W30D15

I woke up this morning and decided that I wanted to fast today. At the time of this post, I'll have gone without food for 27 hours. I don't know all of the reasons why, but I always feel GREAT when I fast. I have no stomach issues, no headaches, and consistent energy levels. I even worked out tonight. I did 45 minutes on my rowing machine and then spent 15 minutes doing yoga stretches and working on inversions (a.k.a. head stands).

I really need to research fasting some more, because as great as I feel now, not eating for extended periods of time is just not going to work for me. So I need to figure out what it is that I'm eating that is causing me to have lingering stomach issues. Thoughts anyone?

Roast Chicken

4 lb free-range chicken

2 Tbls olive oil

3 tsp salt

3 tsp pepper

1 lemon

4 cloves garlic, smashed

2 sweet potatoes, chopped into 2" pieces

10 carrots, roughly chopped

1 yellow onion, thickly sliced

1 bunch celery, roughly chopped

1. Preheat the oven or roaster to 350 F.

2. Rinse the inside and outside of the chicken. Pat dry and then coat with olive oil.

3. Rub 2 tsp salt and 2 tsp pepper into the skin of the bird. Make cuts in the skin near the wings of the bird and use the holes to rub salt and pepper under the skin as well.

4. Rub the remaining salt and pepper on the inside of the bird.

5. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the lemon on the inside of the bird. Then place the lemon halves and the smashed garlic cloves into the chicken.

6. Spread the sweet potatoes, onion, carrots, and celery chunks across the bottom of the pan. Use a rack to place the chicken above the vegetables.

7. Cook for 1 hour (roughly 15 minutes per pound of chicken). Halfway through, baste the chicken and drain off the liquid in the bottom of the pan; this will make sure the bottom of the chicken gets crispy as well.

ECD7: 45 minutes rowing machine, 15 minutes yoga

W30D7

What a disappointing Superbowl game! Normally, you'd expect the game to be much more evenly matched, right? Oh well. If you're a fan of my facebook page, you'll know that I attended a superbowl watching celebration where there were significant amounts of chips, breaded snacks, and desserts. One of my friends brought some gluten-free sugar cookies that were calling my name, but I restrained myself. I ate some leftover organic hamburger and then kept myself snacking on celery and carrots with guacamole or salsa. I'm a snacker when I'm bored, so it's always best for me to have pre-chopped veggies around for me to grab instead of chocolate or nuts. While this upcoming recipe isn't a good finger food sort of snack, it's still a good vegetable side dish that's super easy to put together.

Baked Asparagus

1 bunch asparagus

2 Tbls extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F.

2. After rinsing the asparagus and cutting off the bottom inch of stem, put the asparagus into a gallon-sized plastic bag.

3. Add in the olive oil, seal the bag, and shake until the asparagus is evenly coated. Then sprinkle in the salt and pepper. Shake again.

4. Spread over baking sheets and bake in the oven for 17-20 minutes. Serve with hollandaise sauce or by itself.

Bolognese Sauce

Bolognese sauce refers to a meat-based red sauce generally used on broad/flat pasta (e.g. tagliatelle or fettuccine) or shorter tube shapes (e.g. penne). It typically consists of onion, carrots, and celery, as well as meat like ground beef or pancetta, a bit of tomato, and some wine. I cooked mine without the wine, but it still tastes delicious. The carrots give it a bit of sweetness. Enjoy!

Bolognese Sauce

1 Tbls olive oil
1 1/4 lb grass-fed ground beef
1/2 red onion, finely diced
1 cup carrots, finely diced
1/4 cup celery, finely diced
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
1 6-oz can tomato puree

1. Heat 1 Tbls olive oil over medium heat on the stove.
2. Break up the beef into small pieces and cook until thoroughly brown.
3. Once cooked, remove the beef from the heat and transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
4. Drain some of the fat from the pan, then add the onions, carrots, and celery to the pan. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until veggies start to soften.
5. Mix the beef back in and stir in the tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 20-30 minutes to thicken.
6. Serve with zucchini noodles. If you don't have a mandoline, use a peeler to cut the zucchini thin and wide.

