I'm Calling Shenanigans

So remember last night how I was all like "Paleo is awesome! I'll never go back and here are the reasons!"? Yeah, it all went downhill from there. I'm sore as hell today, I slept like crap last night, and all I want right now is a huge plate of lasagna. Literally, that's all I want. A huge lasagna...with real pasta. I think the Italian in me is rebelling against the make believe carbs I eat. A piece of cake wouldn't hurt either. And no, I'm not PMSing. I'm just...in a funk today I guess.

But let's backup.

Aside from sleeping like crap last night, I was up at 530 ready to go. My shoulders and upper arms did not and still don't appreciate me right now. Got to work and we ran our asses off for the first couple hours. Had one of those calls where everything is just so rapidfire and crazy. Finally got to eat my breakfast of frittata and Italian sausage with a banana. Rest of the day was relatively quiet. Lunch was leftover meatloaf and zucchini pancakes and my snack was carrots. Now if my arms didn't already hurt enough, try tacking on waxing an entire ambulance. I still don't know how to do karate either. I feel jipped.

For dinner tonight, I tried the Artichoke Lemon Pesto Chicken Pasta:
1 lb boneless chicken breasts, cubed
1 large spaghetti squash
12-15 halved artichoke hearts
1/3 cup walnuts
4-5 tbsp. olive oil
4-5 tbsp. vegetable broth
1/2 cup parsley
1/2 cup basil
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper
3-5 cups spinach (optional)

Cook the spaghetti squash. I nuked it for 10 minutes, others recommend roasting it. Put a large pan with some olive oil over medium-high heat and add the artichokes. Cook until they are brown on each side. Put the artichokes in a food processor with the walnuts, olive oil, lemon juice, basil, parsley and vegetable broth and puree until smooth. Add the chicken to the same pan the artichokes cooked in. Season with salt, pepper, and any other seasonings you like. Once the chicken is cooked, add in 1/4 of the pesto and the spinach. Cook until the spinach is wilted. Add the spaghetti squash to the pan along with the rest of the pesto and mix well. 

So I modified this recipe a bit. I forgot to get basil at the store so I didn't use it as an ingredient. I didn't use spinach. I also used a bit of the leftover tomato paste in the pesto, which made it quite good. I also threw in a few whole artichokes with the chicken, just because things weren't artichoke-y enough already. Essentially I butchered this recipe and threw my own stuff in there.

My thoughts on this recipe essentially revolve around the spaghetti squash. What a strange vegetable. I still don't know how I feel about it. I don't know if I didn't cook it long enough but that shit was crunchy! It was like eating spaghetti that you boiled long enough so that you could just add a little more flexibility to it. Guess I'll just have to work on getting used to it. And maybe I'll try actually roasting it next time. I'm determined to find the best pasta substitute. Although I DID find a recipe for sweet potato gnocchi. Hmmmm.

Today has been a very weird day indeed. I haven't really been "hungry" today, but at the same time I just want to keep eating. Doesn't even matter what it is really. I was fine with eating carrots. I guess I shouldn't rave about how awesome something is too early on lest I mess it up. Still cheat free though so I guess I'm doing something right. Even had to tighten my belt a little today. I can't say that I haven't been that obsessive person getting on the scale all the time because I have been. Totally guilty. Along with being totally guilty of second-guessing everything at least once a day. But week 2 isn't even over yet so I have no basis to complain.

Hoping a little sleep and an easy day tomorrow will reset things!