My 2 days of bed rest led right into a 4 day weekend, which would have been really cool if my throat hadn’t been on fire for like a week. I started to feel a bit better by Friday, but still wasn’t really up to eating normal food. By Saturday though, I was ravenous, which was a good thing because we spent the day at my dad’s celebrating Easter. My step-mom cooks for a 3 day wedding banquet no matter the occasion, so I was able to catch up on all the calories I’d lost while being sick. Seriously, there were 6 adults and 2 kids. My nieces are 7 and 5 years old and combined ate 1 noodle, 2 tomatoes, and 4 strawberries for dinner. They also ate about 400 lbs of candy, but I’m not counting that in the amount of food that was prepared. There were enough leftovers to feed a small suburb!
The rest of the weekend was spent trying to ready our house for meeting with a realtor. Thanks to Jason’s untimely lay-off, he has completed his entire list of projects and my sister came over on Sunday to help with cleaning and staging. I called the realtor this morning and am just waiting for a call back to set up the appt. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
Oh, and I started the sugar fast yesterday. Jason already caved. Big surprise right? CJ brought Pepsi home from his Easter party and Jason just couldn’t resist. So far, I’m doing pretty well, not even really craving it, which is surprising. I’ll keep you posted on how I’m feeling. Basically, I’m trying to avoid any added sugar. No brown sugar, white sugar, honey, agave, maple syrup, etc. We eat so few processed foods at this point, I’m not too concerned about that, but I did choose not to buy almond or coconut milk yesterday at the grocery store because of the added sugar. I opted for the rice milk. Just keep the chocolate away from me!!!
Cravings: I’m fairly certain there was at least one other meal that I took a picture of for the blog, but I must not have emailed it to myself, so if I find it I’ll add it to the next post.
Bang Bang Veggies (found on Pinterest and adapted from That's so Michelle)
For the sauce:
1/8 cup greek yogurt
1/8 cup mayo
1/4 cup sriracha
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 Tbsp sugar
Mix all ingrendients together and set aside until ready to serve.
For the veggies:
1 head cauliflower
1 head broccoli
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 eggs
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
Salt & pepper
Combination of olive oil and coconut oil (about 1/4 cup total)
Green onion to garnish
Cut cauliflower and broccoli into bite sized florets and put them into a large bowl. Add the cornstarch and toss to coat the veggies. Then add two eggs. Stir until all veggies are coated again. Then add the bread crumbs and salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large skillet and saute the veggies for several minutes until the desired doneness. I still wanted them kinda crunchy, so it only took about 5 mins. Top with desired amount of sauce and green onions to serve.
I served this with the white bean dip with veggies and some assorted olives.
White Bean Dip with Rosemary (from Meal Planning 101, found on Pinterest)
2 cups frozen white beans
4-5 cloves roasted garlic (recipe follows)
juice of one lemon
2 Tbsp fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp cumin
enough oil to get it creamy (I used about 1/4 cup olive oil)
Salt and pepper to taste
Green onion to garnish
Combine all ingredients through cumin in a food processor. Process while drizzling in oil until creamy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with green onion and serve with raw veggies.
Roasted Garlic
4-5 cloves garlic, not peeled
1 Tbsp olive oil
Wrap in aluminum foil and roast at 375 for about 30 minutes or until soft. The garlic will mush out of the peel when squeezed.
Yesterday I made another one of the giant Thanksgiving turkey sized chickens that are in my freezer. This will be enough chicken for at least 3 meals! I recommend finding someone who raises chickens for the local fair. They are so good.
Roast Chicken
1 whole chicken, thawed
1/4 cup butter
1 cup beef broth (I used beef only because that's what I had and it turned out great!)
1 large sprig of fresh rosemary
1 large sprig of fresh thyme
4-5 potatoes, chopped
4-5 carrots, chopped
Put half the butter and the herbs inside the cavity of the chicken and the other half of the butter dotted over the top of the chicken. Add the beef broth to the pan and roast uncovered at 450 for about an hour. Cover the chicken and turn the heat down to 350 and cook for another 3-4 hours. This will vary depending on the size of your chicken. Add the chopped potatoes and carrots. I had to remove liquid at this time, but I reserved it to make some gravy. Roast another hour uncovered at 350. Serve with mushroom gravy. Jason said it was the best roast chicken he's ever eaten!
Mushroom Gravy
1 package sliced mushrooms
1-2 cups reserved cooking liquid
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 Tbsp fresh rosemarry, chopped
1/2 Tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
Saute mushrooms in a bit of butter until begining to soften. Add the cooking liquid and boil for a few minutes, reducing the liquid a bit. Turn heat down to med-low and sprinkle in 1 Tbsp of cornstarch and mix well, breaking up any clumps. Add herbs and turn off heat while chicken rests for a bit. Serve over roast chicken or anything else!
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