Breakfast for Dinner

You know how I said I've been lazy lately. Well, that laziness has continued. I'm being more productive this week, but I didn't do my weekly meal prep, so here's what I tossed together for dinner today:

Leafy Greens, Sweet Potato, and Avocado with Eggs

1 sweet potato, diced

2 cups spinach

1 cup kale

1 cup Swiss chard

1 carrot, chopped

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/2 avocado

pinch of cumin

pinch of cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp lime juice

1. Heat 1 Tbls olive oil over medium/medium-low heat (setting 4 on my stove).

2. Once hot toss in the sweet potato. Add the cinnamon, pepper, and salt. Stir and cook for 3 minutes.

3. After a few minutes, toss in the carrots and stir with the sweet potato. Add the spinach, kale, and Swiss chard to the top of the pan, but don't stir. Cook for 4 minutes.

4. Stir everything together, reduce heat to medium-low (3) and cook for another couple minutes, or until the greens are wilted.

5. Push everything to the side of a pan and crack the eggs into the pan. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the egg white is cooked through.

6. Serve in a bowl with the eggs resting on a bed of leafy greens.

Top with avocado, and sprinkle with the cumin, cayenne pepper, and lime juice.

Backup Protein

The one thing that I feel is the most important thing to have in the fridge, especially when you're feeling lazy, is a carton of eggs. Often when I'm not in the mood to cook, I'll just toss some veggies and eggs in the frying pan and call it dinner. Yeah, eggs are typically considered a breakfast food, but you learn to move past that with Paleo/Primal/healthy eating. When you start eating steak or meatloaf for breakfast, then "breakfast" kind of becomes unimportant. Tonight's meal (since it's not a typical "dinner") consisted of smoked salmon with spinach, shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, and eggs.

Vegetable Scrambled Eggs
1 cup spinach, packed
1/2 cup shredded cabbage
1/4 cup shredded carrots
2 eggs
1 pinch salt
1 pinch pepper
1 shake of crushed red pepper

1. Heat a little bit of olive oil in a pan. Once hot, add the veggies. Cook for 3-5 minutes, or until desired softness.
2. Add the eggs and stir. Cook for a few minutes until eggs are fully cooked, then serve.

Meatloaf Muffins

I have no recollection of ever eating meatloaf growing up. I asked my mom and she insists that we she did make it a few times, and I guess I can't remember every meal my family ever ate, so if I forgot a a few servings of meatloaf... oh well. If I go with my memory though, these "muffins" are the first meatloaf I've ever had. For some reason I had this preconceived notion that I didn't like meatloaf... that it was gross. It appears that I was wrong, because I thoroughly enjoyed these.

Meatloaf Muffins

1 lb ground beef

1/2 onion, diced

1/2 cup shredded carrots

1/2 cup shredded cabbage

2 Tbls tomato paste

3 Tbls almond flour

1 egg

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Mix all ingredients together and distribute into muffin tin, filling to the brim. (The mix makes roughly 8 muffins)

3. Bake for 30 minutes. Then transfer to paper-towel lined plate.

Whole 30 - Day 23

Breakfast today was leftover veggies from Sunday night's stir-fry with a few slices of Proscuitto and watermelon.

Lunch consisted of leftover steak and fajita veggies, some "power greens" from Trader Joes. I also had a snack of plantain chips, apple slices, 3 strawberries, some pineapple, and some grapes (we had a meeting at work during lunch and my only viable food options were fruit).

Dinner was a post-workout sweet potato with an egg, and some pomegranate seeds.

