I’ve been thinking about this here blog for the past few weeks. It seems I’ve developed a blogging pattern that consists of getting really energized and having a lot of ideas, and all I want to do is sit and write and share with you, but then I lose steam and feel like nothing I write about is very interesting or worth reading so I disappear for a week or two until I get energized again. I don’t like that pattern and I’m sure it certainly isn’t fun for my readers, but impostor syndrome and feeling like a fraud is really hard to shake. If you experience it, you know what I mean!

But I’ve really started to evaluate my role as a blogger — or, more accurately, my desire to be a blogger — because I was watching Instagram stories the other day and I found some of them to be riveting. And that made me wonder what it is about these stories that caught and held my attention, and I realized that it’s because I could relate to them in some way; my stories aren’t that much different from theirs. So maybe what I have to share really is *that* interesting… or maybe not since it’s already been done. Are you catching on to my thought process here? It’s exhausting to think this way all the time.

I’ve been thinking about the blog because I want to write more consistently. But blogging takes a lot of work and effort. Sometimes I feel that if I spend too much time blogging then I’m not being truly present in my life and I’m missing out on time with my son. But then I’m neglecting my blog and my passion. So how do I find that balance of being present in each moment but still devoted to blogging about those moments? How do you other bloggers do it? A few of the bloggers I really like have given birth recently and I love seeing stories about their beautiful new babies. I have a baby, and I’m sure that sharing stories about our day and the silly things he does would be pretty entertaining.

Anyway, this post has been a draft for a while now. Why? Because it wasn’t finished. It wasn’t perfect. It didn’t have the right pictures. I didn’t think anyone would care. Any maybe no one does care. Maybe I’m yelling out into the void. But if a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one there to hear, does it still make a sound? You betcha. So, I’m pressing publish and making my sound. I just hope there’s someone out there in the forest who wants to hear it.

I didn’t make any official New Year’s resolutions this year, either for myself nor for the blog but one thing I would like to do is share more lifestyle posts since I consider this a “lifestyle blog.” My first lifestyle post for this year is food-related. I am terrible at coming up with my own recipes but I’m great at following instructions and putting my personal spin on existing recipes – much like I do with my fashion. For example, I often make this Charred Chile Relleno recipe by Rachael Ray but I add chorizo and skip the green rice.

I’m a big fan of Gina at Skinnytaste.com so I try her recipes regularly. I can honestly say that I’ve never been disappointed by anything I’ve tried from her site, and she’s really good with cooking directions. The other night, Nick and I decided to try her Bangin’ Good Chicken Salad recipe. It definitely lives up to the name. It’s extremely easy and simple and I’ll definitely be making it again. But, of course, I put my own spin on it. More on that below.

It starts with romaine lettuce and red cabbage. Look at those beautiful colors: green and purple, my wedding colors! 😉

For the chicken, simply cut up a chicken breast (or some chicken tenders, which is what we used) into bite-sized pieces, coat them in a little olive oil, cover them in breadcrumbs, and bake for 8-12 minutes. Baking the chicken doesn’t give it quite the crunch that frying would, but it still turned out really yummy.

My personal spin is that I decided not to make the skinny bang bang sauce as specified in the recipe. Instead, I found a bang bang sauce that has become my go-to so I used it instead. The recipe I use is fromThat’s So Michelle and can be found on her blog here. (I haven’t tried that actual recipe yet but I have used that recipe with shrimp instead of cauliflower and it actually turned out to be amazing)

So, with the greens, chicken, and bang bang sauce, this recipe was a hit. The ONLY thing I would change for next time would be to add more vegetables to the salad since we ate it as our main course without any sides, so maybe some red bell peppers, carrots, snap peas, cauliflower, and/or edamame.

I hope you enjoyed this post and  don’t mind seeing more like them. What do you think, would you try this recipe? Do you come up with your own meals or put your own spin on other recipes?