Chicken breast ...

 That's the beginning. Right now, there are so many delightful aromas wafting through this room, dancing with each other, warming the air as they pass - spices, citrus, oil, peppers- oh, so deep and rich, beckoning "Come hither and let us dance upon your tongue and warm your belly."

  The chicken breasts were placed into the white ceramic casserole dish, where they sat in their squared cell and waited to be transformed.

In a separate dish, arrowroot powder jumped, happily, from its former residence and waited patiently as its dancing partners wandered in.

A little honey, a little sugar, mandarin orange marmalade all gave it a sweet kiss, whilst the cinnamon, ginger, and garlic whispered spicy promises of delightful things to come.

Peach/pineapple chipolte salsa, a wonderfully cheap treat from Walmart, soon arrived and all were whirled and swirled together, and then doused with much, much orange juice. Oh yes, and some crumbled pinch of cloves came along for the ride.

I spiced the chicken with chili, onion and garlic powder after piercing each breast, repeatedly;  thinking better of it, I tossed a few red pepper flakes on top; then, poured the sauce in, and cooked it at 300 degrees for approximately 1 hr 10 minutes.

Turning up the heat, I left it to its own devices for a time, while I readied a bowl of brown rice to be microwaved and, beginning its cooking, used the timer for the chicken, as well.

In the meantime, mini peeled carrots, a little green pepper, some sweet peppers, olive oil, bok choy and frozen broccoli hopped into the skillet. This time I actually remembered to put the leafy stuff in last, after the harder bits had some time to cook and soften.  Also, half a lemon was sliced and added in to cook. No other spice added.

These are the aromas that waft and tangle themselves together, and invade my soul.

Thank you, Jehovah. I have not tasted one morsel of dinner, yet, and, yet, already this dinner has given me pleasure and a measure of satisfaction.

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Oh, and, now that I am actually starting to eat it, I shall tell you that, at least at the beginning, I am being very good. Though, after the first wee bite, I have come to the conclusion that I shall regret not salting it before I left the kitchen.

By "being very good", I mean that I spooned out one decent serving spoon size of rice, so it is maybe a cup, maybe less. Then, I added in a couple of spoonfuls or so of the veggies, so that the meal is mostly vegetable. Finally, I took the wee piece of chicken that I had cut off when I was checking to see if it was done, so it is not even half the chicken breast, and then I spooned some of the juice onto the rice and all.

Mmm ...