I read an article recently from Fitrocracy about weight loss: http://www.fitocracy.com/knowledge/weight-loss-101/. This article provided a link to a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) calculator in order to determine your ideal caloric intake for weight loss. Your BMR is the amount of calories that your body burns while at rest. Now to accurately determine the BMR of your specific body, lab experiments need to be run, including a gas analysis through direct or indirect calorimetry. I bet most of you don't want to spend the time or money to have these tests, so in the meantime, you can get an estimate of your BMR from one of these websites: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ or http://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html. You can then use the Harris-Benedict Equations (http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/) to determine what your caloric intake should be based on your lifestyle/activity level. Alternatively, if you want to use the Mifflin St Jeor Equation, this calculator can be used: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm. The Harris-Benedict equations were originally developed in 1919, and then updated in 1984. The Mifflin St Jeor equations were developed in 1990 and take into account the change in lifestyle over the last century, a.k.a. we're a bit more sedentary. Keep in mind that these formulas don't take into account lean body mass. If you know what your % body fat is, then you can use your lean body mass [your weight * (100% - %body fat)] with the Katch-McArdle or Cunningham formulas.

As you can probably guess, I've read about this just a bit and would in fact like to lose weight. I wouldn't say that I'm actively counting calories, but it's a side effect of using PaleoTrack.com to keep track of my nutrient intake. I've posted before that it's rather difficult to achieve ideal Paleo nutrition. To add another layer of difficulty, the article I mentioned above said that you should eat your goal weight in grams of protein, i.e. if your goal weight is 100 lb (not that mine is), you should aim for 100 g of protein per day. That's a LOT of protein, and it's much higher than what I tend to consume in a day. And I've found that a lot of protein sources, like beef and chicken, have high omega-6:omega-3 ratios, which messes up my fatty acid ratio. So I guess that means I should eat fish every day? Yikes. Though I've gotten past most of my aversion to raw meat, I haven't quite gotten used to the idea of handling raw fish every day. I still find it gross.

Whole 30 - Day 16

Want an easy and inexpensive family meal? Go for a roast chicken. It's one of the least expensive options and it can easily feed your family. Oh, you're single? Join the club, and congrats! You now have enough chicken to last you for the next few days. I've posted recipes for roasting a whole chicken in the past, but here we go again. Slight variation from what I made when I went to Atlanta in April for my family's first round of chemo, so here you go.

Crispy Roast Chicken

1 whole chicken ~5-6 lb

2 small lemons, cut in half

1/2 bunch of thyme

salt and pepper - I used roughly equal portions, probably 2 Tbls each

3 Tbls olive oil

1 onion, halved and sliced

4 carrots, cut into 1" pieces

3 stalks celery, cut into 2" pieces

1 leek, sliced

1. Preheat oven to 425 F and set rack in the middle of the oven - if you have two racks in the middle, pick the upper one.

2. Thoroughly rinse the inside and outside of the chicken. Pat dry.

3. Sprinkle the entire inside and outside of the bird with salt and pepper. Rub in with your hands.

4. Make two small slices in the skin near the legs, and use your fingers to rub salt and pepper under the skin.

5. Stuff the inside of the bird with the thyme and three of the lemon halves.

6. Spread olive oil over the outside of the bird, rubbing it in (of course).

7. Sprinkle again with salt and pepper, and rub into the skin, yet again.

8. Squeeze the remaining lemon half over the bird to get some lemon flavor on the outside. Use a zester to add lemon zest to the outside of the bird.
9. Put the bird into a roasting pan if you have one, breast side down. If not, you can use a lasagna pan. 

10. Surround the bird with the onion, carrots, celery, and leek. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a little bit of thyme if you have any leftover.

11. Cook for one hour, then flip over the bird. Use a baster to remove some of the liquid to a leftover glass jar. Remove the veggies from the tray.

12. Cook for another 30 minutes, then remove more of the liquid from the pan. Flip the bird over again, and cook for another 10 minutes. This is mainly to get the skin crispy and brown. Congrats, you're done.

21DSD - Days 13-14 - I'm On a Boat...

I made it through the entire weekend without slipping with 21DSD. I'm incredibly proud of myself. I managed to have fun the entire weekend while being the sole sober individual in a large group of people. Impressive, huh? A few people even commented that they couldn't tell that I wasn't drinking... as in I was having fun, chatting, laughing, and dancing like everyone else. I didn't sit in the corner and brood while everyone lowered their inhibitions and went wild. So yay! It wasn't as bad as the last happy hour that I went to where I just felt excluded for not drinking.

