Dear Brain,
The workout is over, please stop dreaming of burpees. Seriously, it's done.
For anyone who doesn't know, the first workout of the Crossfit Games Open was burpees. For 7 minutes. I have never thought so much about burpee technique. This morning while I dozed before my alarm I was still dreaming about the stupid things, and today I tried to do one in the warmup and had to actually talk myself into it.
People were complaining that the first workout was too boring or simple etc. etc. I actually thought it was perfect. Everyone can do a burpee, so everyone can get a score, and it's a pure, simple test of endurance with a side of will power.
I did my burpees on Friday. I was aiming for at least 80, with a bonus goal of 90. I had it all worked out how many I needed to have at the end of each minute (12 or 13 per min to get 84 or 91 respectively). I had a chart in chalk on the floor in front of me and everything. After the first minute I had done more than I needed (15) so I paced myself a bit, ending up with, in each minute, 15, 14, 11, 11, 12, 11, 13 = 87. I was pretty pleased, but felt like I wasn't quite as exhausted as everyone else and probably could have pushed harder. The fact that I was immediately willing to do it again confirmed this. So, to repeat the strategy or to try something new?
In the interest of science, I decided to try again on Sunday and dispense with the pacing strategy. This time, I turned away from the clock, I didn't let my judge tell me how many I'd done, and I went balls out as fast as I could. This time: 16, 12, 13, 11, 11, 13 = 96 (!)
For a bit of background, I'm a pace it sort of person. I'm willing to use all the gas in the tank when there's a team win on the line, but normally I'm not in the business of having to puke/cry at the end. I really didn't know what was going to happen if I just went as fast as possible for the whole time. But, obviously, it worked! Notice that my last 3 minutes were almost identical in each trial. This suggests to me that a person's "tired" burpee pace (ie, the pace you settle in to for the second half) is the same no matter how hard you work in the first half, so you might as well get as many done in the beginning as possible. Coach Jen tried to tell me this, of course, but sometimes one has to experience these things first hand to believe it. This was really an eye opener for me, not only because pacing did not help me, but because I found I could get through it without taking a break. No wandering around in a circle, no sips of water, just keep moving. There are obviously exceptions to this: heavy lifting requries concentration, and sometimes you just plain max out. Also, the lenght of time matters...I don't think I could have kept going at that pace for 10 minutes, say. But for bodyweight movements it's balls out from now on. (Side: Why are all the good phrases to do with male body parts? I suppose tits out just sounds too crass...)
Experimental conclusion: Intensity > pacing (9 extra burpees = 3624 spots in the ranking. There are a LOT of people in the middle of the pack!)
Side conclusions:
1. Not eating for 4 hours beforehand effectively eliminates the desire to puke afterward. Noted.
2. I do not need a sip of water nearly as often as I think I do. I will not dry up and crumble like overdone cookies.
Oh, speaking of ranking and numbers. Last year a fellow stats nerd/crossfitter, who also happens to be called J Young, kept a blog where he analyzed data extracted from the leaderboard (age, weight, height, gender). He was looking for biases in age and body type, and has some really cool data to show that the open last year was actualy quite fair; those nearest to the "ideal" BMI, which was the easiest metric to compare across body types, scored similarly regardless of height and weight. Various advantages for small and large people sort of balanced out in the end. I badly want to play with the data from this year, but I have no idea how to write the code to scrape the data from the website (my friend assures me it's too tedious to bother). Fortunately, some other fellow nerds are already on the job, and plan to make it available, because math nerds are such helpful folk. So, soon I will have NUBMERS and then I can do MATHS on the NUMBERS and answer all of your burning questions (and make some pretty pictures too!) Mmmmm data, I am very excited.
Check out his statistical summary from last year
IMPORTANT PS!! Thanks SO much to everyone who was cheering, you kept me going just that bit faster. What an electric atmosphere with amazing people. Can't wait for next week!
Monday, 27 February 2012
Sunday, 19 February 2012
Paleo Chinese food SUCCESS! Lemon chicken and Mushroom fried rice
My apartment is right next to a chinese food restaurant. And this place serves Seriously Good Chinese food. If it were gross, I could ignore it, but try having to walk past the smell of Seriously Good Chinese food wafting at you every time you come home, and then having to go inside and cook something for yourself that probably won't be quite so Seriously Good. This is after convincing yourself to pass by the Seriously Good Burrito place that's in between my apartment and where I park my car.
Because of this, I have been attempting to make my own lemon chicken since I moved here. And not some healthy smealthy lemon and rosemary seasoned grilled chicken breat with a side of steamed green beans. I'm talking about the kind with the weird, gelatinous, gloopy sauce that you just know is full of who knows what but is still somehow the most appealing thing ever dispite its weird gloopy nature. Well folks, after some disasters whereby I misunderstood the properties of arrowroot powder, I have succeeded, and it is glorious, because not only did I manage to make credible lemon chicken that made Ashley go "Tastes like Chinese food!", but I also made almost-actually-fools-you Mushroom Fried "Rice" to eat with it. You're welcome.
I can't take full credit for these recipes. I went searching for a recipe for chicken fried rice and found this wonderful entry at Paleo Effect. I modified their rice recipe a tad, and adapted their General Tso's Chicken recipe for the lemon chicken. Their wonderful guidance was what I was missing in my attempts to make sauce thickened with arrowroot. Previously, I was trying to make the sauce and then add the arrowroot near the end. Don't do that, everything goes sloooooop and blobs up into jello-like lemon clumps instead of sauce. And it's not as tasty as jello...
