Fill up on this week’s Word Fuel.
From Healthy Eats, Sweets & Treats:
A Fake Steak Sammie recipe: gorge yourself on this decadent, saucy steak sandwich. It’s gluten-free, dairy-free, and guilt-free. 😉
Pamper your skin with the spa day recipes under Do.It.Your.Self-Care.
From The Book Nook: read up on Rupi Kaur’s new novel: Homebody.
And in The Writing Corner: learn how to get back into your writing groove when you’ve fallen off after a bad week.
Sometimes it’s nice to revel a little, and it doesn’t mean you need to throw healthy eating out the window, either. That’s why I came up with this recipe! A sandwich that packs in flavor without the added fat by trading red meat for mushrooms and the traditional fried potato chips for baked ones.
Try it! You won’t believe the “meat” isn’t steak!
You Will Need:
One large freezer bag
One 334g pkg portobellini mushrooms
1/4 cup, filled halfway with Bovril and the other half Worcestershire sauce
1/4, topped up halfway with HP sauce and the other half filled with sweet BBQ sauce (I like Diana’s maple BBQ)
2 Tbsp steak spice
Sandwich bread (I like O-dough’s gluten-free sandwich bread)
Spinach/romaine lettuce/butter lettuce
Onions, sliced lengthwise
Two tbsp salted butter
One Tbsp Mayo
One large potato
1/4 cup Canola oil
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Parsley
Salt
Pepper
Directions:
-Using a damp paper towel, wipe the dirt off your portobellini mushrooms and trim the stems. DO NOT run under cold water. It will make them rubbery.
-Place trimmed and washed mushrooms inside the freezer bag and top with Bovril, Worcestershire, HP Sauce, sweet BBQ sauce, and steak spice.
-Seal contents inside and leave to marinate overnight
-Once you’re ready to eat your sandwich, take out two of the mushrooms and fry them in olive oil over medium heat for 20 minutes or until all the water has been cooked out of them.
-Meanwhile, cook onions on low heat in salted butter until caramelized (it should take roughly 20 minutes as well)
-Build your sandwich to your liking, making sure to add mayo and lettuce
For the cactus cut potatoes:
-Turn on the oven to 375 degrees.
-Slice your potatoes into little discs, taking special care to ensure they’re all roughly the same size. Doing so will allow them to cook at the same rate, producing evenly browned potatoes.
-Once sliced into discs, place them in a large bowl and pour canola oil over them.
-Once covered, begin to toss them in each of the spices listed above, adding only enough of each to coat the potatoes.
-Pour dressed potatoes onto a roasting pan and place in the heated oven.
-Leave to roast for 25 minutes, turning them every 5-7 minutes to ensure an even color.
-Allow resting on paper towel to sop up oils, then salt
Mushrooms are low in saturated fat and high in vitamin B6, which aids in brain development as well as keeping the nervous system & immune system healthy. They’re also a great source of protein! Who says you need meat to build muscle?
Not only are the potatoes a good companion taste-wise, but they partner well in the nutritional department too. Being they are low in fat and high in vitamin B6. That makes this indulgent meal a nutritional powerhouse for your brain and body!
This week took the zip out of my step. Like a whirlwind, it blew through me, leaving me ragged, beaten down, and exhausted. By mid-week, I decided it was time for a pick-me-up in the form of a facial. Spa days always leave me feeling refreshed and more like myself. And they’re cheap and easy to accomplish at home, making it well worth the effort and time.
Milk and Honey Exfoliant:
My milk and honey exfoliant is luxurious, moisturizing, and possesses impressive skin-balancing benefits. The recipe below is enough to last your for months to boot! Enjoy! 🙂
Ingredients:
A Heaping 1/3 cup of Sea Salt
1/4 Cup Coconut Oil
2 tbsp Manuka Honey
A small, airtight container
Directions:
Mix all the ingredients inside the container and seal. Use a quarter-sized amount each time you exfoliate your skin.
Manuka honey improves your skin’s appearance by balancing its pH levels, and sloughing away dead cell debris, keeping your skin clean. As an antibacterial, it minimizes bacteria that infect pores, causing acne. It also boasts anti-inflammatory properties, reducing inflammation, itching, and irritation for calm, happy skin.
This easy-to-make mud mask will do wonders for clearing your pores and evening out your skin tone!
Bentonite clay’s absorbent power helps to unclog pores and treat acne by pulling dirt, grime, and oil from them, in addition to having a calming effect on inflamed skin.
Tea tree oil soothes dry skin by relieving irritation and reducing itching. It also has antiseptic qualities, which contribute to its ability to combat oily skin.
Most of all, it boasts anti-inflammatory/antibacterial properties which aid in wound healing–making it an effective treatment for acne-prone skin.
