Perfect Baked Salmon with Lentils and Lemon Herb Sauce

Guys! It’s perfect baked salmon!

with black lentils because they’re adorably little and richly colored and delicious, and then lemon herb sauce because it’s spring and I can’t stop with the lemon herb everything. gahhhh I love this meal!

You know when you’re sitting down at night to read a book that you’ve REALLY been wanting to read, like, it’s been on your book list for forever and a day, and you settle in for some good reading at 10pm and you fall asleep before getting to the end of the page?

That is my reading life. Especially when it comes to nonfiction, memoirs, self help, and that whole boring crew. Not to brag or anything but my binge reading game is actually pretty strong  – think Hunger Games, Gone Girl, and other mind candy books. However, for those non-fiction books on my want-to-be-a-smart-person reading list? Let’s just say the average finish time for these books should be recorded in years. YEARS. Like if this thing happens before 2020, I’m doing alright.

Enter my latest obsession not related to food but I do have a connection here –> audio books. You guys. I’m listening to those want-to-be-a-smart-person books on my way to the studio every day. 20 minutes there and 20 minutes home is 40 minutes which means I have basically become a READING MACHINE. I can get through a book in about a week. WHAT! This is amazing.

Currently reading: The Body Book by Cameron Diaz.

I’m not even exaggerating when I say that the inspiration for this super simple, super healthy, perfect baked salmon one-pot meal was literally just listening to Cameron Diaz talk to me about the health benefits of lentils on my way to work.

I parked the car at the grocery store, walked up into Whole Foods (God bless Whole Foods – I’m a new-ish grocery shopper there now that we’re located close to one and it is absolutely everything I stereotyped it to be and more), and bee-lined for the salmon and lentils.

All that to say – this delicious meal brought to you by an AUDIO BOOK! Also I’m 75 at heart.

Perfect baked salmon + lentils + quinoa all cooked together in one big pan? This recipe is a little outside my normal food brain space, but, besides a few takeout sushi runs (#hadto), it’s been my sole sustaining food for the last two weeks.

Here’s why it’s perfect.

1. It’s a meal all in one pan. Perfect baked salmon, yes. But also lentils, rice, quinoa, vegetables, whatever you want, really, all up in the same pan with the salmon. It’s very one-and-done in terms of preparation.
2. ONE DISH to wash. Hello. ONE. DISH.
3. Sauce or seasoning? very changeable depending on what strikes your fancy in the moment. But you’re probably having an epically long moment with lemon herb sauces too, right?
4. It requires zero hands-on time. We’re not sautéing or whisking or even really chopping anything here. Just poppin in the oven and that’s it.

I would consider this a minimalist approach to dinner because, in very basic terms, you put everything in a pan and bake it. No extra steps. No extra dishes to wash. And now you’re done, and you’ve got perfectly baked salmon with tons of flavor and a pan full of other nutritious deliciousness and all of it together makes a mish-mash rainbow meal that you will want to keep eating again and again.

If we can break the rules for a second here, you might even find yourself wanting to eat this for breakfast the next morning. Maybe adding an egg in the spirit of creating something between THIS and a healing bowl.

Er, wait, I don’t know. Did we cross a line there?

Just… start with dinner, okay?

Start with dinner.

Perfect Baked Salmon 101:

• If you want to go the black lentils route (do it! do it! do it!) you can order them online here.
• I am having a weird obsession with sauerkraut right now, especially purple sauerkraut. My current fave is a brand called Spirit Creek Farm and I bought it at Whole Foods, but you can also grab it online (HERE) because this is a strangely wonderful world.
• Here’s The Body Book which inspired this recipe.

 

Print

Perfect Baked Salmon with Lentils and Lemon Dressing

Author: Pinch of Yum

Serves: 4

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup black lentils
• 1 cup red quinoa
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 12 ounces salmon
• 2-3 cups green beans or other vegetables
• purple sauerkraut if you're into the weird food zone like I am

Lemon Sauce:

• ½ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic
• generous pinch of salt (to taste)
• quick squeeze of honey or agave (to taste)
• chopped parsley (optional)

Instructions

1. LENTILS AND QUINOA: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Rinse the lentils and the quinoa. Place in a large oven safe skillet or casserole with the broth. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until almost fully cooked. Remove and fluff with a fork.
2. SAUCE: Make the lemon dressing by blending all ingredients in a food processor or just shaking up in a jar. Set about half of the dressing aside.
3. SALMON: When the lentils and quinoa are done, place the salmon and any other vegetables you want on top of the lentils (skin side down) and drizzle or brush with half of the lemon dressing. Bake for another 10 minutes. Broil for the last 2 minutes. Depending on how thick the salmon is, if it still needs time, just turn off the oven and let it sit in there for a few minutes to finish.
4. SERVE: When the salmon is fully cooked, serve with reserved sauce and purple sauerkraut if you like that kind of crazy.