Overall, it was a good weekend. My friends and I rented two pontoon boats and hung out on a lake for 6 hours on Saturday. It was a blast. However, major downside is that I managed to get incredibly sunburned. As in, I think this is the second-worst burn I've ever had. The first-worst burn consisted of my skin turning purple and scaly-like. Gross. This one, on the other hand, covered more skin - my shoulders, back of the neck, chest, stomach, arms, and thighs got burnt. Bright red, almost purple. Whenever I walk, I can feel a burn almost down to my muscles. I guess it's that my skin got tight and every time I moved it stretched the skin... painfully. Luckily, I brought aloe, and reapplied frequently Saturday night and Sunday morning, and I was in the bed closest to the A/C unit, so there were a few times during the night that I'd stand in front of the A/C and let the cold air cool down my body. Yep, you got that right, I was HOT. Damn skippy. Seriously, just walking in the sun was enough to make me cringe and exclaim "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow... ow," until I made it back into the shade. Sunburn plus sun = crazy heat = bad = sad sober Gitta. (My nickname for the weekend from my buddy DK was Sober Sister of Sunburned Sober Sister, because I wasn't drinking, and I was her "sister" from sharing a room together in Jamaica. Good times.)

Anyways, what did I eat for lunch when stuck on a boat in the middle of a lake for 6 hours? Pre-made supermarket salad sans dressing? Yep. So while everyone else made sandwiches with deli meat, cheese, mustard, mayo, and wheat bread, I hunkered down over what comparatively looked like a monstrous salad, and ate around the olives (gross) and blue cheese (double non-Paleo gross!). Basically, I ate lettuce, chicken, hard-boiled egg, and some bacon chunks. I admit, the bacon probably wasn't 100% 21DSD-friendly. I bet the bacon was made with sugar. The horror! But I'm not counting that because it wasn't enough to send me into some wild sugar-craving spin. Once I was done eating, it barely looked as though I had touched my salad. I'd say 80% of the salad was still there: lettuce, onions, olives, blue cheese, and some bacon. I brought a Ziploc bag of carrots and celery, as well as a bag of mixed nuts (walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, and pistachios), and beef jerky. I only ate the carrots while on the boat though. And when I pulled out the carrots, most of the people on the boat wanted some. Apparently, sandwiches, chips, and Cheetos puffs don't completely satisfy people. Yeah, never would have guessed that... eye rolling ensues.

The hotel we stayed at provided breakfast, but its offerings consisted of cereal, yogurt, toast, bagels, muffins, waffles, oatmeal, and hard-boiled eggs. I ate two eggs for breakfast on Saturday and on Sunday, and I supplemented that with some beef jerky after we got back to the room.

Dinner on Saturday was delicious. A group of us made the drive over to Trudy's for some yummy Tex-Mex. Trudy's is famous for their Mexican Martini, which is basically a strong margarita that comes in a large martini shaker. You're only allowed to order two, and then the waitress cuts you off. Sounds intense? It is. I order the beef fajitas, hold the tortilla. And let me tell you, that was probably the best fajita that I ever had. Seriously. It was fantastic. If you're ever in Austin, go to Trudy's. You won't regret it.

Oh, and I never shared what my pre-road trip dinner was. Chicken and eggs. I heated some olive oil in a pan over medium heat, tossed in some chicken strips with a couple dashes of coconut aminos, cooked, added whisked eggs, and made up some Stir-fry-esque chicken and eggs. Not bad when you've only got 10 minutes to cook and eat before running out the door.

21DSD Day 8 - Chemo

Well folks, I'm back in Atl to be with my parents for this next round of chemo. Yesterday we just took things easy. We took the dogs for two walks, finished one puzzle, and watching Rise of the Guardians and Resident Evil: Resurrection. I really enjoyed the first one. I thought it was super cute and funny. Resident Evil was a bit of a let down though. I've been a faithful Resident Evil since I watched the second film during my senior year of high school, probably slightly becasue of the movie itself, but mainly because of the good memories I associate with it. (Yes, you heard that right. Zombie movie = good times. I'm weird, right?) Anywho, we stayed busy, while still taking it easy. I whipped up some steak and roasted Brussels sprouts for dinner.

