Issue #73: Makeup Swatches & Food Inspiration
…plus Happy National Pygmy Hippo Day!
Celebration/animals: “Celebrate pygmy hippo babies born in 2024 for National Pygmy Hippo Day!” on Blizzard Watch (read it here)
I wasn’t in the best mood on Tuesday. Ok, ok….I was grumpy! It didn’t help my mood when I sat down to do some work on my laptop and got a notification that a restart was recommended for some program updates. I sat there grumbling in my head about how this was just another thing slowing me down, and why do these things always happen at the most inconvenient times, etc, etc. However, something very good came out of this unexpected setback (I think there’s a life lesson in there somewhere!). The lockscreen on my laptop runs news highlights across the bottom of the screen when it powers on. Usually the news is, well- grim. However, it wasn’t on Tuesday! I was greeted with a banner that said “Happy National Pygmy Hippo Day!”. It immediately caught my attention! What better to cheer me up than animals! Even better: hippos! If you’ve been here a while you know I love hippos! I first wrote about them in Issue 37 (here). You’d better believe I spent some time reading those news articles!
National Pygmy Hippo Day was created to raise awareness about pygmy hippos and the fact that they are endangered. There are only approximately 2,000 left in the world, and the number is sadly declining. However, some good news is that some babies were born in 2024! I’ve linked to an article above that has some updates and pictures of the babies. I can’t even handle how adorable they all are! If Toni seems familiar to you, it’s because she’s the baby pygmy hippo that I wrote about in Issue 37 and 42 (here)! I loved getting an update on her and seeing how much she’s grown.
Gratitude/happy moment: Spring has (almost) sprung!
Last year in Issue 26 (here) I wrote about how one of my favourite moments of every year is in the spring when I spot the first few plants pushing their way up through the dirt. It happened this week!! Once again, I made a point to stop and appreciate the sight. Not to be redundant and copy last year’s post, but my thoughts are still the same! Those first few green pieces still bring with them a message of hope, and a much needed and wonderful reminder that spring and summer are ahead, and with them warmer days and beautiful blooms.
Food/recipe: Katie Lee Biegel's 5-Minute Blender Oat Pancakes (see the recipe and video here)
I’ve been on a real kick lately of batch making food and stocking our freezer. Knowing that easy, usually healthy, meals are in the freezer and ready to be pulled out before a busy day always makes me feel less stressed. One recipe that I tackled this week was Katie Lee Biegel’s blender pancakes. They are made from cottage cheese (or Greek yogurt), oats, and eggs so are high in protein and fibre. They freeze well and are so nice to have on hand for an easy breakfast (or lunch, or breakfast-for-dinner!). Pancakes are normally so labour intensive and create a lot of dishes, so I love that these are more simple to make. The link above has the recipe, as well as a video of Katie making them.
I would classify this recipe as “foundational”: it’s a fine basic recipe as is, but to me the best part is that because it’s so basic the possibilities are endless. As it’s written it would likely get most of its flavour from whatever sauce or topping you put on it. I’ve been experimenting for a while with this recipe and am still coming up with my favourite flavour combinations. This week I kept it simple and just added cinnamon. I tripled the recipe, because I had enough cottage cheese on hand and if I’m going to haul out my blender and have to wash it anyways, I may as well get lots of meals out of the deal! I added 2 heaping teaspoons of cinnamon to the batter and I could definitely taste the cinnamon but next time I’ll probably add even more. I’d also like to try another batch adding some salt and vanilla extract and see how that goes. I also feel like banana would be good. Katie suggests in the video to add pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice, which sounds delicious! I’ve never made them with Greek yogurt before so I’ll also give that a try at some point. Of course, if you don’t feel like tweaking the recipe you can always make it as is and then add your favourite toppings to get the flavour you want!
Food/project idea: Using up food in the house, with inspiration from justine_snacks (watch part one here)
As much as I’ve been working on stocking our freezer, I’ve also been trying to use up a lot of food that we have in the house. It sounds counterintuitive, but part of that process has been using up individual ingredients that are in the house and making actual meals with them. For some added inspiration and motivation, I’ve been following along with Justine Doiron’s Shorts series on her YouTube channel, justine_snacks.
As a professional recipe developer (and recently published cookbook author!) Justine has obviously acquired quite a bit of ingredients. She has vowed to use them all up, only buying fresh ingredients when absolutely necessary, and has been posting Shorts of some of the recipes she’s come up with along the way. On top of the motivation to keep going on assessing what we already have and coming up with ways to use it up, I’ve also gotten a lot of new ideas for flavour combinations and things to try later. I’ve linked to the first video in the series above, and at last check she was up to twelve!
*I have a copy of Justine’s cookbook, Justine Cooks. I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but so many of the recipes look delicious! I will give you my thoughts when I’ve had a chance to try it out.
Makeup/beauty: The Beauty Look Book (see it here)
When it comes to online beauty content, one of the top places I visit is The Beauty Look Book. When it comes to extensive reviews, photos, and swatches Sabrina is one of the best. If you ever need help deciding on a product and/or want to see it in comparison to similar products, I highly suggest looking it up on The Beauty Look Book! Sometimes I go to the site looking for a particular review or swatch, and other times it’s for the online equivalent of browsing a store. I have to be careful because time will fly by, but I find it relaxing to just look at all the beautiful makeup.
With the Sephora spring sale happening over the past week I’ve been inundated with extra makeup content. While Sabrina has posted her recommendations for this current sale, I actually found myself drawn to an article that she wrote back in 2017. It was on some new (at the time) releases from Pat McGrath (here). It’s a great example of how thorough Sabrina’s reviews are. I just found myself happily lost in all the colours and options!
Wishing you a wonderful week and I’ll be back in your inbox next Sunday!
Lauren