Notes

Some vegetables will cook just fine in 10 minutes in a hot oven, but others won't. If you're using something that's going to require more time like sweet potatoes, I would suggest par-boiling them before sending them to the oven. Veggies that work great - green beans, asparagus, kale, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, mushrooms, peas... etc.

3.5.3208

 

Last plug – you must download a book-listening app and give the audio book world a try (try Audible – they give you your first book free) and then you also must leave me comments telling me what other books you love. I am now devouring books at a rate that my little mind can’t even handle and I’m running out of book recs.

Note: this post contains affiliate links for products we recommend.

The post Perfect Baked Salmon with Lentils and Lemon Herb Sauce appeared first on Pinch of Yum.

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Traffic and Income Report – March 2016

Heyo!

Bjork here. Checking in for the March (two months ago!) traffic and income report. We’ve been hustling with some exciting projects that are happening behind the scenes here at POY/FBP HQ, hence the reason for this income report coming out a bit later than usual. Can’t wait to share with you what we’ve been working on. Stay tuned!

For those that aren’t familiar, we’ve been doing these reports for a long time. If you have some free time I’d suggest jumping back to the first report we published and read through each month’s report. Reading through the old reports will give you an idea of the decisions we’ve made and the things we’ve learned over the past 5+ years as we’ve slowly built Pinch of Yum into a full-fledged business.

Let’s jump into the numbers for March…

Income

Note: Some of the links below are affiliate links. All of the products listed below are products and services we’ve used before. If you have any questions about any of the income or expenses you can leave a comment and we’ll do our best to reply.

• AdThrive – $23,791.85
• Tasty Food Photography – $8,572.40
• Bluehost – $6,900 –> this income comes from a page where we show people how to start a food blog in three easy steps.
• Gourmet Ads – $3,674.31
• Swoop – $3,105.98
• Amazon Associates – $2,881.45
• Sponsored Content – $2,800.00
• Yellow Hammer Media – $2,603.97
• Federated Media – $1,600.84
• sovrn – $1,166.11
• How to Monetize Your Food Blog eBook – $525.00
• Genesis Theme – $315.25
• Elegant Themes – $89.00
• ActiveCampaign – $20.25
• AWeber – $14.40

Expenses

• Justworks – $10,969.85
• Studio Related Expenses – $6,845.00
• MacBook Pro – $3,615.93
• Amazon S3 and Cloudfront – $1,575.43
• Media Temple (Hosting) – $1,246.55
• eBook Affiliates – $1,192.55
• Food Expenses – $1,068.53
• ActiveCampaign – $447.70
• Eventbrite – $417.90
• Coschedule – $360.00
• Apps/Software – $194.49
• Adobe Creative Cloud – $107.43
• LeadPages – $67.00
• Vimeo Plus – $59.95
• Zapier – $50.00
• PayPal Transaction Percentage – $30.00
• PayPal Website Payments Pro – $30.00
• Shoeboxed – $29.95
• Hotjar – $29.00
• QuickBooks – $26.95
• E-Junkie – $28.00
• VaultPress – $20.00
• SumoMe – $20.00
• HelloBar – $15.00
• Pingdom – $14.95
• Backupify – $12.00
• Buffer – $10.00
• BoardBooster – $5.00

Traffic Totals

Below are some Google Analytics screenshots from the month of March 2016.

Traffic Overview

Top Ten Traffic Sources

Mobile vs. Desktop vs. Tablet

I wanted to switch things up this month and answer a few blog/business/life related questions that we’ve been hearing frequently.

So here they are: Some of the most common questions we get related to POY as a blog/business.

Do your income reports get the majority of the traffic?

