Turmeric Rice Pumpkin Bowls

It’s been one year since my first post, the Decadent Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe, and in honor of the first anniversary of The Creative Palate, it’s time we delved into the meaning of creativity.

When one thinks of creativity, the image of an artist with a paintbrush or a novelist with a typewriter comes to mind. Contrarily, the definition of creativity is “the tendency to solve problems or create things in new ways.” In short, you don’t need to be an artist to be creative. Many entrepreneurs and businessmen are creatives without the art.

The main components of creativity are:

1. Originality and novel ideas
2. Functionality where the ideas are useful or workable

Someone can have a great thought to build a robot self-playing violin without a clue of how to do it. This ignorance discounts the idea from being creative because the person is not creating anything.

Types of Creativity

If you have met more than one person in your life, you would know that everyone is different, even among the creative folk. Psychologists have narrowed the categories down to these four:

1. “Mini-c” creativity pertains to meaningful ideas and insights only known to the creator.
2. “Little-c” creativity involves practical everyday thinking and problem-solving. These people use creativity to solve issues and adapt to new environments.
3. “Pro-C” creativity is among professionals who are skilled in their field and use creativity in the vocation, although they never receive distinction for their work.
4. “Big-C” creativity is similar to “Pro-C” except these people are considered great in their field and lead to world-changing creations in medicine, technology, and art.

Despite the stereotype, art is only a fraction of what creative thinkers can do.

 

Key Traits for Creative People

1. Energy – Creatives tend to be full of physical and mental energy, yet paradoxically seem to spend a lot of time in solitude thinking and reflecting.
2. Intelligence – Psychologists have long found that intelligence is intertwined with creativity. Although while creatives are smart, they also must be capable of seeing things in fresh, and even naive, ways.
3. Discipline – Successful creative people know that if they would wait for inspiration to work, they will never finish anything. While they love what they do, they must be disciplined to work despite creative blocks and motivation slumps.

Creativity isn’t something that can be used up, like sand in an hourglass. Think of it as a muscle; the more you train it, the more you use it.

Turmeric Rice Pumpkin Bowls

Ingredients:

• 12 baby pumpkins
• 1 onion
• 2 cups long grain brown rice
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 3 1/2 water
• 2 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp turmeric
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Bake the pumpkins on a cookie sheet for 20-25 minutes.
3. When the pumpkins are cool enough to touch, cut the tops off of the pumpkins and scoop out of the seeds.
4. Dice the onion and saute in the olive oil for 15-20 minutes until softened and translucent.
5.  Add the rice and water to the saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 40 minutes.
6. Season the rice with the salt, pepper, turmeric, and lemon zest.
7. Fill the pumpkins with the turmeric rice and top with the pumpkin stems.
8. Serve warm or cool.

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