Chicken in a Crock Pot

I love cooking with my crock pot! On Sunday we put a whole chicken in with a package of store-bought chicken broth. We put rosemary under the skin, and added salt, pepper, garlic, and onions to the broth. It cooked most of the day and then my husband made mashed potatoes while I made gravy. He added butter, sour cream, and coconut milk to the mashed potatoes. I made the gravy with garbanzo flour--melted butter, added garbanzo flour, and cooked for a couple minutes before adding hot broth and letting it simmer until it thickened. Garbanzo flour is a great substitute for wheat flour if you are avoiding gluten. It still is a processed flour with a lot of carbohydrates, but it also has other vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber. I actually bought a Chickpea Flour cookbook at Barnes & Noble at the beginning of the year.

For dinner last night and lunch today I heated up some of the broth with some chicken and frozen broccoli in one pot. I did save the bones, neck, and gizzards from the chicken to make more broth when I run out. I put the bones, etc. in the crock pot with water, vegetables, and spices for about a day and a half on low and it usually works great!

This has an awesome tortilla recipe that we use a couple times a month for tacos.

I should mention that the night we had the mashed potatoes and gravy with the chicken, neither of us slept because our stomachs were upset and grumbling pretty much all night! We don't normally eat that heavy, and there were a lot of carbs and a lot of fat in that one dinner!

I've been having mild/moderate pain in my right side that my doctor said might be my gallbladder. It's only been bad twice--once after what I thought was a healthy dinner of turkey sausage and peppers, and once after eating a bag of mixed nuts with some jerky--but I had a few tests done. They all came back normal, so instead of choosing more tests (for now), I chose to keep a food diary and stick to mainly meat and vegetables, with a lot of salad. It worked for a long time...until this really heavy dinner! I also have supplements from Dr. Mantz in Reno that have been helping, but dinner was really good and I "forgot" that I shouldn't eat a whole lot of fat because if your gallbladder is having trouble, fat isn't very helpful!

I started buying salad greens and pouches of tuna or salmon (Walmart has pouches of single-serving salmon for $1). I add the fish, and grated carrots plus whatever other vegetables I have, and make the dressing. I used a jar to mix olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and thyme.

I need to get into the habit of snacking on fruit and cut vegetables with dip instead of chips. I have been feeling a lot better since eating this way, but I really need to make it more of a daily thing. All I did for the dip was mash an avocado and add salt, pepper, lime juice, cumin, and garlic powder.

One of my favorites is leftover steak salad with avocado, tomatoes, and cilantro. I used the same dressing I described above.

New Work Pants and Some Pictures

 Last year at this time I was at my heaviest. I weighed 142 pounds and I was wearing size 10 work pants. I don't think I looked all that bad, but I could feel it! Like I said before, we were low on energy and just didn't feel good.

This was taken October 2015 during Snapshot Day on the Carson River at Dayton. I remember being tired and feeling "fat," bloated, and overall just not really comfortable.

This was taken March 31, 2016, about three months into our nutrition program. By then we both felt (and looked) a lot better. People told my my skin was glowing and I looked healthier. My husband said for him the biggest change was getting rid of his mental fog so he could think clearly and pay attention to what he was doing. He also had more energy for work. We also noticed that we have been getting out and doing something on our days off now, whether it's hiking, mountain biking, or four-wheel driving.

Pumpkin soup! I know I mentioned it in my last post but didn't have a picture. The soup ended up being a little bland, and we happened to have some chili paste because we made pho, so I added that and it worked great! For pumpkin soup, I just roast a small pumpkin (save the seeds to roast later), puree it with chicken stock, heat it up, and add spices and onions. I've also added bacon, broccoli, and other vegetables, even cream, to add flavor.

This was breakfast the other day. I cooked some frozen kale in butter until it was wilted down, then added 4 eggs (2 for each of us) and coconut milk to scramble it all together. I also melted some cheese on the top and added hot sauce. I'm still trying to get my husband to eat a lot more vegetables and fruit so I try to add something like the grapefruit, tomatoes, or whatever is in the fridge along with the eggs.

In other news....

I was so excited yesterday at work because it's time to order new uniform supplies. I ordered size 4 work pants!!! They have not arrived yet but I'm excited to be able to try them on! I haven't been in a size 4 for years now...cross your fingers.....

Pumpkin Season

I haven't posted much lately...at all...we've been busy at work and busy at home, finishing the move and trying to keep up with housework!

I've only used one pumpkin so far, which tells me I am very far behind! Normally I try to have pumpkin everything...bread, soup, lattes...etc.

We did puree a pumpkin, roast the seeds, and use it for soup, in oatmeal, and in homemade pumpkin spice lattes. For the lattes, I heated up coconut milk, added pureed pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and a tiny bit of honey before I added some instant coffee. Not as sugary as Starbucks, but it was still pretty good! I think the coconut milk would even be good on its own like that... We don't eat a lot of bread or even oatmeal anymore, but steel-cut oats with a scoop of pumpkin and some cinnamon is great in the morning and it doesn't need any sugar!

On one of the cooking pages on Facebook I saw where someone had cut up a butternut, parsnips, and apples and seasoned them with olive oil, orange juice & zest, and rosemary. I used lemon instead of orange but I decided we had to try it! I roasted the veggies and apples with bone-in chicken thighs and that was a great dinner. The next night we cooked a tri tip steak with roasted rosemary potatoes and cooked some frozen vegetables (zucchini I think). Those are not normal dinners for us, but we decided we really need to spend the time and cook mostly meat and vegetables a lot more often.

Rosemary is quickly becoming one of my favorite herbs. I've never really used it much before but it is good with a good variety of meat and vegetables, and soups!

Sorry for the lack of pictures...I'll have to get some off of my phone and onto here!