Thursday, August 6, 2015

Day 2: From Bad to Better to Clarified Butter

It is 8:30, I finished dinner, and I survived Day 2 of the Whole 30.  I will tell you right now that I am a bit behind the curve because I didn't spend Sunday shopping and planning and cooking to have a strong start to the week.  Instead I spent Sunday crying and moping and feeling horrible and missing Craig while trying to keep it together for my other dogs.  Starting this on a Wednesday...not my best idea in the grand scheme of ideas. 

I will definitely be doing the plan, shop, prep this weekend to set myself up for an easier time next week.  I think I will also make a couple of versatile sauces to have on hand.  All I can say is thank goodness I cooked a million pieces of chicken and mountains of steamed broccoli last night.  That will at least carry my dinners until the weekend. I anticipate being sick of chicken pretty soon, though.  GOBBLE GOBBLE! Oh wait...is that what the turkey says or what the chicken says? Bock Bock? Whatever the chicken says, I will be tired of hearing it pretty soon. 

In addition to not having a lot of things already precooked, I also had a working lunch meeting today at a Mexican seafood restaurant.  Remember...no beans, no cheese, no joy.  That is what was going through my mind trying to decide what to order.  I ended up with a seafood soup in broth and a green salad.  I asked the waitress for oil and vinegar.  "Oh.  I'm not sure we have that.  I'll check."  Really? You don't have olive oil and vinegar?  After a few minutes she came back and said, "I'm so sorry.  No oil and vinegar.  You want ranch instead?"  Yes! Yes, I want ranch instead but I can't eat it!!!!!  It ended up that they did have olive oil, so I used that and squeezed fresh limes.  I also asked for a side of avocado to help make the salad taste like something.  TIP: Travel to restaurants with my own salad dressing. 

I am getting a little tired of olive oil, so I tried to make clarified butter tonight. It seems the milk solids in regular butter are forbidden on the Whole 30.  Also, the words and concept of "milk solids"....pretty gross for some reason.  I'm not sure why anyone would want to eat something called "milk solids."  Clarifying butter seemed easy enough.  If Scientologists can do it, so can I! Oh wait...that's a different clarifying.  Anyhoo, my task was to melt butter, skim milk solids off the top, strain in cheese cloth.  Piece of cake...that's what I wanted as a banged my head against the wall struggling with the clarifying process.  A big huge piece of cake...mmmmm....with ice cream. 

See, not having cheesecloth really is kind of a pain.  Trying to strain hot butter through a coffee filter is NOT going to work.  It just isn't.  Take it from me.  Coffee filters and clarified butter do not mix.  So, I learned a lesson...buy cheese cloth and more paper towels and grease-cutting cleaners to get the butter off my counters. Once I have the cheese cloth, etc..., I will then go to Tucson and buy clarified butter in the store and keep the cheese cloth as a backup for those emergencies where I need cheese cloth for something and can save myself from doing stupid things, like trying to strain hot butter through a coffee filter.  

The bonus is I started my morning sobbing into the sink while I was trying to brush my teeth and get ready for work, but this evening I haven't cried once.  The Whole 30 says it is normal to be kind of moody and emotional and hungover feeling the first few days.  Unfortunately, I can't tell if I'm a basket case because of the food changes or because I miss my dog or both and how much each one is the culprit.  Not crying tonight, though...I'll take it because it is pretty difficult to brush one's teeth while crying and sobbing without choking on toothpaste. 

I'm looking forward to Day 3! Yippee!  Oh, and my awesome cousin, Erin, sent me a blog her doctor just started on plant based cooking, so I will be checking out this page as I move forward, too.  Cooking with Dr. G

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