February 9, 2017

Mushroom Ramen

Stop the presses!

My child eats noodles now.

He eats baked spaghetti with meat sauce and ramen noodles now so that means I have two options added to my weeknight meal lineup. Color me EXCITED.

He’s still quite particular about the noodle I use and not just any broth will do. The thing is, the flavor packet you get in his favorite ramen is filled with an ungodly amount of salt and there are chemicals in there I can’t pronounce. When I partnered up with Imagine Soups last year, I learned that they make their own organic ramen broth! It’s been a great alternative to the MSG filled flavor packets and he enjoys it, so we are all good.

We’re still working on adding toppings to his bowls of ramen, but for now, we celebrate his affinity for noodles.

Us adults are fans of toppings as you can see:

With this Mushroom Ramen, my goal was to create something hearty and healthy. Ramen is a great way to use up leftover vegetables in the fridge. I sauteed mushrooms in garlic and added them to my ramen with handfuls of spinach, some broccoli, and an egg. To make it spicy, I add some sriracha and because I believe a good ramen has to have an acid component, I added kimchi. It gives it nice heat as well. I love how something simple can be elevated with a few ingredients! CONTINUE READING

around the home, Inspiration

February 7, 2017

Ladies Craft Night: Valentine’s Day

In 2016, I put together a ladies craft night with coloring books. It was FUUUUUN and I was hooked on the magic we made.

I’m hoping that 2017 brings more and more ladies craft nights!

How do you plan a get-together??? You start with a TO DO LIST:

ART + FOOD + SPIRITS + LADIES= Ladies Craft Night

Valentine’s Day edition!

THE MENU:

Broccolini Panini
Arugula Salad with Apples & Avocado
Herbed Goat Cheese + Crostini
Cheese + Crackers/ Mixed Nuts
Gin + Tonics / Gin + Ginger Beer (and lots of lime!) (also bourbon)
heart shaped cookies & crackers
Vanilla Cake with whipped cream + fresh raspberries

GUESTS:

Caley (childhood bestie!)
Helen Jane
Jenifer
Courtney
Tracy (that’s me!)

CRAFTS:

Valentine’s cards
poems
watercolors
paper fun!

my everyday life, Photography

February 5, 2017

My Everyday Life: Week 5

Here’s what the past week looked like on My Everyday Life- Week 5

Einstein has been creeping in my life lately. I mean….I was him for Halloween and I keep seeing him. What does that mean?

Cooper’s current color scheme.

I’ve always got the greens.

Primary colors at grocery stores.

Finding light at Home Depot….of all places.

Moody.

Under the table & dreaming.

His current after school snack request:

Good morning.

Lovebirds.

Purple.

The colors that I’m into:

February 3, 2017

I love lists

Welcome to I love Lists! Let’s see what’s up with the internet this week:

What a beautiful kitchen.
I found my childhood radio on Etsy. The memories!
If you need to focus. If you need light.
Words to ban in your vocabulary.
These photos caught my eye.
1938
A pin for me.
One of my favorite movies.
This planner looks like a lot of fun.
This dress with these shoes and this sweater.
Illustrations that capture what anxiety + depression feel like.
I really miss shooting film.
Loved looking through Melissa’s Minimalist Pantry.
This is old….but I really enjoyed it. (warning- language)
This is for my friend Andrea. Can you imagine?!! Also, this!
Some of these made me lol.
Hoots.
Whoooooaaa. I want to eat these and this sushi burrito too!
Beyonce is pregnant with twins. More about the artist behind the photos.
If you need an escape, here are the best beaches in the world.

Thanks for reading Shutterbean! If you’d like to check out more of my everyday life, follow me on Instagram and be sure keep in touch via Facebook, Twitter, Bloglovin, Pinterest, or subscribe via email to get new posts delivered to your inbox.

recipes

February 2, 2017

Herbed Goat Cheese

I’m having a few friends over this weekend to make Valentine’s cards!

There will be plenty of wine, maybe some calzone and definitely this Herbed Goat Cheese because no party would be a party without a fancy cheese & bread situation.

I spotted this recipe in Ina Garten’s new cookbook- Cooking for Jeffery and immediately thought of my mom.

My mom loves Ina and she also has a very similar appetizer in her own repertoire.

She serves her Herbed Goat Cheese with a crostini and we all plooooooow through it.

Though, I think my mom’s version might be heated and there’s garlic in it? I’m not sure.

The goat cheese is soft. The herbs are fresh. The smashed peppercorn is my favorite part. Wait. It’s probably the bread and how it gets a little oily. Sigh….

This weekend:

Art will be had. We’ll laugh. We’ll have deep conversations and make some magic.

I’ve been looking forward to it alllllllll week.

Inspiration

January 31, 2017

Currently January 2017

Currently: January 2017

Last day of January! Wow. That went by fast…. I think? I wonder how many of you are on Whole 30 and if this is your last day?? How did it go? Tell meeeeeee. Also, what are you going to eat first??! I think I ate toast.

