My mom came back from groceries with some chicken breasts that she asked me to separate into baggies for the freezer. You could see 4 chicken breasts in the package, but it was a thick package and very very heavy. We assumed it was 2 layers of chicken breasts, for a total of 8 (quite large) breasts. Upon opening the package and taking one out, I realized the disgusting truth. There were in fact 4 chicken breasts. And about a pounds of fat on each of them. One of them is pictured here, the size of a large dinner plate. Yuck.

I started cutting them up to freeze them because they were so large it wouldn’t be practical to put a whole chicken breast since that was probably 4 servings. Last time I saw chickens running around, an entire chicken hardly looked like enough for 4 people, let alone its breast. Ooooh maybe these were turkey breasts? Check the package.. nope. Chicken. I’m now picturing in my head what these giant chickens would look like. All I can think of is Pamela Anderson-style implants on a poor little chicken body. I can’t imagine how they would walk, they probably didn’t. Yuck.

I’m going to start looking around for a good source of free-range or at least organic chickens with normal sized breasts. Not that I’m against large breasts, I just don’t think it’s all that natural. I found a good source of grass-fed beef locally, but chicken seems to be harder. Free-range eggs can be bought at any grocery store. Organic chicken is like $20 for one chicken breast. Are you kidding me? Why is chicken so expensive! If I can find a decent local source, I’m hoping to buy one chicken per week or two, if the price is right. Or maybe I’ll just eat a lot more beef. I’m still wanting to try the beef liver, hopefully I’ll get to it this week.

I apologize to any vegetarians or animal-rights activists for the post and picture. I have become more aware lately of animal treatment and health. I cannot ever avoid meat (for my own health reasons) but I plan to do my best to only eat meat from animals who have been treated properly.

This weekend I went on a little trip for 3 days with my boyfriend. We went to see a basketball game and do some other touristy stuff. I brought quite a bit of food with me. We were staying with friends so microwaves & fridges were available, and we traveled by car so space wasn’t much of an issue. I packed a little cooler with yogurt, meatballs, chicken and artichokes, almond flour brownies, and squash. I also brought some bananas, applesauce, fruit & nut bars, and finally some oatmeal (for my boyfriend). The food stayed decently fresh the whole time and I had plenty to eat. We also had a couple delicious meals during the weekend that I thoroughly enjoyed since being on SCD has let me eat a lot more meat.

Our first dinner was Peking duck. They roast a duck until the skin is all crispy and serve a few dishes from it. There is a dish with duck skin with a bit of meat, which you roll up in a little crepe with cucumber and sauce. I just had the duck on its own with a bit of sauce (sauce probably not SCD legal). The next dish was duck and vegetables chopped together and fried. This was delicious too. Finally they serve duck soup with the bones plus a bit of meat. Having been to Beijing for true authentic Peking duck, this meal came extremely close to the real thing.

Our next delicious meal was Korean BBQ. The table is set up with a grill in the middle of it. You are given plates and plates of raw meats that have been marinating all day (marinade probably not SCD legal). Beef strips, ribs, chicken, salmon, pork, squid, liver, anything you want. You cook your own meats on the grill and it is an all you-can eat place, so you end up spending a lot of time there. They also serve appetizers that are mostly vegetables, potatoes or tofu. I stuck to the meat. It was good.

I tried liver for the first time ever at the BBQ place. It was much better than I thought! It tasted like meat. Everyone I ask about liver says they hate the taste of it, but really the only difference I found between meat and liver was the texture, not the taste. The texture is sort of chalk-like and soft. I’m hoping to cook something this week with the liver I got (for free) with my beef order from my local farmer. I’ll post something about it if it turns out alright.

I’ve been getting a bit tired of cooking lately. Kind of expected this to happen since I’ve been cooking for myself (plus others) multiple times a day for about 2 months now. Before that, I was probably cooking 3-4 times a week and already getting sick of it. So what to do on a day where you don’t feel like cooking? Get some salmon and throw it in the oven. I took a minute to sprinkle some random spices/herbs on it. I also quickly pan-fried some mushrooms and asparagus with onion and garlic. Took about 5 minutes. That’s about as close as you’re going to get to ‘fast food’ on the SCDiet.

I have worked my way up to over a cup of yogurt per day now. It’s great to have as a quick breakfast or snack. I tried dripping some the other day hoping to have a thicker yogurt. Well I ended up with something close to cream cheese (I think I left it too long) which I mixed with frozen blueberries and honey. Made for a delicious frozen-yogurt type of desert! I maybe overdid it on the honey in this one, but I wanted something sweet.

What I ate today:
Breakfast – SCD yogurt, blueberries, almond butter brownie
Snack – applesauce, goat cheddar cheese
Lunch – bison meatballs (with squash replacing the egg), lots of SCD ketchup, papaya
Snack – another brownie, strawberries
Dinner – salmon, mushrooms and asparagus with onion and garlic (pictured here)
Dessert – SCD dripped yogurt, honey, blueberries

I’ve always known that using fresh herbs is best, but I never knew how to handle them. When a recipe calls for 1 tbsp of fresh parsley, and you can only buy a bunch of it that equals about 4 cups, it doesn’t make much sense. So when I read somewhere that you can freeze herbs, I decided to give it a go. I went out and bought fresh parsley to use in my meatball recipe. Not only does it taste great, but freezing it has worked like a charm. Basically I just put the bunch in a couple baggies in my freezer. When I need some, I easily break of a small chunk and put the rest back in the freezer. You don’t even have to wait for it to thaw, you can chop it up easily while it’s frozen and add it to the recipe.

Now I need to stock up on some fresh herbs! And also should label what I have now, they all look the same lol.

What I ate today:
Breakfast: SCD yogurt, blueberries, almond butter brownie, tangerine
Lunch 1: leftover chicken and artichokes with mushrooms
Lunch 2: 2 fried eggs, butternut squash, spinach
Dinner: Lamb chops in the crockpot with carrots and asparagus

I’m trying to cut down on the brownies while still maintaining 2000 cal/day. The brownies are great but higher in sugar (honey). Also trying not to rely so much on fruit, again because of the sugar. I’ll talk more about candida in a post soon.

I bought myself a crockpot a couple weeks ago and it has been used quite a bit in my house. So far I’ve made a lamb stew and some chicken stock. The pic is of pork ribs in a tomato sauce my mom cooked up last night. I have to say it’s been a nice addition to the kitchen.

I love it for a number of reasons:
1. Meat cooked slowly gets nice and tender and flavorful
2. It’s super easy, just chop up few things, dump it in and voila
3. It’s nice to come home to a delicious smelling house with food all ready to eat
The crockpot I got is a Rival 3-quart slow cooker from Walmart (costs 20$). Not big enough to make full meals for 4 people, but great for small meals or just for meat. I’ll be looking up plenty of crockpot recipes in the next little while.