Day 29: It Is All Downhill From Here

The second half of the challenge starts today. Woo hoo! We worked hard to prepare for this week so that the cravings don't get the better of me.  Today is a good example.  I've been craving meat for a few days, so rather than break down and eat a burger or something like that, I baked a whole chicken in a dutch oven, surrounded with root vegetables. I didn't eat any chicken, but the vegetables had that amazing roasted chicken flavor going on.  I'm pretty sure that elusive flavor is called chicken fat, but hey, those veggies were tasty!

For those folks wondering what the veggies were, you could look at my last few weeks' posts about farmers market days, or, you can simply read the list here: sweet potatoes, red potatoes, russet potatoes, beets, yellow onions, white onions, carrots, red bell peppers, yellow bell peppers and garlic. That is ten different vegetables! That also means leftovers, which makes me very happy. Brian and Marty ate some of the chicken, but they did a great job of staying mostly with the vegetables and limiting the meat. We took the garlic and spread it on some crusty Italian bread. Yummm! For dessert we each had a homemade chocolate chip, oatmeal, pecan cookie.

Breakfast today was uninspiring, but at least it wasn't eggs. We took our quilting friend to breakfast, then the airport. We ate at the hotel cafe, which was fine, but the service was an interesting grade of horrible. It was like our waiter had 15 busy tables so he had a hard time getting to us... Except that he didn't. He had three tables, each arriving at different times so he should have been much more responsive. For example: when our food was served, he set it in the table very quickly, then ran back to the kitchen. I figured that he either still had something to bring to us or he had forgotten something. Nope. He just hung out back by the kitchen. He didn't check to see if our orders were right (they were) or if we might need anything else (we did).  He never noticed when I was out of water, nor when Brian was out because I drank his, too. When he ran by one time, I had to raise my voice so that he'd hear me and stop running for a second. It was crazy. It is rare to see someone make such a fuss about their effort with so little in the way of results. Oh, by the way, I had banana pancakes.

Changing topics: I've been thinking about a way to get an Italian food fix without meat or dairy.  When I was a kid, my mom would make a macaroni dish (kind of like hamburger helper, but all homemade) that had tomato paste, herbs, and vegetables. Sometimes she'd add cheese and sometimes not, but it was always good. If I kick up the oregano a bit, that should work great. I'm looking forward to making some. I'll be sure to make enough for leftovers. We're also planning to have roasted vegetable sandwiches later in the week, with eggplant, zucchini, onions and peppers. I can toss a little marinara sauce on the side of that, too. Yum! I think it will be a week of good eating. Wish me luck. Be healthy!