Whole30 days 29 & 30! Sesame Orange Chicken

Even though our Whole30 officially ended yesterday, we have still started today out completely Whole30 compliant! Neither of us have any cravings for foods that have been off limits for the past month and are feeling great, so why change? Now don't get me wrong, we will still have some days with a few exceptions, like tomorrow while watching the Super Bowl, but we intend to make eating by Whole30 guidelines the norm, and are going to keep dairy and gluten out of our diets completely. The last two days of our Whole30 were busy for both of us with work and training, so meals were relatively simple and we actually barely even thought about the fact that 30 days were up.

Breakfast: For both day 29 and 30 we had our standard breakfast of a piece of Hearty Breakfast Quiche, half an avocado, and a cup of coffee

Lunch: Again, same for both day 29 and 30, the usual (veggies, orange, half a grilled chicken breast, half a sweet potato with coconut oil and hot sauce)

Dinner: Day 29 we had ribeye steak, a baked potato, and a big salad with Champagne Vinaigrette (What is pictured is more than I could eat, so Andy got the leftovers) 

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Dinner day 30 I decided to try my hand at a new recipe. I made a Sesame Orange Chicken stir fry. It's not the thick, sugary orange chicken like you get when you order takeout, but it has a really good flavor and is much healthier. 

Sesame Orange Chicken Stir Fry

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato, shredded
1.5 cups broccoli florets

1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced

1.5 chicken breasts, cubed (I used pre-grilled)

Iuice of one medium orange (I used my lime juicer and squeezed the juice right into the skillet)

1 T coconut oil

3 T sesame seeds

2 T sesame oil

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Instructions

1) Place coconut oil, sweet potato shreds, broccoli, and mushrooms in a skillet and cook until sweet potatoes begin to brown. You can speed this up by covering the skillet for a few minutes to start.

2) Add sesame seeds, salt, pepper, orange juice, and chicken and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring a few times.

3) Drizzle the sesame oil over top, mix in, and allow to heat for ~2 minutes.

4) Adjust seasonings to taste and dig in.

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Summary days 29 and 30: We adjusted adjusted out sleep/wake cycle successfully so we are now going to bed around 9 pm and getting up around 5 am. It worked really well for us and made it possible to finish workouts earlier in the evening so there was more time to cook dinner and relax before bed. It was a great week of workouts and a productive week at work, so I'm planning on keeping the schedule this way as much as possible. The Whole30 seemed to fly by this time, and I think we have definitely gotten a good handle on the easiest ways to shop and cook for our busy and active lifestyles. I'm going to continue to blog with recipes when I can, and will put up some more detailed recipes and instructions for a few of our food staples. I'm very happy with how the 30 days went and am looking forward to incorporating more Whole30 recipes into our food lineup!