Lemon Chicken
Ingredients
2 chicken breasts, chopped into bitesized pieces
Batter:
2 tablespoons arrowroot
one egg
salt (the recipe called for coconut aminos, which is a soya sauce substitute, but darned if I know where to find these, other than ordering them)
Sauce:
2 tablespoons arrowroot
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons coconut sugar (or more honey?)
~2/3 cup lemon juice
1/8 teaspooon ground ginger
1 tablespoon vinegar
salt (or coconut aminos) and garlic powder to taste
1. Stir up the chicken cubes with the batter, and fry in some oil (I used olive) until cooked and set aside.
2. Whisk the sauce ingredients together and pour into the hot pan. Stir for a couple of seconds and it will start to thicken right away (when it starts to boil I think?).
3. Add the chicken back in and stir the gloopy goodness all together.
Paleo Mushroom Fried "Rice"
This is a tasty stand-alone version of the plain cauliflower rice I normally make for stiring in with curries and other such runny sauce things. The oil combination isn't important, except for the sesame oil, which gives it the Chinese food vibe.
Ingredients
1/2 head cauliflower (makes enough for 2-3 servings)
lots of cremini mushrooms (or whatever sort you like)
sesame oil
coconut and/or olive oil
garlic/onion powder
salt to taste (or coconut aminos if you have them) and pepper
1. Chop mushrooms fairly small and sauté in some olive oil with garlic and onion powder and sea salt.
2. In the meantime, mulch up your cauliflower (I have a hand crank food processor, or use an electric one. There are also things called "ricers", apparently, or if you don't mind a mess you can just chop it up but there will be cauliflower everywhere, fair warning).
3. Add the "rice" in with the mushrooms once they're good and sautéd. Add a generous helping of sesame oil, and I also added some coconut oil for extra moisture. Add more salt and pepper if needed. I like salt.
4. Stir intermitently and fry until it's the desired tenderness. The original recipe also added a beaten egg and stirred that in but I left it out.
Serve together with the lemon chicken! Or apart, however you feel about these things.
I plan to try this next with orange juice on the chicken instead of lemon, stay tuned!
Because of this, I have been attempting to make my own lemon chicken since I moved here. And not some healthy smealthy lemon and rosemary seasoned grilled chicken breat with a side of steamed green beans. I'm talking about the kind with the weird, gelatinous, gloopy sauce that you just know is full of who knows what but is still somehow the most appealing thing ever dispite its weird gloopy nature. Well folks, after some disasters whereby I misunderstood the properties of arrowroot powder, I have succeeded, and it is glorious, because not only did I manage to make credible lemon chicken that made Ashley go "Tastes like Chinese food!", but I also made almost-actually-fools-you Mushroom Fried "Rice" to eat with it. You're welcome.
I can't take full credit for these recipes. I went searching for a recipe for chicken fried rice and found this wonderful entry at Paleo Effect. I modified their rice recipe a tad, and adapted their General Tso's Chicken recipe for the lemon chicken. Their wonderful guidance was what I was missing in my attempts to make sauce thickened with arrowroot. Previously, I was trying to make the sauce and then add the arrowroot near the end. Don't do that, everything goes sloooooop and blobs up into jello-like lemon clumps instead of sauce. And it's not as tasty as jello...
Lemon Chicken
Ingredients
2 chicken breasts, chopped into bitesized pieces
Batter:
2 tablespoons arrowroot
one egg
salt (the recipe called for coconut aminos, which is a soya sauce substitute, but darned if I know where to find these, other than ordering them)
Sauce:
2 tablespoons arrowroot
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons coconut sugar (or more honey?)
~2/3 cup lemon juice
1/8 teaspooon ground ginger
1 tablespoon vinegar
salt (or coconut aminos) and garlic powder to taste
1. Stir up the chicken cubes with the batter, and fry in some oil (I used olive) until cooked and set aside.
2. Whisk the sauce ingredients together and pour into the hot pan. Stir for a couple of seconds and it will start to thicken right away (when it starts to boil I think?).
3. Add the chicken back in and stir the gloopy goodness all together.
Paleo Mushroom Fried "Rice"
This is a tasty stand-alone version of the plain cauliflower rice I normally make for stiring in with curries and other such runny sauce things. The oil combination isn't important, except for the sesame oil, which gives it the Chinese food vibe.
Ingredients
1/2 head cauliflower (makes enough for 2-3 servings)
lots of cremini mushrooms (or whatever sort you like)
sesame oil
coconut and/or olive oil
garlic/onion powder
salt to taste (or coconut aminos if you have them) and pepper
1. Chop mushrooms fairly small and sauté in some olive oil with garlic and onion powder and sea salt.
2. In the meantime, mulch up your cauliflower (I have a hand crank food processor, or use an electric one. There are also things called "ricers", apparently, or if you don't mind a mess you can just chop it up but there will be cauliflower everywhere, fair warning).
3. Add the "rice" in with the mushrooms once they're good and sautéd. Add a generous helping of sesame oil, and I also added some coconut oil for extra moisture. Add more salt and pepper if needed. I like salt.
