One Meal A Day. Or at most, a four-hour eating window and a 20 hour fast. That’s how it’s been.

On Wednesday I tossed three pounds of pork shoulder into the crockpot with a cup of broth, some spices, a serrano pepper and a half dozen garlic cloves. I ran it on high for seven hours and it was superb (I should’ve gone eight, but I was hungry, and the thermometer was over 200.) It was messless, because I slid the pork straight out of its wrapper into the pot.

The downside: ONE pound of pork is a thousand calories, and one pound isn’t usually enough for me. So to get full I’m pushing up against two thousand calories a day, which isn’t going to be ideal for taking off the pounds.

Beef is a little better on calories than pork. But bird is quite a lot better, and whole chicken is $2.19 a pound (there is almost never anything free range, much less organic alas), and the inedible parts are ideal for making bone broth. So I’ll try that next.

(Fish is even less than bird, and I still have a lot of fish. But right now I’m into maximum simplicity, a set-it and forget it way of eating. I’ll get back to the cod and salmon eventually. Maybe turkey too.)

I’ve pared down the basics thus.

In the bottom of the crockpot, layer some chunks of turnip, onion, what have you, to make a bit of a platform for the bird.

Optionally, stuff it with garlic (some people do carrots and celery and all sorts of things). I think I would only do this if I end up having to clean out giblets anyway.

Put the bird in on top of the vegetable chunks, maybe drizzle olive oil, definitely sprinkle it with your spices of choice.

Some people say breast down. I don’t think it matters. Most people say no liquid necessary. You want to cook it until You can easily pull off a wing by hand and the internal temp is at least 160ish. The time is as much as six hours on high, but one nice lady says eight on low is better.

We’ll see.