Lavender oil works to kill bacteria, soothe skin, and even out skin tone, making it perfect for treating blemishes and old acne scarring.
It’s also packed full of antioxidants, classifying it as a treatment for wrinkles. (Free radicals are partially responsible for aging skin, and antioxidants protect against them.)
Ingredients:
2 tbsp calcium bentonite clay
One drop of tea tree oil
One drop of lavender oil
Directions:
-Mix all three ingredients
-Add hot water in small amounts, slowly creating a paste
-Apply the paste to the skin and allow it to dry
-Rinse with warm water and apply moisturizer
Almond Oil is laden with skin healing nutrients, containing healthy amounts of the following vitamins/nutrients:
Vitamin A: which stimulates the production of new skin cells, smoothing fine lines.
Vitamin E: has antioxidants, which, as mentioned before, prevent cell damage by protecting against free radicals.
Omega 3 Fatty Acids: these prevent premature aging and safeguard against sun damage.
Zinc: an essential nutrient for healing scarring.
When applied to the skin, ginger essential oil soothes redness, eliminates bacteria, inhibits the signs of skin damage & aging, and restores color and radiance to dull complexions.
What more could your skin need at the end of a facial?
To use almond oil and ginger oil together, add a quarter-sized amount of almond oil to your palm and mix in a single drop of ginger oil, then apply to the face, neck, and decolletage.
Did you finally find a groove in your writing journey only to be thrown from it after some unforeseen event leaves you feeling burnt out and crappy?
Well, don’t fret! It happens to us all!
Thankfully there are so many ways for you to get back into the swing of things, and it’s not as hard as you might think.
You need only stay the course and persevere; this too shall pass, as they say.
I went through this myself recently. Last week I was feeling great about my writing journey. I had been keeping up with my set schedule, writing every day when: I hit a wall of frustration. Several things beyond my control happened, after which I became burnt out, bummed, and bereft of motivation. It seriously got me down when I considered the stark contrast of the week before. I thought, “How could I fall so far so fast?”
So, I took it upon myself to bring things back to an equilibrium.
Read on to find out how I did it! 🙂
Step One: I allowed myself to sit with my negative feelings and didn’t force myself to feel anything else.
Now bear with me here, I know this sounds counterintuitive, but in a world where pressure forces us to hide our feelings, push through and cheer up, sometimes you need a good cry or a day where you feel bad.
You’re human. We all are, and along with that comes a vast spectrum of emotions. Not all of them are good, and that’s okay.
So, I took a day to feel bad, snuggled up in my pajamas, played video games, and cuddled my puppy.
Step Two: I stepped up and kept up with my self-care routine.
Not only did I not stop with my self-care, but I also upped it a notch to suit the occasion. When you’re sick, you need to consume excess fluids. Self-care is no different. You need to step up and take care of yourself in extra measures when burnt out to bring yourself back into good health.
When your body is stressed, inflammation spikes, and that disrupts your bodily processes. Your cognitive functioning and digestion go haywire. So, it’s vital to do things to lessen its impact!
I find meditation to be effective in lowering stress levels. Working out is just as helpful!
There are numerous studies and bodies of evidence backing the positive impact of both exercise and meditation. It helps your body run more smoothly, balances brain chemistry, and produces feel-good hormones.
Try combining the two with a 20-minute yoga session and see how it works for you! 🙂
Finally, I made a healthy version of a favorite recipe: the fake steak sammie listed above. Steak, cheese, and doughy bread used to be among my favorite things before I went dairy-free and gluten-free. Now I can still enjoy them in the direst of times because, let’s be honest: emotional eating is a reality when you’re upset, sad, or burnt out.
Indulging doesn’t mean ignoring your health though, at least it doesn’t have to.
The same day I had my steak sandwich, I gave myself a facial. Just because it’s cliche due to oversaturation via the internet doesn’t take away from the reality that: pampering yourself is a way to show your body love and care. There is a reason cliches become as such: they always contain within them a nugget of truth.
Step three (the most crucial step): I made myself write again.
I didn’t choose just any writing project or story. I worked on one that’s just for me. One of the biggest anxiety-inducing hindrances to your writing or artistic pursuits, in general, is the ever-present worry about public perception.
You engage in perfectionism to combat it or avoid it altogether by procrastinating on completing your work, and it robs you of your confidence in both cases.
Practice writing for yourself first and foremost, enjoy it, and don’t judge what you create. All of which is easier when no one else has the opportunity to assess it.
So, come up with a story to write that’s all your own, continue it, and turn to it whenever you’ve stagnated. It’ll help. Trust me.
Thanks for filling up on this week’s Word Fuel. Come back next week for more recipes, D.I.Y skincare, book reviews, and writing advice!
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Katrina Thompson 