And got to use my parents' handy Wustof Silverpoint steak knives. Yep, they copied me because of how much I raved about my set.

Today we spent about 4 hours at the facility, which is a lot less than what we expected. The doctors started the chemo drip slowly (50 mL/h, then 100, 150, 200, and 300 after 30-minute intervals) in order to watch for any signs of allergic reaction, which of course kicked in after about 45 minutes. The allergic reaction we got today was a "weird-feeling," slightly itchy throat. We notified the nurse (Vanessa is really helpful), and they paused the chemo and started up a steroid drip to stop the reaction. The doctor basically told the nurse to use whatever drugs (steroids, anti-nausea, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, etc.) she thought we needed, considering all of the issues we encountered with the supposedly "nicer" chemo drug. After the steroid we progressed without a hitch.

We then headed home to start a new puzzle, (maybe you can tell that we like puzzles?), and eat a late lunch. We brought some food to snack on while we were at the doctor's office, but it didn't count as a meal. I brought a sugar-free chicken-andouille sausage, some proscuitto, and a mixture of almonds, pistachios, pecans, and pumpkin seeds.

After about an hour working on the puzzle, we took a nap break because some light-headedness and tiredness had set in. We checked temperature and blood pressure just to make sure there wasn't any fever, which is a concern if it goes over 100 F, or anything like that. I headed back to the puzzle after placing a trash can next to the bed just in case and leaving the yorkies in the room to "keep an eye on things" (Yes. The two 8-lb dogs are worriers and will stick close by when they know something isn't quite right.) A couple hours later, we were pulling together some dinner before calling it an early night, with some Benadryl to hopefully prevent any other possible side effects.

In summary, things are going well so far. Fingers crossed that the good continues!

And just to leave you with some comfort food, here's a garden vegetable soup recipe I made last week:

Garden Vegetable Soup

4 cups vegetable broth

1 cup tomato puree

3/4 cup water

1 14-oz can diced tomatoes

1 14-oz. can tomato puree

2 cups carrots, sliced

2 cups celery, sliced

1 red pepper, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbls olive oil

1 small yellow onion, diced

1. Toss everything into a large stock pot. Heat over medium-high heat on the stove for 2 hours.

Man, again with the one-step recipes. Awesome, right?

Chemo - Part 13 - Day 16

Have I mentioned that cancer sucks? Apparently the allergic reaction is enough that my parents made a trip to the dermatologist. The doctor biopsied a part of the rash to run some tests. They also ran blood work to test liver and kidney functioning. My parents finished off the day with two units of blood transfusion. They were at the doctor from 7:45-8:40 a.m., and from 10:40 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. Yikes. I'm hoping that the transfusion will help and improve energy. At this point it looks as though the second round of chemo will get pushed back a bit. We'll have to wait and see what the test results are.

While we're waiting, check out this YUMMY version of Paleo lasagna. It's delicious! Enjoy!

Paleo Zucchini Lasagna

Ingredients

2 zucchini, sliced
1 lb grass-fed ground beef

Macadamia Nut Cheese

• 2 cup macadamia nuts
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp parsley
• 2 Tbls of water

Sun-dried Tomato Pasta Sauce

• 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in water for 1 hour
• 2 Tbls olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large can of tomato sauce
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 3/4 head of broccoli, chopped to ~1" pieces
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 4 carrots, diced
• 2 cups spinach
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 2 tsp fresh basil, chiffonaded
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Macadamia Nut Cheese

1. Dump the nuts into a food processor and run until the macadamia nuts are fully ground. 

2. Mix in the lemon, salt, oregano, basil, and parsley.

3. Add in the water 1 Tbls at a time. The mixture should become slightly sticky and look a bit like ricotta cheese.

Sun-dried Tomato Pasta Sauce

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large pot.

