Hygge Ideas from Our House

Discover how the Scandinavian concept of hygge can transform your winter blues into a season of warmth and joy. On this episode of the Create Harmony podcast, I share my personal journey towards embracing coziness and contentment amidst winter's chill. Learn how simple pleasures like lighting candles, snuggling under blankets, and cooking nourishing meals can elevate your spirits and boost your immunity. With our ongoing winter well-being series, I promise to provide you with practical insights and heartwarming rituals that invite peace and joy into your everyday life.

You'll also get a taste of  our family's beloved winter traditions—As I walk you through these recipe, you'll find inspiration to create your own hygge ambiance, nourishing both body and soul. 

To learn more, go to mycreateharmony.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Welcome back to the Create Harmony podcast. This is a place where we set an intentional rhythm and we really savor life's blessings. We like to learn how to use our imagination as a way of listening to God. We center ourselves on raising your well-being, on refocusing you, on peace and joy and refreshing your life. So in this place, you and I can take a few minutes to celebrate everyday joys and to remind ourselves how to notice goodness that is all around us. So this is episode 112, and I am your host, sally Burlington.

Speaker 1: 0:43

We are still journeying through our winter well-being series. This is a series we do throughout the winter season and it's where we focus on things that can lift our spirits during colder, darker months of the year. During the winter time, we try to focus on things that are cozy and snuggly and ways to declutter and some winter self-care, and so we are doing that right now, and today we're going to focus on the concept of hygge, so a hygge lifestyle. It comes from the Scandinavian world and it's the concept of coziness and contentment and how to find that. It involves enjoying simple life pleasures and it really fits nicely into our winter well-being idea. We've touched on this a little bit this year during winter well-being, but we're going to dwell on it a little bit more today. Now in our house we have some go-to options that we use to create hygge ambiance, and they're not only is it, you know, lighting a candle and having a cozy blanket. They're things that we do, recipes that we make and things that we do during the winter, and the extra benefit is that most of them help boost your immunity and you do have better well-being when you are more well. So we're going to go to that right now. But before we get to that, during last year's winter well-being we did an episode where I shared some juice shot recipes.

Speaker 1: 2:12

We talked about a tonic that you can take, called fire cider and that is supposed to cure any ailment. I still haven't made any fire cider. It seems a little intimidating to me because it's like onions and apple cider vinegar and ginger, and you know you make it, and a little intimidating to me because it's like onions and apple cider vinegar and ginger, and you know you make it and then take it to cure all your ailments. But if you want more on that, you can go back and listen to episode 59, and that's where all of that stuff is reviewed. So back to our hygge ideas here in this winter.

Speaker 1: 2:42

One of the things we like to do during winter at our house is eat a lot of soup. We like to make a hot pot of soup. We put it in our slow cooker and that is just how we cozy down and have dinner during this season. Now we try to get as many nutrients as we can packed into our soups, so we will have a pot of soup many nights of the week, and one of my favorite easy recipes is what we call v8 soup. So here's how it works.

Speaker 1: 3:15

First you brown some meat. Now I usually brown the meat in the in the slow cooker or crock pot before I put any of the other ingredients in. When when I say meat at our house, what I mean is ground turkey, because one of my daughters does not eat beef, so we always use ground turkey. We're used to that and that's what we use. But you could certainly use ground beef. That's what the recipe calls for. So you brown the meat in the bottom of the slow cooker and then you add a bag of frozen mixed veggies. And now this is like your peas, carrots, corn, green beans, etc. You just add the whole frozen bag straight from the freezer and the next step is that you add a whole container of V8 juice. So this is, you know, like your tomato V8 juice and it is filled with vitamins and minerals and it flavors the soup nicely with the tomatoes and it really boosts your immunity. Now, if you I live in North Carolina, but if you live somewhere else in the world, I don't know what the you may not be able to get V8 juice and I'm not sure what the substitute is. But you can work that out, find something that's similar to V8 juice to add to your soup, and the benefit here is that you are, like I said, getting all those vitamins and those minerals super easy. So at the very end, once you've added all of those things, you just add a can of cream of celery soup and that makes it more creamy. If you don't like using creamy soups, you could just serve it without the soup, but it does make it creamier and, you know, more cozy. So I will be putting the recipe for this V8 soup on my newsletter so that you can get the actual specifics and you can remember them. But give it a try. It's easy, it's yummy and it's it's healthy-ish. So give that a try.

