Day 2!

Successful day 2 of Whole30. As far as I can tell, Mr. P. left with an apple (maybe 2) and some carrots. 

I made it a point to make myself some breakfast - 5 scrambled eggs nearly beaten to death with the KitchenAid (how else do you get fluffy eggs when you can't add milk or cream?) and a can of crushed pineapple in juice. 

Mental note - put the other can of pineapple in the fridge. It's so much yummier when it's cold!

And water. Good old water. I've been filling up the Brita tank religiously. I like my water COLD and frankly our tap water is gross so I don't want to ruin my cold water with nasty ice cubes. I'm a water snob. I admit it. I will drink tap water at my in-law's house in Georgia or at the cabin in Tennessee, but i'm not a fan of Florida tap water. It doesn't have to be bottled, but it does have to be filtered.

I don't think Mr. P. really cares for sweet potatoes. He only ate a couple of bites of the large one I made for him last night, so I nuked it and called it lunch. I didn't even add extra cinnamon. 

He came home from work while I was out in the back yard and fried up a couple of eggs for himself and then headed next door to work on the roof. I've been gone awhile - almost a year ago we bought the house next door to us when it went up for auction. We'll get caught up on that later. Just know we completely gutted it and it's going to be fabulous.

I snacked on some baby carrots. They were kind of bitter. I've had enough water to float a barge thru the Panama Canal and i've realize that we were soooo NOT prepared to start this Whole30. Aside from the fresh fruits and vegetables and some frozen meat - everything here is off limits. Luckily - we  have that house next door. We have the new fridge there already - even though it's still completely gutted inside. I'm emptying our fridge and taking all the stuff that is off limits over there for the duration of these 30 days. Things like butter...and sour cream...and cheese...and all those condiments. I don't want to have to dig thru the fridge to try to find the one thing I can have. Plus i'm going to need a lot of room for lunch containers. 

Dinner was good - I can think of several ways to make it delicious, but they're not legit for now.  Stuffed Acorn Squash - click the link to see the recipe over at Stupid Easy Paleo. I left out the bacon (because I don't have any that meets the requirements) and the fennel...because I don't like fennel. 

Voila! The final product. I plated it up pretty and added some slivered almonds because my friend Angela is a chef and if I mention food on Facebook there HAS to be a photo. 

I also tossed the rest of my sweet potatoes in the crock pot to cook overnight. Easy peasy prep and the house will smelled delicious! Similar to Day 1 - I scrub the potatoes, brush with coconut oil, sprinkle with cinnamon, poke some holes and wrap in foil individually. Stack 'em up in the crock pot and you can let them go on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. I store them in a large, covered container in the fridge - still wrapped in the foil) and pull them out as needed, slice them open, sprinkle more cinnamon and reheat in the microwave (minus the foil). 

It feels like Fall!

Ok...it feels like it's not 100 degrees outside. According to my fancy schmancy thermostat it's 79 degrees out there. I would guess it's a little warmer than that, BUT it's GORGEOUS! Blue skies, steady breeze and it's definitely 70something in the shade!

Cooler temps make me want to cook. Who knew anything would really cause me to WANT to cook. I don't want to over do it or anything, so tonight we are having the infamous Crock pot Italian Chicken. Yeah, crock pot - i'm not really sure dumping stuff in a pot and plugging it in qualifies as cooking...but at least I was motivated enough to start thinking about making dinner before 7pm. It's a good thing right? Like I said..don't want to over do it for the first day that actually FEELS somewhat fall-like here in the Sunshine State.


It's quick and easy - here we go!


If you're lazy (like me), put one of those liner bags in your crock. Why do dishes if you don't have to? Now dig out the following...

1. 8 ounce brick of cream cheese (you can use the 1/3 fat or the fat free kind if you want)
2. 1 packet of Good Season's Italian Dressing mix (the dry stuff)
3. 1 can of condensed cream of something or other soup (the recipe calls for cream of chicken, I use whatever I have on hand - tonight, it's cream of mushroom)
4. 2 - 4 chicken breasts

Let the cream cheese soften up a bit, mix it with the soup and the Italian dressing mix. You can do this in the crock or in a bowl - we don't really care :-) If you're a food safety Nazi, make sure your chicken is thawed or fresh. If you're lazy (like me) and like to live on the edge (haven't gotten sick yet) just throw the frozen chicken in the crock. Either way, spoon the cream cheese mixture on top. Cover it, and cook it. Low all day, high for 4 hours. Obviously you'll want to make sure your chicken is cooked. When you go the lazy route (frozen chicken) I tend to check on the chicken after a couple of hours and cut it up. Smaller pieces to cook - if you cook it all day, you can shred it (pull it) before you serve it. Yummo!








When the chicken is done, cook up some rice or egg noodles, plate up your choice and top with the yummy, creamy, Italian chicken concoction.

If'n you want to get all fancy for guests, you can add mushrooms and maybe add a little roasted asparagus on the side. 

Crockpot 101

Since a friend of mine just bought her first crockpot I thought I would share a recipe / tip that was shared with me. I use it almost every single week. It's healthy, it's easy, it's a major time saver, and it saves money as well. What could be better?!

If you're lazy in the kitchen, like me, the first thing you want to do is line your crockpot with one of those fabulous Crockpot Liner bags. I hate washing a crockpot. I think it stems from "back in the day" when they didn't have a removable crock. 

Take a bag of frozen, boneless, skinless chicken breasts and put them in the crockpot (I use half a bag from the warehouse club since there are just 2 of us). Add a carton of chicken stock (not broth). I buy the low sodium kind. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook on low 8-10 hours. In an hour or two your house will smell yummy.

If you want the breasts to stay whole, you might want to check them at 8 hours and remove them if they're done. At 10 hours, they will fall apart for sure when you try to take them out!

Now that your chicken is cooked, shred one breast and add it back to the chicken stock. Add a can of carrots (or slice and cook fresh ones if you like, add some celery and onions too while you're at it).  Add cooked noodles. I use No Yolks Dumplings. Voila - really, really, REALLY good homemade chicken noodle soup. This makes 5-6 good sized bowls of soup - plenty for hubby and I for dinner and a couple of lunches. 

Doesn't it look yummy? This was the last time I made the soup - and I boiled the noodles right in it when I was reheating!

Some days I just dump the bag of stock and shredded chicken / carrots into a large pitcher and stick it in the fridge to make the next day or later in the week. When I'm ready to make it, I pour it in a pot and bring it to a boil and just add the noodles and let them cook in the soup! No need for the extra step. It also freezes well - just skip the carrots and noodles to freeze it, add them later when you're ready to cook it!

As for the rest of that chicken - I store mine in a gallon Zip-Loc bag or one of those Zip-Loc containers in the fridge. During the week my fabulous husband will pull out a piece or two and make dinner with it. Basically, the chicken just needs to be reheated.

Heat up 2-4 pieces in a skillet with 8oz of cream cheese (we use fat free), a packet of Italian or ranch dressing mix and a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup, throw a bag of Steamers type veggies in the microwave and boil up some noodles to spoon it over - dinner is served in under 30 minutes. 

Aside from that, I have a zillion and one (exactly 1 zillion and 1 - I counted) chicken recipes that I have found online. I'll post more later - hubby has his own "recipe" book of the ones he has printed out and makes regularly. They're very good and easy to make (trust me, he is NOT into cooking...so they gotta be easy!) 

On that note - he just stuck his head in my office to say "Dinner is ready - we're eating on the deck tonight". What girl wouldn't want to hear that?