No. Far from it.

In 2015 Pinch of Yum had 39,417,974 total page views.

241,234 of those page views were to income reports.

That comes to a whopping 0.006%.

Here’s what that looks like in graph form:

If you’re reading this you’re a one-percenter.

These reports are still helpful for traffic, as blogs or websites link back to them, which in turn helps SEO, but even with that, the vast majority of links pointing to Pinch of Yum are related to food, not these reports.

How do you track your food or recipe related expenses?

We have two separate cards. One is a personal debit card and one is a business debit card.

If we’re at the grocery store buying both personal and business related food then we’ll divide it up and check out twice, once for personal purchases and once for business purchases.

Here’s a post I wrote called Zen Accounting for Bloggers. The only thing we’ve changed with that system is that we now use Shoeboxed to process all our digital and physical receipts.

What do you do with the money you earn from the blog?

Kind of a funny question, but people occasionally ask us so I thought I’d answer it.

We view business income as separate from personal income. So if Pinch of Yum has a profit of $40,000 in a given month we consider that business income, not personal income.

Lindsay has a salary of $72,000/year from Pinch of Yum (it’s the same amount for me but my salary comes from Food Blogger Pro).

This helps us to budget our personal spending and keeps us accountable to not use surplus business income for excessive personal spending.

The surplus business income goes into three buckets – save, spend, and taxes.

Save – As expenses grow for the business so does the amount of savings we want to have in the bank. These savings go into the business emergency/savings fund. We aim to have 9–12 months of projected expenses set aside.

Spend – This is listed as “Expenses” in the report totals shown above. We’re also working on another project that isn’t directly related to POY (hence the reason for not being listed as an expense in these reports). We’re using some of the profit from POY to fund this new project. Stay tuned for more info on that!

Taxes – Never a fun check to write. But we’re thankful to live where we live. We pay quarterly federal and state taxes along with the income taxes that come along with each paycheck. These quarterly payments are calculated by our CPA while Justworks handles the bi-monthly employee and employer income taxes.

Who designed your website?

The site was designed by Melissa (The Faux Martha) and developed by Bill Erickson.

I don’t have a self-hosted WordPress site. Should I?

It depends on what type of site you’re building.

E-Commerce? Check out Shopify.

“Static” Site that’s not updated much? Check out Squarespace.

Blog? A self-hosted WordPress site is probably your best bet.

What’s it like for you and Lindsay to work together all the time?

We actually don’t work in the same place that often. I’m usually working from home in St. Paul and Lindsay is working from the studio in Minneapolis. Our goal is to always be more more husband and wife than co-workers. Having separate work spaces helps with that.

That being said, we always have a lot of work stuff to talk about in the morning or at night, which we both like (right Lindsay?!?). We also chat via Slack, Messages, and email throughout the day.

Here’s a post (and an awkward high school picture) Lindsay wrote a couple years back that talks about what it’s like to run a blog as a couple.

I’m just getting started with my site. How do I make money?

Freelance or continue working your job.

If your hope is to build a content-driven site (like a food blog), then you shouldn’t expect to make a livable wage in the first year, let alone within the first few months.

But that doesn’t mean you have to do work you hate.

Search for jobs or freelance gigs in subject areas that you’re passionate about. Writing, photography, design, data analysis… All of these are extremely marketable skills.

Continue to work on your site in the margins of the day (morning, lunch, evening). This regular-work/blog-work balance allows you to build your empire without having to worry about paying the bills. As your site continues to grow you can slowly shift your time and attention from regular-work to blog-work.

But be sure to work hard at your job or on your freelance gigs and don’t try and sneak your own work in here or there. Jon Acuff says it well in his book Quitter.

“Bad employees make horrible dreams. You’re not just working; you’re practicing for your dream. If you want your dream job to work, work on your day job.” – Jon Acuff

I love that line: practicing for your dream.

Speaking of, Quitter is a good read if you’re thinking about leaving your day job. It came out a few years ago, but it’s still a good read.

Here’s the trailer:

Lindsay and I did the regular-work/blog-work balancing act with Pinch of Yum and Food Blogger Pro. For the the first 3-4 years it was work full-time and blog part-time (plus).

