Simple Chicken Stock

bones from 1 roast chicken
1 medium onion, quartered
1 celery stalk, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
Few springs of fresh thyme and/or parsley
1 garlic clove
1 bay leaf
4 to 5 quarts cold water

Put the bones, onion, celery, carrot, fresh herbs, garlic clove, and bay leaf into large pot. Add water. Bring just to a boil and then turn the heat down until it simmers. Let it simmer for at least 1 hour and up to 3 hours. Skim any foam or fat from the top with s spoon. Drain in a colander or mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth or a coffee filter into a large bowl. Cool, then refrigerate or freeze until needed.

Lent Begins

Today is the first day of Lent and wouldn't you know it I woke up craving sweets.  I resisted and made myself an omelet with 2 eggs, broccoli, and a small amount of feta cheese.

I decided I'm really sick of eggs and usually I love them.  I do better diet-wise when I have protein for breakfast so I don't know what I'll have now.  Nothing really sounds good right now.  Maybe some plain Greek yogurt with a little fruit.

I'm already starting to stress out about supper tonight.  I didn't take anything out of the freezer.  I'd like to go meatless but I'm not sure how Keith (my hubby) will feel about that.

My adventure in eating Real Food seems to be off to a bad start.  I need to get my mind in a better place.

Real Food

Just a few days until Lent begins and I start my "Food Rules" journey.  Basically I'll be eating just "real foods."  But, what is real food?  Andrew Wilder has a great definition of real food - you can read it here.

To make sure I'm off to a good start I'll be doing some shopping this weekend.  First off I want to buy an oil sprayer, to make sure I don't over do on the olive oil, and a salad spinner.  I love salads but hate with there's extra water that dilutes my salad dressing.

I also making sure I have all the necessary ingredients to whip up a whole grain bread this weekend.

And, speaking of salad dressing...that will be a whole other blog!

Lent

The first day of Lent is February 22. I typically give us sweets for Lent. One year I gave up pop - I really struggled that year!

This year I decided to do something different. I generally try to eat healthy but I still eat my fair share of processed foods (especially pop). I am going to really push myself to get rid of all the processed foods by following Michael Pollan's Food Rules. This is an amazing book and a quick read.

I can have occasional sweets, as long as they are made by humans, with ingredients in the home pantry (no science experiments here).  I can even have a diet pop...once in a while.  And I can have wine with dinner!