In this Feed Your Fire podcast episode, we discuss how to drive motivation and keep the momentum as we draw inspiration from the combination of two classic recipes. Come with us as we explore how to tap into our innate hunger and drive progress to create a lasting impact on our lives.
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Episode Transcript:
Hello and welcome to Feed Your Fire. I'm Kim Baker, founder of Kim Baker Foods, and today's episode is about discovering how we can get motivated and how to create the momentum that we need to keep it going. It's this pairing of ideas that gets us to make the lasting improvements that we need in our lives, and we're going to do that while we pair two classic recipes into one fabulous meal that will make you inspired and hungry for more.
Congratulations, you showed up, and that is an important first step. On the surface, that might seem like a small step, but it's not. It's huge. It's the first step, and that's the most difficult one. So go ahead and give yourself some credit and applause and celebrate what you just did, because you are fabulous.
Now I want you to think about your goal. What is it that you want to accomplish? What is it that needs to be done? And most importantly, what is the value of that goal? That's your own subjective metric, but how you define it can make all the difference. There is a bit of an art to this. There are kind of layers. One is, what is the value on the surface, sort of externally, and then really understanding the emotional value that that pursuit has to you personally. For example, with our work, we could define the value as compensation and financial success, and that's often the default. It's kind of the easiest way to define something's value. But if you dig a little deeper, every project, task, or aspiration has emotional value, and linking the goal to that emotional value is critical.
When I first launched a food product, I set out to create something that I could share with the world, that was meaningful to me and represented my family. That actually is not the best way to create a business goal, but it was very motivating to me. It made me feel like I was taking a chance, and that created a sense of boldness in my life. It made me feel like I was giving myself the space to become and that was really exciting for me. Had my motivation simply come from external carrots, if you will, I don't think I could have endured through COVID and all the fits and starts and the exhaustion and balancing life and motherhood and working. But it tapped into something that was intrinsically motivating for me.
As you consider your own goals and objectives and you define that value, if you can set it where it's not just based on this external package, but it's connected with emotional value in your life, you're much more likely to stay in the game.
Now we need to create a sense of energy. This is critical for that momentum. We can infuse ourselves with external sources of energy, like music or the applause like you heard earlier, or we could find it inside ourselves by acknowledging the progress we've already made, no matter how small those steps may be, and giving ourselves credit for putting in that effort. Keep the future bite sized, chop it up into manageable tasks that help give you a sense of progress as you tick through them.
Those ideas are what inspired today's recipe. So we are making eggplant parmesan stuffed mushrooms. It's a blend of two classics that come together to create an absolutely amazing meal. And what I love about this recipe for today's podcast is that what we're filling the mushrooms with is what sets it apart, and it's bite sized, and that fit with the idea of how we can create lasting, sustainable motivation in our lives.
First thing that we're going to do is prepare the eggplant parmesan stuffing. I have a fresh eggplant here that I'm going to small dice, and I am going to soak it in a little bit of salt water, just for a few minutes, you'll see the water kind of become kind of a coppery color. That helps remove the bitterness from the eggplant.
While that's soaking, I'm going to prep our mushrooms. Just take a paper towel and moisten it under the faucet, and then just wipe your mushrooms to clean them up. I'm using a cremini mushroom, but you can also use a button mushroom if you prefer. We're going to pop out the stems, but we are going to use them. So what I need you to do is just trim that external, most exposed area of the stem. It's usually kind of a bit darkened from being in the packaging, discard that, and then with the remainder of the stem, just chop it up really, really finely. We're going to add that to our eggplant parmesan stuffing to just give it a little bit more of an integrated flavor.
So once you've chopped up those mushroom stems, set them aside and take the mushroom caps and put them in shallow baking dish that you just drizzle with some olive oil.
Now our eggplant has been soaking for a few minutes. We can drain that water out, and you might need to rinse it off. We don't want them to be salty. We just want to take away any bitter flavor.
Pat them dry, and then take a large saute pan and put it over medium high heat and let that warm up, and then drizzle in a generous amount of olive oil and put in that eggplant. Just let it sear a bit, toss it up and lower the heat to medium. You might need to add a little bit more oil, because eggplant tends to be like a sponge, and it'll just kind of absorb everything, season it with a little bit of salt and pepper, and let it cook for maybe three or four minutes.
Then add in some minced shallots, add your diced mushrooms, give that a minute to cook. And then we're going to add in some tomato sauce, maybe about a quarter cup and some water. We don't want the tomato sauce to be too thick, and we're going to let this kind of stew all together over that medium heat, tossing it occasionally. We want the eggplant to be tender, and so if at any point as it's cooking, you need to add a little bit more liquid. Just add in a drop more of that water. Cooking that eggplant mixture should take no more than eight to 10 minutes.
Then take those mushroom caps and season them with a little bit of pepper. We're going to hold off on salting them for now, and scoop in your eggplant mixture, really being generous, to fill up that cavity and kind of make it overflow. Put any of the remaining eggplant that doesn't fit inside the mushrooms in the bottom of that shallow baking dish, and just add a touch of water so there's a thin, moist layer of flavorful ingredients for the mushrooms to cook in, then sprinkle on some panko breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese and pop the mushrooms in the oven, set to about 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.
Once the mushrooms are tender and cooked through, I like to add a little bit of mozzarella on top, and then just pop it under the broiler for a second to have like, a bit of a melty cheese on top. That's totally optional. Then remove it from the oven and season it with some salt and a little extra Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle a bit of chopped parsley, and if you have it some chopped basil, and then you're ready to eat them.
Growing up, we ate stuffed mushrooms just about every holiday. They were kind of more classically prepared with a bread crumb mixture. And we also had eggplant parmesan fairly frequently. And so this recipe ties into something that has a significance for me, and as you set out on your tasks, projects, aspirations, aligning that work with that type of purpose is a really useful way to keep your motivation sustained. Often, the things that we have to do in life are a little bit less desirable than this meal we just prepared, and that's because most of the things that we do on a day-to-day basis are in service to and are a step towards something else.
If, when I sat down to record this episode, I thought of it as creating a 10 minute piece of content, it would certainly be less motivating than being a step in creating a podcast that connects with you and shares the way we can grow together and have food be part of that experience. This recording is simply progress. It's building that momentum.
Often we can confuse momentum with time and speed, but by definition, momentum is based on velocity, which has to do with the magnitude and direction of something. So set your sights on meaningful motion, and along the way, enjoy bite sized experiences that fill you from the inside. Until our next episode, I say so long.
Feed Your Fire, where food nourishes growth.