Mistress of Master Cleanse - Day 6

Day 6 was a day of extremes -- as in, Mistress of Many Mood Swings.  I slept until 7:30am and when I woke up, it was one of those cozy, sleepy, I'm so excited I can sleep in and cuddle under my covers for as long as I want kind of wake-ups.  After feeding all of my babies breakfast (Bonnie & Clyde, our pit bulls, and of course, Mr. Man-- see his lovely plate below...Yup, I'm Girlfriend of the Year for making JP breakfast (and dinner as you scroll down) when I can't eat!! (Down another pound today, by the way, making total weight loss to date 8.2 pounds)

Bacon, Eggs, Grilled Roll and Strawberries for Mr. Man This Morning

So, I crawled back into bed around 9:30am and slept until 2:45pm.  This is unheard of for me.  I am part of the 1% of the human population who actually hates to sleep.  I hate falling asleep, I hate the fact that I wake up a zillion times, I hate getting up in the morning, and I hate doing it all over again the next night....I know, I'm a freak of nature.  I would rather just start the next day without having to lay my head on a pillow.  I have always felt like sleep was a waste of time and would much rather not have to do it at all.

So, you can imagine, it was quite a change for me to not only have had a restful sleep (perhaps cutting the caffeine out really has made a difference) but then truly wanting to go back to sleep and actually enjoying it!  Waking up, I felt like I had been slipped several Xanex with a muscle relaxer or two-- I was super calm, filled with that serene feeling I experienced on Day 4. 

I had to go out and run a bunch of errands and made the mistake of not bringing enough lemonade with me.  I found myself pulling over and hitting a grocery store where I proceeded to buy a knife, lemons, bottled water and Grade B maple syrup!  There I was back in the parking lot, cutting and squeezing freaking lemons-- it was classic.  

The problem is, I think the damage was done and my blood sugar had dropped too low.  All that time spent sleeping, I missed a number of servings of lemonade.  So, I got home, had some tea and began making dinner for JP.  I started with potatoes-- a Pioneer woman recipe which requires steaming/boiling small red potatoes until fork tender.  The idea is to smash each potato and bake them with rosemary and olive oil.  I guess I pulled them out too early because when I tried to smash them with the potato masher, they kept popping off the damn pan or getting stuck on the potato masher.  JP comes into the kitchen just as I start having a major mashing meltdown.  He witnessed me hitting the tray with the potato masher and then watched as I proceeded to throw-- yes, throw the potato masher across the stove. Oh yeah.  Total temper tantrum.  

JP was like, UM, OOOOOKKKKKK, starving girl, what did you do with my sweet girlfriend?  Please feed her and return her to me immediately!

I am usually Queen of Calm, especially in the kitchen-- my favorite place...cooking helps me de-stress and unwind!  Apparently NOT after 6 days of no food.  After that little whacked out blood sugar meltdown, I felt much better after swilling a cocktail of laxative tea, lemon and Grade B maple syrup.   Yummy.  Not.

This is really important for anyone planning on doing the Master Cleanse:  ALWAYS BE PREPARED WITH EXTRA LEMONADE!!!!!!!!

My actual physical hunger wasn't as bad as it was yesterday, but I just really miss eating in general.  Crunching down on solid food, to be specific.  I have also realized during my daily routine, how many opportunities I take to snack, now that I'm NOT snacking.  For example, I usually give the dogs a treat of a marrow bone filled with a little peanut butter.  Normally, I would give them their bones and then help myself to a spoonful (or two.)  

When I'm cooking, I taste constantly, which has been a real bit*h the last week!  But, I also recognize how many calories I'm taking in while I'm cooking-- probably the equivalent of an entire meal's worth, before I even make my dinner plate.

It's these realizations that help in the post-cleanse diet.  When you realize you can go 10 days without anything to eat,  you become much more mindful of your portions and what you're actually putting in your pie hole!

