Day 2: I guess cooking chicken breasts ahead of time isn't so tortuous

This was a morning of scrambling, only this time, it was not my eggs being scrambled, it was me.

HA! Terrible joke, but I just had to.

But really, I woke up late for work (20 minutes after I was already supposed to be there) thinking I was scheduled for noon, so in believing this, the night before I dreamt up a breakfast of many sauteed mushrooms...2 fried eggs...sliced bananas and strawberries....a workout to follow...oh the time the kitchen and I would have had.

Alas! I received a call and groggily stumbled out of bed, I mean mattress (box spring/frame still in the works) and headed for the coffee maker (which I had miraculously prepared the night before) and thanks to meal preparation on Sunday, I was able to pull together a nutritious, filling breakfast!

Breakfast:

• A concoction called monkey salad! It is simple and consists of 1 whole banana, 1 handful of cashews, and 1 handful of coconut chips. It was SO good, definitely going to make it again, and by "make" I mean put the three ingredients back together in a bowl. 
• cantaloupe
• 2 hardboiled eggs (thank goodness Ben brought 8 of those over last night...are you seeing a pattern in my success, here?)

Lunch:

This began as an attempt from Ben and I go to the store and make our own coleslaw (3 bags of lettuce for $.68 each at HyVee!) and then our own mayo since I can't have the real stuff, but unfortunately, we got home and vaguely remembered Sunny saying we had a food processor and put too much of our coleslaw fate in it's incapable hands. It did not work and we were bummed, and I also do not currently own a whisk, so all really was lost. We begrudgingly stuck to summer salad.

• Spinach salad with diced tomato, chopped mushroom, 1 hardboiled egg broken up, onion, and carrot!
• 2 chicken breasts were placed in the salad, so I probably ate about 3/4 of one
• carrots
• celery
• applesauce

Dinner:

• Sauteed sweet potatoes and spinach recipe I found from Martha Stewart (she's crazy, but dang can she make a sweet potato taste tender). Definitely going to make it again! Ben told me once you find a couple of dishes you like, stick with them and perfect it to make it apart of your go-to list and then experiment from there. I would highly recommend it!
• 3/4 of a chicken breast (could not eat all that was pictured)
• cantaloupe!

After-Dinner Snack:

• Apple

My goal is eventually to wean off of snacks, it really is, but it's all a process.

I have learned loads in just the past two days about cooking, finding recipes, and what it means to take ownership of your kitchen and it's utensils. For example, my knives are terrible. The dull, can't-cut-through-a-pb-sandwich kind of terrible. It's dangerous! And it's been a year-long joke that I finally decided to buy a punchline for, a punchline that can cut through a can if I so desired.

Cooking is all about prep, and if you don't look forward to the prep because it's a lengthy, curse-inducing, joke of a knife, then you'll be less inclined to do it. So I went for it! I invested in my future cooking prospects because this is not just about whole30, it's about my relationship with food, and apparently, my relationship with the kitchen needed work, too!

I also bought a whisk (what kitchen doesn't have a whisk?!), measuring spoons (again, didn't own those), and a beautiful bamboo cutting board that can withstand my new Wusthof knife. OXO brand is great quality stuff if you're looking!

It has to be fun! You have to enjoy yourself, or there's no point. A man who owns a couple of Wusthofs of his own and makes a mean chicken breast told me that. 

We then decided to cook chicken for the week because we use so dang much of it! Plus, like I mentioned before, we have an endless supply of free chicken thanks to Ben's uncle! Such a win.