This was a bit of a crazy day, so this post doesn’t really follow the schedule that I have been posting. I was able to go see/hear the President and First Lady speak this day about Education at Fort Stewart. It was pretty neat to see them in the flesh and hear them speak. It made for a long day, but I figured I should be a good American and go see the President and First Lady if they came to my area, just as a matter of principal. We ended up waiting outside in the blistering heat and dust for about 5 hours before they spoke, but I did feel like a good American once all was said and done :).

Needless to say I had to wake up pretty early to make sure I had everything in order for this visit. Whenever there is a kink thrown in my routine, I always get a little nervous. It’s tough to plan for the unexpected! Anyhow, I woke up at around 5:30 am and went and did the elliptical for about a half hour. I came home and made sure everything was in order and threw an apple and a bag of pecans in my pocket with plenty of water in my “Camelbak.” I tried to find something to eat, I just wasn’t hungry. I figured I’d be standing around for a while too and didn’t want to be making several trips into a warm, HOT, moist portopotty. So I didn’t really have breakfast, oh well.

So I dropped Q off at a neighbors house, picked up my friend and was on my way. I managed to eat my apple and pecans at around 10:30 am as a little pick me up/breakfast (it was still morning!)

I got home at around 3:30 and made some Chicken “Lo Mein” for lunch, with cabbage as the noodles! Genius! And it was delicious. I was so hungry at that point I probably could have eaten the entire skillet myself. 

This is not my picture, Q and I ate
it all before I could take mine…

Also, I didn’t know what
“coconut aminos” were so I
left them out!

Process

1. Heat wok or skillet over high heat.
2. Add sesame oil, minced ginger and garlic, and sauté for 1 minute to allow the flavors to infuse the oil.
3. Add chicken to the wok, and cook, stirring frequently for 3–4 minutes, or until the chicken is mostly cooked.
4. Add in broccoli, water chestnuts, celery, and shiitake mushrooms; sauté for 2 minutes.
5. Add in almonds, cabbage, and green onion.
6. Pour in coconut aminos (2–4 tbsp).
7. Cook 2–3 minutes, until cabbage softens a little.
8. Remove from heat, and garnish with sesame seeds.

I made carrot “latkes” to go with this. These were really cool turning carrots into pancakes! And as an added bonus, my baby boy loved these dense and delicately sweet “pancakes.” I used a combination of this recipe and this Elana’s Pantry recipe. I also made a couple changes and added 1/4 cup coconut flour (instead of the scant 1/2 tsp… why bother?!) and I pan “fried” my latkes in about 1/2 tbsp of coconut oil per batch (I did 3 at a time in a medium sized skillet).

Mine ended up looking exactly like this pretty much, but the photo on Elana’s Pantry looked so much better, so I just borrowed that one while I work on my food styling skills.

Since I had lunch so late, I wasn’t starving by the time dinner rolled around. My friend drove in from Atlanta to visit me, hooray! and another friend had flown in for her baby shower, so we had a ladies date at “Sweet Potatoes” where I had 1+1/2 sweet potatoes and a bite of pork chop. The pork chop wasn’t bad, I just wasn’t feeling it, plus there was just so much catching up to do!

I don’t know if I can count this day as a “Whole 30” day either because after dinner we all went for Frozen Yogurt and I did indulge a little bit… I’m trying to decide if I should add another day on or just not count this day, or just keep trucking and pretend it never happened. Suggestions?!