I've said it before

and I'll say it again. I dislike the snatch. OK, the hang snatch isn't that terrible and that's what I did today so I'll stop complaining. I was able to get 3 sets of 5@60# with no pause in the crease so I am slowly making progress. My grip and forearms didn't like it much but it was only 5 at a time. I think my next investment equipment wise will be a good 'women's grip' oly bar. The times that I have used one, it makes a huge difference for me. My hands are dainty delicate flowers. I think I need a smaller bar. Time to check out Get Rx'd.... Or I could just shut up and get over it.

Speaking of getting over it. I told myself today that from now on I will put on my big girl pants and stop using the band for pull ups. Time to cut the cord, even if it doubles my times. I was able to do 30 today, 15 at a time so I can do it. I'm not making any promises that I won't break when I have to do a workout that includes 25-50 reps, but I'll try.

My helper and I made some stuffed pork tenderloin last night. I adjusted the recipe a tad to include what I had on hand. Instead of olives I used capers, I used roasted red peppers and I did not add the pine nuts. It was still very tasty if you like the briny and bitter of the caper and spinach. There are so many ways to stuff a tenderloin. I'll have to experiment next time.

Now that my daughter has been trying new foods she is becoming more interested in actually cooking. I suppose she's always had an interest but I think now she gets it. She is seeing what is going into the dinners I make and understanding that she actually does like most of the foods already. Bud on the other hand, well, he's making an effort and that is all I can hope for at this point. He did eat pork and mashed squash last night, eventually after a lot of convincing. He thought the squash was sweet potato (which he will eat) and I didn't correct him. Now if I can only get him to eat something, ANYTHING green, my job as a parent will be complete. I mean really, what else does he need to know? Eat good food, get some exercise, put the toilet seat down and be nice to people. I guess the fourth can be optional depending on the people.

Burpees are my friend

for the most part. It's pretty rare for me to say hey, I'de rather do burpees than anything else today because really, who says that? No one. No one says that, ever. But, 7 minutes of burpees was on the menu for me today and you know what? After the past few wods of double unders and ohs and power cleans and kettlebell swings, 7 mindless minutes of burpees sounded awe...err, OK today. I ended up with 65. Last year I think I got around 69 or so. This time I think my sore squat legs may have slowed me down. Guess that will happen when you do 30 back squats over bodyweight. Not that I'm bragging.

Wow. Even spell check doesn't like the word burpee. My post is riddled with red squiggly underlines right now.

I posted another recipe last night for the lamb burgers we made on Friday. They came out really well if I do say so myself. Actually Bob cooked them, but hey, I put all the stuff together. Team effort. I was too busy drinking tequila and singing Rock Band. Don't ask. OK, Sister Christian. There.

I'm fasting today but I'll post a picture of my awesome eggs with grated sweet potato and leftover shredded beef I made the other day. Yes, it was as good as it looks.

Grating a sweet potato and mixing it in with eggs is my new favorite thing right now. We eat a ton of them and sometimes you have to change it up.

So I created a facebook page for my site. Iheartbaconandcrossfit. Go figure. I'm actually surprised it wasn't taken. And jesus christ, I forgot how annoying and time consuming it is to set up. Anyway I was thinking I may start focusing more on creating and posting my own recipes when I have time. Not that I don't do that already, I just don't always remember to write down or even measure amounts of ingredients I use since I usually fly by the seat of my pants when I'm cooking. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. I've always loved to cook so it's more of a matter of recording what I do.

Wish me luck.

Recipe: Lamburgers with tomato cucumber relish

Friday night dinner. If you do dairy, the tztaki is a recommended splurge.

And yes, that is Spiderman in the back.

Lamburgers with tztaki and tomato cucumber relish served over arugula
Tztaki:
1 cucumber, peeled and shredded
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup full fat greek yogurt
2-3 tbsp chopped mint
2-3 tbsp crumbled feta cheese
kosher salt and pepper to taste

Peel the cucumber and grate either with the food processor attachment or on a handheld grater. The handheld is easier. Place the shredded cucumber in a strainer over a bowl to drain. Add some kosher salt and let it sit while you prepare the burgers and relish.

Tomato cucumber relish:
1 1/2 cups diced grape or cherry tomatoes
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
half small red onion, diced
2-3 glugs of EVOO
2-3 glugs of red wine vinegar
kosher salt & pepper to taste

Mix all together and stick it in the fridge.

Burgers:
1-1 1/2 lbs ground lamb
small/medium shallot, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp oregano
2-3 tbsp fresh mint, minced
kosher salt and pepper to taste
1 egg
2 tsp almond flour

Mix all ingredients together, form patties (I did slider size but it really doesn't matter). At this point you can cook your burgers any way you like. I did mine in the cast iron, med high heat, approx 4-5 minutes per side in some coconut oil.

Squeeze/press out remaining water from cucs and mix together with the yogurt, mint, feta and garlic. TASTE it first since you salted the cuc already it may be fine without any more, if not add s&p.

Plate your greens. Add some relish to the center, place a burger or mini burgers on top and top with tztaki. Delish.

Recipe: Tilapia orange avocado salad

Dinner last night. Quick and tasty if you're looking for something light.... which we were craving.

*Recipe
Cook and season your fish how you like it and let it cool to room temp. Prepare your orange and avocado into segments or chunks and toss in a bowl with the greens, a little EVOO, salt and pepper and whatever acid you like. I used balsamic but you could use just about anything. Orange, lemon, red wine, apple cider or champagne vinegar. Doesn't really matter. Mix lightly so you don't mush up the avocado. Plate greens, place the fish on top and sprinkle a touch more vinegar on the fish. Done.

Recovery day for me today. I put in my 3 days. A pretty challenging past 3 days actually. Lots of double unders and arm work but I feel really good. Decided to just go for a walk/light jog but once I got about 3/4 mile in I realized damn, I'm not warming up like I usually do by now. It's effin cold out here! Gah. Took the shortest route home after that. Oh well. At least I got my body moving and the blood pumping this morning.

Got a ton of stuff to get to. Have a good one.

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.