by Shannon on June 27, 2011
Now that the weather’s warming up, I’ve been eating ice cream for breakfast.
Your childhood dream has just come true: You can indeed eat ice cream for breakfast.
No, that’s not a typo. Yes, you read that right.
But the ice cream I’m eating is sugar-free, protein-packed, homemade, and takes literally about five minutes to make. Seriously.
Here’s how it works…
Ingredients
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 fruit of your choice (I prefer a fresh peach or banana)
- Natural sweetener such as Stevia
- Alcohol-free vanilla extract
Directions
- The night before, cut up your fruit into small chunks and place it in the freezer.
- The next morning, place the frozen fruit into a small food processor.
- Spoon in the Greek yogurt.
- Add vanilla and sweetener.
- Blend for about 30 seconds.
- Eat and enjoy!
Don’t have a food processor? No problem – simply mix the frozen fruit and yogurt together – the fruit will “freeze” the yogurt to make an ice cream-like consistency.
Want to make the recipe even easier? Use a cup of frozen fruit instead of freezing fresh fruit.
The best part? This recipe is completely versatile. You can use different combinations of fruit, flavored yogurt and spices, such as cinnamon and nutmeg, to make the recipe your own.
Your inner kid will love eating ice cream for breakfast and your outer adult will be able to enjoy every bite – guilt free!
by Shannon on June 26, 2011
In my last blog, I shared Part 1 of how I bumbled my way into published authorhood, Forrest Gump-style. Here’s the rest along with a little advice from my inner Mama Gump.
One day I was in Target and figured I’d swing by the book section on my way out. My eyes fell upon a book that looked similar to what I wanted to publish. It was The Daily Book of Positive Quotations by Linda Picone. I bought the book (which I highly recommend), looked up the publisher when I got home and sent them a query.
We were like peas and carrots.
Two days later, I received an email. “Your timing was very serendipitous,” it read. “We were just deciding on our 2010 editorial calendar and thinking it would be great to have a food journal in our line-up.” That publishing house turned out to be my book’s perfect home and The Positive Portions Food & Fitness Journal was born.
My journey from finished manuscript to published book took approximately two years, far too many rewrites than I care to list here, many chewed up fingernails and a lot of lessons learned along the way.
I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I…I think maybe it’s both.
So here’s the wisdom I can impart to you that stemmed out of my journey to publication:
- Believe in your book. If the author of the book doesn’t believe it’s good, how can you expect anybody else to? I believed my book was good, that is was needed, and that it would help people. Never once amidst all the rejections did I waver from these beliefs. You have to learn be your own advocate (or at least learn how to “act as if” if you’re not feeling it).
- Formulate a Plan B. I always knew my book would get published one way or another. If I hadn’t found a publisher within a few years, I planned to self-publish (and turn my book into Christmas presents that I’d impose on my friends and family). Don’t rule out self-publishing as an option.
- Gather your troops. We all need the help of people who believe in us, believe in our work, and will tell us that those who reject us are idiots. Find your people and lean on them.
- Be flexible. I loved that my publisher shared my overall vision of what I wanted my book to be. They chose the cover design and asked me to rewrite some text to make it more accessible to a broader audience. I trusted their judgment (after all, selling books is what they do), I did what they asked, and I’m thrilled with the end result. If you trust that your publisher shares your vision, be flexible on the changes they request and work with them as a team.
If you have publishing experience, share it in the Comments section below. In the meantime, keep writing!