4. Stir intermitently and fry until it's the desired tenderness. The original recipe also added a beaten egg and stirred that in but I left it out.
Serve together with the lemon chicken! Or apart, however you feel about these things.
I plan to try this next with orange juice on the chicken instead of lemon, stay tuned!
Saturday, 11 February 2012
Creamy chicken avocado alfredo
I'm newly obsessed with the song "A Warrior's Call", by a Danish band called Volbeat. I've never heard of them before, but apparently they've been around since 2000 (says Wikipedia). Every time this song comes on the radio I feel a strong urge to get to the gym and lift/throw heavy things. My friend points out that while he wouldn't have thought of it on his own, it seems somehow fitting that the perfect crossfit anthem would be by a Scandinavian metal band. I'm going to have to add it to the request list for the Games workouts.
In other news, avocados are super! So versatile. When it was suggested to me that one could use them as a base for a creamy pasta sauce, I was sceptical, but it turned out to be delicious! The avocado somehow simulates the creaminess of a proper alfredo, it's marvelous. I cobbled together several internet-searched recipes and ended up with this pesto-alfredo hybrid. I ate mine over zucchini noodles but I think it would go well with spaghetti squash as well. Oh! OR perhaps as a cold salad with cucumbers and cherry tomatos...must try that.
Creamy chicken avocado alfredo
All of the sauce ingredients are to taste. I fail at measuring stuff. For the pesto I used my hand crank processor, which worked well. An electric one would have made it all smoother but I think I like the texture. This made enough for 2 meals.
Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
Garlic/onion powder, salt and pepper, and olive oil for the chicken
3 small zucchinis (or enough for two servings of noodles) (or spaghetti squash)
For the sauce:
1 ripe avocado
a small handful of fresh spinach
basil (I would have used fresh but I only had dried)
a good squirt of lemon juice (2-3 tablespoons, roughly?)
a smaller squirt of lime juice
olive oil (maybe a tablespoon)
some crushed walnuts for texture (about 2 tablespoons)
1 clove of garlic, chopped or minced
salt to taste
1. Chop chicken into bite-sized pieces. Season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic, etc, and saute in some olive oil.
2. If you're making zucchini noodles, boil some water, and cook them for about a minute and drain. I normally just let my sauce cook them, but this sauce isn't heated.
3. Meanwile, dump all of the pesto/alfredo ingredients into a food processor and blend well. I may have accidentally knocked some parmesan cheese in there as well...
4. Toss the sauce with the chicken and noodles and enjoy!
Warning: the internet says not to heat the avocado sauce, so if you made enough for leftovers, set aside your sauce separately and reheat the chicken/noodles on their own.
Creamy chicken avocado alfredo
All of the sauce ingredients are to taste. I fail at measuring stuff. For the pesto I used my hand crank processor, which worked well. An electric one would have made it all smoother but I think I like the texture. This made enough for 2 meals.
Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
Garlic/onion powder, salt and pepper, and olive oil for the chicken
3 small zucchinis (or enough for two servings of noodles) (or spaghetti squash)
For the sauce:
1 ripe avocado
a small handful of fresh spinach
basil (I would have used fresh but I only had dried)
a good squirt of lemon juice (2-3 tablespoons, roughly?)
a smaller squirt of lime juice
olive oil (maybe a tablespoon)
some crushed walnuts for texture (about 2 tablespoons)
1 clove of garlic, chopped or minced
salt to taste
1. Chop chicken into bite-sized pieces. Season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic, etc, and saute in some olive oil.
2. If you're making zucchini noodles, boil some water, and cook them for about a minute and drain. I normally just let my sauce cook them, but this sauce isn't heated.
3. Meanwile, dump all of the pesto/alfredo ingredients into a food processor and blend well. I may have accidentally knocked some parmesan cheese in there as well...
4. Toss the sauce with the chicken and noodles and enjoy!
Warning: the internet says not to heat the avocado sauce, so if you made enough for leftovers, set aside your sauce separately and reheat the chicken/noodles on their own.
Monday, 6 February 2012
Stuff I've baked that tastes good
Last weekend, my sister made me THE BEST paleo birthday cake OF ALL TIME. This is not an exaggeration. In light of this confectionary wonder, I've decided to share some recipes for paleo baked goods that I've tried and that have actually turned out (wonder of wonders!) Actually, I suspect that paleo baking is actually easier than regular baking; it seems to be less of a science, and more "stir stuff together and stick it in the oven". The toughest part is finding some of the strange paleo ingredients that I'd never heard of before (I still don't know what coconut palm shortening is).
Anyway, here is the German Chocolate Cake Jess made me (from Elana's Pantry), after we ate some of it. It has coconut pecan frosting. You heard me. coconut. pecan. Frigging amazing.
Jess said she had a lot of trouble with the consistency of the frosting (too drippy) and so the weight of the top layer squished out the filling. The corrective process involved mom holding the top layer up while Jess stuffed the filling back in and pasted the whole thing with a layer of chocolate icing. Ashley says this surgical process can be avoided by first building a "dam" of icing around the edge of your bottom layer before putting the filling and the top layer on. I don't care how it happened, I just know it was delicious. The chocolate cake is as fluffy and moist as it looks. And then I proceeded to eat one of mom's very not paleo made from scratch biscuits. It was totally worth it. I have no regrets.
