I have been thinking a lot about balance recently – mainly because my life is severely lacking in the balance department.  With a fairly demanding work schedule, coupled with the bakery’s busy season, on top of being a new wife and learning the ins and outs of marriage, and trying to eat healthy, and trying to exercise, and working on the blog, I am pretty overwhelmed.  I have not quite mastered how to make it all work.  And that is pretty much the answer in and of itself – it can’t all work.  I need a better balance of work and play, of marriage and me.

While trying to affect change at work may be more difficult, I can make changes at home.  Scott and I have renewed our focus on living a healthier lifestyle.   A dual gym membership is helping us to motivate each other to get moving, and I am working on refocusing our meals.   Again, determined to take back control in my life, I have armed myself with a new subscription to Cooking Light – a great resource I have used in the past.  Tonight’s dinner was my first “new healthy” recipe.   Pork Noodle Salad is a perfect metaphor of what I’d like my life to be: light, colorful, and balanced.  Balance is key theme in Asian culture and is very evident in their cuisine.  This salad, although not authentic Asian, demonstrates how a dinner can be “balanced.”  The lean pork chops are lightly glazed with a sweet ginger garlic hoisin sauce.  In contrast, the cold noodles are tossed with Mirin (a sweetened Sake Wine) and rice wine vinegar to give a nice pop of acid.  The rice noodles offer a light and airy softness to contrast the crisp vegetables.  Peanuts add to the crunch and also add a hint of salt.  The dish is then garnished with scallions and basil.  (I continue to marvel at how such a stereotypically Italian herb can be so perfect and so not-Italian when used in Asian cuisine.)  Sweet, salty, acidic, soft and crunchy; this plate is very well balanced.  Nothing stands out, yet nothing is lost.  Each component plays its part and creates a truly satisfying dish when they all come together.  (Plus, did I mention healthy and quick?  What could add more balance to your life than a quick meal that is actually good for you?)

So come along on my journey to balance my life.  I promise it won’t be easy and I am sure there will be plenty of bumps (not to mention some not-so-healthy comfort foods – hey this is all about balance, right?)  But there should be a lot of great healthy meals to come out of this new goal.

Recipe: Pork Noodle Salad