Paleo Pho

I've been experimenting with some "Paleo" recipes lately; mostly just making things I've followed on other people's blogs.

Today, however, I decided to throw caution to the wind and actually make up a recipe myself.  GASP

If you've been visiting around here lately, this will look familiar to you, but I changed it up a bit this time.

First, last week I roasted up a chicken (free range, organic, happy, hippie chickens) and pulled the meat off the bones.  Then, I put the bones in the crockpot with a couple of bay leaves, an onion, some salt & pepper and covered it with water.  I left it on high for about 24 hours and strained it and let it cool.

I skim the fat off and store it the fridge (makes an AWESOME fat for sautéing, etc...) and then tossed the broth in the freezer with the meat.  Ok, now that you've got the back story.....

Today, I took about a TBS of that chicken fat and heated it in a small sauce pan.  Once it was hot I tossed in 2 oz of the chicken from the freezer and let it sizzle a bit.  Next, I tossed in 1 cup of chopped broccoli and a handful of shredded carrots.  While that all was snapping and crackling in the sauce pan I julienned up some zucchini (one medium).  Oh, I also sprinkled in a  little fish sauce, some sake (I know, I know, not technically Paleo...still looking for a good alternative), a little coconut aminos and a little dash of sesame oil.  Sizzle.  Sizzle.  I dumped in about two cups of my homemade bone broth (so so good for your joints.  It came out of the fridge like JELLO) and brought it all up to a simmer.  I tossed in the zukes, covered the pan and brought it up to a boil.  Took off the lid, stirred it around a bit until the zucchini was tender, dished it up, squirted on a little srirachi, and then dug in.

Watch it, it's hot.  I added a little salt at the table because it just needed a little sum thin'.  I'll probably add more fish sauce next time.  Cilantro would have been good, too but I was out.  

Delish!  And I didn't even miss the noodles!

Don't even know where to start

Gosh, I take a blogging break and blogger goes and changes every thing on me.  Geesh!

Ok, wow.  I did not intend to disappear for this long, and if you follow me on Facebook, you know I didn't actually disappear, I've just mostly moved all of my thoughts over that way.

Ok, to catch you all up:

The Spring Clean Up Challenge was a huge success!  I didn't win, I came in third in women, but my husband won the men's.  He lost 20 lbs!!!  He increased his Clean & Jerk by 10#s and he added over 20 reps to his AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible).

I need to do a new "statistics" post and update my weight/inches.  I'm blowing myself away!!

I've been following "The Zone" diet.  I've mentioned before that I don't like diets and I don't believe in food rules.  Nothing is off limits. "The Zone", though, is helping me make better choices.  It's just another step in my quest towards Intuitive Eating.  In fact, after the challenge ended, I decided to take the last two weeks and give myself a little break.  I didn't go nuts, but I wasn't measuring and counting every single thing like I was.  I still managed to lose 5 lbs during the last 12 days.

My plan is to do the Zone for a month or so, then take a few weeks off, do it again for a month, take a few weeks off, etc.....until it just becomes a way of life.

I know this blog post isn't making much sense and it's a little jumbled.  I apologize.  I just wanted to get something out here.....dust off the old blog and start getting myself back in the habit of posting.  I'll be better, I promise :)