This Whole 30’s Day One started off slowly. And, by slowly, I mean I didn’t leave my bed until after noon. I had an awful sinus headache yesterday which had me in bed sleeping most of the afternoon/early evening. That really doesn’t help a person fall asleep at a decent time at night. Add to that a snowstorm that socked us in the teeth, and I was not all that motivated to rise and shine.

Just because the day started slowly doesn’t mean it stayed that way. Nope. Once I shoveled myself from the driveway, I went to the bank and the market. My oldest is doing a science fair project that involves animal bones, so roast chicken made it onto the dinner menu.

I used a recipe I found on Pinterest, but took out the butter, added ghee and substituted sweet potatoes for white potatoes. I used Herbs de Provence rather than the herbs listed in the recipe–mostly for convenience as I already had those herbs handy.

I also drizzled some olive oil onto the bottom of the pan as I didn’t want the chicken to stick as I didn’t really butter up the bottom of the bird like I did the top.

I also took the lead of the photos on the recipe’s blog and use a dutch oven rather than my usual roasting pan to make this recipe. I’m really glad I did. It seems like the chicken drippings, ghee & lemon zest came together to create a glaze for the veggies. It was extremely tasty.

The bird was absolutely moist and very flavorful. It could have been partially because I had only had a red pepper, some celery and black coffee by the time dinner rolled around at 5:00, but I don’t think so. My husband even commented on how juicy and tasty the chicken was. I’m a fan of sweet potatoes, but haven’t been eating them lately. So, that was a nice touch for the meal in my book.

Because my daughter needed chicken bones and I had a chicken carcass, I decided to try our new electric pressure cooker and make some bone broth. I didn’t have leeks, so I used celery. I loosely followed the pressure cooker broth recipe from my Nom Nom Paleo cookbook. It took a little over a half hour & I had a little over two big Mason jars of broth.

I was excited about that because I also wanted to try a soup recipe I’d pinned from The Clothes that Make the Girl blog. I had looked at stock and broth at my local market, but couldn’t find one that didn’t involve sugar or some other Whole 30 no-no. But, now? I was more than equipped to put together the soup I’d bought ingredients for earlier today–granted this broth might be a little less hearty because I only used chicken bones rather than an actual chicken to make it, but I’ll deal.

The Silky Gingered Zucchini Soup sounds divine.

It didn’t take much at all to have it going on the stove. It smelled so good. I didn’t think that my oldest was going to leave the kitchen–I had to tell her the soup needed to simmer for at least 45 minutes before we put it in the Vitamix.

I suppose I can’t blame her. She’s my little veggie girl. I distinctly remember being in the produce department with her little baby self in the seat of the cart. I turned to put some things into a produce bag after putting some zucchini in the cart. I turned to put the new bag in the cart only to find her gnawing on the zucchini through the bag–good grief. She did love her zucchini from day one, that’s for certain. We’ll see how we both feel about the soup once it’s finished!