Chocolate blueberry banana muffins

What could be worse than this.

Such a disappointment. So today I made some chocolate blueberry banana muffins. Hell. yeah.

Well, I made one batch, poured some into the muffin tins for the kids, dropped some blueberries in and topped with raw honey for Bob then added some unsweetened cocoa powder (2 tsp) to the rest of the batter for myself. I've only tasted the chocolate (go figure) but both kids gave the others two thumbs up. I used PaleOMG's base recipe and tweaked a few things so I'm not sure if I can really call it my own but, it was my idea to add berries and chocolate so I'll take the credit for that.

And I'll also take credit for the 14 rounds of Cindy I did this morning without the use of the band for the pull ups. Yay me. The past few times I've done Cindy have been, eh. Last time I didn't use the band but I only did a scaled 12 minute version. Felt good. No oly stuff today, just not enough time. May do that tomorrow, if I can lift my arms.

hummus, crackers and meatloaf oh my

Where do I begin. Saturday was a wasted day since I was sick and didn't get much sleep the night before. Bob took the kids to a birthday party while I drank some Kombucha and bone broth and took a nap. The magic 3 definitely helped. Since I didn't feel like cooking anything too involved for dinner I went with sausage and sauteed kale, cabbage, onion and diced apples. Yes, apple onion cabbage combo again. Although I didn't use a ton of cabbage since I was using kale as well. Just enough to give the dish some bulk. It was pretty good. Easy, cheap and filling. Nope, no pictures.

But, I did get a picture of my wonderful bone broth which we seem to be making about every other week or so. This was batch number one. Batch number two is ready and waiting to be jarred.

Thankfully Sunday I was feeling much better and was able to get decent back squat strength work in at 155, 165 and 175. Heavy and felt like it. But, felt good to get it done. Didn't do any conditioning but did mess around practicing L and tuck sit holds. Ouch. If it didn't hurt my palms so much I may have been able to squeak out more than 10 seconds each time... even though 10 seconds seemed like an eternity.

Later in the day I made some eggplant hummus and crackers. The hummus was just ok. I'm thinking next time I will roast the eggplant and garlic first. If you've ever roasted garlic before you know it adds that next dimension. Yes, I'm in the I spend too much money on gluten free pretzels and hummus so I'm going to just make my own mode. We'll see how long that lasts.

How many different ways can you make meatloaf? Apparently, a lot. Sunday night for dinner was PaleOMG's sweet potato meatloaf. It was certainly different with the addition of raisins and cinnamon which was a nice change from the basic peppers, onions and mushrooms. And as an added bonus, my daughter loved it (but picked out the raisins) because it had bacon on it. The bacon on top was the kicker for me. Otherwise, eh, it would have just been ok.

The 'you'll eat what we eat for dinner' is going well. My daughter will try anything and will actually eat a decent portion of it. My son however is going to test my patience. I'm not giving in though. He has tried a bite of steak, pork and meatloaf. Literally. 3 bites. Not enough to make an ant happy but, I'm hoping he'll get hungry enough to just eat and not argue with us. Not everyone enjoys every meal. Hell, I've made some craptastic dishes over the years but you eat and move on. Hopefully he'll get it sooner rather than later.

Recipe: Flat iron steak with cabbage, onion, apples and bacon

Yes, my dinner of marinated flat iron steak, sauteed cabbage, bacon, onion and apple was awesome, but that's besides the point. My children actually ate some steak! Actually my daughter said to me, and I quote, "If I have to eat this meat, make sure it's always covered in bacon." I couldn't have said it better myself. My son, well, he ate some and didn't ask for more.

Anyway, here's what I made. (sorry no pictures, I just can't seem to remember)

Throw the flat iron/flank/skirt steak in a pyrex dish/bag/bowl with chopped garlic, s&p, aminos, olive oil and a 1/2 cup of cold coffee and let it sit in the fridge for about 3 hours or so. And if you remember, try to flip the meat over at least once. And I only threw in the coffee because it was leftover and free of creamer and sugar...which is really rare for me. I love my coffee and drink 6 cups a day. Regardless, the base of the recipe is from Primal Palate, I just didn't do all the little extra spices they do because I was feeling lazy and was short on time. Later, cook your meat how you like it. You should know how to cook a flank steak by now. I pan seared mine in the cast iron about 4-5 min per side because it is too cold to grill outside.

