Day 8 - Adventures in Chick-Fil-A Cuisine

On Day 8 I woke with much more energy than previous days. I still couldn't get a run in because the temperature had only risen to a balmy 12 degrees with windchill. But, I puttered around the house to try to at least get some energy out. I am definitely starting to see some subtle changes that I am grateful for - I have definitely noticed that my face is less puffy and my love handles (which have become very UN-loveable indeed) have shrunk a bit! As I said before, I didn't even weigh myself before beginning the challenge this time, so these changes are truly the way I am measuring results. 

We also had to do a little shopping for a friend who just adopted a brand new baby girl, so we were heading out to Rockville and Buy Buy Baby - also know as the Baby Crack Store. After picking up some baby essentials for my friend Ashley we headed over to Trader Joes to see what kind of goodies we could find. Of course some Rocketship crackers for Parker and a couple of LaraBars for me. 

We also found my FPF of the day: Trader Joes Freeze Dried Strawberries. They are amazing. It is a pretty big bag of just strawberries. They definitely satisfy the sweet/crunchy thing that can be missing from the W30. The serving size is a whole bag, but I could never eat it all in one sitting - they are very flavorful. I ate a couple in the car after my disappointing lunch (get to that later) and then also had a few after dinner during another episode of Justified. I definitely plan to go buy some more this weekend. A little spendy at $3.49 a bag, but a great little treat.

I made a second attempt at roasting Kale chips and solidified my decision that I do not enjoy Kale. The leaves themselves were OK without the stems (which were very bitter) but once again, the people who say that they can substitute that for chips are crazy - luckily I don't really eat chips anyway, so it isn't a big loss. I did find a great bag of pre-washed pre-cut Kale at TJ and only baked up about half of the bag, so I am going to try some sauted Kale recipes and see if I like it that way better...

Now, on to the disappointment of lunch...After all of our running around I promised Parker a stop at Chick-Fil-A for lunch. I was originally planning on just having a LaraBar and water until I got home and could add some veggies, but decided to go ahead and try a Chick-Fil-A salad instead. I ordered their Cobb without cheese or dressing with grilled chicken "nuggets". As we sat waiting for our food to be delivered I checked out the Chick-Fil-A website to see how their grilled nuggets are made. Unfortunately I found: 100% natural chicken breast, seasoning (salt, monosodium glutamate, sugar, spices, paprika).  So, pretty disappointed in the monosodium glutamate and sugar. Decided not to eat the chicken on the salad. So, pretty much ended up with a green salad without protein. There was also some corn on the salad that I had to pick around that I would remove next time...Oh well Chick-Fil-A, not horrible, but not a "win" for me.

Finally, I cooked up a great recipe of sweet potato egg muffins for my crazy mornings - like when we are headed out to school. The recipe originated from here: http://www.paleonewbie.com/paleo-sweet-potato-egg-cups-recipe/ but I adapted it a bit for what I had. Additionally, I did not pre-cook my sweet potato. I grated it and then put it in my baking cups - which by the way, silicone baking cups are my greatest new find - how did I not know about these before? I put my uncooked potatoes in the oven at 375 for about 35 minutes until they were crispy. My filling was eggs, green peppers, onions, and sausage. I cooked the sausage first, then sauted the eggs and peppers in the sausage fat before combining it all with the whisked eggs. They came out great. I also had extra grated sweet potato so while my muffins baked I fried up the leftover potato into hash and had that with the leftover sausage/pepper/onion mixture with some fried eggs for breakfast. Based on how good that was, I have high hopes for the muffins.

Breakfast: Sweet Potato Hash, sausage, onions, peppers, eggs

Lunch: Green Salad (no dressing), freeze dried strawberries, hard boiled egg at home

Dinner: Grilled Chicken (yay Ben!), green salad, roasted baby carrots

Post-Dinner Snack: toasted coconut and freeze-dried strawberries!