Whole30: Day 17

Today was a boring day. Most of what we ate was pre-planned, to some extent: my breakfast was a decadent affair consisting of strawberries, eggs, avocado, and one of the sausage patties I made yesterday. Lunch was leftover chili (Austin insists it should be spelled 'chile': something about the ingredients or the proportions or something? And I feel like I've just looked at the word too long and don't know how it should be spelled, have never known, and never will know, and have resigned myself to being judged on the off chance I chose the wrong spelling.) Dinner was also leftovers because one of the things left over was that hash which is our FAVORITE now (I should note that we've now gone through over half the bottle of Cholula that I bought a week ago), warmed up by being sauteed again, with extra spinach thrown in. Also, I was tired, and not in the mood for salmon (bought a gorgeous piece of salmon at the farmers market yesterday), or for cooking, really.

There are plenty of things I don't really miss, but the things I do, I feel sharply. I miss cheese so much. Part of dinner was a spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette, and some crumbled blue cheese would've been amazing. That was the only thing I missed today, though: I didn't even miss beer or wine, because I was too tired for it (I didn't sleep well last night). If I were drinking, I probably would have had a beer or two out of habit, but I don't think I'd have enjoyed them as much as I now think I should in order to warrant their consumption. I do not feel that way about blue cheese crumbles. It feels silly to forgo blue cheese crumbles. Or crumbled feta. In fact, all the cheese I really miss is cheese on salad. Not parmesan crisps, or grilled cheese sandwiches, or chevre on crackers, or queso fundido, and I think the reason why is because I can't have ANY part of those dishes: I can't have the bread or butter in grilled cheese either, or the crackers the chevre would go on, or tortilla chips I'd cover in queso fundido. But I can have salads, and I find that I don't like them as much without cheese: that plays a pretty significant role. Blue cheese more than any others: I may order a cobb salad from Tender Greens again, out of desperation, but without blue cheese, it's really a very sad salad.

Cobb salad? More like sob salad!

(I've been working on that for over a week, and I know it's stupid, but I'm unreasonably proud of it anyway because IT IS TRUE.)


How I felt: Kind of drained, actually: glad it was an easy day. Slept terribly last night for some reason. Hoping to get more sleep tonight.

Breakfast: Sausage patty, two fried eggs, sliced avocado, and a big bowl of strawberries. And Venice Cold Brew. Downright luxurious.

Lunch: Our smallest container of leftover pork chile verde (leftovers were in two big containers and one little one, and after that giant breakfast, I figured the little one would be fine; Austin took back his indignation at my taking leftover chile to work when he found out there was still another big container in there for him to have tomorrow). I topped it with a squeeze of lime, some freshly torn cilantro and chopped maui sweet onion. We've gotta make tacos soon and use more of those garnishes, they're so good!

Dinner: Leftover hash from Friday, reheated in a pan with more oil. I added in the few leftover potatoes from last night, and another big handful of spinach when everything was almost done cooking. There wasn't enough hash for us to have that as our entire meal (unfortunately), so I also cooked the other two Trader Joe's chicken sausages that were left, and made a spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette. Half a bottle of lemonade kombucha with dinner, and then some cold sauteed apples for dessert.

Let me explain about the apples.

A few days ago, maybe a week now, I really wanted a cinnamon roll for breakfast. The cinnamon and the sweetness, I couldn't stop thinking about it. And it stayed with me, so I tried sauteeing some sliced apple with ghee, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, and some fresh squeezed orange juice (it's a cheat to add sugar, but if that's the worst I do on this diet, I'm not going to feel bad about it). I didn't have any apples that night, though: just stuck them in a food storage container in the fridge. But I took them out tonight to try and... it worked: those apples tasted like the most delicious apple cider, in solid form. And I've got lots left still--it only took a few bites to really scratch that itch--so it's handy to have that in my back pocket.