Coconut Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
I've also made these really yummy Coconut Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins from Multiply Delicious. They're a super tasty snack and actually taste like real muffins. Although when I said this to Ashley, she suggested that we don't really know what real muffins taste like anymore. Valid point, but I've decided that it doesn't matter, so long as in my mind this is how muffins taste now. And that taste is delicious.
Ingredients
6 eggs
1/3 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoons maple syrup (optional)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
3/4 cup coconut flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 bananas)
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips, plus additional for sprinkling on tops of muffin
Preheat oven to 400. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
In a large bowl, combine eggs, coconut milk, maple syrup, sea salt, and vanilla extract. Whisk to combine and set aside.
Sift coconut flour (I never actually sift, because I'm lazy, and I don't have a sifter), baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon into the wet ingredients. Whisk vigorously until no lumps remain. Stir in melted coconut oil until well combined. Fold in banana and chocolate chips until incorporated (exactly how many words are there for "stir"?).
Using a large ice cream scoop (or a spoon??), add one level scoop to each muffin cup. Sprinkle each muffin with a few additional chocolate chips. Bake muffins for 15 to 18 minutes or until muffins are golden and spring back when pressed gently. Once baked, cool for 10 minutes.
Paleo Gingerbread Cookies
I made these at Christmas for our paleo cookie exchange and they were a big hit. Or at least, everyone said so, and I don't think they were lying. Zoey the dog tried to swallow a Christmas tree cookie whole, if that's any evidence. On a side note, when I went to buy molassas, I had no idea what the difference was between the regular kind and "fancy" molasses. Apparently fancy is better. I did not buy the fancy, but it still worked. This recipe is pasted from Modern Paleo Warfare but came from the book Make it Paleo.
Ingredients
1/2 a cup of molasses or maple syrup
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tbsp palm shortening
1tbsp coconut milk
3 cups blanched almond flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon (I added more)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Heat the molasses in a sauce pan then add the maple syrup, palm shortening and coconut milk to the sauce pan. Stir, then remove from heat (My second batch of cookies burned in less time than the first took to bake, and I think it may be that I heated my molasses too long here?). Mix the dry stuff together then into the wet stuff until it looks like fully blended batter. Stick the dough into the fridge for about 20 mins (I left it a bit longer) then roll it out to about a quarter inch thickness. The dough cut with cookie cutters surprisingly well and didn't fall apart during transfer. Bake on parchment paper or cookie sheet.
Paleo Buttercream Icing
I found this recipe here at "The Label Says Paleo". It went well on the cookies, although I added way more coconut sugar than suggested. It piped well though (with my dollar store icing bag!), but needed to go into the fridge to harden.
Whisk in a bowl:
1/2 c. coconut butter
1/4 c. coconut milk
1/8 c. palm sugar
sprinkle of arrowroot powder
Feel free to play around with these measurements to your liking. Whisk for awhile–at least 5 solid minutes–but even if the icing is lumpy, it’ll taste good. I added red or green food colouring to be festive, and it worked nicely.
Anyway, here is the German Chocolate Cake Jess made me (from Elana's Pantry), after we ate some of it. It has coconut pecan frosting. You heard me. coconut. pecan. Frigging amazing.
Coconut Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
I've also made these really yummy Coconut Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins from Multiply Delicious. They're a super tasty snack and actually taste like real muffins. Although when I said this to Ashley, she suggested that we don't really know what real muffins taste like anymore. Valid point, but I've decided that it doesn't matter, so long as in my mind this is how muffins taste now. And that taste is delicious.
Ingredients
6 eggs
1/3 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoons maple syrup (optional)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
3/4 cup coconut flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 bananas)
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips, plus additional for sprinkling on tops of muffin
Preheat oven to 400. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
In a large bowl, combine eggs, coconut milk, maple syrup, sea salt, and vanilla extract. Whisk to combine and set aside.
Sift coconut flour (I never actually sift, because I'm lazy, and I don't have a sifter), baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon into the wet ingredients. Whisk vigorously until no lumps remain. Stir in melted coconut oil until well combined. Fold in banana and chocolate chips until incorporated (exactly how many words are there for "stir"?).
Using a large ice cream scoop (or a spoon??), add one level scoop to each muffin cup. Sprinkle each muffin with a few additional chocolate chips. Bake muffins for 15 to 18 minutes or until muffins are golden and spring back when pressed gently. Once baked, cool for 10 minutes.
Paleo Gingerbread Cookies
I made these at Christmas for our paleo cookie exchange and they were a big hit. Or at least, everyone said so, and I don't think they were lying. Zoey the dog tried to swallow a Christmas tree cookie whole, if that's any evidence. On a side note, when I went to buy molassas, I had no idea what the difference was between the regular kind and "fancy" molasses. Apparently fancy is better. I did not buy the fancy, but it still worked. This recipe is pasted from Modern Paleo Warfare but came from the book Make it Paleo.
