Moving Blogs

Its been a year since I've posted over here, but I have moved over to a new blog site to focus mostly on running and lifting. Follow me there as I work to combine the two.

http://runliftrestrepeat.blogspot.com/

Paleo-ish Dessert

We are flooded with produce in this house, and after the children demolished dinner, and behaved well on our shopping trip to Tucson, I knew I had to make something fruit-ish for dessert. I had stumbled across "Fried" Honey Bananas on Pinterest and knew this was the winner for tonight.

Super simple ingredients:
1 slightly under ripe banana
1 Tablespoon Honey (this is the paleo-ish part)
olive oil
Cinnamon

First slice the banana, drizzle the olive oil in the pan and then place the bananas in a single layer in the skillet. Cook the bananas for about 2 minutes each side.

Whisk the honey and 1 tablespoon of water together. Remove the skillet from heat and pour the honey mixture on top.

Then sprinkle with cinnamon. The kids were not huge fans, but this was fantastic. I can only imagine how good it would be on ice cream, or french toast.

Juice for Breakfast, Day 2

This morning  I whipped up another kid-friendly Declan-friendly juice, Abigail has no desire to even try it if its green.

1 cup of Spinach
1 Tomato
1 Apple
2 Carrots

I again doubled the recipe and we all enjoyed it.

And, according to this website, one 8 ounce glass of juice is equal to a full day requirement of fruits and vegetables. So this family is well on its way to surpassing the recommended requirements of fruits and veggies.

Meet Bella .... my juicer

Meet Bella, my juicer. She recently joined the ranks of kitchen appliances and has a prominent place on the counter. The first juice I made with Bella was a disaster. Totally yucky and sour. But then I attempted a simple pineapple and strawberry and it ws great. The worst part, of course, is clean-up. BUT, its all dishwasher safe. I also kept the pineapple pulp because I figure one day I'll use it for something.

This morning, Steven made the trek for our Bountiful Basket pick-up. $15 for all of this produce! I had also bought a pineapple, spinach, kale, celery, oranges, pears, apples, zucchini, a cucumber, and mushrooms yesterday. We are now more than ready for the week ahead.





I knew I had to do something with all of these veggies and fruits. I googled "kid-friendly juice recipes" and they were right. My first successful fruit/veggie combo drink was a hit with the kids.





This recipe was super easy. I doubled it to have enough for all three of us.

Carrot Pear Orange Juice
1 pear
1 orange
2 carrots

So simple. I think I'm actually going to prepare this ahead of time, similar to how I do most crock pot meals, so that it can accompany breakfast once a week. So yummy!

My take on Zucchini Bites

I found this recipe on Pinterest (of course) and attempted it last night.

I made a few changes. No bread crubms, no onions. And I added onion and garlic powder. Next time I will also add shredded carrots to it.

They are AMAZING! If I hadn't promised Declan one in the morning, I would have eaten them all. So good!

Zucchini Bites

Recipe adapted: The Naptime Chef

yields: 12 mini muffins

1 cups zucchini, grated
1 egg (1 large egg equals 3-4 tbsp when whisked together)
1/4 yellow onion, diced
1/4 cup cheese (cheddar or Parmesan work the best)
1/4 cup bread crumbs - I used Italian style
Salt and Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a mini-muffin tin with non-stick spray, set aside.
2. Grate the zucchini and then place in a dish towel to squeeze out the excess water- like when using frozen spinach; if you skip this part, the middle of the zucchini tots will be really soggy while the outside gets crispy and no one wants that.
3. In a bowl combine, the egg, onion, cheese, bread crumbs, zucchini, salt and pepper.
4. Using a spoon or a cookie scoop, fill the muffin cups to the top. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the top is browned and set. - See more at: http://curiouscountrycook.blogspot.com/2012/03/zucchini-tots.html#sthash.H6DCi0Zv.dpuf

CrossFit Week of July 15th

This week has been awesome at CrossFit. Monday I wasn't able to make a class time, so I worked on my pull-ups and cleans at Open Gym. Finally made it past 95# and can now (inconsistently) clean 105#.

Tuesday we did Karen, another of the infamous 'Ladies of CrossFit.' As fast as you can, complete 150 wall ball shots. Prescribed weight is 18#/ for women and 20# for men. I did 16# and completed it in 9:16. I should have tried the 18#.

Wednesday was Death by Push-ups. This is very similar to the pull-up continuum we did a few weeks ago. The first minute, one push-up; the second minute, two push-ups, etc until you can't do the allotted number in the amount of time. I decided to do strict push-ups and do less of them instead of doing girl push-ups. I completed 6 rounds and 6 push-ups into the 7th round for a total of 27.

Thursday we had another girl workout - this time Nicole. Nicole is 20 minutes of as many rounds as possible of two elements. First, run 400 meters, then perform as many pull-ups as you can without stopping. As soon as you stop, return back to the run. Repeat as many times as possible. I completed 5 full rounds. Using the green and blue bands (a feat in itself) I completed 10, 5, 8, 7, 6 pull-ups totaling 36. Not bad for 20 minutes of work.

Friday was a Hero WOD. It was a fun one, but still really tough. 7 rounds of 15 kettlebell swings, 15 power cleans, and 15 box jumps. The Rx for this was 1.5 pood (55lbs) for the kettlebells, 95# for the cleans, and a 24" box. Before we started the workout, I attempted a 20" box jump for the first time ever, and did it! I scaled my workout as follows: 1 pood (36lbs) for the kettlebell swings, 85# for the power cleans, and a 16" box. I completed all 7 rounds in 38:47. Next time, I will do this workout as prescribed.

For all my efforts this week, I got this wonderful bruise.

Paleo Lunch Date - Spaghetti Squash Style

Since I started (restarted?) my whole foods/clean eating/paleo thing (I refuse to call it a diet), husband has been on board, 95% of the way. He still likes his beer. Most days when I'm not working, I bring him lunch. We try to eat our bigger meal at lunch, since by the time we are home from CrossFit and get the kids fed/bathed/in bed, its pushing 7:30. Today I wanted something different.

Spaghetti Squash Goodness

I roasted my spaghetti squash in the crockpot. Its so easy. Put it in whole and add 1/2 cup of water. Cook on high for 2 1/2 hours. Then I cut it in half, let it cool, scraped out the yucky insides and then scraped out the "noodles."

I added half a chopped tomato to each dish, as well as some bacon bits, and caramelized, garlic mushrooms. Of course those I found on pinterest.

All loaded up in some Tupperware and ready for a lunch date with my husband. He's lucky I didn't eat all the mushrooms before I got there.