A work in progress

New year, new you? Not me. Rather than resolutions, I'm more of an evolution type of girl.
It's not that I don't believe in making resolutions. They're great. For other people.
To me, a resolution is too daunting because of the potential for failure. What if I can't do it or if I feel like bailing along the way? The risk vs. the reward just doesn't do it for me.
Instead, I figure if I identify a goal and head in a forward motion in that general direction, then life is good and, possibly, rewarding.
And so, with that philosophy in mind, I'm getting back to the old blog and charting a new course. Not that I'm making any commitment to write any more frequently than I have in the past half a year — although, I think I can do better than once a month. And, it could be that this new venture runs its course in a few weeks or months. Along with not making resolutions, I don't do promises.
So, here's the plan: I'm going to keep with the concept of daily life, but I'm going to add in an element from my yoga classes, where I get to visit with a variety of wonderful women every day; women of all ages, occupations and life paths.
The commonality that we share beyond yoga is a sense of bliss that we take from class and into the world beyond. We don't spend much time with each other beyond the 45-minute class, but we do enjoy passing along thoughts on everything from parenting to recipes and good finds in faraway places.
I also often get asked such questions as how to dress for running outdoors in the winter, what running shoes I like, what I do to stay in shape or where I get my workout clothes.
So today, after exchanging email addresses for recipes and talking about a new restaurant in Minneapolis, the thought occurred to me that lifeontherun could be a place to exchange ideas and information.
With that, I pass along a fabulous recipe for Malaysian Chicken Pizza from Cooking Light magazine:

3/4 c rice vinegar
1/4 c firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 c low-sodium soy sauce
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger
2 tbsp chunky peanut butter
1/2 to 3/4 tsp crushed red pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced
cooking spray (I use olive oil)
1/2 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 c (2 oz) shredded reduced fat swiss cheese
1/4 c (1 oz) shredded part-skim mozzarella
1 12-inch pizza crust (make from scratch or use a mix)
1/4 c chopped green onions

1. Preheat oven to 500˚
2. Combine 1st 8 ingredients in a bowl, stir well with whisk.
3. Heat skillet coated with cooking spray. Add chicken and saute for 2 minutes. Remove chicken from pan.
4. Pour rice vinegar mixture into pan and bring to boil over medium heat. Cook mixture 6 minutes or until slightly thickened. Return chicken to pan, cook 1 minute or until chicken is done. (mixture will be consistency of thick syrup)
5. Sprinkle cheeses over prepared crust and top with chicken mixture. Bake at 500˚ for 12 minutes on bottom rack. Sprinkle with green onions. Let stand a few minutes and serve. Yield 6 servings.
(You can also cook on the grill: Brush grill with olive oil, place dough on grill & let cook briefly before flipping over. Put toppings on and cook until done.)

Calories 293 / Fat 7.3 g / Protein 18.2g / Carb 38.3g / Fiber 1.8g