This month I was pretty anti-social because I was spending most of my time getting rid of stuff we don’t need anymore. All of my free time has been dedicated to that. (HOLY COW IT’S SO MUCH WORK and I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO GO!) I’ve been busy thinking about what it means to live a minimal life.

This month I had to cut down my time online because I found myself having random panic attacks while checking Facebook throughout the day. This post really helped. Thank you, Tsh.

This month I pitched a home design company I admire to see if they would want to work together on a few finishing touches to our bedroom.

I got DENIED.

Instead of beating myself up, it just made me realize that I would have never known if I didn’t ask.

There’s the old saying

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Get.”

but

I asked and I didn’t get.

How do I stop myself from going down a rabbit hole of AHHHHHHHH?!!!!!???

I broke it down in my head:

Don’t stop asking, because one day you’ll learn that rejection made you stronger and it was all worth the effort. When someone sees your true value, you’ll know that what you’ve been working towards has been well worth it.

As a parent, I’m seeing that I have to reinforce this lesson with Cooper often. He gets frustrated that he isn’t a natural at something. He’s gotta practice! He’s gotta put effort in because the process gets easier over time. Sometimes the process makes you realize that you wanted something completely different altogether!

It’s funny how we can have parallel experiences at completely different stages of our lives.

Inspired by:

Art! Cooper and I have been finding happiness in melting crayons right now. If you’re following my Instagram stories, you’ve already seen the melting extravaganza. I bought a hot tray (for $4.50!) from a thrift shop in December and decided to put it to good use last week. You can find one on eBay if you wanna get an older/cheaper model.

Here’s what I do:

I put down a piece of paper. We melt crayons using the heat tray and then we make prints by dipping paper into the melted wax. What I love about it most is that we create really cool color combinations together. (see above!) It’s something I did when I was in Girl Scouts many many years ago.

I am currently looking into seeing what I can do with some of my spare time. I would like to put it to good use by volunteering. Anyone know of some good organizations in the Bay Area that might be a good fit? Food? Art? Kids? Gardening? Let me know!

Watching:

We had an unexpected This is Us binge this month. Silly me didn’t pay attention and thought that there were more episodes and I was so sad when we ran out! I can see why so many of you suggested it as a replacement to Parenthood. IT IS SO GOOD! My brother and I are trying to get my parents to watch it, but my dad is knee-deep in Warriors games right now so, hopefully, they’ll get into it soon. I can’t wait to talk about it with my Mom.

Other things we saw:

Captain Fantastic (best movie I’ve seen in a long while!). Incredible, really.

La La Land– Loved the colors. The set design was remarkable. Emma Stone impressed me with her singing! I have to say that I was distracted by Ryan Gosling’s new teeth (I notice everything) for the first half of the movie and it kinda made me sad. I thought he was fiiiiiiiiine just the way he was. Teeth add character to a person’s face. When everyone’s teeth look the same it freaks me out. Just start watching older movies and you’ll see how different people looked.

The Eighties Miniseries on Netflix. LOVED THIS. A lot of it brought me back to my childhood. It was also really interesting to see how things unfolded from an adult perspective.

The Battered Bastards of Baseball– what a cool story! Casey picked this one out and I was surprised how much I liked it.

Reading:

I have been reading Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life + listening to their podcast (they also read from the book in some of the episodes). I’ve been flipping through the book Everyday Matters for the past week or so. Finding a little inspiration to keep trying, no matter what life throws at me. I highly recommend if you’re interested in drawing.

Thinking about:

What really bring value into my life? It’s a result from the Minimalist book. Taking away all of this stuff made me realize how much stuff I’ve been holding onto….mostly because I didn’t have the brain space to deal with it. But in not dealing with it, I always got a nagging voice saying:

LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVENT DONE YET.

And then I’d go into a headspace of being a failure at doing something I keep putting off.

When you finally getting around to doing it, YOU DON’T HAVE THAT NAGGING VOICE ANYMORE.

And when you live a life without that nagging voice, you’re a lot happier because you can see…

All you’ve accomplished.

I’m also trying to create a master list of what we use/need each month so I can plan shopping trips better and avoid over-spending because I don’t have a solid plan. Wish me luck.

Listening to:

Mirah– I’m going through a phase right now where all I want to do is listen to happier music from my 20s. Mirah has always been one of my favorites.

Leon Bridges– I first heard his song “River” during a yoga class last month. I’ve been hooked. He is so soulful. I’ve been using him as an example for Cooper to see that people can express their feelings through song.

The Minimalist Podcast (check out more of my current favorite podcasts)

Dream Life:

Right now I am not remembering what I am dreaming at night….but then during the day I get these little blasts of a memory and I have to really think if it was something that happened or something I dreamt. In other words, my life feels like Deja Vu most of the time.

Eating:

Hippy Banana Bread and Lemon Ginger Elixir.

(I don’t know why I didn’t put the Lemon Ginger in the Drinking section, oof).

I now have the hippy banana bread recipe memorized by heart. There was one loaf where I added an extra half cup of flour and it resulted in a dry bread. This last batch, I made gluten free with Cup4Cup and it worked PERFECTLY. Tastes just like the gluten-full version.