2. Add the onions and garlic, cooking until onions are translucent.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients, cover, and cook for 30 minutes until the broccoli and other veggies are slightly soft.

Paleo Zucchini Lasagna

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. Use a mandolin slicer to cut the zucchini into thick slices.

3. Place one layer of the zucchini slices at the bottom of a greased 8"x8" square pan

4. Spread out a ~ 1 cup of the Sun-dried Tomato Pasta Sauce and top with ground beef. Spread out some of the Macadamia Nut Cheese on top of the ground beef.

5. Repeat the layers, finishing with the pasta sauce.

(You can also use small Corningware if you have leftovers like me.)

6. Bake for 30 minutes in the oven. Let cool for a bit, then devour!

Chemo - Part 10 - Day 9

Well folks, I'm beat. I've been up since 4:24 am Texas time (5:24 in Atlanta). I went to bed after scrambling to hold one of the dogs over the toilet as it threw up, and woke up with carting the same dog to the trash can in my room so that he didn't get sick on the bed. I took the dogs out, finished packing my car, ate scrambled eggs with my parents, and was on the road by 6 am CST. I powered through 1.5 L of water and 4 cans of Diet Coke while I spent over 12 hours today driving back West. (Given that I don't usually consume caffeine, that amount of soda is enough to keep me wide awake for a long drive on endless highways.)

After deciding that there's no way that I'd be able to convince myself to leave my apartment after unpacking my car to go buy food, I stopped in at my local Whole Foods to pick up some pre-cooked meat for dinner. I finally got back to my apartment at 6:20 pm CST, and then managed to completely unload the groceries, cooler, rowing machine (erg), a couple boxes of old books from high school (including all of my high school yearbooks), a box of wine glasses and two pillows my parents gave me for Christmas, a bag of shoes, a potted plant, my suitcase, a duffel bag of shoes, my backpack, a case of Kopparberg cider, and a couple other bags of sundries. All in my apartment by 6:45. Phew. My erg is currently sitting in a corner of my bedroom, and all of my clothes are unpacked and toiletries put away.

Enough about me. Today was apparently a day of sleeping back in Atlanta. I think, overall, the aches and pains are a bit better, though a lingering headache has been today's biggest annoyance. I'm hoping today is a good sign. Sleep is good. It gives your body time to rest and attempt to repair itself. Maybe by resting today, tomorrow will be better. Fingers crossed.

This is another recipe from The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen. This vegetable dish helps with constipation as well as general nutrition. Plus, the ginger can help a bit with nausea. If made according to the instructions, the serving contains 50 calories, 2.5 g of fat (0.4 g saturated fat, 1.7 g mono-unsaturated), 7 g carbohydrates, 1 g protein, 2 g fiber, 195 mg sodium. It can last for 3-5 days in the fridge.

Shredded Carrot and Beet Salad

2 Tbls freshly squeezed orange juice

2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tsp EVOO

1/2 tsp freshly minced ginger

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 cup carrots, peeled and shredded

1 cup beet, peeled and shredded

2 Tbls mint, chopped (optional)

1. Mix together the orange juice, lemon juice, EVOO, ginger, and sea salt in a bowl.

2. Pour half of the dressing over the carrots and toss to cover evenly. In a separate bowl, do the same thing with the beets.

3. Mix together and serve.

If you're going to store this in the fridge, I'd recommend keeping them in separate containers because the color of the beets may end up overwhelming the carrots. But if you're lazy and don't care if there's color bleeding, just go ahead and put it in the same gallon-sized Ziploc bag.

Chemo - Part 3 - Day 2

Today was pretty similar to yesterday's visit to the doctor, except that we got an actual room and I knitted instead of blogging. Yes folks, I knit. I find it relaxing. We were only at the doctor for two and a half hours today. I guess things go faster once you get the procedure down. Things are going well so far - a bit more tired, but overall still staying active (we took the dogs for two walks today - the dogs are out cold right now because they're so worn out). Fingers crossed that things continue to go well.