From 2013–2014 Lindsay and I were still working our “normal” jobs but on a reduced schedule. I was putting in 2 days a week at the non-profit I was working at and Lindsay had moved to 6-hour days at the school she was teaching at.

It was a slow and steady shift for us.

When Lindsay and I decided to officially go full-time with the blog in May of 2014 (two years ago!) there was 12+ months of consistent growth and earnings from the blog. It was a risk, but it was calculated. Continuing to work our jobs while working on the blog helped us make a smooth and (relatively) worry-free transition into full-time blogging.

How do I improve my photography?

It’s helpful to know two things when it comes to feeling uncomfortable with your art:

1. Almost everyone else feels the same way.
2. You’ll get better if you stick with it and continue learning.

But it takes time.

Time (months and years) to develop your skill and time (hours) when you’re doing a shoot/project/creating your art.

Ira Glass says it well:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” – Ira Glass

Don’t rush it and stick with it.

It seems like everyone that is earning an income from their blog is also doing income reports. Do I need to DO income reports to create an income?

No.

For every successful blog that is doing an income report there are probably 49 that aren’t.

Reports like this are helpful for blogs that want to build a complimentary business alongside their current blog. For example, it makes sense for us to publish these reports because we want to gain the attention of other food bloggers and introduce them to Food Blogger Pro.

Income reports like this (or any type of business transparency reporting) is most impactful when you can use it to engage with an audience that aligns with your target market.

For instance, it makes sense for Buffer to be open and transparent because business owners (their target market) tend to share and engage with the content that they’re openly sharing.

Where DID you get your dog Sage?

Okay, not really blog related, but (dog) people ask us this sometimes.

Lindsay found Sage deep down on the list of available dogs from No Dog Left Behind. Here’s the original post. The “mellow girl” bit is 100% true. “Moderate” shedding not so much. Also…”sweatiest girl ever?” Still trying to figure that one out.

Oh yeah…and her given name was Sith!

How do I get more traffic?

Entertain or help.

People want to be entertained. We want to watch interesting videos, read engaging blog posts, and laugh about funny stories. If you can entertain, whether via video, written content, or audio (podcast), then lean into that. It’s a rare skill.

The other way to to build traffic is to help. If you’re in the food space and you’re not focusing on entertaining then you should be focusing on helping. It’s tough to be really good at helping if you’re just publishing generic recipes. It’s possible, but not easy.

It’s much easier to help by serving a specific niche and doing a really good job of helping that niche. It could be affordable recipes, or maybe desserts for sugar-free families, or perhaps recipes that are made with food entirely grown from a family garden. Serving a niche like this will help you gain traction much quicker than trying to build a catalogue of generic recipes that competes with sites like Allrecipes. You can always expand your niche later on, but starting with a focus will help you build an audience and traction, and therefore traffic.

After you pick what your going to do – entertain or help — then it’s a matter of consistently creating high-quality content for a long period of time and finding ways to get a little bit better each and every day. Traffic is a byproduct of entertaining or helpful content.

When does Food Blogger Pro Enrollment open again?

Shameless plug. But we do get that question a lot.

We’ll be opening the doors with the month. Stay tuned! You can join the waiting list here.

Action Items

1. Read Quitter: It covers some important concepts for people looking to “make the jump” to working for themselves (or in their dream job).
2. Write down the three things you enjoy most about blogging: Could one of those things you enjoy be a new freelance or part-time job for you? You might need to do some unpaid work for your first few clients as you build your network. If your work is good then you’ll quickly be able to build your client list as well as your earnings.
3. Pick your focus: Entertaining or helping. You can do both, but you should start by focusing on one. If you’re focusing on helping, then what’s your niche?

Because of You

$40,885.

That’s the dollar amount that you, Pinch of Yum readers and followers, raised at the end of the March. The money you raised will feed 40 kids that will be arriving to the Children’s Shelter of Cebu this year and early next year. We’re amazed, honored, and humbled to be part of this incredible community.

As Lindsay mentioned in this post we’ll be using a portion of March’s income to match the donations raised.

If you have a minute you should scroll through the Hero Roster that was created as part of that fundraiser. Truly inspiring!

The post Traffic and Income Report – March 2016 appeared first on Pinch of Yum.

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Iced Matcha Green Tea Latte

This post is sponsored by Almond Breeze! We are using their Almondmilk which is delicious for an iced matcha latte.

