Wall Balls and Braised Beef
Today was our first day back at CrossFit in 2 weeks. 2 WEEKS!! I can’t believe we took that much time off, but sometimes life and crappy head colds just get in the way. It was nice having a break to relax, but I felt bloated, frumpy, and weak the entire time. It’s amazing to me how much CrossFit improves my overall mood and energy levels, it’s like a slimming shot of coffee – if that existed, ha! I was pretty nervous that I might die my first class back would be super rough, but it ended up being kind of awesome. I couldn’t believe how good I felt during our warm-up and workout, I was sure two weeks off would be long enough to knock me down. The workout was definitely a tough one, but I ended up using a heavier wall ball than normal and adding a few inches to my box jumps. Crazy right – 2 weeks people!! Check it out:
During the box jumps on my third round, I did feel a bit queasy, which is never a great feeling. Luckily for everyone, that went away pretty quickly once I started on my last set of wall balls. I finished in 17:48 – woot!
Besides CrossFit, life has been pretty mundane. I’m definitely not complaining though, mundane means easy breezy and that’s the way I like it. I do have to rave about one of the new recipes we’ve tried this week thus far, the Oven Braised Mexican Beef from Nom Nom Paleo was amazing! I really had no idea just how much better food tasted slowly braised in the oven versus the slow cooker. If you aren’t planning to already, then you need to try this recipe ASAP. It. was. delicious.
Mexican Braised Beef with Guacamole and Zucchini Fritters
Last night’s dinner wasn’t too shabby either. The chicken was a bit plain, but other than that, a win.
Marinated Grilled Chicken with Roasted Parsnips and Cole Slaw
Alright, time to relax on the couch and not think about anything. I hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday!
Birthday Weekend
My 26th birthday is this Tuesday so Michael and I did some celebrating this weekend, and it was AwEsOmE!
WARNING: Mushy cheesiness ahead….Proceed with Caution
I’m seriously one lucky girl to have such a loving guy in my life. He made sure that Saturday was all about shopping, eating, and Halloween, 3 of my favorite things. We woke up, had some delicious pancakes, and headed to downtown SF for some bumming around at the mall. When we got there, Michael steered us toward Tiffany & Co. where he then told me to pick any necklace I wanted, talk about a mega girly dream coming true! HA! LOVE IT!
After Tiffany’s we did some shoe shopping, and had lunch at the Burger Bar inside Macy’s. I’m seriously loving all the gourmet burger joints popping up recently. You can’t get much more Paleo than a slab of ground beef and sweet potato fries. Our outing ended with a quick pit stop at the Godiva chocolate shop for a birthday treat. Who needs cake when there’s an option for salted caramel chocolate truffles?!
Our night ended with some ghost hunting and a haunted corn maze at the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. We got to walk through the house with flashlights and just explore, which was mega creepy. Of course, it didn’t help that they had zombie guys hiding in the corners of certain rooms. You’d just be shining your flashlight around and all of sudden come across a zombie face peaking around the corner. I may have cussed one dude out…. Sorry zombie actor man! All in all the experience was a lot of fun and I’d love to go back during the day to do an actual guided tour. Very cool!
This is the only picture I have of the experience. It was way too dark out to get a good picture with just an iPhone.
Moving on to the menu for the week. Meal planning every weekend usually comes pretty easily to us, but this week was really hard. I couldn’t think of anything exciting to make so I left it up to the pros with recipes from Nom Nom Paleo, PaleOmg, and Health-Bent.
Sunday
B: Coconut Flour Pancakes with Bacon
L: Leftovers / Wing it
D: Easiest Roast Chicken Ever with Sautéed Greens
Monday
L: Leftover Chicken
D: Pork and Plantain Hash with Roasted Broccoli
Tuesday
L: Leftover Hash / Coconut Wraps
D: Baked Eggs with Meat and Sautéed Broccoli Slaw
Wednesday
L: Leftovers / Coconut Wraps
D: Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Avocado
Thursday
L: Leftover Lettuce Wraps
D: Butternut Squash, Sausage, and Spinach Hash
Friday
L: Leftovers / Wing it
D: Coconut Almond Crusted Mahi-Mahi with Curried Cauliflower
Saturday
B: Egg Scramble
L: Leftovers / Wing it
D: Steaks with Sweet Potato Fries and Green Beans
Happy Monday Eve All!!
October!
