Still on…

Still here, still not that bad, still no peanut butter.
In fact, this week was much easier for the most part.  Less salty bitch and less dreams of peanut butter and bread.  I am also fairly certain all the bloating I mistook for donut fat is gone, as I can button my pants and several people, including the man, have said I look great.
The man looks amazing (though I thought he did before this).  He is also back at obsessive cross fitting, so he should be looking like David Beckham in no time.  How awesome for me.
But this was not about weight loss for him, and for me this is about him, so I don’t really care either about weight loss, though it is a bonus to look so skinny.  This is about healthy and how food makes the two of us feel.  For me I feel pretty much the same, no better and no worse.  But how I look is a different story…my skin looks awesome.  It’s like I have that pregnancy glow that women always say they have and I never had while pregnant (and I AM NOT PREGNANT).  My skin tone is more even, brighter and I no longer look like I have two black eyes from the dark circles under my eyes.  The circles under my eyes are barely there! And I can’t for the life of me guess what I am not eating that has made such a difference on my tired eyes, but I am loving it (it better not be f—king peanut butter). My kids even noticed, “mom how come your eyes aren’t black and blue in the morning anymore?” Who knows and who the hell cares! Less under eye concealer is a always a good thing.
Otherwise, though I don’t really feel more energetic than before, but I really didn’t think I felt super unhealthy overall in the months/years before (with the exception of my holiday donut eating month).
The less salty bitch part has been nice this week, for me and for the man.  Maybe one night of the week was rough, but I am finding that stresses outside of feeding my face with gluten and sugar contribute to moments of saltiness, and I can recognize this now and not turn it into the need for bread, cookies and peanut butter.
I only smelled the peanut butter once this week, while eating almond butter with a spoon. I did, however smell a cupcake for a good five minutes in front of my coworkers and I stood outside the fancy donut bakery in my office building gazing in the window and sucking in the smells, so I guess baby.
The man had one tiny outburst, but like me, there was nonfood stresses involved (he had been in the Apple store for hours with no luck getting his phone fixed), and he burst in the door and in a rather perfect exorcist voice mumbled in my ear “I want vodka and Arby’s,” which was awesome.
The cooking for week was also successful, for the most part. We started the week with this gorgeous roast chicken, that was diet approved not even on purpose…I would make this shit any day. 

The attempt at a compliant gravy is another story, I took some of the fat, added stock and cooked it down a bit and then pureed some of the roasted vegetables from the pan into the stock and ended up with a watery orange sauce that was the joke of the dinner among all five kids. It went perfectly with the mashed potatoes that I whipped with chicken stock in place of cream that were dry and lumped up and just not good looking.  Whatever, how will I know without trying?
I got better on the potatoes by mid-week, making a really good meatloaf with mashed potatoes with coconut milk. These had a consistency of cream and buttered up mashed potatoes and while I could taste the teeniest difference the kids could not, and that’s all that matters.
The gravy, yeah, still no, I thickened it with coconut flour and it still was too thin.  But by this past Sunday I had a sauce that was probably the best sauce I have ever made…chicken stock and apple cider reduction with caramelized onions and apples on a pork chop stuffed with sweet potato, squash and bacon.  This was better than a restaurant dish and the man wolfed it down (but this technically was the following Sunday so maybe it will make in next week’s posting, we shall see how the week goes).
I am still enjoying all of the cooking and we are enjoying doing some of it together and the time at home instead of out at crowded restaurants. There is more laughing and closeness when being at home and the kids are enjoying taunting us with bread and cookies regularly…all in all we are both still in it with two weeks to go.
Enjoy this chicken, it could not be easier.

Simple roast chicken
One whole chicken (I bought a giant one from Costco bc I have so many mouths to feed), cleaned out, patted dry and seasoned in the cavity with salt
Olive oil
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon of Hungarian hot paprika (this is optional, and I probably used less than this bc of the kids)
½ teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon oregano
tiny sprinkle of allspice
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
three sprigs of thyme
fresh parsley
two garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped
8 whole carrots and two whole onions chopped into large chunks
half a large lemon

Preheat the oven to 425.
Combine all the herbs and dried spices and the garlic in a bowl and a tiny bit of olive oil to the salt and herbs to make a paste. Loosen the skin of the chicken with your fingers around the breast. Put a quarter of the chopped onion and the half a lemon inside the cavity of the bird.  Rub some of the paste under the skin around the breast, and rub the rest all over the outside of the chicken. Place the vegetables on the bottom of a roasting pan and put the chicken directly on top of them, the fat dripping from the chicken will soak into the vegetables and caramelize them into something just beautiful and delicious. That’s it…no liquid nothing else. The chicken will produce enough drippings that you don’t need it and you don’t want to waterlog the onions and carrots.

Roast at 425 for 30 mins and then reduce the heat to 350 and continue roasting for another 30-45 minutes depending on the size of the chicken.

Let this rest after takin gout of the oven for about 15 minutes before carving and serving.  Good luck with a gravy…if you are doing a gluten free, paleo or whole30 dinner please let fill me in on how make a good gravy, if you aren’t make a roux with the fat and some flour and add some stock and wine or make a fat/stock reduction or…skip sauce entirely as it is just fine without 🙂