31st of October - and surprise of all surprises, I have been fairly consistent in both goals. And it's been a lot of fun! I've appreciated the accountability of having a goal, and will probably continue, at least with the blogging goal. But I wanted to comment briefly on the dinner pictures goal, because I've noticed a few things, and learned a few things in the process!
With no further ado, lessons learned:
2) We eat in a fairly dark room (living room most nights, lights dimmed so baby can sleep in the next room over). This makes for not great photo quality (sorry folks!), but does make for easy atmosphere, if we want to make it happen! Which we don't do most nights, but probably should!
3) The meals that I was most organically thankful for were the ones that were quick and easy - leftovers, take-out, pizza crust that I could throw toppings on, something I could throw together easily after putting two kids to bed. This was surprising to me - but makes me want to respond out of that gratitude more. Rather than feeling guilty over ordering out, or feeling like I *should* cook something - I want to continue to focus on the fact that those are thankful meals. And let the rest fall to the side..
4) The project made me aware of food - but not in a "should I or shouldn't I be eating this" type of way, or even in a "let's see how pretty I can make it" kind of way. Rather, it made me notice what was already on the table before me, and look for the beauty in that. That's something I want to hold on, and continue even though today is the last day that I will take a picture of it.
5) Finally, there were several meals in that mix that were burned, were not ideally flavored, were too salty, or were "flops" by my own and others standards. But the reality is - on the plate, they looked fine. They weren't "ideal" but they were nutritious. They were filling. They fed my family. And they were a learning experience for me. Since I have no ambitions of owning a restaurant or being a professional chef, perhaps rather than bemoaning the "flop," perhaps in the future it is a wiser and more enriching response for me to respond with gratitude rather than condemnation for what I put on the table. #eatingthankful, if you will.
So, until next time, with or without pictures, we will continue to endeavor to be #eatingthankful with every meal, not just the pretty ones, that we find on the table before us. This has been a good impetus for gratitude for me, and I highly recommend it!
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