“Hangover” Day

I successfully made it through Day 3! This morning I got out of bed knowing that it was going to be a great day.  I wasn’t super tired, traffic was lighter than normal, I had my black coffee– great start!

And then, just like that, WHAM! A pounding headache came on as if I’d been hit in the head with something large and very heavy.  I’ve felt this way only a few times in my life– once when I drank several glasses of sweet white wine before bed, and another when I had a terrible cold.  But I didn’t have either of those!

It took me a while to remember something I’d read and posted during my last Whole 30.  Here it is again…

So I guess this time I’m right on par.  I read that the intensity of the hangover is directly proportionate to your pre-diet binge, and considering that I’d just come off the Christmas and New Year holiday, I’m not surprised this hangover was a doozie.  Look what’s coming up on days 4 and 5, though!  Last year I skipped from day 1 to day 6.  This year, hubs might not be so lucky… I’ve already forewarned him!

Now that dinner is over and hubs and I are snuggled by the fire, I feel a lot less like my head is about to explode.  It’s progress, and I’ll take it!

Work-time meals weren’t as exciting as yesterday; I had my usual egg muffins and cutie for breakfast, leftover soup for lunch, and fruit salad shortly after.  Dinner, however, was awesome!

I didn’t plan this dinner when I planned the rest of my monthly meal plan.  I usually go to choir rehearsal on Wednesday and grab something beforehand.  Today I’d planned to stop at Panera for a fuji apple salad, one of my favorites! But thanks to my aforementioned headache, group singing sounded like a step in the wrong direction toward recovery, so I had to whip something up at home.  Here’s the end product.

I proudly present bacon-wrapped chicken fingers with smashed red potatoes and green beans.  I’m still so happy to have found fully-compliant bacon, and so I couldn’t wait to incorporate it into dinner!  Today after work I stopped at Publix and picked up two more packs, but I’m betting I’ll be buying at least one more before the end of this month.

I found a few recipes for bacon-wrapped chicken on Pinterest, but most of them had honey or cheese, or something else that is non-compliant.  So I winged it.  The trick, I found, is to pan fry the bacon-wrapped chicken for a few minutes on each side first before baking it. Not all the way crispy, but about halfway to crispy.  It makes the bacon so perfect in the end!  And don’t try to be a hero like I tried to be; use toothpicks to keep the bacon on the chicken. The one I was most confident about and therefore didn’t use toothpicks turned out to be the problem child (and the ugly duckling, therefore not pictured).  Still, by the time I took these out of the oven, they were sizzling on the outside and juicy on the inside. I WILL be making this again.

The smashed potatoes were also good! I used this recipe almost to a tee (I used Italian seasoning instead of the individual herbs, and olive oil Pam instead of spreading olive oil on the pan.  Other than that, exactly to a tee).  I’d say they tasted like glorified, slightly drier, very well-seasoned mini baked potatoes with crispy skins.  Hubs added margarine to his, but I thought it was pretty darn good without.

And green beans are a favorite of ours.  No major secret or specialty here.  I just dump them from a can into a pan and added a little of the drippings from the frying pan I used to crisp up the bacon.

All together, Rachel Ray would have called it “delish”.  And she should; it used a good bit of e.v.o.o.  Ahhh… what would we do without e.v.o.o.?

Onward to tomorrow.  Hopefully I won’t want to kill all the things, including this computer!