Gotta hit the sack-- I have an early morning tomorrow-- doing a 3 hour radio shift for our fundraising drive--- yippee.  Hoping the laxative tea doesn't hit me in the middle of that live broadcast!

Below are the pics from dinner and a couple recipes for you!  Enjoy.

Oh yeah...JP accused me of "EYE FU**ING" his food today. I was like, "I want to make sweet love to that chicken breast honey!"  And then, I took a whiff of that bad boy and food-gasmed again.  *sigh.* 

xxoo

The Pioneer Woman's Pretty Potatoes

My Not So Pretty smashed potatoes

Good thing everything tasted better than my potatoes looked!  Here's a picture of the finished dinner for JP: 

Orange and Rosemary Glazed Breast of Chicken with Fried Eggplant, Smashed Potatoes & Roasted Broccoli

  Here's the recipe for the Chicken-- I made it up and it turned out delish (Confession: I did lick a spoon with the sauce just to make sure it was seasoned correctly!)  Notice the addition of Grade B Maple syrup to the sauce recipe-- I figure, I'm living on it, why not use it for the sauce! Brilliant!

Orange and Rosemary Glaze

1 small onion or half a large onion (chopped/diced)

3 garlic cloves (diced)

2 Tb butter

1 Tb olive oil

1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

1 1/2 Tb horseradish

2 Tb molasses

2 Tb Grade B Maple Syrup 

2 Tb Apricot Jelly

sprig of rosemary (entire sprig, not chopped for sauce)

To prepare sauce:

Melt butter and olive oil in a sauce pan. Saute onion and garlic together, then add the rest of the ingredients and let simmer on medium heat for 15 minutes.  Turn down to low.

Roast Breast of Chicken

2 bone-in chicken breasts with skin

paprika, salt and pepper for seasoning

2 Tb butter

1 Tb olive oil
2 sprigs of rosemary (remove stems and chop rosemary)

To prepare chicken:

Preheat oven to 400.  Dry off breasts with a paper towel and season both sides with salt, pepper and paprika.  Put a small tab of butter under the skin of each chicken breast.  Melt 2 Tb butter and 1 Tb olive oil in frying pan (I use a cast iron pan that can go in oven) and add chicken skin side down to the pan.  Do not move chicken around in pan while it browns-- let it sit for 6-7 minutes until skin is golden and then flip.  Saute for another 6-7 minutes.  Baste chicken with sauce on both sides, sprinkle rosemary on both breasts and bake for 20-25 minutes or until chicken is done and juices run clear.  

Baste chicken with sauce again before serving.

The eggplant is insanely good and super duper easy:

Parker's Fried Eggplant

1 Eggplant sliced with skin on

3/4 cup flour

3-4 eggs

1 cup of panko and 1 cup of seasoned breadcrumbs

2 cups canola oil for frying

Put oil in your preferred frying pan-- I use a large soup pot/Dutch Oven.  Put the oil on Medium/High heat.  You'll know the oil is ready when you flick it with water and hear a sizzle!

Slice eggplant in slices of your desired thickness and lay out on a paper towel. Sprinkle each slice with some sea salt and let it "sweat"-- you want to remove the moisture so the eggplant doesn't get soggy.  Once there are beads of water on the slices, turn them over on the paper towel and sprinkle some more salt on the other side.  Blot slices again before dredging in a 3 part dip:

1. Dip slices in flour

2. Then, dip slices in eggwash (I used 3-4 eggs whisked together)

3. Lastly, dip eggplant in panko/breadcrumb mix (I used a mixture of plain panko, which is a Japanese breadcrumb that is thicker than your average breadcrumbs and also seasoned breadcrumbs). 

Use tongs to put slices in oil.  Don't crowd them-- do 3-4 at a time so they brown evenly.  Let slices fry on one side for a few minutes until golden brown then flip.  Have a plate lined with paper towel to put the slices on after the come out of the oil.  Sprinkle a bit of sea salt on the slices before serving.  They are crunchy and so tasty!