Ingredients
1/2 a cup of molasses or maple syrup
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tbsp palm shortening
1tbsp coconut milk
3 cups blanched almond flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon (I added more)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Heat the molasses in a sauce pan then add the maple syrup, palm shortening and coconut milk to the sauce pan. Stir, then remove from heat (My second batch of cookies burned in less time than the first took to bake, and I think it may be that I heated my molasses too long here?). Mix the dry stuff together then into the wet stuff until it looks like fully blended batter. Stick the dough into the fridge for about 20 mins (I left it a bit longer) then roll it out to about a quarter inch thickness. The dough cut with cookie cutters surprisingly well and didn't fall apart during transfer. Bake on parchment paper or cookie sheet.
Paleo Buttercream Icing
I found this recipe here at "The Label Says Paleo". It went well on the cookies, although I added way more coconut sugar than suggested. It piped well though (with my dollar store icing bag!), but needed to go into the fridge to harden.
Whisk in a bowl:
1/2 c. coconut butter
1/4 c. coconut milk
1/8 c. palm sugar
sprinkle of arrowroot powder
Feel free to play around with these measurements to your liking. Whisk for awhile–at least 5 solid minutes–but even if the icing is lumpy, it’ll taste good. I added red or green food colouring to be festive, and it worked nicely.
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Spicy Citrus Coconut Chicken
I started out thinking I would make a creamy mushroom sauce for my chicken. But then I remembered I had some clementines threatening to shrivel, and no body wants to waste a good clementine (don't you hate when you pick one up that looks great on one side, just to find that it's covered in blue mold on the underside and threatening to contaminate the rest of the basket with its grossness?). So, I ditched the mushrooms, kept the creamy sauce part, and came up with this delightful concoction, if I do say so myself. It looks a little bland in colour because by the time I remembered about the red peppers I had planned to add, everything else was all ready. Also, I forgot the ginger, and felt the whole thing was slightly lacking, but I added it to my leftovers, and happily my lunch the next day was more complete. Ginger is always a good idea. Like bacon. Except bacon jelly beans, seriously, don't do it.
Spicy Citrus Coconut Chicken (with Cauliflower Rice)
This made 3 meals for me
Ingredients
1 can coconut milk
2 large chicken breasts
~ 3 tablespoons lime juice
~ 6 clementines (4 juiced, 2 for garnish)
~ 2 teaspoons chili flakes (more or less depending on your level of spiciness)
fresh ginger
a pinch of cumin (if you like that sort of thing)
1/2 head of cauliflower
leaks or onion
other veggies? (red bell peppers or snap peas, mayhaps?)
1. Sear the chicken breasts on both sides in olive/coconut oil for a couple of minutes and set aside.
2. Chop and saute the onion or leaks briefly. Also saute sliced peppers here, like I forgot to do.
3. Add coconut milk, ginger, lime juice, clementine juice, cumin (optional), salt to taste, and chili flakes. I recommend adding a small amount of the chili flakes at a time and taste testing, because the hotness seems to intensify as you go along. I put a bit too much for my liking.
4. Put the lid on and let simmer while you "rice the cauliflower" in your handy dandy hand crank food processor, or your electric one if you're one of those fancy folk.
5. I added my cauliflower to the sauce at this point to let it cook. Ashley tried this recipe after smelling my leftovers, and cooked hers a bit separately first with some chicken broth, then added it to the sauce at the end. Either way, the point is to get your cauliflower cooked somehow, so long as it ends up in the sauce at the end, because I've decided it's better that way.
6. Slice the chicken into bite sized pieces and add back into the sauce to finish cooking.
7. Add some clementine wedges, if you please, and serve! Ashley also added orange juice to her sauce concoction, by the way, and something else but I don't remember what....hm....oh well!
Spicy Citrus Coconut Chicken (with Cauliflower Rice)
This made 3 meals for me
Ingredients
1 can coconut milk
2 large chicken breasts
~ 3 tablespoons lime juice
~ 6 clementines (4 juiced, 2 for garnish)
~ 2 teaspoons chili flakes (more or less depending on your level of spiciness)
fresh ginger
a pinch of cumin (if you like that sort of thing)
1/2 head of cauliflower
leaks or onion
other veggies? (red bell peppers or snap peas, mayhaps?)
1. Sear the chicken breasts on both sides in olive/coconut oil for a couple of minutes and set aside.
2. Chop and saute the onion or leaks briefly. Also saute sliced peppers here, like I forgot to do.
3. Add coconut milk, ginger, lime juice, clementine juice, cumin (optional), salt to taste, and chili flakes. I recommend adding a small amount of the chili flakes at a time and taste testing, because the hotness seems to intensify as you go along. I put a bit too much for my liking.
4. Put the lid on and let simmer while you "rice the cauliflower" in your handy dandy hand crank food processor, or your electric one if you're one of those fancy folk.
5. I added my cauliflower to the sauce at this point to let it cook. Ashley tried this recipe after smelling my leftovers, and cooked hers a bit separately first with some chicken broth, then added it to the sauce at the end. Either way, the point is to get your cauliflower cooked somehow, so long as it ends up in the sauce at the end, because I've decided it's better that way.
6. Slice the chicken into bite sized pieces and add back into the sauce to finish cooking.
7. Add some clementine wedges, if you please, and serve! Ashley also added orange juice to her sauce concoction, by the way, and something else but I don't remember what....hm....oh well!
Friday, 20 January 2012
New Year's Life Resolution:
Sign up for the CrossFit Games Open
Or, more generally, come up with something that you think is probably too hard for you. Then try to do it anyway.
