Fuelling us...: Day 11 of the Whole 30 today, where does the time go?

Days ten and 11 are meant to be the hardest days to get through, but I had my grump on day nine (largely inspired by the tiredness I’m blaming on the meal described below) and am now rocking it again; interestingly I didn’t feel the crazy tiredness in the early days anywhere near as much this time around, instead I felt better almost immediately which may account for my chipper outlook!

Food for last week:

Breakfast – sweet potato frittata, boiled eggs, grapefruit, melon, various hashes from leftovers

Lunches – Salads all week, but a successful barbeque after our Wadi Bih training session, potato salad, coleslaw and spare ribs in BBQ sauce

Dinners - Duck and sweet potato hash, fesenjan with eggplant salad, braised red cabbage with sausages, lamb and apricot stew with Moroccan carrots

In addition to super clean eating I’ve been back hitting the gym again; not quite as much as I’d like yet, but a vast improvement on what I had been doing. I did three crossfit sessions and one cross-country running session this week (training for Wadi Bih), including my first morning crossfit class this morning. The classes are hard, but I’m enjoying being back. We have a 10km road race next weekend, so I must fit in a long run this weekend!

At the end of last week I bought The Paleo Slow Cooker:Healthy, Gluten-free Meals the Easy Way, and a slow cooker. Two of this week’s suppers came from the book, the one I got my act together to take photos of was the fesenjan which sadly wasn’t the best for a number of reasons. Let me say first that I love the dish! I’ve had it before from a Persian restaurant and have previously recreated it at home without the benefit of the slow cooker, however let me list the things that went wrong this time:

I forgot to buy pomegranate juice when I did the weekly shop, our small supermarket had pomegranate juice, but only the one with sugar in, so I made an executive decision to substitute grape juice
I bought a slow cooker without a timer and have so far failed to source a plug adaptor with a timer, I did not factor this in when planning what to cook when
I shredded the chicken in the stand mixer (it was 12.30 at night, see above) my husband thinks it was shredded the right amount, I think I need to order it from a restaurant as soon as whole 30 is over to confirm this, and remind myself what the dish is meant to taste like…

The result wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t right either; honestly, the worst thing was how resentful I was towards the dish was for depriving me of sleep by the time it came to eat it. I’m pretty confident that this would be awesome done properly, and the lam and apricot stew recipe worked beautifully!

Serves 6
Ingredients

3½ lbs bone-in, skinless chicken thigh, breasts and legs
1 tsp sea salt
1 large onion, thinly sliced
4 tbsp ghee
½ tsp cardamom
¼ tsp cinnamon
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2½ cups water
4 cups walnuts, coarsely ground
2 cups pomegranate juice
1 tbsp honey
¼ tsp, ground saffron
Salt and pepper to taste just before serving
Garnish with fresh pomegranate seeds

Cooking Instructions

Pat the chicken with the salt.
In a large heavy-bottomed pan, heat 1 tablespoons of ghee over medium heat, brown the chicken on all sides in batches about 5 minutes a batch and set aside.
Melt the remaining ghee, and sauté onions until translucent about 5 minutes.
Add the cardamom, cinnamon and garlic, and cook another 3 minutes.
Add the water, bring to a boil and simmer for 8-10 minutes on low.
Add the ground walnuts to pan forming a thick paste.
Mix in the chicken add pomegranate juice and honey and mix well.
9Place mixture from pan and saffron in slow cooker.
Cook on low for 4 hours, remove chicken, debone, shred with 2 forks and place back in slow-cooker on high with lid removed for 30 minutes to thicken the sauce.
Salt and pepper to taste, then serve.