I have two things on my mind this morning. One, I can’t believe it’s October already, and two, holy cow I start my new job tomorrow. I absolutely love the month of October not only because it’s my birthday month, but also because it’s just plain awesome. Halloween, pumpkins, apple cider, and candy are just a few reasons why I love it so much. We have yet to make our Halloween plans or come up with any costume ideas. We’re really bad at thinking of good couple costumes so we always end up being something unexciting. Do you guys have any good suggestions? No cave men please…. 
Here’s some snaps of our costumes from years past…
Left: Halloween 2010. We were a business man and his secretary.
Right: Halloween 2011. We were a bunny and a cowboy, super lame!
Tomorrow is the first day of my new job in the city and I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited to go to work. Doing something that sounds like fun will be a nice change of pace for me when it comes to my career. Michael and I had an amazing celebratory dinner last night at Marlowe, I mean seriously fantastic.
Michael and I on the Caltrain heading to Marlowe.
Left: Toasted Pistachios with bourbon, maple, and smoked salt. These were good but really rich.
Right: Crispy Brussels Sprout Chips with lemon and sea salt. These were delicious! I’m totally going to try and re-create these at home, just awesome!
Anson Mills Polenta with wild mushrooms, parmesan and poached farm egg.
A while ago I wrote about my Paleo Kryptonite, aka marshmallow fluff mixed with cream cheese. Well… I’m changing my mind, and am now sure that polenta has a stronger kryptonic effect (food w/no brakes!). Anytime I see polenta on a menu, I have to order it. Love that stuff!
Left: Smokey Baked Cauliflower with aged provolone & smoked cheddar. Yum!
Right: Certified Angus New York Steak Frites with red wine – porcini jus. The steak was a little over done, but still good.
As you can see, we really enjoyed our night out. If you live in the Bay area I highly recommend checking out Marlowe. Moving onto our food for the week ahead, not as fancy as above, but still delicious…
Sunday
B: Pancakes and Bacon
L: Leftovers / Wing it
D: Sauteed White Fish with Roasted Broccoli and Butternut Squash Latkes
Monday
L: Out
D: Kalua Pig with Side Salads and Pureed Cauliflower
Tuesday
L: Leftover Kalua Pig
D: BLATT Salads (A = Avocado)
Wednesday
L: Leftover BLATT Salad
D: Beef w/Broccoli and Cauliflower Fried Rice
Thursday
L: Leftover Beef w/Broccoli
D: Fried Pork Chops with Roasted Green Beans and Side Salads
Friday
L: Leftovers / Wing it
D: Coconut Lime Shrimp with Sautéed Broccoli Slaw
Saturday
B: Pumpkin Pancakes with Sausage
L: Leftovers / Wing it
D: Out – Date Night!
Fully Legal
Today Michael and I went to the DMV to register our car and get new driver’s licenses. I’ve heard that the CA DMV can take a while, but I wasn’t quite ready for what we encountered. Luckily we made an appointment, otherwise our 2.5 hours spent may have stretched into an entire day! I’m just glad it’s over. Taking written exams in a crowded loud environment about obscure traffic laws was not my idea of fun. Thank goodness I PASSED and can now say I’m a fully legal California resident! Yay!
Back to Basics: Day 9 Input
Breakfast this morning was Oatmeal Minus the Oats made with baked sweet potato instead of bananas. I couldn’t actually taste much of a difference sub-ing the banana and it was still a super awesome breakfast. We also had some small breakfast sausage patties.
Lunch today was leftover hotdogs and cucumber salad. I was so hungry coming back from the DMV that I almost forgot to snap a picture.
For dinner tonight we grilled some grass-fed flank steaks with yellow squash and baked some regular potatoes. I feel I need to clarify that I did NOT eat everything pictured, that was a butt load of food. For dessert I’m going to have a glass of wine while relaxing in the hot tub. Sometimes life can be so rough… 
Brussels Sprout Scramble
Last week Michael and I finally ordered some meat from U.S. Wellness Meats, and I’m so glad we did! My freezer is stocked full of a variety of grass-fed goodies. Right now I can smell 5lbs of short ribs braising in our slow cooker and I can’t wait to try them. We also ordered some grass-fed beef franks which were perfect for this brussel sprout scramble.
Brussels Sprout Scramble
1 package no nitrate beef franks or other type of sausage, cut into bite sized pieces
1 lb brussels sprouts
1 diced onion
2 tbsp. grass-fed butter
1 tsp. ground red pepper
3 cloves of garlic
Salt & Pepper to taste
Steam the brussels sprouts till slightly tender, then cut in half. Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the garlic and sprouts, cook until you see a bit of color on the sprouts. Add the onion and sausage, cook until the desired tenderness is reached.