The first round of the Games will start in a month. Five weeks, five workouts, ANYONE can do it, and I am devoting this entire post to convincing you to sign up and compete. There are three main categories of responses to that statement.
1. I have no idea what you're talking about.
2. Duh, obviously, I'm already registered.
3. Don't be ridiculous Jen, I'm nowhere near that level yet.
If you're number 1, probably we haven't spoken lately, or you got here through google. Well, keep googling, the internet will tell you all about it! Then come back.
If you're number 2, you don't need convincing, so.....I guess that's all the advice I have for today :D
If you're number 3, and if you're like I was one year ago when coach Jen told me I should sign up to compete in the CrossFit Games Open, you're thinking there's no way. You're not fit enough, you rarely if ever do the workout prescribed, you never come close to the folks on the leaderboard, and when you begin the day's workout you expect to take at least 5 minutes longer than the slowest person on the board so far (I was consistently slowest for probably a year, don't fret, as long as you're working hard you're making progress, even if it doesn't seem like it. You'll notice all of a sudden one day).
But Jen didn't seem concerned about any of these things and so, somehow, she convinced me (something about contributing to the team score, although I wasn't totally convinced my score was worth contributing!). So, with no idea whether or not I'd be able to complete any or all of the workouts, I signed up, and set the lofty goal of getting to the end without being disqualified (i.e., get at least 1 rep in each workout). At the risk of spoiling the story, I will tell you that I did manage this goal, and ended up achieving far more than I ever would have without the motivation of competition. And, unexpectedly, it was actually fun! Convinced yet? No? Perhaps some details will help.
WOD 1: 10 min AMRAP of 30 DU, 15 power snatch (75/55)
I could just barely do both of these things, so that was fine, but this workout was challenging in a different way for me because I was out of town the whole week. Not one to give up my $10 registration fee so easily, I found a gym near where I was (CrossFit AI in Calgary), asked if I could come on by, and showed up terrified that they would expect some sort of hotshot out of town competitor and be sorely disappointed. On the contrary, everyone there was very welcoming, and they shouted encouragement, as I sputtered and wheezed, just as they did for their own members. I even had a complete stranger sharing with me his story as a newbie to crossfit, and how he was looking forward to graduating from lady pushups to real pushups! It was great to see that wherever you go there will be a great community of crossfitters.
WOD 2: 15 min AMRAP of 9 deadlifts (155/100), 12 pushups, and 15 boxjumps
I hate boxjumps. So much. And at this point I was still doing lady pushups, so it must have been painful for my judge to watch me have to rest in between every try at a real pushup. But, again, I could do all of these things, and something about the knowledge of having to write my score on the internet for all to see made me push myself harder than I ever have. That was the closest I've come to puking since the great "Barbara"-wod-too-close-to-green-beans-snack incident. Word to the wise: get up early to eat your breakfast, and ensure digestion before you begin. There's nothing worse than having to slow down for fear of hurling.
WOD 3: 5 minute AMRAP of squatclean and jerks (155/110)
Uh Oh. This was the first real hurdle to my goal of not being disqualified. I'd been at an 85 lb wall on cleans for months. So, I had a week to get to 110. Nobigdeal. By some miracle, and with the help of some excellent coaching from coach Jen (push off through your heels!), and some advice from Brit ("Srsly Jen, just walk up to the bar and pick it up", which is surprisingly good advice as it turns out), I actually managed to pick up the thing! Getting it over my head was another miserable matter that didn't happen for several more months, but fortunately the clean part was worth 1 point so (phewf!) I was still in the game.
WOD 4: 10 minute AMRAP of 60 bar facing burpees (and hops), 30 overhead squats (120/90), 10 muscle ups
So, obviously I couldn't do a muscle up (still can't, all in good time). I therefore did 60 leisurely burpees before attempting the squats, which were probably 20 lbs over my previous max. I managed to do a few squats at that weight in practice, but after the burpees I was too tired and kept toppling over. So my score was not stellar, but PR's during practice still count, so add one more to the list of PR's!
WOD 5: 20 minute AMRAP of 5 power cleans (145/100), 10 toes to bar, 15 wallballs.
Ok, so I'd figured out the clean part (see wod 3), but I hadn't managed a toes to bar. Come wod time, I took probably 3 minutes to get 5 successful cleans. Then, I spent 17 minutes practicing toes to bar, and in that time, I got two. Plus about 100 failed attempts. But darn it, I'd actually done one! By the end of those 17 minutes, a little cheering squad had formed. They groaned with disappointment every time I missed, and when I finally got one we were so excited you would have thought I'd just won the whole competition. This is what I love most about CrossFit, everyone helps you celebrate your achievements no matter how small.
WOD 6: 7 minute AMRAP of thrusters (100/65) and chest to bar pullups
Chest to bar. Really? Sigh. While the thursters were no problem (well, they were still pretty tough, but doable), I hadn't ever done a chest to bar. Once again, I spent the rest of my 7 minutes trying, and I even got a couple with a strange hybrid kipping pullup and donkey kick thing.