Now to food... While I was at Whole Foods the other day I picked up a chicken to cook and make chicken broth out of (recipe to come). Because my co-worker BA was so unhappy with me for using a whole chicken to make my last chicken broth instead of using just the bones, I decided to follow his advice and roast the chicken first. Here's what I did for the roast chicken:

Roast Chicken

1 5-lb chicken
Inside the chicken
5 sprigs fresh thyme
1 lemon, cut in half
1 head garlic (yes, the whole head), with the outer layers peeled and cut in half
Outside the chicken
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 Tbls olive oil
1 onion, sliced (~3/8" thickness)
6 carrots, cut into large chunks
2 bags of Brussels sprouts, rinsed and trimmed
1 bulb fennel
Both inside and outside
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Remove the giblets/whatever they're called from the inside of the chicken. Rinse both the inside and outside of the chicken, and pat dry. Liberally sprinkle salt and pepper inside the chicken. Stuff the chicken with the thyme, lemon, and garlic. Use kitchen string/twine to tie the legs together, or use something like the metal prongs that I found in one of my parents' kitchen drawers to skewer the poor thing closed. Rub the outside of the chicken with olive oil so that the chicken is thoroughly coated, then rub with salt and pepper. Don't be stingy.

Spread the carrots, Brussels sprouts, onion, fennel, and thyme in the roasting pan. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Make a hole in the center of the veggies and position the chicken in the opening. Place the roasting pan in the oven. Cook for 1 1/2 hours or until the inside of the chicken reaches 170 F with a meat thermometer.

Remove the chicken from the roasting pan and transfer to a platter, covering with tinfoil. Let rest for 20 minutes.

Then cut and serve. It's so yummy!

I also want to point out that this is the first time that I've ever cooked a whole chicken. Or whole anything for that matter. The last time I had to deal with a whole raw bird was Thanksgiving three and a half years ago. My parents had come out to Texas with the dogs to celebrate with me. My mom took charge of the bird and called me over to help out at the sink. I tried. I really tried, but I couldn't do it. I couldn't reach inside to pull out the giblets and whatnot. I actually shrank away... I was too chicken (yes, that horrible pun was intended).

However, thanks to Paleo and my need to eat meat, I've learned to handle raw meat, in particular raw poultry (I'm still working on fish). So when I roasted this chicken, I passed with flying colors, though I washed my hands like 15 times over the course of prepping the chicken. So I'm a bit crazy about germs right now... or technically always... it just means that I'm a safe chef, right? You're welcome, kitchen counters and bottle of olive oil for keeping you clean.

Spaghetti with Roasted Grape Tomatoes

I finally got a spaghetti squash to taste delicious. The first two times that I attempted it, the result tasted horrible. Seriously. LMR and I coated it with more and more pesto trying to get it to taste good, but it didn't work. It was still terrible. This one is much better. And it's so colorful!

Spaghetti with Roasted Grape Tomatoes

1 spaghetti squash

2 cups shredded kale

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1 cup chopped carrots

1 1/2 cup broccoli

1/2 cup each of chopped red, yellow, and orange bell peppers

2 cups grape tomatoes, sliced in half

4 Tbls extra virgin olive oil

Cooking supplies:

2 baking sheets

2 frying pans, 1 needs a matching lid

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Cut the spaghetti squash in half, lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and brush the flesh with extra virgin olive oil.

Line a baking sheet with tin foil. Place the spaghetti squash face down on the lined baking sheet.

Place into the oven and cook for 30-40 minutes or until the skin is squishy when poked.

While the squash is cooking, start on your veggies. Prep all of the veggies (rinsing, shredding, chopping, etc.). Heat 2 Tbls of olive oil in large pan. Put the kale, broccoli, and carrots into this pan and stir to coat evenly with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper. Cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. The kale will turn dark green, and the carrots and broccoli will be soft.

In a separate pan, toss in the mushrooms and peppers. Stir occasionally.

Remove from heat after 10-15 minutes, or until the mushrooms have been cooked down. Mix in with the kale, carrots, and broccoli, and cover to keep warm.

