The One Where Exhaustion Set In … And I Still Had To Make Dinner

This has been one of those days where my “get up and go” got up and left me in the dust.

For the life of me, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasn’t making it out of the starting blocks.

I slogged through my day, pretty much from the moment my alarm went off. From moseying along the freeway on the drive in, puttering through my shift and finally staggering home 13.5 hours later, I was seriously dragging tail.

[And coffee wasn’t helping.]

Dinner, however, was a time to change that.

Dinner is a time of possibilities.

A time to experiment.

A time to channel a little – or a lot – of creativity.

A time to foster a fun-filled family environment. Which, let’s face it, when you’re chasing a 14-month-old around is pretty much the only kind of environment you’re going to get.

A red curry chicken and vegetable skillet is the perfect solution when you want to accomplish all of these things, but your energy tank is running on “E.”

If you’re like me — and I’m going to pretend you are — and you aren’t exactly the biggest fan of veggies in the world (I mean you’ll eat them because you’re supposed to but let’s face it, they’re basically rabbit food), this is a great way to trick your taste buds into eating ALL THE VEGETABLES.

I’m telling you, red curry paste is a miracle worker. This dish is delicious, mildly exotic and Whole30 compliant. Win.

And you can throw basically every vegetable in your fridge in it. Double win.

Those zucchini that you planned on zoodling but haven’t gotten around to? Throw ’em in the pan.

Your half-used onion? Stick it in there.

Random carrot(s)? In.

Left over mushrooms? Dooooooooooooooo it.

Oh, and it literally takes one pan to make. ONE PAN, PEOPLE. Well, and a knife and cutting board, technically. But you get the drift.

For those of you struggling under the mountain of Whole30-generated dishes, this is the dinner for you.

OK, enough already. On with the recipe.

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Red Curry Chicken And Vegetable Skillet

Recipe:
1 Tbs. oil (olive or avocado).
4 chicken thighs (frozen works just fine)
2-3 Tbs. Red Curry Paste (I prefer Thai Kitchen’s. It’s the bomb.)
1 can coconut milk
2-3 zucchini or other type of squash
½ of a medium onion, roughly chopped
1 medium sweet potato, cubed
1 bell pepper, diced
½ cup mushrooms, sliced (optional)
1-2 carrots cut into small rounds (optional)
Salt to taste

Instructions:
1. Heat a large pan/skillet over medium heat.
2. Drizzle with oil.
3. Add chicken and vegetables to pan and reduce heat to medium-low.
4. Cook with the lid on until chicken is mostly cooked.
5. Remove the chicken from the pan and cut into ½ inch cubes.
6. Return the chicken to the pan and continue cooking until chicken is done.
7. Add curry paste to pan and stir until chicken and vegetables are coated.
8. Stir in coconut milk until thoroughly mixed.
9. Allow to simmer 5-10 minutes (depending on how hungry you are) to combine flavors.

Serve in a bowl over rice or caulirice or by itself.

The One With The Restart

When it comes to building good habits and following a healthy lifestyle, I typically take an all or nothing approach.

In the past, when I’ve decided to Whole30, my determination was a thing to behold; there was no burrito, brownie or cheesecake known to man that could take my eye off the prize.

I’m going to chalk it up to the Irish on my dad’s side.

Lately, however, things haven’t been so black and white.

Some weekends, you fall completely off the ol’ wagon have a slice (or three) of Costco pizza to keep the milkshake your hubby brought you company and you have to restart.

Let’s face it, sometimes it happens.

Maybe it didn’t used to happen, but in today’s season of sleep deprivation and a 1-year-old who has slept through the night exactly twice in his entire life, wifing, commuting, working and generally trying to be a productive member of society, I’m going to cut myself some slack.

The key is, if you happen to swan dive off the wagon, acknowledge it and get back on.

For my restart, I took a page out of The Real Food Dietician’s recipe book and gave their “Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Spaghetti Squash” a spin.

Fresh out of the oven Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Spaghetti Squash.

[Side Note: Is it just me or is spaghetti squash the HARDEST THING IN THE WORLD to cut? I swear, if I ever have a major kitchen accident, it’s going to involve a spaghetti squash. I’ll be sitting there, arm amputated at the elbow and with an eye twitch and raised Santoku knife and will shout, “At least I showed that spaghetti squash who is boss!”]

Moving on.

I got my squash sliced and roasted without any major bodily damage.

Probably because The Man heard what I was about to do and took my knife away from me.

Steve, your sauce rocks my socks.

I made a couple of tweaks to their recipe because 1) I didn’t have any Tessemae’s Mild Buffalo Sauce and 2) I didn’t have any ghee or Frank’s Red Hot Sauce to make the DYI version of Buffalo Sauce.

As everything else, my hunt for compliant Buffalo Sauce led me to the wonderful world of Amazon where I found Steve’s PaleoGoods PaleoChef Buffalo Wing Sauce. Without skipping a beat, I ordered the sauce, Prime got it here two days later and today, I went to town adding a liberal dousing all over my shredded chicken and spaghetti squash.

Then I tasted it and got a definite hint of sweetness.

Maybe it was the fact that I was looking for Buffalo Sauce at 5 a.m., maybe I just wasn’t paying attention — regardless — somehow, I missed the fact that the fifth ingredient was honey. So not Whole30, but absolutely delicious and legitimately paleo with completely pronounceable ingredients. WIN.

Anyway, now my restart needs a restart.

I got a little fancy and topped mine with homemade Whole30-compliant avocado ranch dressing.

I would say tomorrow is going to be that day, but I’ve got leftovers and they’re delicious.

Rather than focusing on getting back to my Whole30, this week is going to be focused on making generally good choices and getting to the gym at least three times after my flu-induced hiatus.

Fingers crossed that a little “sweat equity” does the trick because y’all, I got my new swimsuit in the mail and I did a silent scream when I tried it on.

… actually, I’m not 100 percent sure it was silent.