Okay! So let’s get granola for a minute.

A toasted English muffin smeared with almond butter and sea salt is just begging to be washed down with sips of this cold, creamy, sweet, antioxidant-dense iced matcha green tea latte. It’s like the world’s healthiest form of a latte. I know you’re maybe asking questions. Raising eyebrows. Matcha is a tiny bit off the mainstream map, I get it.

But hey – can you buy almond milk? do you have Amazon? because that’s how I got started with my matcha green tea latte obsession. Look out, hippie matcha green tea latte drinkers. The food regulars be comin for ya.

So to set the stage. MATCHA GREEN TEA IS THE BOMB.COM.

I didn’t know about it until, like, two months ago. It all started with an obsession with a local tea bar in St. Paul, where I’d order this thing called a Royal Tea Latte (I’m speaking in past tense as if this is something of days gone by, but in reality I’m stopping there on my way home from work to get my third one this week – large plz – and I have zero regrets) and because the Royal had to brew for a few minutes, I’d sit there and watch all the other tea people ordering and navigating the scary-exciting menu of a tea bar.

And that’s when I realized: whoa, matcha.

I started ordering matcha tea latte drinks at coffee shops. I was just curious. I found some things out.

1. I’m going to be honest – I can’t stomach matcha green tea lattes when they’re hot. Just… too much of a green plant steaminess in my face.
2. I do, however, LOVE love love them cold. Icy cold and creamy and sweet, perfect for sipping through a straw. Bless that green drink.
3. Unfortunately, when served cold, there is always the danger of getting matcha green tea chunks up in your straw and, so so sorry, up in your mouth. And that brings us back to another thing I can’t stomach about matcha green tea lattes, which is, obviously, MATCHA GREEN TEA CHUNKS. Not okay.
4. The solution to getting them just how I want them? Silky-smooth and lusciously green and cold and creamy and a teeny bit over-sweetened? The solution is making them at home. Because you can buy yourself a little packet of matcha powder and your fave creamy almond milk and be a whiz at this in less than 60 seconds flat.

Get a mason jar with a lid. Imma show you.

First:

That’s the matcha paste (you have to make a paste so you don’t get chunks) mixed with the almond milk and agave.

Lid on, annnnnnd GO.

60 seconds later, you are sipping that matcha green tea latte like a boss.

It’s packed with antioxidants (thanks matcha!) and it’s ULTRA creamy while staying light in calories and fat (thanks Almond Breeze!) and completely plant-powered (thanks agave!) and GUESS WHAT there’s a bonus.

It has a little bit of caffeine. BZZZZZ

Iced Matcha Green Tea Latte Details:

• Matcha Powder
• Almond Milk
• Glass Jars with Lids

PS. What was life before Amazon? I don’t even remember. Did you guys know about Prime Now? I can’t even. The other day I had something delivered to our studio in less than one hour and I opened the package and looked at Jenna and said: WE’RE LIVING IN THE FUTURE.

Print

Iced Matcha Green Tea Latte

Author: Pinch of Yum

Serves: 1 latte

 

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon matcha green tea powder
• 1 cup Almond Breeze Almondmilk Unsweetened Vanilla
• 1-2 teaspoons agave or honey (more to taste)

Instructions

1. In a glass jar, mix the matcha green tea powder with a little bit of water - just enough to form a paste. Stir it up until there are no clumps.
2. Add the milk and and agave. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and shake vigorously until incorporated. Let sit for a minute so any remaining clumps settle to the bottom. Carefully pour into a glass with ice and enjoy!

Notes

If you have a mesh strainer, you can also pour the matcha latte through it to remove clumps. I am usually too lazy to get it out in the morning which is why I just let it settle for a second and then pour carefully enough so that the little clumps just stay put in the bottom of the jar.

3.5.3208

 

Shout out to Almond Breeze for partnering with us to make this delicious iced matcha green tea latte a reality.

The post Iced Matcha Green Tea Latte appeared first on Pinch of Yum.

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7 Ways to Take Viral Food Photos

Okay, first things first.

Registration is now open for our two-day food photography workshops.

These workshops are a powerful way to improve your food photography skills and refresh your creativity.

