Roast Chicken

Ingredients:

1 roaster chicken (5-6 lbs)
1 lemon, zested
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. pepper
1 tbsp. rosemary
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil

Directions:

Clean and truss chicken. Preheat oven to 350F. Combine remaining ingredients and rub all over chicken, even inside. Place lemon halves inside chicken cavity. Place in roasting or baking pan and roast in middle of oven for 3 hours or until chicken reaches 170F and juices between drumstick and breast run clear.

Let sit for 5 minutes then carve. We had this tonight with cauliflower rice and steamed (for John) slash roasted (for Emily) broccoli.

Roasted Broccoli:

Toss broccoli florets with sea salt, pepper and olive oil. Roast on 400 for 30 minutes.

Bone Broth:

And what about leftovers?! Right now I have the chicken bones in the crockpot, covered with water and 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar on Low. I'll let that go for 24-48 hours to make chicken stock. I collected the pan drippings and have those freezing flat for gravy.

Chicken Salad:

Remaining dark meat chicken
1/4 c. Paleo Ceasar dressing (blend 1 egg, salt, pepper, garlic, lemon juice and fish sauce, all to taste).

Combine and let chill (this last part is actually important, as it will allow the dressing to solidify and semi-marinate the chicken). Serve with lettuce wraps or on a salad!

Organizational Tips

Life D.C. traffic is crazy. It will literally suck the life out of you, causing you, upon your arrival at your destination, to forget why you came here in the first place. Everyone here is always in a rush, including us. Things can get hectic, and with the start of the school semester here, time is a precious commodity that there simply isn't enough of. So, in an attempt to make life a bit easier, I like to SUPER organize our meals, pantry, fridge, freezer, closets...pretty much everything. Things can get messy, but at least they have a place to go when we clean up! Here are a few things that I do in order to stay organized:

1) Breakfast: I love make-ahead breakfasts that I can just grab and go. It's easy as mixing together some eggs, veggies and bacon, pouring it into a muffin tin, and baking on 350 F for about 20 minutes. I also just made up a batch of make-ahead smoothie packs (1/2 banana, 1 diced apple, 10 strawberries, and 1/4 cup of greens). Just toss those in the blender with some almond milk and almond butter and you're set.

2) Lunch: I'm not very picky about what I had for lunch, which is why I normally have leftovers. I try to make enough of whatever we're having the night before for us to both have the leftovers for lunch. Having ample Tupperware containers is essential.

3) Dinner: I've been pretty good this year about making a weekly menu. This way, there's little to no panic come 5 o'clock, resulting in delivery pizza and shame. This week's menu is:

• Saturday: Lemon Garlic Roast Chicken with Cauliflower Rice (recipe below) and salad
• Sunday: Shrimp Scampi with Cauliflower Rice
• Monday: Beef and Broccoli
• Tuesday: BBLT burgers (Bison, Bacon, Lettuce Tomato) with Sweet Potato fries
• Wednesday: Dinner on your own (we both have class this night)
• Thursday: Jicama Tacos (make enough meat for tomorrow's dinner)
• Friday: Taco Salads

4) Leftovers: As I mentioned, we tend to eat leftovers for lunch. But what if you make too much sauce? I can't stand to dump an entire serving of sauce, so I put it in a quart-size freezer bag, lay it flat on the bottom of my freezer, and let it sit over night. The next day, once it's frozen solid, I slide it in with the other sauces that I've frozen (like library books). Just last night I grabbed one of these bags for Cauliflower Crust pizza (the crust was a disaster, the rest was delicious). I also tend to freeze large quantities of things for later (leftover potato gratin, rutabaga puree).

5) Shopping: It's just the two of us, but buying the smallest packages of meat kills me when I know I could be saving by buying in bulk. We eat a lot of ground beef and chicken, so I buy those in the large club packs (saving about $1.00 per pound). When I get home, I'll divide those up into meal-sized portions (2-3 chicken breasts, 1 lb. ground beef, or 2-3 Italian sausage links for pizza). Then I'll wrap them in plastic wrap, then heavy duty foil, and freeze. This way you only have to thaw what you need (food safety 101, people!).

