A Soulful Twist » soul food blogger http://asoulfultwist.com Thu, 22 May 2014 16:49:13 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.1 Clean on the Inside Clean on the Outside! http://asoulfultwist.com/clean-on-the-inside-clean-on-the-outside/ http://asoulfultwist.com/clean-on-the-inside-clean-on-the-outside/#respond Sat, 29 Mar 2014 16:30:27 +0000 http://asoulfultwist.com/?p=3073  It’s Spring time and I’ve been busy cleaning! This season bring so much newness!  The sun shines, the temperature rises, flowers bloom, and I wake up with the sound of singing Blue Jays!

This year the weather hasn’t been exactly what I expected or wanted for the first days in Spring but the show must go on.

I wanted to give you a little insight into what else is being cleaned over here at Casa De Christina.

1. Cleaning house

I let some of my house work get behind, and now that spiders are coming out for the season I’m working on cleaning, behind under and on top of furniture, walls, and floors  making sure no dust is left behind. No dust, no webs, no spiders!

2.Cleaning out my closets 

I’m purging my tiny closet of old clothes, too small clothes, and things I will never wear again…ever. It’s getting ridiculous,  I have given away so much stuff,  jeans, favorite shoes, winter coats and the list goes on!  I hold on to things if I know I spent too much on them just so I won”t feel guilty.

That’s not working and my husband is annoyed now that things are spilling into his closet!  I had piles of clothes I was meaning to sale on EBAY( my side hustle years ago)  but never did. Someone is going to hit the jackpot at our local goodwill store, cause I donated EVERYTHING!

Honestly I have not been shopping for clothes in a good while, and it’s because I already had useless clothes hogging all the space. This will give me some space to reassess what I already have and what I really need. Also preventing wasteful spending! 

3. Cleaning out my budget

This one is pretty self explanatory. I’m being more cognizant of what and how I’m spending and stop spending on things I don’t need. 

4. Cleaning up my goals

Our family has long term goals but I need to set and follow through on our short term goals. We set a three year goal to sell our house and buy a new one two years ago, but that’s it. I wish we would of set more short term goals to keep us accountable for the things that are important for a successful sale and purchase to happen.  I need to set short term goals and hold myself accountable as I go along. This is important when it comes to blogging as well! It’s difficult with the little ones but I’ve made a commitment to set short term goals and follow through.  

5. Cleaning out my body

 I went to my Doctors Appointment this past week and have one more appointment coming up. I am having an unbearable time losing these last 15 pounds and I really cant figure out why. It’s not like me to have this much trouble dropping a few pounds. I had some blood work done and I’m praying it’s just my diet and the low intensity of my current workout regimen that’s causing the stall in weight loss.

I’ve already started adding a LOT of cardio! .

I found a Bikram Yoga studio that’s less than five miles from my home and I can’t wait to take my first class! I’ll be sharing my experience with that soon!

6. Cleaning out my mind

This just means I’m staying positive in my thoughts and controlling where my mind wonders more often. I’ll have so much going on in my mind that I have to backtrack several thoughts just to find out how I got there.

It never makes any since and most the times I forget. I’ve been doing small meditation sessions and controlling and/or stopping all the thinking and personal conversations going on in my brain.

Sometimes I wonder does my head size have anything to do with all the thinking, I mean seriously before I started meditating it wouldn’t stop! 

If you have a larger than average head as do I, please let me know if you too are plagued with endless thoughts as well?

7. Cleaning out my soul.

Prayer still works! Hallelujah I’m focusing on all my blessings and my relationship with the Lord. I started Lent a few weeks ago and it’ll be a wrap this week coming up! I’m excited to celebrate his Resurrection, and I’m pastel and church lady hat ready! 

I’m in constant meditation and initiating positive thinking throughout the day! I’m excited to start this new yoga class, not just for fitness but also for the way it connects mind, body and relaxation! 

8. Cleaning up my relationships

Relationship with friends and (extended) family has taken a back burner in my life.  I just want everyone to stay connected and enjoy each other. Sometimes it doesn’t work like that. Relationships take work and time and overall I’ve been neglecting my relationships with everyone outside of our home. It is taking a toll on me and my productivity as well. I need to spend more time with my friends and other relatives.

I blame the technology! It can be a great tool to stay connected to far away loved ones but for me anyways I am neglecting all of the people right here in my own community and environment! It’ easy getting updates and checking on family and friends by simply logging onto Facebook, but what about spending time together….maybe even in the same ROOM?! Wouldn’t that be something? I know I’m missing out on a lot by staying so intertwined into my own little world that I forget about old friends and miss opportunities to make new ones. 