In two days, you’ll learn things like how to use your camera in manual mode, and how to fill the frame of your food photos without looking awkward, and how to style overwhelming or challenging foods (green smoothie bowls, anyone?), and even speedy editing tricks that will make your workflow easy and straightforward.

You’ll also get the chance to reconnect with your creativity as you practice-practice-practice. We have tons of food set out during the course of the weekend for you to use and opportunities for you to use the food to do some hands-on styling.

Plus, you’ll have your own window and table (seriously – we have 12 WINDOWS up this studio) so you’ll have plenty of room to do your thing.

Quick workshop stats:

• We’ve sold out 6 food photography workshops in the last 9 months.
• During that time, we’ve welcomed 90+ students to our studio in Minneapolis.
• Our current workshop size is 12 students per class.
• More than 70% of students travel from out of state to attend the workshops.
• At least 10 students have come as brand representatives for companies that they work for, including Land O’ Lakes, Lodge Cast Iron, California Giant Berry Farms, Cargill, and Nordic Ware.
• In the first 9 months, 6 past students already return to attend a second workshop experience.
• The Style + Brand workshop has an average satisfaction rating of 4.8 out of 5, and this spring the Food + Camera workshop got a straight up 100% 5-star satisfaction rating.

I have to tell you this quick story from Mary – she came from Virginia to attend a workshop this spring.

Mary sent us an email a few days after the workshop and here’s what she said:

Hi Lindsay, I just wanted to drop you a note to let you know how much I enjoyed your workshop.  I am still processing and tweaking all I learned, but wow, did my photography improve dramatically… a few days after I returned I shot and posted this to Instagram, and received nearly 1,400 likes – roughly 1,100 more than I usually receive!

Do you see that? That’s REAL people seeing REAL results after spending two days of intentional time learning and practicing with us here in the Pinch of Yum studio.

This could be you! I so want it to be you.

You guys, can we be candid for a minute here? While I obviously LOVE food photography and have built up my skills significantly since I first started Pinch of Yum, I will be the first to say that I don’t consider myself the best of the best of the best food photographers or stylists out there. No, not so much.

What really makes my heart beat and puts me into the zone of genius is facilitating a powerful learning experience.

My elementary school teacher heart is having a moment back in the spotlight, I guess. I get so much joy from taking something that is an otherwise very intimidating and artistic and ambiguous process and making it easy to understand and easy to implement in ways that give you maximum benefit, whether that be in time saved, opportunity to monetize your work, or creative joy.

We’ve created a powerful balance of Teach – Model – Guided Practice in order for you to not only have fun at the workshop but also for you to make it your own and make it STICK. This is what I do best. And I would love to share this experience with YOU.

ALSO IMPORTANT and probably worth noting! –> We are currently offering a bonus for new workshop attendees which is a one year membership to Food Blogger Pro ($279) which you can access immediately when you buy your workshop ticket. With this membership, you’ll be able to continue learning and connecting with others in the industry long after the workshop is done.

Join us for a workshop and get in on this bonus offer.

Please note that workshops are limited to 12 participants. At the time that I’m writing this post, we are already about halfway sold out.

Okay, so now you know about workshops.

So let’s talk about how to take photos that perform! we’re talking likes, comments, and shares.

VIRAL, as the kids call it.

There are many factors that go into taking photos that pop off the page at people and inspire them to engage somehow with your content. These are the ones that I’ve found to be most impactful.

1. Get Overhead or Straight On

These two angles are particularly compelling and they translate seamlessly to the visual language used on social media.

The overhead angle allows you to get a top-down look at beautifully styled food: think loaded smoothie bowls, garnished soups, and textured salads.

And the straight on angle allows you to emphasize the height and structure of the food: think saucy burgers, ice cream cones, and pasta piled high in a bowl.

Beautiful fact of life = if you’re not shooting with a big fancy camera, these two angles work like a charm with a smartphone.

2. UsE Props or Dishes with a Matte Finish

Shiny reflective dishes can either create highlights and bright reflection spots in places where you don’t want them, plus they can actually put YOUR REFLECTION in the photo. Like, you’re wearing jammies and you don’t have your hair done and then LOOKOUT – there’s your reflection, right next to that gorg plate of French toast. Thankfully this has never ever ever happened to me. Ever.

