How many of you are on Pinterest?

When Pinterest  first hit the social media platforms most of us ran to start pinning articles, crafts and even our own pictures.

I was personally confused. What is this for?  Why am I doing this?  But I got better at it until I was pinning on a daily basis.

I have boards for lots of categories.  Recipes, Recipes to try, Let’s do this, loving my 50 birthday, Travel, Family and the boards just kept growing.  I would want to pin something and instead of looking for a board to pin it to I would just make a new board.

A few days ago, I realized that I hadn’t even really looked at all the things I had been pinning over the last few years.  Really, how many of us do?

I began to look through my boards.  Ah look loving my 50^thbirthday!  It was pretty cool to look back on all the things I did that year to celebrate turning 50.

The other thing I noticed is I had multiple boards for recipes, family and several other topics. I decided to clean it up.

Do you know you can merge boards?  Do you know you can easily change which board something is pinned to?  Do you know you can tag products so people can tap it and go straight to the product?  Yes, I know, I was excited too!  

I decided to start cleaning it up and getting it more organized. When was the last time you did that?

That’s when I realized I had pinned over 900 recipes.  HUH?  I haven’t even tried one.  Well that’s not true.  Last year for Thanksgiving Kyle and I decided to make food from across the pond instead of our traditional Thanksgiving feast.   We did try a few of those recipes, which I had created a British Recipe board.

That’s when it hit me. Maybe I should be trying some of these recipes.  Delete the ones we don’t like.  Make a new board with tried and loved recipes.

One of the first recipes on my recipe board was the Layered Salad.  I looked at the recipe.  Well this is not going to work.  I don’t like that, nope not that either.  Well I rarely follow a recipe as it’s written.  I’m always adjusting for certain things I refuse to eat like broccoli and tomatoes.

That’s it!  I will make a layered salad for lunch.  My version.  Really, is there a rule that says a layered salad can’t be layers of all the things you love?  

I am not a fan of cutting up veggies for salad.  It’s just not fun and you’ve just got this bowl of chopped veggies.  

I began chopping, slicing, and layering.  I was enjoying this layering of veggies and it was looking beautiful.  It was like our salad took on its own personality. Some lettuce, next was kidney beans, carrots, garbanzo beans, more lettuce, radishes, onions and the layers just kept going.

When I was done I had this beautiful delicious looking very large bowl of salad.  I might have gotten the ideal from Pinterest but my salad definitely had a personality all its own.

It was time to eat and we decided that we would continue making our very own salad unique to us.  My son topped his with shrimp, while I topped mine with raisins and croutons.

The next time you read a recipe and throw it out because you don’t like the ingredients, STOP!  Make it yours and adjust the ingredients.

But wait!  There’s more!

There is only two of us and this was a lot of salad.  So, I cooked up some ground turkey with taco spices and added it to the salad.  Next, I added tortilla chips and we topped it with Thousand Island dressing.  Boom! Taco salad for dinner.

I will probably delete that layered salad recipe from my Pinterest board, however, I will certainly make my version again.

Just like the layered salad WE have layers.  We are all unique and different.  That’s what makes us beautiful.

So, as you step out into the world today make it yours!  Don’t adjust to be like someone else.  Be you! Be happy!  Be thankful!

Categories: Family

Tagged as: behappy bethankful beyou bossmom cooking Family friends goals kindness layers organized pinterest recipes unique

reichtina

I retired from my traditional job to explore, practice, and create stories for people of all ages.