whole30, day fifteen

How can I resist using all caps? At today's end, I am halfway there. I will resist the caps, of course, but I do want to shout it from the rooftops.

Today began with an unexpected hurdle: defending the food I'm cooking and serving both of us each day. Yikes! I certainly would not insist that he only eat what I'm eating throughout the day, but what happened to "I'm cooking, he's eating?" The main problem in all of this is that GK is serious about health and nutrition. He's also seriously committed to the fat will kill you, oatmeal saves lives, avoid meat if at all possible framework of healthy eating. He's active, he's thin, but he's convinced that recent aches and pains are from all the meat and fat he's been eating. That translates to "all the meat and fat  I've been forcing on him." The weird thing is he is not eating a lot of meat and definitely not a lot of fat. Last night's dinner, for example, was pan-seared salmon and halibut with a generous serving of organic broccoli. The fish was Alaskan, wild-caught from Vital Choice Seafood, one of the best sources in my opinion. Sure there's some natural fat in the salmon, the same kind as in the fish oil caps he takes everyday deliberately. I do hope this passes quickly. I'm sure it will.

That is the end of my whining for the day. Day 15 is destined to be an exciting day. I have two beautiful organic chickens ready to be cut up. My plan for today is to make some beautiful chicken broth with the backs, wing tips, and a few other pieces. I haven't decided yet what the fate of the other pieces will be, but I'm looking forward to playing with them. Make it Paleo, by Bill Staley and Haley Mason, arrived yesterday, so I may chose a couple of recipes from it. Red curry chicken skewers sounds pretty good, but so does Cumin spiced chicken. Then there's Baked chicken thighs. Such a fun dilemma.

A few hours later...

partially cut up chickens

How did I forget how much fun this is? I used to buy whole chickens all the time and cut them up. I'd make halves or quarters or separate pieces for specific uses. I'd make broth then and there or freeze the odds and ends for another time. I think I stopped eating chicken for awhile, a bit afraid of the whole farming process. At that time I didn't have access to organic or pastured chicken, or at least I didn't know about it if it were around. But then I forgot; I really forgot how much I like playing with poultry.

Today was great. My focus was actually on the broth this time. Doing the Whole30, I've become quite conscious of the additives even in organic broth, but I still wanted some. That left making it myself. Today I decided to try the crock pot as suggested in this great post by balancedbites.com. One thing I love about this method is the wide range of possible cooking times. I hate it when I want to go to bed and I have to stay up and wait for broth to cool so I can package it. I've been known to say to hell with it and throw it all away the next day.

I browned the backs, necks, wing tips in the broiler set to low broil. These look like big bugs now, but they'll be great later. In the meantime, I started the crock pot on high, adding several quarts of filtered water, whole garlic cloves, and a bit of coarse pink sea salt. When the chicken was brown like the picture above, I slid it into the water with the seasonings, and finished cutting up the chickens.

I did mention my love of scales, right?

As I was finishing up my chicken pieces, I decided to fully bone the breasts. I usually buy them bone-in and save the bones for broth or stock, but what the heck, I'm making broth today. Into the crock pot, the rib and breast bones went.  I also cut the wings into separate sections, so they'll cook better. I love wings, GK does not, so I'm thinking they'll make a good, indulgent lunch for me to take to work. All in all, a darned good way to spend a chunk of my Day15.