I plan on getting together with some old friends and being more active with local social groups I’ve joined but haven’t followed through with.  

9. Cleaning out my schedule

I’m completely cleaning out my schedule of space being filled with worthless activities that deserve no attention. For example, spending precious time getting caught up in NAY- NAY and the rest of the Drama on RHOA is not productive. It fills my mind with a bunch of BS that I can’t use and won’t help me reach my goals. Reality T.V is my most guilty pleasure I have developed when I started staying at home with the kids full-time. I record the episodes and watch it late at night when the rest of the family is sleep, which sounds harmless enough but in reality I could be doing something more productive. Even if it’s just reading a good book, I want to feed my brain with good and positive things instead of polluting it with the mundane! 

It’s about time I find something more productive to do with this time! 

10. Lastly I’m looking for someone to clean out my blog

I want a clean and easy to navigate site. I love the simplicity of what I have going on right now, but it’s not loading correctly across different internet engines, my pictures aren’t doing what I want, and it moves slow as snails.  I need to find someone to help get this all together.  My family and friends always call me for recipes they may have seen on my blog and I’m like,” just go to the blog”.

Well easier said than done. I’ve noticed it’s not only difficult to navigate it’s really boring and blah! If you have any suggestions for a good wed designer/developer that won’t take my arm and leg please shout them out! 

Can’t wait to get this whole cleaning party started!

Please follow me on Instagram and Twitter! I want to connect with every single one of my readers so if you find me I’ll  follow back! 

Next week I’ll be back posting some more mouth salivating recipes!  

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Good Food | BAD Food Pictures http://asoulfultwist.com/good-food-bad-food-pictures/ http://asoulfultwist.com/good-food-bad-food-pictures/#comments Thu, 23 Jan 2014 15:06:21 +0000 http://asoulfultwist.com/?p=2627 This post is about all the times I have an amazing recipe but no matter how many times I prepare it, or the amount of pictures I  take it just looks nasty on camera?! 

Well it seems I’m having a lot of that lately, I feel like I need to brush up on my camera knowledge or maybe read a few photography books, because these pictures lately have been looking less than appetizing.

Now don’t get me wrong the food tastes awesome, and the recipes have been Flawless, it’s the pictures that don’t come out so flawless.   

My creativity for backgrounds, props, and lighting are just way down.

My camera came with a bunch of videos and manuals, and when I first got it I went through and watched most of the videos, I learned a lot….but now it seems I’ve forgotten a lot.

Now let’s talk about these pics of my (not so tasty looking)tasty dishes.

Let’s start with this classic Steak and Cheese on a Hoagie, I mean this is one of my husbands favorite meals…but who would believe me after looking at this shot…

No Bueno

The color is wrong the plate is wrong, the meat looks dry and where’s the cheese?

Let’s just move on…

 

This plate of Lo-Mein Noodles was delicious and topped with sweet honey glazed marinated flank steak strips…

sounds better than it looks…

I tried to dress it up and combat some of the ugliness with some sesame seeds, but what a waste.

 

 

 Yep here it is again folks…that sorry looking steak and cheese,

I thought “maybe a close up would capture the deliciousness that is this sandwich” 

Thought wrong…

Should of just kept it moving.

 

 

Now check out these pork tacos, with spinach, tomatoes, and cumin beans.

It was delicious but capturing all that flavor was a task to big for an amateur food photographer such as me.

It sort of reminds me of…trash… just trash

Look at this oldie but goody with  a cheesy twist, I made a delicious cheddar country gravy, over the classic chicken fried steak. 

It’s a shame such a delicious dish ends up looking like a deformed chicken nugget covered in DNA, then topped with a tree branch!

…and because I’m no quitter I tried to do that text over picture thing, to cover up the unsavory sight.

look I put the whole dang recipe on the Picture!

FAIL

…you can just smell the DESPERATION.

And last but not least this lovely plate-bowl, or whatever it is…

filled with  classic fried green tomatoes, topped with a honey Dijon sauce served next to some

wilted parsley…

and they just fall apart! :/ What a sad sight.

 Yeah so this has been a tough couple of weeks I’ve been trying to keep up with my fitness regimen while preparing meals for my family and for this blog, but as I write this out at 11:45 pm, and all the kids are asleep hubby in bed, and me here typing in my zone it is all worth it!

Blogging has brought me tons of joy, and has been an excellent outlet for me to express myself without needing any approval, I can really do whatever I want on here.

Thank you for reading and commenting and sharing this experience with me.

Please let me know of any good books, website, and other photography resources that may be helpful.

 What do you do when you get in a rut, or start feeling less than inspired.

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