Chop and brown a few pieces of bacon, remove from pan and throw in some sliced cabbage and onion and s&p. Cook it down for about 10-15 min on medium heat stirring often. Throw in some chopped apples at the end and cover for about 5 min. Any longer and the apples become applesauce. Plate and top with bacon pieces. See, no brainer. The sliced meat with the apples, bacon and onion is delicious.

Again, no wod for me today. Still sick. Not laying on the couch can't move sick, but stuffy head, runny nose, dry lips, itchy face but I can still get stuff done sick. Hate the itchy dry face feeling and being inside with the heater going non stop just makes it worse. There is not enough lotion on the planet right now that would make my skin happy. I'm thinking I should just slather myself in coconut oil and be done with it.

I'm hopeful I can sneak some strength stuff in tomorrow morning. I need to do something. We do have a kids birthday party to attend relatively early in the day so we'll see.

Time to finally sit back and relax with my cup of bone broth and do a little reading before my 'I have no inside voice' daughter barrels thru the door.

Well, I'm sick.... again

Can't catch a break in the Chase house. One of us has been sick since the week after Thanksgiving. Yeah I know! WTF! I've been feeling 'off' the past few days and thought maybe if I didn't speak it's name out loud it would go away. Eh. So much for that theory. So today I'm going to try to drown the sickness with Kombucha, fish oil, bone broth and tea. I may have to give the lemon, grapefruit, honey, cayenne pepper cold remedy mix I saw posted on fb yesterday a try.  Couchgrass and Crampbark? You know, I think that's what killed Curly.

Made some banana bread yesterday, umm.... for the kids. This recipe does not include any added sugar of any kind. Thought that was interesting and it was still pretty damn good. Even my little guy liked it. My daughter immediately insisted on the addition of maple syrup. In an effort to de-sugarize (??) my children, again, I'll be making more homemade treats. Bob and I are trying the 'you will eat what we eat for dinner or you will not eat' method and cutting back on junky snacks. We've tried in the past but neither one of us has the patience required to stick with it. But, we keep trying. I guess that's something. Although, this time, I think I'm done. I'm so over making 3 different meals every night AND my daughter is getting a little more interested in what I'm cooking and why I don't eat frozen pretzels and grilled cheese sandwiches so I figure maybe they are at the age where they will start to try new healthier foods. Even if they look gross. Which both kids have no qualms about telling me.

Last night for dinner I de-skinned and ripped up the rest of the leftover green chicken legs from the other night and mixed it up with my thai sesame peanut sauce (see my blog post about Cold Sesame Noodles). Then threw that over some greens, shredded carrot, sliced an asian pear an avocado and topped with toasted sesame seeds, little olive oil and a splash of red wine vinegar. It was pretty damn tasty. Obviously I didn't use peanut butter in the sauce, I subbed almond butter. Not that I see peanut butter as the devil of non paleo foods, but I like the taste of the almond butter better.

My anything but a rest day has just about come to a close. Hopefully I can beat this little cold and get a house wod in tomorrow. It's been way too cold in the morning to do any barbell work in the garage. Like... 15 degrees cold so I'm sticking to body weight and kb stuff I can do in the house without damaging anything for another few days.

Did I mention I hate snatches?

OK, hate may be a strong word. Dislike intensely. Yes, I dislike them intensely. Why you ask? Because I stink at them. Even though Outlaw makes me do them at least twice a week, I still stink at them. But, I'm willing to bet most people suck at them because they are hard so I don't really beat myself up about it too often. Only every other day or so.

Weekend flew by as usual in a haze of crushing wods and delicious dinners. Outlaw has been particularly cardio heavy these past few days with the running and pull ups, double unders and wall balls and yesterday with high rep ohs and lunges. I'm actually surprised I don't feel as beat up as the wods would suggest I should. Yes, that made total sense. From what I can remember we had some salmon with pineapple salsa, which was funny since Nom Nom posted a pineapple salsa recipe last week and I thought, huh, that's how I make mine too. Maybe I do know what I'm doing. Saturday was an 'i'm tired and don't really feel like cooking' dinner of spaghetti squash spaghetti and sausage. Sunday Bob made some yummy chili and last night I made some green chicken. Always a good one but I really need to try the recipe with split breasts since chicken legs are just not my favorite.

