Little Bow Ties

My New Year's resolution to go to the gym more has been haunting me. I have yet to go to a gym this year. I didn't even realize my gym had apparently been bought out by another company. I go through a cycle that starts with me feeling a bit unhappy with myself, so I work out and eat better, then I look better, so then I start cheating just a little. Then I cheat a lot. Then I become completely self-indulgent until I get to a point that putting jeans on in the morning is like trying to stuff sausage casings.

I am not trying to say that being skinnier is better, or sexier. I believe in something called "happy weight". Happy weight refers to whatever size or weight you feel your best at. It can be any size. Currently I am larger than my happy weight and my goal is to get back down to it. The reason why I am talking about it on my blog is to be held accountable. I don't want to get to a month from now, and not be able to say I am closer to my goal.

What I am trying to accomplish overall is being able to love myself a bit more. A blog that I read quite often is Gala Darling, and she is declaring February as the month for radical self love. This may sound hokey to some of you, but personally I think it's a great idea. So many times we fall into a trap of impressing other people, when really we need to learn to truly love ourselves.

Her blog said that if you were going to follow her radical self love, to post one of her images on your blog. Throughout the next month you may see me referencing her "Radical Self Love" articles, but I will not forget about my main topic, food.

I'll start off with the salad I made yesterday, as an appetizer of course. I took mixed salad greens and topped them with chopped carrot, celery, green onion, cucumber and red bell pepper (capsicum). The point is to load the salad with as much vegetables as possible. I topped it with a shallot vinaigrette, from Everyday Food.

The ingredients of the dressing are minced shallots, olive oil, Dijon mustard, honey and red wine vinegar. They balance each other perfectly, the dressing is light, refreshing and full of flavor.

I made a chicken recipe from Rachael Ray. It's supposed to be Chicken with Wild Mushroom and Balsamic Cream Sauce. My finished product wasn't a sauce, but it was delicious nonetheless.

You start off by chopping up a ton of mushrooms (different varieties).

I meant a ton.

The mushrooms are cooked down in butter, then shallots, garlic and thyme are added. Followed with some flour, chicken stock, balsamic vinegar and cream. (There are only 3 tbsp of cream in the sauce, which isn't much at all)

The recipe calls for the cooked chicken breast to be placed on a bed of orzo and topped with the sauce. I had bought a bag of mini bow ties a while ago, so I used those in place of the orzo. (Orzo is a small pasta in the shape of large rice).

Rachael's recipe called for eyeballing a tbsp of balsamic vinegar, and I eyeballed two of them. When it comes to balsamic I always use a little bit more since I love it. I also eyeballed the chicken stock, and I must not have added nearly enough. If you make this, and you use the full amount of stock, you will end up with a beautiful sauce rather than the thick topping I had.

While not a sauce, the result was very good. Had anyone been watching me eat dinner, I think I would have scared them with the amount of voracity I showed while wolfing this down.

The "not sauce" sauce.

Look at how cute those bow ties are!