What day IS it anyway?

I've been moping around the last several days, inwardly (and sometimes outwardly) moaning about the things I'm deprived of right now. The fatigue has really decreased which is very helpful, and I haven't been AS emotional, but I am still very much fighting the emotional EATER inside myself. As I whined and craved, I had to stop and remind myself that this is a choice. I could eat the things I've been wanting if that's what I really desire.  But I realized it isn't what I really desire.  What I want out of this is to make my life about something more than food.  Its prominence in my thoughts was way out of proportion to what it should be.  My true desire is to learn to look at food the way God intended: as an enjoyable fuel source that energizes me to live a life that serves and glorifies Him. To be really, truly healthy.  To live the abundant life He came to give me.  Now, I know this doesn't come by bread (or lack of it) alone. But it's a good place to start.
The majority of my meals days 7 through 11 have been leftovers or repeats, which is good because my cooking utensils and I needed some space from each other. A few new things that did go down along with some observations:

This delightful dish is Moroccan Chicken (from the book) along with this recipe for Garlic Cauliflower Mashed "Potatoes".

As I was preparing the chicken for this dish, I made an observation.  Perhaps you observe it as well in the (horribly taken) picture below.  Warning: raw chicken sighting.  Kinda icky. But it's to make a point. 

The breasts on the left are conventional chicken that I bought frozen at Target. The ones on the right? Organic chicken from Whole Foods. Which one looks healthier to you? The color alone has me rethinking my plan to continue buying conventional for the rest of my family for awhile longer. (I know, so rude, right?  But geez, those organic chicks be expensive!)

Last night the hubs and I had an honest-to-goodness date night. Because he had some Bass Pro moolah leftover and because we are exceedingly Dutch to the core and must take advantage of gift cards, we headed over to Islamorada Fish Company, attached to the Bass Pro store. Before doing so, I perused the online menu to make sure I could, in fact, find something Whole 30 compliant to eat there. Lo and behold! We were able to start our evening with venison-stuffed mushrooms. It's supposed to come with an insanely delicious-sounding cheese sauce, which we politely declined. When the dish was brought out, it was swimming in something really yummy-but-not-Whole 30-approved-looking. We asked and were told it was a portofino sauce (this sauce was not mentioned as part of the dish on the menu).  The waitress noticed our distress at this surprise saucy concoction and asked if we wanted a new batch without it, but because I hate to feel like I'm being high-maintenance we declined the offer. I then quickly Googled portofino sauce and discovered it's riddled with dairy. But I chose the mushrooms that were least affected and just chalked it up to "too teeny to matter". (True confessions: along with this pint-sized cheat, I also tried one bite of my hubby's meal which was the all-you-can-eat fish fry.  So sue me.)

For din I ordered:

 Steak. Hold-the-potatoes-and-give-me-double-veggies (which I doused in fresh lemon juice, salt, and pepper - yum). With 5 little lemon-pepper shrimp on the side.  It was fantastic, and (observation #1:) when I was done, it's the first time in a looooong time that I did not leave a restaurant obscenely stuffed. I was just right full. Observation #2: I've noticed as I've looked over restaurant menus and grocery store aisles that the Standard American Diet has taken over to the extreme.  If I look at things in terms of what I "can't" eat as I'm striving to eat completely natural and whole foods, 90% of the foods around me fall into that category. It's pretty astounding.

Tonight's dinner:

A "deconstructed" burger with sweet potato fries and topped with a homemade, Whole 30-approved bbq sauce.  It doesn't taste like your regular bbq sauce but it was gooo-oood. This somewhat boring burger was also supposed to have mushrooms and tomatoes on it, but much to my chagrin, ye old pantry (or fridge) was bare of these items.  Time to get off to the grocery store!

Final observation.  I observed these cruel beauties on the front desk at work when I arrived this afternoon:

Cruel, I say.

They were immediately relegated to the kitchen in the back of the building.