The fix is easy – use dishes with a matte finish. They can be tricky to find, but I have a few from ceramics artists like Speck and Stone, Haand, and my very own amazing father in law whose website is coming soon because so many of you ask about it alllll the time which is super fun. I’ve also picked up a few from places like Crate and Barrel, Restoration Hardware, Ikea, World Market, and Target.

3. Go Monochromatic

If you want the emphasis of your photo to be less on the overall setup and more on the food itself, try for a monochromatic arrangement with your background and dishes. For example, a white plate on a white background, or a black plate on a black background. This puts the focus on the food since all the color contrast is happening right there on the plate. This is a tiny little hack that can really make photos POP.

4. Twirl, Slice, SPrinkle, Drizzle, Crumble, Toss, And More

Your food should look amazing before you even pick up the camera or phone. If you don’t think the food looks amazing, go back to the kitchen and twirl, slice, sprinkle, drizzle, crumble, or toss. These are the tiny detail things that make ALL THE DIFFERENCE.

A handful of Parmesan, a few tiny sprigs of herbs, a drizzle of olive oil or even a sprinkle of salt and pepper can go a long way in making your food look as good as it tastes.

Learn how to get the perfect fork-twist of noodles. Practice your egg-poaching skills to get the most epic runny yolk. Make curly-cues out of your carrots instead of just chopping them so you can create a pretty little pile of them in your salad bowl.

Lines, shape, texture… pay attention to all of it and use your food in unique forms to create something beautiful.

5. MAKE IT COMPELLING

Every time you post something, you want it to be compelling in some way. There are ways you can do this visually (for example, slice an avocado in thin strips and fan them over toast – that’s a little more compelling that sloppily chopped avocado, right?) but there are also ways that this ties to your content. It should affect your decisions about what’s worth sharing.

For example – I love banana bread, but a photo of one single slice of basic, regular, plain old banana bread on a plate? not super compelling in and of itself. So what could you do to the banana bread to make it more compelling? Maybe it’s adding something to your recipe (chocolate chips JUST SAYING) or changing something about the process (caramelizing the bananas) or giving the banana bread a texture boost (crunchy sugar on top or glaze dripping down the sides)… or maybe it’s just showing a stack of banana bread slices that’s 7 pieces tall with a pat of butter melted on top because WHOA that’s much more compelling that one single flat slice of banana bread on a plate all by its lonesome.

Whether visually or by changing the nature of the food itself, make any food that you share as compelling as possible. Add a wow-factor to inspire people to engage with the content and share it with their friends.

6. Develop a Signature Look

This one is a double whammy, because while it’s good for your followers to know what to expect from you, it also makes your workflow a lot easier once you know what kind of look you want to create and what works with your followers.

Create a signature look and then just EMBRACE it.

Of course, once you know what performs well with your audience, use that as a stylistic guide, not a rule book. It doesn’t mean you have to do the same exact thing every time, but it can mean that you have somewhat of an idea in your mind of what you’re going to do the next time you approach a shoot.

7. Study Study Study

One of the most important things you can do is study people whose food photography inspires you. Spend some time bopping around Instagram or Pinterest and getting some food photography inspiration.

Look for some of the traits that you like in others’ work and identify the things you see being effective for engaging followers. Are there angles you like? Colors? Food styling specifics? Editing styles? Remember that studying isn’t copying. Studying is getting ideas for how you can make your own (creative, unique) work even better than it already is with a handful of inspiration from the people you love.

When you’re doing studying, it’s time get to work – because the follow up to study, study, study is PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

For a more in-depth experience learning how to take viral food photos, check out our two-day hands-on Food Photography Workshops.

Right now we are offering a deal for new students who sign up for summer workshops – when you sign up, you’ll get free, immediate access to a one year membership on Food Blogger Pro ($279) at no additional cost. Space is limited to 12 students per session.

The post 7 Ways to Take Viral Food Photos appeared first on Pinch of Yum.

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Healing Bowls with Turmeric Sweet Potatoes, Poached Eggs, and Lemon Dressing

Brown rice, red quinoa, turmeric sweet potatoes, lightly dressed arugula, a poached egg, pistachios, and lemon herb dressing.

!!!!

This is The Bowl Life.