End result: NOT DISQUALIFIED, and I even didn't finish last! (I was 4th last in the Canada East, but that's not counting all of the people who dropped out :P)
Anywho, so there's my recap. That was really long. If you're still reading, my appologies, IOU some minutes. But hopefully anyone who is feeling shy about signing up will see that there's nothing to lose and a crud ton to gain. If I'd continued with my attitude of "I won't do well, therefore I shant bother", I would have missed out on FOUR PR's, not to mention the incredible experience of competition in a friendly, encouraging atmosphere. Everyone was pushing me to try harder, but I never once felt like would be disappointing anyone if I didn't manage to complete a move.
So if you sign up, I personally promise to start a cheering squad for whatever move you find toughest. And even if something comes up that you've never done, and you work towards it for the week and still don't get it, big whoop. You'll certainly be futher ahead than you were before you tried.
I saw an appropriate mantra on Modern Paleo Warfare: "No matter how slow you're going, you're still lapping everyone on the couch."
The first round of the Games will start in a month. Five weeks, five workouts, ANYONE can do it, and I am devoting this entire post to convincing you to sign up and compete. There are three main categories of responses to that statement.
1. I have no idea what you're talking about.
2. Duh, obviously, I'm already registered.
3. Don't be ridiculous Jen, I'm nowhere near that level yet.
If you're number 1, probably we haven't spoken lately, or you got here through google. Well, keep googling, the internet will tell you all about it! Then come back.
If you're number 2, you don't need convincing, so.....I guess that's all the advice I have for today :D
If you're number 3, and if you're like I was one year ago when coach Jen told me I should sign up to compete in the CrossFit Games Open, you're thinking there's no way. You're not fit enough, you rarely if ever do the workout prescribed, you never come close to the folks on the leaderboard, and when you begin the day's workout you expect to take at least 5 minutes longer than the slowest person on the board so far (I was consistently slowest for probably a year, don't fret, as long as you're working hard you're making progress, even if it doesn't seem like it. You'll notice all of a sudden one day).
But Jen didn't seem concerned about any of these things and so, somehow, she convinced me (something about contributing to the team score, although I wasn't totally convinced my score was worth contributing!). So, with no idea whether or not I'd be able to complete any or all of the workouts, I signed up, and set the lofty goal of getting to the end without being disqualified (i.e., get at least 1 rep in each workout). At the risk of spoiling the story, I will tell you that I did manage this goal, and ended up achieving far more than I ever would have without the motivation of competition. And, unexpectedly, it was actually fun! Convinced yet? No? Perhaps some details will help.
WOD 1: 10 min AMRAP of 30 DU, 15 power snatch (75/55)
I could just barely do both of these things, so that was fine, but this workout was challenging in a different way for me because I was out of town the whole week. Not one to give up my $10 registration fee so easily, I found a gym near where I was (CrossFit AI in Calgary), asked if I could come on by, and showed up terrified that they would expect some sort of hotshot out of town competitor and be sorely disappointed. On the contrary, everyone there was very welcoming, and they shouted encouragement, as I sputtered and wheezed, just as they did for their own members. I even had a complete stranger sharing with me his story as a newbie to crossfit, and how he was looking forward to graduating from lady pushups to real pushups! It was great to see that wherever you go there will be a great community of crossfitters.
WOD 2: 15 min AMRAP of 9 deadlifts (155/100), 12 pushups, and 15 boxjumps
I hate boxjumps. So much. And at this point I was still doing lady pushups, so it must have been painful for my judge to watch me have to rest in between every try at a real pushup. But, again, I could do all of these things, and something about the knowledge of having to write my score on the internet for all to see made me push myself harder than I ever have. That was the closest I've come to puking since the great "Barbara"-wod-too-close-to-green-beans-snack incident. Word to the wise: get up early to eat your breakfast, and ensure digestion before you begin. There's nothing worse than having to slow down for fear of hurling.
WOD 3: 5 minute AMRAP of squatclean and jerks (155/110)
Uh Oh. This was the first real hurdle to my goal of not being disqualified. I'd been at an 85 lb wall on cleans for months. So, I had a week to get to 110. Nobigdeal. By some miracle, and with the help of some excellent coaching from coach Jen (push off through your heels!), and some advice from Brit ("Srsly Jen, just walk up to the bar and pick it up", which is surprisingly good advice as it turns out), I actually managed to pick up the thing! Getting it over my head was another miserable matter that didn't happen for several more months, but fortunately the clean part was worth 1 point so (phewf!) I was still in the game.
WOD 4: 10 minute AMRAP of 60 bar facing burpees (and hops), 30 overhead squats (120/90), 10 muscle ups
So, obviously I couldn't do a muscle up (still can't, all in good time). I therefore did 60 leisurely burpees before attempting the squats, which were probably 20 lbs over my previous max. I managed to do a few squats at that weight in practice, but after the burpees I was too tired and kept toppling over. So my score was not stellar, but PR's during practice still count, so add one more to the list of PR's!
WOD 5: 20 minute AMRAP of 5 power cleans (145/100), 10 toes to bar, 15 wallballs.
Ok, so I'd figured out the clean part (see wod 3), but I hadn't managed a toes to bar. Come wod time, I took probably 3 minutes to get 5 successful cleans. Then, I spent 17 minutes practicing toes to bar, and in that time, I got two. Plus about 100 failed attempts. But darn it, I'd actually done one! By the end of those 17 minutes, a little cheering squad had formed. They groaned with disappointment every time I missed, and when I finally got one we were so excited you would have thought I'd just won the whole competition. This is what I love most about CrossFit, everyone helps you celebrate your achievements no matter how small.
