New Coat and Honey Sesame Chicken

pants: DNKY via Ross
socks: Target
shoes: Aerosole
sweater: Macy's
coat: Target (!!!)

My Mom and Dad are very generous, and each winter during their sojourn in Arizona, Mom picks out one large-ish gift to buy me to remind us of our wonderful fun shopping trips together.  This year we found it on our first adventure - this beautiful new coat!

Look at the buttons!!! 

And the polka-dots!

I like to pretend dots are a solid and wear them with a floral or a stripe

(as in the above picture).

I LOVE THIS COAT!

I'm planning a trip to Minnesota again in early April, so I'll be sure to take it with me so it will get worn the whole time!

I also found some completely amazing jeans at Macy's.

I am extremely picky about jeans because I don't like jeans that have a stiff waistband and I don't like jeans that don't move well (I like to be able to sit and run and bend and sit on the floor!)

These are adorable . . . 

and they have a wide elastic waistband!

Not so wide or stretchy that I can gain a hundred pounds and not notice, though.

They will still keep me in check because they're slim-fitting overall.

They're amazing and I got them in a light wash (this one) and a darker wash).

I'm not going to take a picture of my butt, but believe me that these make that look cute, too!

boyfriend style leggings

I have been feeling uninspired and unsuccessful with cooking and meals lately. 

I feel as if my digestive system isn't happy with anything except french fries and corn puffs, but I can't get adequate nutrition that way!

So I've been reading and looking up recipes that sound good to me and have been trying some out.

I tried out a peanut sauce with cucumbers that was too rich for me:

I sprinkled feta cheese on top.

I may try the peanut sauce again more watered down.  Or a different recipe altogether.

Then last Friday, I decided to try a whole new meal - and it was a big risk because I

decided to try Honey Sesame Chicken, and I have tried Asian meals MANY times and always failed to get the meat coating and the texture/thickness/bubbly-ness of the sauce right.

But then I found this recipe, and it is a BAKED recipe, which was significantly different from what I've tried before, so I decided to try again.

And I'm thrilled that I did!!!!!

First the chicken is dipped in corn starch, then beaten eggs and cooked in olive oil (or sesame oil, which I didn't have).  The sauce is made up and poured over the chicken in a pan and popped into the oven for 45 minutes, where it emits a lovely smell that made my mouth water.

The sauce got thicker and thicker.

Next time I'm making at least twice as much sauce because I didn't use very much chicken this time and there was still barely enough sauce for everything.  This time there was a confounding factor - Greg was extra late home from work, so I turned the oven off but left the chicken in there, which left the sauce to thicken even more - it was lovely and sticky and sweet and tasty, but next time I won't leave it in so long.

Here it is with the sesame seeds on top!

add brown rice . . . 

And steamed broccoli (not for Greg!)

And it was DELICIOUS!

I think I'm going to try this version tonight!