My newly decided short term goal: Learn to be a more efficient food photographer. I take way too many pictures of one simple dish and the majority of them look more or less the exact same (with perhaps a slightly different angle slant or teeny bit of more or less blur). It is terribly time consuming to sort through them all and try to pick the one that looks the least blurry, best positioned etc when the differences are hardly noticeable. You would think since they are all practically the same I’d just pick one and go with it but no. I have to look and every single one, eliminate them one at a time, go back and forth and back and forth between several that I like and then finally decide on one. It can take five minutes to pick one picture of a plate of carrots! No joke. If I just took less pictures I wouldn’t have this dilemma, now would I? Probably not. Therefore this is something I will now start to consciously work on. Hopefully.
Yesterday I finally decided to try one of those hot dandy Homemade Larabars that I talked about last post. I went with the Papaya. I only had half because I want to savour them slowly… but mainly because I only felt for half at the time.
Isn’t she a beauty?
Although this one was very sweet (it was sweetened dried papaya so lots of sugar there… ), it was deeeeelicious. There were several audible “yummmms” during the brief process of eating the half. I can’t wait to try the others as well as make this much more often. Half the fun is in the creation process anyway.
After a workout I had this:
Half the package with frozen banana and almond milk. It was alright but I doubt I would buy this flavour again. I thought it would be tasty. But it was a little too orangey for me. I’ll stick with chocolate or vanilla I guess.
Post class snack was hummus and salsa with rice crackers and carrots. Yeah, straight from their respective jars and containers. Who needs plates… or portion control…
Dinner: Rice with veggies. I mixed hoisin sauce and buffalo sauce into this. Now THAT was perfection. This plate x2 = dinner.
But I was still slightly hungry. So yogurt and pumpkin seed butter mixed and served on top of cereal with almond milk it was. But that didn’t do it. So the bowl was refilled with frozen mango chunks, more cereal, and just vanilla yogurt straight up. 
I need more cute mini bowls. This one has tired out.
Then I studied and drank tea but later into the night I developed a craving for stress study eating. I wasn’t hungry in the least. I was actually still feeling pretty full. But I couldn’t get food off my mind. Trust me, I tried to resist. But I could only resist for so long.
I ended up having a couple spoons of rice, about 1/4 cup of cottage cheese, a ripped off piece of pita with salsa and about 3/4 of a cookie. Could have been much worse.
That was all yesterday’s stuff. I’ll try to update with today’s later on. Maybe tonight! If I get enough work done…
Now I’m off to do a workout and then back to more fun studying. I’m already behind by like an hour for my planned schedule of the day. Focus slacker! Ha.
PS. Week is half over!
Lighter Portions 
That’s so funny. I take so many, almost exactly the same pictures. Then I upload them and can’t decide. They always look almost the same and are never very good anyway. It’s so funny!
Hahah, it takes me a long time to snap a photograph too! I sort through them, and find out lots of them are blurry, etc.. Hahah, but yes, definitely time consuming! =)
Hope the school work is going well – I usually eat from jars when I’m too lazy to wash stuff. LOL
I want to work on my food photography too! Good luck with your new goal!
I’m so impressed with that homemade Larabar, beautiful!
Yay for Hump Day, almost to the weekend!!
I do it too! I’ve gotten better though. I have this “macro” setting on my camera that takes very good up close pics and I usually only have to take one. When I make a really pretty dish I take a lot though.
I take at least 4 or 5 photos of EVERYTHING, haha :-D
Homemade papaya Larabar??!?!!! Brilliant!!! You should submit that to the Larabar company for a new flavor idea!!
Good luck studying!!
o hoisin sauce is good on EVERYTHING!!
Kelly Turner
http://www.groundedfitness.com
i love making my own raw bars. papaya sounds like a fun flavor to try. now that i think about it, so does mango. i guess all tropical fruits would be good haha
wooooooo…..that’s bar is amazing! how did you get the bar shape?
Agree with you about photo taking to food… I take several to pick one to post. fortunately I’m a quick picker so it’s not so time consuming choosing the perfect one!
enjoy your workout!
Oh I take too many pictures too! Even my boyfriend told me last night that my food was getting cold so I should quit taking pics! :)
Yay for your homemade bars turning out!
Do you like the pumpkin seed butter? How is it compared to peanut butter? I’ve been toying with the idea of trying it but I don’t want to buy a jar only to try it once and not like it..
omg – the bar looks AWESOME. I have a magic bullet mixer and cant wait to try it!! and I take about 5 pictures of the same thing and then choose one…I want a new camera and a photography class for christmas!
I have the same picture problem!! Ugh it’s annoying too :)
Wow – amazing looking fauxlarabar!
VeggieGirl – Haha maybe I will. I think more tropical flavoured Larabars are definitely in order.
Kelly – AGREED. I love hoisin sauce.
Joanna – SO I’m pretty sure I’m going to go out and buy some dried mango now. And dried PINEAPPLE. Oh the combos for homemade bars are endless.
coco – I just pretty much shaped them with my hands and then wrapped them tightly in plastic wrap.
Mel – I’ve definitely had some dishes get a bit cold on me. Yeesh.
m – I do like it yes. I’d say it’s pretty different than peanut butter though. It’s much more… earthy maybe? It’s really hard to describe. I think it’s worth giving a try though. It’s a bit of an acquired taste. I’ve only seen it around in fairly small jars so it probably wouldn’t be too much of a waste if you tried it out.
Lauren – I adore my bullet. You must try. A photography class for christmas is such a good idea! I should consider classes someday. I really need to learn what all those darn features on my camera are all about.
love the homemade lara bars. i make them too. i make a varieety of flavors with dates, figs or raisins as the base with different nuts and extracts.
That is so funny about the photos! I do the same thing! I take a ton of photos of one dish/meal, then upload them, and then spend so much time trying to decide which one to post even though they pretty much all look the same! I need to learn how to just quickly take a couple good pictures!
that is talent, making your own bars…and i bet it’s cheaper too. kudos to you lovely lady!`
I need to learn the efficiency skills of food photos too! Just today I took over 25 pictures of my meals!!! (and they still don’t look that good!)
mmmm mmmm mmmm is all I can say to your homemade Larabar, I need to try that asap!
“It can take five minutes to pick one picture of a plate of carrots!” LOL!! You speak my life, Kristie!! I will try to take less pictures, too. We’ll see how it goes for both of us ;)
I’m so glad that the bars were a success!! Now you’ve given me the courage to perhaps try them myself.
Your blog is awesome!! I just started, so I’m adding everyone that commented on my BSI guest post, have a great day!
Caroline
Are you serious? I totally love all your pictures.
Haha, I love your goal. But your pictures are good, I have to agree with Erin. WHAT’S wrong with them? They look freakin awesome!!!
Ive always wondered how you all take such GREAT PICS all the time.
Id forget Im sure and end up with a blurry snapshot of a half eating dish.