Orzo with Chicken and Peas

Today I transfered the photos from my "Food" folder to a sub-folder "2007." There were 170 photos. I was a bit shocked by that, really, since the whole picture taking thing only started when, after bugging a friend to post more pictures more often (of anything, he doesn't do food photography), he told me that I should reciprocate. I couldn't think what to take pictures of (I don't have a photographer's eye at all), so... food.

It pushed me to try harder. In the kitchen, I mean. I love cooking, but a lot of the time I found cooking for one a little bit overwhelming. I don't like or want to eat leftovers for three days after making anything... but so many cookbooks are designed for 4-6 serving recipes.

What I've discovered is that it is a lot easier to cut recipes down for one than you'd expect. I've maybe just gotten good at it, but I can tell now when and where I need to adjust amounts. I've figured out what things don't adjust well. I've learned a lot about what can be frozen. I've discovered that I eat more healthy more often when I change things up a lot.

I have a tendency to fall into ruts when I get tired of cooking - I used to eat toast for dinner for a week straight, sometimes - but one of the rules I had for myself is that I'd not post duplicate pictures. (I've broken that rule a couple times when I've changed things or much preferred the later photo.) Not posting duplicates meant that if I wanted to keep up a fairly steady posting schedule, then I had to keep trying new things. And trying new things makes it much harder to fall into a rut because there's always some new plan coming up.

Anyway, I didn't really want to post some long year in review type thing and now I've gone and done it.

So, the food.

This recipe is one that I found on another food blog, Culinography. (Her picture is much prettier than mine - see here.) I've been craving carbs a lot lately - my last four picture-worthy meals have been pasta dishes, and for lunch today I had a sandwich - and today I'm not feeling especially great, so this recipe was perfect for me. Quick, easy, and a little bit carby.

I think my carb craving is maybe something to do with winter (or something to do with having eaten so many of them over the Christmas holidays and now I just don't want to go back to my usual light-on-the-carbs diet) and this was a bit too light to be a good solid winter dish. But that's probably a good thing, since I need/want to put the kibosh on eating heavy foods for a while anyway. (I shall promptly follow up that statement with a dinner of meat and potatoes later on this week. But never mind that.)