When there is roughly 15 minutes left for the squash you can start working on the tomatoes. In a large bowl, toss the tomatoes with 1 Tbls olive oil and a couple shakes of salt. Spread the tomatoes onto the second pan and put into the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove the squash from the oven and flip over. Drag a fork across the flesh and the squash will come off in strands. It will look like spaghetti.

Scoop the "spaghetti" into your serving bowls and mix with the veggies. Stir in some of the roasted tomatoes and top with as many extra roasted tomatoes as you want.

Chorizo Sausage Frittata

The thing about my parents' house is that they have an incredibly well-stocked fridge and pantry. And I mean incredibly... to the point that every time we went grocery shopping, we had to spend a little while rearranging the fridge to fit everything in. And why are they so well-stocked? Sam's Club. My mom likes to buy in bulk. It's both good and bad. On the one hand, you get food for a cheaper price per item/unit of measurement; on the other, you get more than you can eat at any given time. So when we chopped up three bell peppers, we used some for our Christmas Eve salad, and then placed the rest into Tupperware. This turned out to be very handy for us because when breakfast rolled around, all I had to do to make a frittata was to toss all of the pre-chopped veggies into the pan to cook and then transfer to a baking dish and add scrambled eggs. For our morning after Christmas breakfast, we did just that and tossed in some chorizo pork sausage that I bought from Whole Foods. So here's a total list of what went into breakfast:

Chorizo Sausage Frittata

2 links chorizo sausage

8 eggs, whisked

1/3 red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, chopped

1 cup mushrooms, chopped

1 1/2 cup broccoli florets, chopped

1/2 cup of chopped carrots

1 cup of chopped kale

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Heat 1 Tbls olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the kale, toss, and cover with lid. Cook for 5 minutes until kale becomes a darker green. Add carrots and broccoli and cook covered for another 5 minutes. Remove lid and set aside. Add in the mushrooms and peppers and cook for 3 minutes. Transfer veggies to an oiled baking dish.

While the veggies are cooking, cook your chorizo in a separate pan. Start by cooking the full links on each side over medium heat until browned, about a minute per side. Then remove from the pan and slice into pieces. Return to pan and cook for about 2 minutes per side. 

Mix chorizo sausage with the veggies and pour the whisked eggs over the top of the meat and veggies. Transfer to the oven and cook for 25 minutes or until the eggs are firm. Remove from oven and slice into 8 pieces.

Here's the resulting frittata served with leftover potato sausage and a handful of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries.

After eating breakfast, my parents and I finished up this cute puzzle:

And just to finish off, I want to give everyone a warning about bread in the microwave.

NEVER EVER PUT BREAD IN THE 

MICROWAVE FOR THREE MINUTES!!! 

One of my co-workers did that today with a hot dog bun and OMG does the it smell terrible! The burnt smell has permeated half of the floor so far and someone called our safety manager to report a fire. Yikes.

Christmas Food

Let’s review some of what I ate while I was in Atlanta with my parents. Obviously, I didn't photograph everything. How obsessive do you think I am while on vacation?

For Christmas Eve, my mom made a pork loin pot roast with sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, and potatoes (which I avoided), and a side salad made with red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, cucumbers, mushrooms, carrots, etc.

(Doesn't my mom set a pretty table?)

Christmas day was somewhat unusual. Instead of waking up super early and opening presents like I've done every other year of my life, I slept late and my parents and I ate breakfast together before even considering opening presents. We didn't open presents till the afternoon. I guess my inner child wasn't too concerned with opening presents early.

And for Christmas dinner, we had potato sausage, lefse (Scandinavian potato bread), and salad. I don't know if you picked up on the trend, but there's a serious love of potatoes. Because this meal is a tradition in my family for Christmas, I made a Paleo-xception, and heartily enjoyed it. I don't have photos for the entire meal put together, but below is a photo of the potato sausage being cooked in the pan. After cooking in the pan, we transfer it to oven-safe bakeware and bake it for another 20-30 minutes in the oven. The result is delicious!