Day 13 and 14. Journey to Freedom.

Nothing really snappy to share.

Spent a BA-zillion hours in the kitchen this weekend.

Didn't really want to spend a BA-zillion hours in the kitchen this weekend.

Trying to embrace this and know that in the long run, 

taking care of my health is important. 

In other news, Coco is cute, right?
Figured you might need to see a photo of her.

Ellen, this one's for you. I know you miss Coco in a bad, bad way.

She's COOL and she knows it!

I am SMITTEN with her cuteness.

[ Picture an over-grown squirrel. That's her size. No lie. ]

Okay.

I find if I have a big picture perspective on this eating thing, 

it takes some of the weariness out of it.

Not that I'm getting absolutely exhausted.

Just a little exhausted.

And I'm not going to lie.

It IS more work to eat healthy.

It just is and I need to get over it already.

Chopping and dicing and cutting and slicing take time.

AND THAT'S OKAY.

Right?

I think sometimes I buy into this mentality that if it's not fast and easy 

then it just cannot be a good solution.

I think that's the North American way, right?

Do things faster and cheaper and get out of the kitchen.

PRONTO.

So I'm asking God to help me with my outlook on cooking and general kitchen life.

I probably will never get to the point where I just want to 

spend every waking minute in my kitchen.

Because I like the outdoors too much.
And I like my camera too much.

And I like my computer too much.

And I like my friends too much.

BUT, a healthy dose of 

'this is WORTH the effort, Alysa' 

will go a long way.

Or so me thinks.

Saturday our meal was lamb tacos.

Jack said if I hadn't told him it was lamb he probably wouldn't have known.

I would have known.  Smelled different. Tasted different.

Reminded me of my days of eating moose and rabbit and deer and bear and 

whatever else us 

hearty Canadians ate as youngsters.

I wasn't super keen on lamb,

but I think a huge part of that was mental.

I mean, it's hard to look down at your plate and

think a little baby lambie lamb lost its little life for me so I could eat a taco.

Quite frankly, I'd rather they were roaming the pasture and looking

all white and fluffy instead of on my plate.

 Don't get me wrong. Any other type of baby animal and I have no problem.

Chicken. Fine. 

Cow. Delicious.

Baby pig. Bring it on.

Lamb. So sad. So tragic.

 

I really did picture a baby sheep every bite I took.

So I only ate one little taco.

But if you like lamb and don't mind killing baby sheep, 

then you'd love this recipe.

It was tasty.

And I've never cooked with or eaten a yellow squash and I did.

And I lived to tell about it.

 Today [ Sunday ] was unique in that it was our FIRST dinner out over at a friends' home

since being on the Cleanse,

which meant we had to figure out how to stay on Clean track and yet, well,

eat with other peeps.

So since it was a potluck -- every couple was to bring a dish to share -- 

I decided to bring our wild rice pesto (photo below)

AND

our quinoa with currants and carrots and almonds (no photo below).

 You're looking at my favorite bowl ever. 

Makes me happy to serve stuff in it.

Lasagna was served, and while it looked absolutely SCRUMPTIOUS,

it really wasn't tempting. I'm shocked by that actually.

Our food was tasty and after going 14 days, there's no way I'm messing up now.

THANKFULLY, however, no bread was served.
Had bread been served I might have had to kill somebody AND steal a piece

AND live with the shame that I screwed up with only 10 days to go.

 Enough about me and my food.

You must be getting bored, yes?

Well, we slog on in the pursuit of freedom.

In the meantime, what are you up to?

Any new goals for this year?

Any bad habits you wanna kick?

Do tell.

And speaking of telling,

please tell me you ate a piece of milk chocolate just a few minutes ago 

and it tasted disgusting.

And you probably had pizza this weekend and the pepperoni had turned.

And I'm SURE those French fries you ate from McDonald's 

caused all sorts of gas issues and tummy aches.

Good.

That makes me feel better.
A WHOLE LOT BETTER.

And now, back to regularly scheduled programming.

This week you're in for some treats.

Or rather, we're in for some treats.

Got my act together and have Monday through Friday meals planned.

Gonna be tasty.

EVEN found a chocolate mousse made with avocado recipe.

Lord help me.

I CANNOT imagine how that could POSSIBLY taste like chocolate, 

BUT I need to attempt it. If for nothing else than my complete curiosity.

Because if it IS tasty, I might be your new BFF for 

introducing you to avocado deliciousness in chocolate cloak.

Don't worry, you'll get the play-by-play.

Thanks for tagging along on this journey.

Please feel ZERO - and I do mean ZERO - pressure to read these posts.

I'd get tired of reading what I ate if I were you!

I'll still be your friend.

I promise.