When did this concept of bowls come on the scene, anyway? All is know is that sometime between maybe last year and this very moment I’ve become completely obsessed with the idea and practice of piling a bunch of foods in a bowl and calling it all fun bowl names. Oooh I know let’s have Bangkok Curry Bowls tonight! or omgosh SO CRAVING a Mediterranean Quinoa Bowl! or Netflix + Healing Bowls tonight, for sure.

I feel like it’s the millennial version of the casserole.

The only thing about bowls is that how do you make them if you are feeding a crowd? crowd as in family? I mean, I think you just make everything separately and let people kind of build their own bowls? Maybe? I only feed two people in my family so I’m not sure how these things work. Are bowls are sort of limiting in terms of who they’re practical for? Tell me what you think, wise readers who have families larger than two people.

In the meantime, all of us Cooking For One or Two peeps shall be over here assembling and devouring bowls bowls bowls more bowlssss! And I shall be working on creating a category on POY for Bowls, because I just went to categorize this recipe and it is not a salad, friends. Not a salad at all.

The Healing Bowl situation today is epically beautiful and nutritious.

GET A LOAD OF THIS.

Here’s how they come together:

We’re doing a quick steam + mash of sweet potatoes in a skillet. Adding turmeric because these are healing bowls and we need our power spices for times like these.

We’re whirring up an addicting batch of lemon herb dressing in about 5 seconds flat THANK U BLENDER.

We’re throwing some cooked brown rice and red quinoa in the bowl and feeling a moment of intense gratitude for the time-saving product that is bulk packages of Seeds of Change fully cooked whole grain products that they sell at Costco. Just saying.

We’re arranging the sweet potatoes and the arugula over the brown rice and red quinoa in the bowl, and maybe revisiting the fridge for any last minute additions to the club, and then kind of just letting it all happily soak in some of that lemon herb dressing. It’s bright and snappy and you’re going to be tempted to eat it at this point but WAIT  – THE EGG.

Okay. Let’s do this. We’re poaching an egg. I operate similarly to a toddler when it comes to my egg-poaching abilities so I use the jar-lid trick. Works like a charm every time. Here’s a post where I show off that hack. **You can also scramble the eggs but UGH scrambled eggs sometimes, guys. They’re just really hard to love. I much prefer poached eggs in the bowls (and ALWAYS).**

And finally, we’re done. We sit down to a bowl of nutritious and colorful slow food that is so filling and so packed with flavor that we wonder how we will ever eat anything else for dinner ever again.

Is this not the ultimate power food combo?

Major s/o to turmeric, sweet potatoes, arugula, brown rice, red quinoa, eggs, and garlicky lemon herb dressing. So. Much. Love.

Print

Healing Bowls with Turmeric Sweet Potatoes, Poached Eggs, and Lemon Dressing

Author: Pinch of Yum

Serves: 4

 

Ingredients

TURMERIC MASHED SWEET POTATOES:

• 2 large sweet potatoes, cut into chunks
• a swish of olive oil
• 1-2 teaspoons turmeric
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups vegetable broth

LEMON HERB DRESSING:

• ¼ cup lemon juice
• ⅓ cup olive oil
• 1 small clove garlic
• 2 teaspoons agave
• ¼ cup parsley leaves
• ¼ teaspoon salt (more to taste)

HEALING BOWLS:

• poached or scrambled eggs
• brown rice or quinoa
• arugula or spinach or greensss
• pistachios or other nuts for topping

Instructions

1. TURMERIC MASHED SWEET POTATOES: Heat the sweet potatoes with olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the turmeric and toss to coat. Add the garlic and vegetable broth. Simmer until the potatoes are soft and the liquid is almost all absorbed. Transfer to a small bowl and mash. Season with salt and pepper and/or a touch of cream if you want to be lush about it.
2. DRESSING: Pulse all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Season to taste.
3. BOWLS: Toss the greens with a little dressing. You can also stir a little dressing into the sweet potatoes - that's yummy. Serve each bowl with the mashed sweet potatoes, brown rice, greens, and a scrambled or poached or fried egg. Top with more dressing and a handful of pistachios.

Notes

This makes enough for 4 servings of mashed potatoes and dressing.

3.5.3208

 

Not including nutrition facts on this one because it’s so varied based on how you build your bowl – what whole grains you use, how much dressing, etc. 

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