Ah Pinterest. The gallery of all things interesting, wonderful, creative, beautiful, educational and inspiring. But here’s the thing…does Pinterest really inspire you? Do you actually make any of the cool crafts you see on Pinterest? Do you attempt to find or make the items that grabbed your attention and made you think “Oh, I should make/get/try/do that”? Are any of those fabulous quotes actually changing your life? Have you done a sock bun? Found the perfect idea for a party? Learned how to cut a glass bottle in half with nail polish remover?
I don’t know about you, but I refuse to sit on the sidelines and admire from afar. I am embracing CARPE IDEUM…okay so IDEUM is not an actual latin word, but you get the ideum. I am seizing the ideas on Pinterest and when possible, implementing them. Last night’s dinner was a perfect example.
I wish I could remember where or when exactly I found it, but it was one of the food sites or money sites that talked about using what you have in your freezer & fridge (because apparently we lose a lot of money in food that goes bad because it was forgotten in the back of the fridge, hidden behind that jar of pickles) so I went to my freezer and found some BBQ ribs way at the bottom just like the article had said…how did they know me so well? I had a salad in the fridge from the weekend, it just needed a few fresh red pepper slices to make her look fresh again…just like a fresh coat of lipstick!
And then I decided to try this awesome healthy Pineapple Ginger smoothie recipe that comes via Gimme Some Oven because once again I had most of the ingredients already on hand and I have been trying to incorporate more fresh ginger into our diet (but even if you have to go and get the ingredients, you might just want to try this!)…
I now had a wonderfully complete meal sans carbs and with fabulous background ambience (in all fairness, I painted the background mural from something I saw on the internet before I heard about Pinterest)…
But alas, this is NOT a complete meal. I am a crazy mennonite who was raised believing that no meal is complete without dessert!
And since I am mennonite and have already made most of the awesome desserts over at Mennonite Girls Can Cook, I figured I would try this easy peasy recipe I saw on Pinterest that comes to us from Rachael’s Favorite Recipes. It is Pineapple Cherry Dump Cake. Dump Cake? Yup. Dump Cake. You grease a 9 x 13 baking dish and dump one can of crushed pineapple into it, and then you dump one can of cherry pie filling into it and then you dump a whole box of yellow cake mix over top (not the box, the contents of the box silly!) and then you dump/drizzle a 1/2 cup of melted butter over top the mix…no stirring. Then you bake it uncovered at 350F for approximately 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown. And here is a slice of that delicious dump cake.
Did you notice that I used Pineapple Tidbits? I didn’t have crushed pineapple and since I was trying to use whatever I had on hand, I just put those tidbits into my VitaMix, gave it a good ‘whir-whir-buzz’ and the next thing you know…crushed pineapple! Rachael says that adding a dollop of whipped cream is nice too, but it is fabulous on its own…for the record, my hubby did ‘dump’ a scoop of vanilla frozen yogurt onto his slice! He was implementing that rule of using what you have on hand…well, it’s no longer on hand, but in stomach.
So there you have it. With some inspiration from Pinterest and a most determined CARPE IDEUM approach…we had supper. Okay, we would have had supper anyways, it just might have been a bit boring, a bit predictable or a bit blah. But we broke out of our comfort zone and as a fabulous quote on Pinterest pointed out…
The magic happens outside of our comfort zones! Luuuuuuuv it!
Do you try things that you see on Pinterest? Tell me your Pinterest success story! Have you gone to an exotic destination because you saw it on Pinterest? Have you built something, cooked something, changed your diet, changed your life because of something you saw on Pinterest? I want to know what effect Pinterest has had in your life. We’ll call it the CARPE IDEUM PROJECT. Share your story in the comment section below! or if you have already blogged about how Pinterest has changed your life, send me the link to that post! Thanks!
