Day 2: Cooking up a storm

Sleep: 8 hours

Exercise: None...unless extreme cooking counts!

So I set off the fire alarm in our apartment again. It doesn't help that they installed the fire alarm about three feet away from the oven. So every time I do something like say, roast a chicken, I probably piss off the neighbors. But as husband says as he stands on the couch and waves smoke away from the fire alarm with a kitchen towel, "It sounds like Sunday"

The most inconvenient part of only eating non-processed foods is that you cant really just grab and go meals. No more cereal in the morning or lunch on the go. This means I need a lot of food ready to eat or else it's too easy to cheat after a rough day. Enter in Weekly Sunday Cook-up. Every Sunday I spend an obscene amount of time in the kitchen (which also doubles as the living room since our place is so small) and I cook...a lot. Today's cook-up is the following:

1. Chili in the crock-pot (this will be lunch for most of the week)
2. Roasted Squash (zucchini and yellow squash with coconut oil and thyme...taste very pizza like)
3. Roasted carrots and parsnips (Olive Oil, garlic powder and ginger)
4. Crustless Quiche
5. Roast Chicken

Chili: Everyone has their favorite Chili recipe, but when you switch over to paleo and realize that you can't have beans then it takes a little creativity to get a good hearty chili recipe (that's not just tomatoy meat). I'm still experimenting with mine. Today's version
1 lb beef
1 onion (diced)
1 acorn squash (cubed)
1 red bell pepper
2 carrots
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
chili powder
salt
paprika
melted bakers chocolate (I threw in one square of unsweetened chocolate, I love it in chili!)

I just throw it all in the crock-pot on low and let it cook all day. I can pack this for lunch with half an avocado for topping and raw veggies on the side. I hope it turns out ok (not that I've ever eaten bad chili)

Roast Veggies: I prefer veggies to be cooked, so I drizzle them with olive oil or coconut oil, add some seasoning and then throw them in the oven at 450 degrees until they look done. Then I just reheat them for dinners for the next couple of day.

Crustless Quiche: I got the basic recipe from the BalancedBites site by Diane Sanfilippo. Her cook book Practical Paleo has great recipes and food plans for someone starting out on paleo. Here is the link to her recipe:
http://balancedbites.com/2010/06/easy-recipe-crustless-quiche-with-summer-squash.html

I tend to use whatever veggies I have on hand for quiche.
Today's mix:
1 large zucchini (shredded and squeezed dry)
1 large sweet potato (for added carbs I need after Bootcamp class)
2 carrots (shredded)
I mix this with 12 beaten eggs
throw in some sage and garlic powder
bake at 350 until it starts to brown on top.

I cover this pan and cut out a piece each morning for breakfast and reheat it. Super fast and easy way to have eggs and veggies for breakfast.

Roast Chicken:
I read this recipe on yahoo Friday afternoon but now I can't find it on the website. Oh well. It was super easy so I'll wing it.
4 whole cloves of garlic
1 lemon cut in half
thyme and rosemary
Stuff these all in the cavity of the chicken and then roast in the oven at 500 degrees (yes, that's 500!) Cook for 15 min. per lb of chicken! So it should only take an hour or so and then I'll have a crispy roasted chicken! Oh, and if you can you might want to remove the batteries out of your fire alarm while making this chicken. Unless you have someone who is skilled at fanning a fire alarm.

Breakfast: eggs, roasted acorn squash with cinnamon and sauteed spinach with cinnamon topped with walnuts and apricots.

Lunch: Roast chicken with roasted carrots and parsnips. Also had a banana with cashew butter for desert.

Dinner: Chili with avocado.

Snack: In honor of our new TV/ cold weather, we stayed in an watched bad horror movies all day which means Kale Chips again! Salty snacks and gore go so well together. I love it when the blonde dies first :)