Rest day for me today since I put in my 3 days. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way with house work or kids.

Any parent will tell you

going to Target is a chore. Actually going anywhere near food and toys with your children is no fun. NO fun, unless the goal is to buy junk food and toys. Then it's fun. But really, when is that the only reason I would go to Target. So yesterday while my little guy was in school for a blessed extended day, I took advantage. It was lovely. No whining, no begging, no potty trips, no fighting, no unyielding double wide cart. Ahh. It's the little things.

I decided to make Nom Nom's fried rice last night since I'm still feeling like we need to work more meat free dishes into our dinners. Sometimes change is good. Now, truth be told, I'm not a big fan of cauliflower. I'm certainly willing to try different recipes with it, and I have made my fair share of cauliflower rice, but I can't say it's one of my favorites that I crave every week. I will say that this recipe for making the rice is so much easier than the way I used to do it. Not that it's very difficult either way but by NOT pre cooking the cauliflower, it keeps the 'rice' from getting too mushy when you incorporate into your dish. The fried rice recipe itself was easy and pretty tasty for a last minute throw together meal. And you could basically mix in any protein and veggie you want. I stuck with the original recipe because I had everything and I wanted to stay meat free (besides the few bacon slivers). I'm not completely insane.

Went easy today with my wod by just doing some strength work. Banded deadlifts. They felt great at 125. It's pretty light but still a good workout doing 2 every 30 seconds. They are definitely helping me with speed in the lift but not taxing me to where my form breaks. I also tried some inverted ring.... lowers? I managed to get 2 without letting my feet slam to the ground. I did have to bring my arms almost 90 degrees, couldn't lower my legs with straight arms as well. Just don't have that core strength. I can do them tucked and almost get back up without touching the ground but my shoulder can't handle the dead hang for long. Fun to practice though.

Time to eat and move on. Got some new Temple Run 2 to play.

playing catch up

Well it's been 4 days since the last of the sickness blew thru our house. Maybe I shouldn't talk about it. Moving on. Decided to make some pineapple prosciutto ricotta gluten free pizza Sunday night. It was really good but all the dairy beat me up the next day. I'm sure the craptastic wod I did on Sunday had a little to do with it too, but it was more of a I feel fat and lazy rather than the usual sore and overworked Monday morning. Don't get me wrong, I was sore as hell too. But, I did manage to do 100lb push jerks in a metcon. The highest weight I've done yet. It was an 8 min amrap with 200m and pistols so I thought what the hell, even if I only made one round (I made 1 3/4), I'm going to give it a try. No, that doesn't sound too craptastic, but the 3 min of ME burpee bar jumps after that sealed the deal.

Monday like I said was a rest day and a much needed one at that. Everyone was back at school, I had a nice quiet house, for a few hours at least. Dinner was sauteed tilapia with cold broccoli slaw, cherry tomatoes and a roasted acorn squash. We needed something light and red meat free.

Tuesday, no more complaining that I can't undo my bra because my arms and shoulders are too friggen sore or that I feel fat and tired. I forced myself to get dressed and get out in the garage. Normally I wouldn't have to force myself but squat clean thrusters and burpee box jumps were on the menu for me. It took a little more convincing than normal. I actually got all 4 rounds unbroken. Yes, I scaled the thrusters back, but still. Once that torture was over I finished my morning off with a bottle of Kombucha and a hot cup of bone broth. I was feeling much better, mentally and physically. Not sure which one did the trick but either way, something made me feel better.

Today was back squats, double unders and power snatch. They all felt good and I even got a string of 40 double unders. I probably could have gotten more but I simply ran out of gas. Love my new rope!

Oh and we made more bone broth. 2 batches again. This time we used regular bones with no meat. It's all the butcher had unless I wanted to wait a while for him to cut some more up. And actually, I think this batch came out just as well, if not better than the first. MDA says you can use either, bones with fat and meat or plain bones. Both have been great so far. Another staple to add to my shopping list every week. Now if I can just bring myself to buy chicken livers... or any liver. I want to try it. It's supposed to be great for you but that little voice in my head keeps screaming EWWW GROSS. Yes, in all caps too.

Time to make the most of my child free day. Target, here I come.