Whole30: Day 15

A thick slice of pineapple

Food:
Breakfast: banana pancakes
This has become one of our favourite breakfasts. It's quick and easy and just a little bit sweet. I'm definitely in love with them.

Lunch: Salad with canned chicken
This was not enough lunch for me. It was a pretty big salad but salads don't hold me that long. And I was too lazy to get myself any fruit since there was none cut. So needless to say I don't be doing that one again. 

Supper: Asian inspired pork burgers, salad, and a thick slice of pineapple
This is a favourite of ours. We usually make terriyaki burgers which we obviously couldn't do this time. But we love to grill them up and put a grilled ring of pineapple on top. Last night's version was pretty good. It was really windy and the grill wouldn't stay lit so we had to finish the burgers inside but it was quite tasty.


Thoughts:
Just another normal day. I did not spend anytime on the computer in the morning so my head was fine. But I spent most of the afternoon n the computer and ended up with a headache. I did get a little hungry around ten-ish like normal. It wasn't bad though. My salad at lunch didn't last me though so I was quite hungry by 3:30pm when I had some turkey jerky. And then by the time we ate around 6:15pm, I was starving again. So I definitely needed a bigger breakfast. But otherwise today was just like every other day in the past couple of weeks.


Random:
I had my follow up appointment with Karen today and of course came home with a million ideas of things to study and research. So I spent most of my afternoon doing that. I did take a short break to play with my chicken and get it prepped for the pot.

Isn't she a beauty? I particularly love the dainty way she has her legs tucked in.

Cooking a chicken couldn't be easier. There are lots and lots of variations of spices and flavours but they all start with a whole chicken. My favourite way is to throw it in a crockpot on low for a few hours and let it go.

We get our chickens from a local farmer who raises organic, pastured chickens. The flavour is wonderful and I like knowing that it was . This one had it's neck and a bunch of it's innards shoved back inside. The neck and internal organs will make a wonderful broth as well.

One note about cooking pastured chicken. Because pastured chickens have less fat, they cook faster than a regular chicken. My chicken which was somewhere are 3.5-4lbs took 3hours. Be careful not to cook it for too long as the meat will get dry and tough.

Also, sometimes I combine both recipes but usually I just do one or the other. After you've devoured your chicken, save the bones, skin, and any juice from the crockpot to cook into a flavourful broth to use in other recipes. Enjoy!


Recipe One:
1 whole pastured chicken (3-4lbs), thawed
1 lemon, quartered
6-8 cloves of garlic, peeled

Take your thawed chicken and remove any internal organs that may be inside the chest cavity. Once cleared, shove the lemon chunks, onion pieces, and cloves of garlic inside. Place chicken in crockpot breast side down. Cook on low just until reaches an internal temperature of 165, approx 3-4 hours.


Recipe Two:
1 whole pastured chicken (3-4lbs)
melted butter or olive oil
oregano
rosemary
thyme
basil
garlic powder
salt
pepper

Take your chicken, thawed or unthawed, and remove internal organs if possible. Put the chicken in the crockpot and lightly coat with oil/butter. Sprinkle spices on all sides and inside the cavity before nestling the chicken in breast side down. Cook on low until the chicken reaches the internal temperature of 165, approx 3-4 hours for a thawed chicken and 5-6 hours for an unthawed.