Slow-Cooker Paleo Pad Thai

Hi, folks!

If you're from the US, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! If you're not, well, I hope you had a great week anyways. You probably didn't overeat like the rest of us. I really enjoyed my week; I took the entire week off from work. It was glorious, but it's back to the grindstone tomorrow morning. I've been working a lot these days, given that I'm currently performing two roles at work. Nothing like taking on a second job part-time while your first job gets busy. I've been eating horribly, that is when I do eat. To be completely honest, my life prior to vacation basically consisted of waking up, going to work, eating lunch while working, going home, and going to sleep. I was only eating one real meal per day and snacking for the others. I've barely been working out and I need to change that. So I took today to clean up my room a little bit, try to prep for the week, and relax before getting busy again. Right now, I'm currently watching/listening to "The Perfect Human Diet." I highly recommend checking it out. It's on Amazon Prime and Netflix, just so you know.

With that, I'll leave you with an easy recipe that I threw together once I returned from the airport last night.

Slow-Cooker Paleo Pad Thai

1 1/2 lb chicken

1 1/2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil

Chicken Seasoning

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Sauce

1 cup coconut milk

1 cup chicken broth

3 Tbls sunbutter (sunflower seed butter)

1 Tbls coconut aminos

2 tsp fish sauce

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper

3/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 bunches green onion, chopped

"Pasta"

2 zucchini, julienned

2 carrots, julienned

1/2 sweet onion, thinly sliced

Optional Toppings

chopped cashews

green onions

cilantro

1. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a pan on the stove. Chop the chicken into roughly 1" pieces. Season with salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Place the chicken into the pan and brown the chicken. It doesn't have to be thoroughly cooked yet because you'll be cooking more later.

2. Mix together the ingredients for the sauce in the crock pot. Stir until the sunbutter has broken down and is fully combined.

3. Stir in the browned chicken.

4. Place the "pasta" ingredients on top of the sauce/chicken. Do not stir to combine.

5. Cook on low for 6 hours. If you have a programmable slow-cooker, you probably don't have that option, but just set it on low and check it after 6 hours. If you cook it too long, the "pasta" will brown a bit more than you might like.

6. Remove from the crock pot and serve with any of the optional toppings if you so choose. It'll be a bit spicy, but sneakily so (at least to me). Enjoy!

Whole 30 - Day 21

Wow. Has it already been 3 weeks? It doesn't feel like it's been that long. At least not right now. There are other times that it feels like ages, but as I've mentioned, it's primarily when I'm craving snacks or something to drink other than water. That might be when I most want to drink alcohol. Not for the fact that it's alcohol, but for that fact that it's a flavor other than plain water. Sure, sure, I could give my water some flavor by tossing in a couple slices of orange, lemon, or lime, or some frozen raspberries or something like that. There are options, but that also requires effort. More effort than opening a bottle of wine and pouring myself a glass would be.

Anyways, it's not a super difficult struggle, so at least we know my willpower is still kicking. I just want to remember the way I feel now so that when my Whole 30 is up, I don't attack all of those foods that aren't Paleo, but are gluten-free and dairy-free. We'll see what happens in 9 days. Maybe my Whole 30 will last a bit longer?

Here's what I whipped together for dinner last night and tonight (I've been lazy this weekend, so it's mainly just me tossing veggies together with leftover chicken, egg, and some seasonings).

Chicken with over-easy egg and sautéed zucchini, leek, cherry tomato, and baby kale.

Chicken with egg and stir-fried carrots, leek, zucchini, and baby kale and baby spinach. I cooked the veggies with some coconut aminos (from my shopping trip yesterday) and a few splashes of fish sauce.