Being Calm in the Midst of Bacon!

Here is another picture from my Color Me Calm coloring book:Mmmmm.....Soothing tea!  I like what it says too:

On the surface, calm may seem weak.  It is anything but.

It's true-it takes a lot of strength to use my coping skills and remain calm when I am triggered.  There have been a few times lately when I have been triggered and I have managed to remain at least somewhat calm and to not act out.  That is a great accomplishment for me.

I am also a lot more calm around food than I used to be.  It used to be that I only felt secure eating salads and boring salads with no dressing or cheese or anything else tasty, at that!  Ugh!  I'm so glad that those days are behind me.  So here is a salad that is anything but boring, as it is based on a sandwich that features two of my old fear foods: bacon and mayo!

BLT Salad with Basil Mayo

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound bacon
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
• 4 slices French bread, cut into 1/2 inch pieces croutons
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 pound romaine lettuce - rinsed, dried, and torn into bite-size pieces
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered

Quartered Tomatoes - Don't they look like beautiful, sparkling rubies?

And the ingredient that used to be feared:

Directions

1. Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside, reserving 2 tablespoons of the drippings.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the reserved bacon drippings, mayonnaise, vinegar and basil and let dressing stand, covered, at room temperature.

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3. In a large skillet over medium heat, toss the bread pieces with the salt and pepper. Drizzle with the oil, continue tossing and cook over medium-low heat until golden brown.  Or just buy some croutons in a box!  lol
4.  In a large bowl mix together the romaine, tomatoes, bacon and croutons. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well.

This was a light and very delicious salad!  Perfect for summer dinners and I am so glad that I am now able to be calm around the once-so-scary bacon and mayo combination!
 As you can see, I made a little sauce to dip my roll in made out of tahini and honey.  Yum!  Salads don't have to be boring and just so you know, being calm is not being boring either-it's being strong.  It's a strength that comes from seeing myself triumph over previous triggers and being able to now rest assured that I can do so again.

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Stalled at 12 - There is only so much mileage you can get off of being intuitive in disturbing ways.