There is this amazing brand of thick-cut bacon that is sold in bulk at Wegman's that we love. Whenever I buy this, I take each piece and roll it up, then store all pieces in a large freezer bag and freeze flat. This way, the bacon breaks apart easily from the whole, allowing us to just take as much as we need. 

6) Labeling: I label EVERYTHING that goes into our freezer with a Sharpie, either directly onto the foil or on the label section of the freezer bags. I made the mistake once of thinking that I would remember what a sauce was. A month later, I had no idea and thew it out. Labeling only takes 5 seconds, and it is your friend.

So, those are the things that I do on a regular basis. About every month I clean out the fridge, freezer and pantry, re-organizing things. I'm sure I'll figure out a system sooner or later, but for now (and for this space-no pantry, AH!), I think things are working pretty well!

Cauliflower Rice

1 head cauliflower
Butter
Salt
Pepper

Grate the cauliflower on a box grater until it resembles rice. Melt butter in pan and saute "rice" for about 5 minutes, until tender. Season with salt and pepper.

Paleo Week 1

Well, it's the end of our first week going Paleo, and I think we did a pretty good job! I broke down and had a few bites of cheese and pecan pie last night at the in-laws house, but I'm back on track today and am trying to not feel too bad about it.

The most surprising part of this whole experiment is how much I just don't miss the things we're cutting out (grains, dairy, sugar). I really hardly notice the change in diet that much; I think the only reason I broke down last night and indulged in cheese and sugar was because it was there. All of the grains and sugar in our cabinets is on the top shelf, which I can't even see, and the cheese in our fridge is in a drawer that I've pretty much just forgotten exists. Out of sight, out of mind.

We've had some delicious meals this week! Here's our dinner menu:

Sunday: Ground Beef Chili and Salad
Monday: Smoked Paprika Chicken and Spinach and Roasted Red Pepper Walnut Dip
Tuesday: Ground Beef and Zucchini Lasagne (the zucchini took the place of the noodles) (The Food Lovers Primal Palate)
Wednesday: Chicken and Chorizo Stew (Cooking Light)
Thursday: Chicken Salads from Chipotle
Friday: A delicious dinner at the in-laws of roast beef, asparagus, salad and Yorkshire pudding (ok, that last one wasn't Paleo either, but I had never had it so I had to try it!)

For lunch, I've been eating either leftovers or salads, and for breakfast I made Egg and Veggie muffins, which were so great to just grab and go.

So, how am I feeling? Definitely more energetic and less bloated. We don't have a scale at our house, so I'm not sure what's going on with my weight, but I'm not really more concerned with how I look than what I weigh.

So, that's it for week 1! I would definitely suggest this diet/lifestyle to anyone who is interested. It seems like a lot to cut out, but if you're doing your own grocery shopping like an adult then it's really not a big deal.

Practicing Paleo

Well, it's 2012 and hence a new round of resolutions has begun. Mine? Hydrate like crazy and try out a paleo diet.

I've tried this before. John and I went Partially Paleo in the weeks before our wedding with great results, so we thought to try it out again. John is still eating some oats and potatoes, and we're both allowing a glass of wine a night (plus a square of 83% dark chocolate), but other than that I'm going to see how it goes!

Over the break, we picked up a copy of Make It Paleo, a cookbook which seems like a really great resource for beginning paelo's.  Nauseating boy-meets-girl introduction aside, I think this is an excellent book, and it seems like it will make it easy for us to make the (probably temporary) switch.

Today, I made eggs for breakfast and then basically thew them on the floor while getting in the car....so really, I had trail mix for breakfast. Seeds and dried fruit, for the most part. No granola, a little bit of chocolate, and that was it!

I felt pretty full through lunch, where I had a bowl of leftover chili from last night. I also made a pot of egg drop soup, which will be lunch for tomorrow.

For dinner, I made Make It Paleo's Smoked Paprika Chicken and Sauteed Spinach, along with Everyday Paleo's Walnut Red Pepper Dip. Everything was delicious...the Walnut Red Pepper Dip, though? AMAZING...and it will certainly become a staple in our house!

So, we'll see how this goes! It was certainly a challenge to resist eating all of those muffins and breads that I made today in order to get rid of all the flour and sugar in our kitchen (and to clear out some freezer space...somehow we managed to collect 2 dozen old bananas?), but I did it! Plus, now our house smells like delicious baked goods. Always a good thing.