Detox - Day 10

One-Third Of The Way There

Ten days into the 30-day Detox and I have to tell you, I'm feeling pretty good.  So far, I've enjoyed all the food, and I'm learning some new food preparation tricks.  It's amazing to me how a couple, simple little changes, can enhance the complexion of basic food items.  So, I'm proof that you can teach an old dog, new tricks.

Breakfast - A cup of fruit, then I exercised, and afterwards I had a slice of toasted whole grain bread with natural peanut butter.  I'm lucky because my store grounds the peanuts right there into peanut butter, and the result is fabulous.

AM Snack - Felt hungry, so I had a hard boiled egg.

Lunch - Leftover Turkey Burger from Day 8, plus a side salad.

PM Snack - one clementine

Supper - Cilantro Ginger Lemon Chicken (pg. 252 in Sexy Forever) and green beans.  First of all, this dish was divine, even though I made a couple little mistakes.  There are a lot of steps to the recipe, plus you make a sauce, which isn't my strong suit.

You start by browning chicken (legs and thighs) in olive oil.  This wasn't clear to me in the recipe, so I cooked it longer than I should have;  all you do is brown the chicken and take it out of the pan.  You finish cooking it later ... duh!

Then, in the same pan, you put a bunch of ingredients in the pan.  Basically, you add them a couple at a time, with 2 minute increments in-between.  I advise you to have everything cut up, and the spices pulled out of the pantry before you begin.  The oil is hot, and it's easy to burn things like the garlic and fresh ginger.  Mine got a little toastie looking for this reason.

The recipe calls for 2 bunches of cilantro leaves, and I was tempted to buy one.  It sounded like it would be over-powering, but I was wrong.  Once you add them to the pan, they wilted down so fast my head spun.  Mine never got crispy like the recipe said it would, mainly because I was afraid I'd burn everything else.  But I kept going. 

Finally, you put the chicken back into the pan, then add the juice of one lemon and a cup of water.  Put the lid on, lower the heat to simmer, and let it go for 30 minutes (turning the meat after 15 min.).  I was so worried that my chicken would be dry because I cooked it almost completely during the browning ONLY step.

So, I'm thinking "great" I've ruined this dish.  The chicken's overcooked and some of my ingredients are a little burned.  But, a miracle happened.  It was simply delicious.  The sauce was a wonderful golden brown, and the chicken was so tender it fell of the bone.  I wonder how much better it would have been had I not made so many mistakes!