Update
It’s January 12th and we are well into our month of eating autoimmune paleo. The cookbook I mentioned in my first post, The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook is great. Having a new cookbook/recipes is always a great way to rev up my cooking motivation. We’ve been doing lots of weekend cook ups. Well, I guess only two so far but they have been hugely successful. There is no alcohol on an autoimmune protocol so that has turned our “cocktail” time into group cooking time. It’s fun and we get stuff done a lot faster. We did think a cocktail while we were cooking last night would have been very nice but we held strong, no cocktails.
The one big thing I’ve noticed is my sleep. I’m having a LOT of dreams. I love dreaming and it’s been a long time since I’ve slept well enough to dream. I’m taking that as a positive sign. The other great thing is the fridge is packed but only with good food. I read something the other day – “what do you do to keep from open the refrigerator and bingeing”, and I realized I don’t do anything. Right now our fridge has all the right stuff in it and I don’t have any regret when I open it and eat something. I really like that. I don’t know if we’ll be able to sustain this “food” pace, time will tell.
So that’s the positive stuff. Here’s the realistic stuff, not negative but realistic. There is LOTs of cooking. Doing it together makes all the difference. I would not be able to make all the food we need for the week on my own. I would get really bored doing all that cooking by myself. In fact, going forward I’m going to need to come up with some strategies to liven things up while we’re cooking. I’ll probably start to put Moth Radio and/or This American Life on the kitchen speakers.
Weekend Cook-Up
Here’s what we made this weekend – Beef stew (so delicious we finished it for breakfast this morning), Shrimp Stir-fry, Chicken Patties, Shredded Beef Stir-fry, Baked Squash, Carrot-Ginger Soup, Apple-Date/Fig cookies, Fig-Coconut balls. I will be making more beef stew this week, as well as, chicken stir-fry and extra sliced chicken breast for the fridge. I will take photos going forward. Blog posts are so boring without photos.
Recipe/Food Tidbit
Here’s my recipe or food tidbit for this update. Boneless, skinless chicken breast. I don’t normally buy BSCB. I buy bones in, skin on and usually chicken thighs. One of the recipes in our new cookbook calls for shredded chicken. We were roasting whole chickens to get our shredded chicken but then I realized that was a big waste. We were only eating the chicken breast meat. I decided to tackle BSCB. My expectations were low. I’ve never been good at cooking boneless, skinless chicken. It’s always dry. Google to the rescue, again.
Here’s the title of the recipe I found – How To Cook Moist & Tender Chicken Breast Every Time. It totally works! You pound the chicken breast until all the chicken that is being cooked is approximately the same thickness. You then heat cooking fat of your choice, I used duck fat, in a skillet. Once the fat is hot you put the chicken in. Cook for 1 minute, flip the chicken, cover the pan and turn the heat down a bit so the chicken doesn’t burn. Cook like that for 10 minutes – NO lifting the lid, not even a little peek. At the end of 10 minutes turn the heat off but leave the cover on, again, NO PEAKING. After those 10 minutes are up you can lift the lid and check the chicken. So far, every time I’ve done this it’s been cooked perfectly, super juicy and moist. The chicken is great sliced for salads or you can shred it for stir-fry. I even like it sliced right out of the fridge for a snack (it’s one of those items packed in my fridge that is just waiting to be eaten). Here is a link to the recipe.
Eat Well, Feel Good, Have Fun!
I’m Amy a board certified holistic nutritionist, certified functional nutritionist and lifestyle practitioner and certified Life Coach. I help women in midlife understand the changing needs of their body so that they can stop dieting and lose weight permanently. At 56 I live what I teach. Don’t believe the story that your best years are behind you. They are not. Your best years are just starting!