WOD 6: 7 minute AMRAP of thrusters (100/65) and chest to bar pullups
Chest to bar. Really? Sigh. While the thursters were no problem (well, they were still pretty tough, but doable), I hadn't ever done a chest to bar. Once again, I spent the rest of my 7 minutes trying, and I even got a couple with a strange hybrid kipping pullup and donkey kick thing.
End result: NOT DISQUALIFIED, and I even didn't finish last! (I was 4th last in the Canada East, but that's not counting all of the people who dropped out :P)
Anywho, so there's my recap. That was really long. If you're still reading, my appologies, IOU some minutes. But hopefully anyone who is feeling shy about signing up will see that there's nothing to lose and a crud ton to gain. If I'd continued with my attitude of "I won't do well, therefore I shant bother", I would have missed out on FOUR PR's, not to mention the incredible experience of competition in a friendly, encouraging atmosphere. Everyone was pushing me to try harder, but I never once felt like would be disappointing anyone if I didn't manage to complete a move.
So if you sign up, I personally promise to start a cheering squad for whatever move you find toughest. And even if something comes up that you've never done, and you work towards it for the week and still don't get it, big whoop. You'll certainly be futher ahead than you were before you tried.
I saw an appropriate mantra on Modern Paleo Warfare: "No matter how slow you're going, you're still lapping everyone on the couch."
Friday, 13 January 2012
Toasty Paleo beverages for some not so toasty weather
So winter happened this week! I LOVE SNOW!!! Except on my car, I don't like it there. Or in my parking space, which is on the street, because if I go to the trouble of shoveling it out, someone else will certainly steal it before I get home >:| But I do love snow, especially for skiing or snowman building. Did anyone else ever make forts using bricks made of the ice layer that formed on top of fluffy snow? You know, the kind where it's a foot of fluff underneath but super cruncy on top, so when you walk you make giant crators of broken ice, and your foot sinks all the way down so you have to lift your feet super high and it takes forever to get to school? No? Well then. At any rate, I've been waiting for some cold weather to try out some toasty hot paleo beverages.
Paleo hot chocolate is super easy and super scrumptious! In the picture is a carton of coconut milk beverage, but I much preferred it with almond milk (unsweetened). Paired with a bowl of fresh raspberries it was a perfect dessert. I also just recently (as in, this minute) discovered chai tea latte with almond milk. I have a chai spice mix, but the internet is abound with recipes to make your own, or I suspect you could just plop a chai tea bag or two in your heated milk.
Paleo Hot Cocoa
1. Heat almond milk in a saucepan on the stove. I'm not sure if it will boil over all of a sudden like cow milk does, but as I'm not willing to find out, I stirred regularly. The internet says you can heat it in the microwave on low in 30 second intervals, stirring in between. I haven't got a microwave so you'll have to take the internet's word for it.
2a. Whisk in some cocoa until chocolatey enough, and stir in a spoonful of honey until it's de-bittered enough. I got my honey (raw unpasturized) from the Hamilton Market.
OR
2b. Stir in a square or two of dark chocolate until melted.
OR
2c. Try a chai latte recipe or any other hot beverage and tell me how it goes :) I just had a thought: toasted coconut in a teaball to add the flavour to the hot cocoa without making it lumpy. Must try.
3. Here's a recipe for coconut milk whipped cream to put on top. There's also a recipe for homemade paleo marshmallows from the Urban Poser but I haven't mustered up the ambition to try either yet. Let me know how it goes if you do!
PS to anyone from my elementary school, remember when we used to be allowed to slip and slide on the icerink that always formed in the drain ditch, before old-grouchy-man-whose-name-I-don't-remember came along and threw salt on it? What a party pooper.
Paleo hot chocolate is super easy and super scrumptious! In the picture is a carton of coconut milk beverage, but I much preferred it with almond milk (unsweetened). Paired with a bowl of fresh raspberries it was a perfect dessert. I also just recently (as in, this minute) discovered chai tea latte with almond milk. I have a chai spice mix, but the internet is abound with recipes to make your own, or I suspect you could just plop a chai tea bag or two in your heated milk.
1. Heat almond milk in a saucepan on the stove. I'm not sure if it will boil over all of a sudden like cow milk does, but as I'm not willing to find out, I stirred regularly. The internet says you can heat it in the microwave on low in 30 second intervals, stirring in between. I haven't got a microwave so you'll have to take the internet's word for it.
2a. Whisk in some cocoa until chocolatey enough, and stir in a spoonful of honey until it's de-bittered enough. I got my honey (raw unpasturized) from the Hamilton Market.
OR
2b. Stir in a square or two of dark chocolate until melted.
OR
2c. Try a chai latte recipe or any other hot beverage and tell me how it goes :) I just had a thought: toasted coconut in a teaball to add the flavour to the hot cocoa without making it lumpy. Must try.
3. Here's a recipe for coconut milk whipped cream to put on top. There's also a recipe for homemade paleo marshmallows from the Urban Poser but I haven't mustered up the ambition to try either yet. Let me know how it goes if you do!
PS to anyone from my elementary school, remember when we used to be allowed to slip and slide on the icerink that always formed in the drain ditch, before old-grouchy-man-whose-name-I-don't-remember came along and threw salt on it? What a party pooper.
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