Monday, March 31, 2008

Recipe--Bruschetta Chicken Bake

Good morning!  I feel wonderful this morning...it is raining, which should be depressing but I just keep thinking spring is not far off and at least it's not snowing!  It just feels like one of those "life is good" days.

I am "this" close to getting my Photo Montage company us and running.  I'm mainly just waiting on my web site to get set up.  A friend of Ray's is suppose to do it, but if it takes much longer I may just ask David to set it up.  He said he knows how to do it.  I really want to get started here but I need to have that web site up. 

My kids are all healthy and happy.  My relationship is, as usual, wonderful...most of the time.  LOL  There is food in the house and we are doing okay.  What more could one ask for.  Especially these days and with this economy.  Well, okay...more work...which means more money.  At least full time hours for the ol' man.  Not this B.S. of working 2-3 days a week. 

Okay, time to get on with the usual stuff, here is a tasty little recipe I found at the Kraft web site.

Bruschetta Chicken Bake
Prep Time:
10 min    Total Time: 40 min   Makes: 6 servings, 1 cup each

1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 pkg.  (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix for Chicken
1/2 cup water
2 cloves  garlic, minced
1-1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp.  dried basil leaves
1 cup KRAFT Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese


PREHEAT
oven to 400°F. Place tomatoes in medium bowl. Add stuffing mix, water and garlic; stir just until stuffing mix is moistened. Set aside.

PLACE
chicken in 13x9-inch baking dish; sprinkle with the basil and cheese. Top with stuffing mixture.

BAKE
30 min. or until chicken is cooked through.

Kraft Kitchens Tips
Serving Suggestion-Serve with cooked green beans and a bagged salad tossed with your favorite KRAFT Light Reduced Fat Dressing.
Substitute-Prepare as directed, omitting the garlic and using STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix Italian Style with Roasted Garlic.

This is a copy of my Daily OM for today.  I thought it was interesting article and wanted to share it with ya'll.

March 31, 2008
Unblocking The Ally

Habitual Anger

Sometimes when we feel anger, it is coming from a deep place that demands acknowledgment and expression. At these times, it is important that we find healthy ways to honor our anger, remembering how dangerous it is to repress it. However, anger can also become a habit, our go-to emotion whenever things go wrong. Often this is because, for whatever reason, we feel more comfortable expressing anger than we do other emotions, like sadness. It can also be that getting angry gives us the impression that we’ve done something about our problem. In these cases, our habitual anger is inhibiting both our ability to express our other emotions and to take action in our lives.

If it’s true that anger is functioning this way in your life, the first thing you might want to try is to notice when you get angry. Youmight begin to see a pattern of some kind. For example, you could notice that it is always your first response or that it comes up a lot in one particular situation. If the pattern doesn’t become clear right away, you could try keeping a journal about when you get angry and see if you can find any underlying meaning. The good thing about keeping a journal is that you can explore your anger more deeply in it—from examining who in your family of origin expressed a lot of anger to how you feel when you encounter anger in others. This kind of awareness can be a formidable agent of transformation.

Anger can be a powerful ally, since it is filled with energy that we can harness and use to create change in the world. It is one of the most cathartic emotions, and it can also be a very effective cleanser of the emotional system. However, when it becomes a habit, it actually loses its power to transform and becomes an obstacle to growth. Identifying the role anger plays in your life and restoring it to its proper function can bring new energy and expansiveness to your emotional life.

I found it to be a very interesting and informative article.  I like the idea of keeping an anger journal, what a good idea to find out what it is that triggers your anger.  I like the idea of examining more than just what makes you angry.  For example, looking at anger in your family (as a child) and how other peoples anger makes you feel.

Oh my, I could almost fill up a journal just on anger in others and how that makes me feel.  LOL  Anger in others doesn't just illicit an emotional response.  I develop real feelings of nausea and my pulse races.  It's a total feeling of fear or dread.  It's like I'm waiting for the shoe to drop...on me...and it's not a shoe, but a huge brick. 

It's as if I'm waiting for the big storm to hit and the anticipation or fear of it nearly makes me sick.  I may even "poke" the big bad bear to get it over with quicker.  Or I may become angry myself and fuel the fire that way.  Or I may just take cover and run, as in actually leave to get away from the angry situation.  Or I'll just sit and stare at the person and think about how stupid I think they are and have a totally different conversation in my own mind. 

Hm, yeah...an anger journal might be a good thing for me to do.  LOL

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Jill Marie,
Wow what an interesting topic!
hey way to go!
Sounds like you were a psychology major in college!woo hoo!
Anger is viewed by our culture as scary and I do think that it sounds as though you are a bit scared of it... could that be true?
I'm not sure that generalizations work for me..I think passionate people defiantely have joy and anger and they can be used as tools to work on our issues
love,natalie (Lurkynat)