Zuni Roast Chicken

First things first, my pull up bar arrived today! Look at that. I am going to get strong and ripped...quick!!

It took about 5 minutes to put it together and get it hung up so I could test it:

Unfortunately I can't do much on it until the resistance bands I also ordered arrive. Also unfortunate, I thought I had measured everything I needed to properly, but it turns out my door frame is deeper than what it should be for this particular bar. So the bar is up there, but it's not completely flush on the ledge of the frame. It seems pretty stable, but I'll probably fall on my ass and hurt myself at some point. You heard it here first. :P

So when in doubt about what to make for dinner, roast a chicken! I generally try to keep a few birds in my freezer for times like this and my favorite method of cooking them is from the Zuni Cafe cookbook. The keys to success: salt in advance, high heat, and a dry bird. This time, about 30 minutes in, I added some root veg and flipped the bird to sit on top of them. By the time the chicken was done, the vegetables were soft and essentially confited in the fat/juices of the chicken:

Since I didn't want to roast yet another veg, I decided to make a favorite shredded brussels sprouts recipe, this Shaved Brussels Sprout and Shallot Saute from Epicurious. I sauteed the sliced shallots in ghee, then added the brussels sprouts. Using the shredding disc on your food processor makes it incredibly quick and simple:

Once they had cooked down, I added the lemon juice and toasted pine nuts and plated everything up:

Someone recently gave me a great tip. When you roast a chicken, roast 2 or 3. Same amount of time and effort, but you'll have plenty of leftovers to freeze or make into things like chicken salad. I only had one chicken left in my freezer, but that is definitely my plan next time!

Last, but not least, my current favorite paleo guy, Chris Kresser made it onto The Huffington Post. He wrote a great article on how sitting is affecting our health. The disappointing part is that even if you exercise, you're still putting yourself at an increased risk of health issues if you spend much of your day sitting (like me, hi). Check it out: How Sitting Too Much Is Making Us Sick and Fat - And What To Do About It.