Speaker 1: 5:04

One of the other things we like to make at our house is hot cider and we drink this on really cold nights. Sometimes we make a pot of soup and we have some hot cider with it. So you can do that. You can drink it before bed. It's very soothing. The way you do it is you can just choose various juices. I particularly choose from a variety of grapefruit juice, tart cherry juice, apple juice, orange juice, cranberry Mix it to your taste. It gets a different flavor based on which juices you choose and which combination you have. I usually buy a container of apple cider which is different from apple juice. You know it has a little bit more tang to it to add to the mix because I like the way that that enhances the flavor. I also buy and add Aspen brand spice mix A-S-P-E-N and that's just a brand of spice mix that has some nutmeg, some cloves, some different spices. It does have a fair amount of sugar in it, so you just adjust that to your liking, but it just really creates a sweet treat. It's soothing to the soul and it just warms you from the inside to the out. So try that on a cold winter night.

Speaker 1: 6:15

Another thing we've been trying this year is growing microgreens. So this is kind of like sprouts, except they're smaller and kind of younger. And the benefit here the reason this is so hygge is because you get to grow something. It creates some atmosphere of seeds sprouting in your house and you see that life, something coming to life. As well as you can eat them and they're healthy, you can add them to your diet, you can put them over your salad, you can put them on a sandwich, you can just grab a handful and have a quick and healthy snack. So here's how you do it, or this is how I have done it. You may have a different method, but this is how I have done it.

Speaker 1: 6:52

You can buy a tray. A little. I bought plastic trays with jute mats. They have these kits. You find them online. It's a tray with a jute mat and then you can buy the seeds. Sometimes the kits come with the seeds or you can buy the seeds separately.

Speaker 1: 7:10

So far I have tried arugula because we really love arugula around here and beets. I did a tray of beets and a tray of arugula and the way that it works is that you take the tray, you put the jute mat down in there and then you soak it in water and get it really saturated and wet and then you sprinkle the seeds over top and then you just there's a little cover at first over the tray. You let that begin to germinate and in about seven to ten days the little sprouts come up. You take the cover off, give it some sunlight and then you've got sprouts. I will say that we, so far our arugula has gotten to its. You know it's grown as much as it needed to grow. It's ready and we've been eating it and it is full grown.

Speaker 1: 7:50

Arugula has a peppery taste. It has a real bite to it. Well, these sprouts, it really packs a punch. I mean, it is extremely peppery and spicy. Our beets have not quite gotten to their full growth. They're still germinating, if you will. So we're still watching those. I haven't the jury's still out on those. And there are other things you can get. You can buy broccoli, you can buy lettuce, you can buy, you know, all sorts of different kinds of seeds and grow them into microgreens. So you might, you might try that and give yourself a little winter activity gives you a chance to grow something and snack on something very healthy.

Speaker 1: 8:30

So my last idea is a little bit counterintuitive to hygge, because in hygge it's all about soft lighting and you know sometimes candlelight or dimmed lighting, and this idea is a happy light. So what it is is basically a light source or a light bulb that helps prevent seasonal affective disorder. So having exposure to this happy light each day, it really helps boost your mood. It can help your sleep. Having said that, sunlight is always the best option. If you can get outside and get some actual sunlight, get some vitamin D during the colder, darker months, that's the best choice. But that's not always possible every single day, and so it's good to have a happy light. You can just buy again, buy them online. They really do work. They help raise your well-being and lighten up your day. So try a happy light during this winter season. So hopefully you enjoyed all of those tips and you can incorporate a little bit more hygge into your life.

Speaker 1: 9:33

So for our closing today I am going to share the hygge manifesto from the little book of hygge. It's a list, a top 10 list that you need in order to live a more hygge life. And here it is. Number one atmosphere Turn down the lights. Number two presence Be here now, turn off your phone. Number three pleasure. Think about coffee, cookies, chestnuts, anything that candy and cakes, anything that gives you pleasure.

Speaker 1: 10:17

Number four equality. We over me. Number five gratitude. Take this in. This might be as good as it gets.

Speaker 1: 10:31

Number six harmony. Life is not a competition. We already like you. There is no need to brag about your achievements. Number seven comfort. Get comfy, take a break. It's all about relaxation. Number eight truce. No drama. Let's discuss politics another day, or maybe never. Number nine togetherness. Build relationships and narratives. Number 10, shelter. This is your tribe. This is a place of peace and security. So that's your top 10 list of how to hygge up your life. Think about those things to bring a little bit more hygge into your routine. And thanks so much for joining us today as we contemplated how to be more hygge during this winter season and also, just as a side benefit, how to boost our immune systems a little bit. Next week we'll be back with some tips on what to do if someone in your house is sick. Well, you know some fresh cleaners and some things, some ways to avoid the sickness spreading. So hopefully you'll come back for that next time. And until next time, peace, thank you.