Guest Post: Stop trying to be creative, start cooking dinner
Betsy Freeman from B.Free Creative with a delicious treat!
I’m thrilled to welcome, product designer by day, illustrator, and recipe developer by night, Betsy Freeman to the Healthier Hustle this week. Betsy publishes the B.Free Creative newsletter, a follow-up to her recently published cookbook One & Done.
How did a full-time product designer and illustrator wind up publishing a cookbook? Cooking is her muse. Read on for the scoop on how cooking supports her creativity!
The phrase “let’s get creative” has a 0% success rate. If innovation showed up on demand you wouldn’t be reading this.
Cooking invites creativity
Understanding and harnessing creativity is “at the heart of all we do” from independent artists to giant corporations. Everyone is here to relay the secret to the creativity vending machine (with a subscription to the newsletter, or purchase of the product now on sale, etc).
Do not be fooled. Creativity will be insulted by demands. Creativity will only consider making an appearance at a lively event of interest.
Cooking is the opportunity to invite creativity to a lovely dinner.
Cooking makes creativity a daily date.
No one has time for a regular date with creativity, but everyone needs to eat.
Careers, family, car trouble… no one has extra time lying around, yet we all claim we’d like more time to be creative. Harness the human need to eat to skirt past life’s excuses. Whether cooking is the end itself, or simply the kick-off of another creative pursuit, cooking is the hall pass to get started.
Because there is no chance of catching creativity unless making is in motion.
Cooking removes restraints.
The linear left brain will never stop believing and then failing to force creativity into submission.
Particularly after a long day of “work-life balance”, transitioning from goals and action items to abstract exploration is no easy task. “Let’s get creative” is another to-do that escalates in frustration with further brute force.
Cooking is like an alcohol-free cocktail of activities to tone down the loud noise of an over-active left brain and turn up the sensual, present, and open right brain. From smelling pungent spices to making in-the-moment decisions, cooking leaves no space for analysis paralysis, the death of creativity.
Cooking requires full body engagement that creativity cannot resist.
So stop that news years resolution willpower “to be more creative,” and just cook dinner.
And now, recipe to get started!
Baked Sweet Potato Enchiladas
Prep to table: 1 hour I Serves: 4
Close to our publication date, one of our amazing recipe testers reached out to make sure this dinner had made the cut. It’s one of the dishes her husband, alias The Reluctant Vegetarian, asks for over and over again. Flavorful, nourishing and simple, this recipe is completely in keeping with the One & Done ethos that good cooking does not have to be so hard. This recipe takes advantage of spicy sauce combined with gooey baked sweet potatoes to create the rich familiar enchilada experience. Serve with various topping options so everyone can build the sweet potato enchilada of their dreams.
4 medium-sized sweet potatoes
1 (15-ounce) can red enchilada sauce
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained
1 to 1 ½ cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 limes, cut into wedges
1 cup plain full fat Greek yogurt (optional)
4 green onions, chopped
Fresh cilantro, chopped
2 avocados, sliced
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Pierce each sweet potato a few times with a fork and place them on a sheet pan.
Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until soft when pierced with a fork. Remove from the oven.
Slice in half lengthwise. Holding each sweet potato half by its tip, gently mash the inside with a fork. Repeat for each sweet potato.
Top each sweet potato half with enchilada sauce, a scoop of black beans and a sprinkle of cheese.
Roast for another 15 to 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
Serve alongside various topping options, like lime wedges, plain yogurt, chopped green onions, avocados, and extra enchilada sauce.
Easy ingredient swaps
Shredded vegan cheese for mozzarella cheese
Happy cooking, happy making!
Betsy
Huge thanks to Betsy Freeman for stopping by to share her thoughts on the link between cooking and creativity, as well as her own art! Subscribe to her newsletter to get plant-based recipes along with her latest illustration and a creative tip or two delivered right to your inbox!
See you next week with my regularly scheduled list of small things bringing me joy, now off to go make some sweet potato enchiladas . . .
Be well, find joy-
Mary-Chris