WHYNBTYW

Welcome to hump day!  It’s so good to be back at the gym and feel 100% again.  My motivation this morning was literally “I don’t feel like going but when I couldn’t go all I wanted to do was go so I’ll enjoy that I can go now”.

Since it’s officially Wednesday it’s also whynbtyw!!  My recommendation for today is to go out and buy some mason jars…. Preferably the quart size.  These mothers are the absolute perfect size for a lunch salad!  A simple search on Google or Pinterest yields a plethora of recipes for jar salads.  So far I have tried a taco salad (delicious but cold ground beef is sketchy to me… I would use chicken next time) and a strawberry spinach salad.  The mason jars are great storage for the salad and you put the dressing in the bottom so the rest of the salad doesn’t get soggy.

So, highly recommend seeking out some mason jars. If the salad thing doesn’t work out, a second google search for mason jar crafts should give you some other creative outlets.

Enjoy!

Meal Prep Sunday

Plan the Work, Work the Plan.

So, after 4 weeks of no CrossFit and generally feeling lousy (thanks, bronchitis); I decided last week it was time to get back into meal planning and preparation.  Though I didn’t fall completely off the Macro Train, I certainly wasn’t putting the time and effort into planning what I was eating….which wasn’t as big of a deal as it normally is when I’m working out consistently.

I thought today (and maybe next Sunday), I’ll just share my plan to the week and how I’m prepping.  Maybe I’ll even keep myself a bit accountable by doing a review for the week (at the end of the week, of course).  Overall, my first week last week went well until Friday night which is generally what happens anyway but…no excuses!  This Friday will be better 🙂

Where to start?  After working with a dietitian last spring, I determined that my daily calorie goal is 1400 calories (I’m working towards losing a bit of weight, so this is deficit for me).  My daily macro goals are: Carbs 157, Protein 88, Fat 47.

My new job as an interesting quirk that I am on the road during lunch time.  This means unlikely access to a microwave.  Thus, I started planning with my lunches this week because of all the meals, the options will be most limited.  After lunch, I moved onto dinner and made sure to include my Plated meals on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Breakfasts were last.  So here’s what I came up with (macro totals provided by My Fitness Pal app or myfitnesspal.com).

Monday, Wednesday, Friday:

Breakfast: Peanut Butter Chocolate Overnight Oats – C46, P15, F5. (http://www.itscheatdayeveryday.com/pb-chocolate-chip-overnight-oats/) and a clementine orange – C13, P1, F0

Lunch: Cold Sesame Soba Noodles and Broccolini and Mushrooms – C55, P72, F15 (http://fitmencook.com/5-easy-cold-lunch-meals/).  That includes 6oz of chicken, not sure if I’ll really eat that much…seems like a lot.

Dinner: Slow Cooker Honey Lime Ginger Pork – 21, P30, F7 (http://therecipecritic.com/2016/02/slow-cooker-honey-lime-ginger-pork/), Brussels Sprouts – C5, P4, F0, and Applesauce – C12, P0, F0.

Daily Total: C154g, P123g, F28g = 1369 calories.

If I do CrossFit tomorrow, I may add in a small snack somewhere in the day.  Probably a Nature Valley Protein Granola Bar or 2 (190 cals for 2).

Tuesday, Thursday

Breakfast: Protein Shake (1c almond milk, 1c frozen mixed berries, 1 scoop protein powder, 1/4c oats) – C28 P22 F4.5

Lunch: Mason Jar Taco Salad (2oz ground beef, 1c lettuce, 0.25c corn, 0.5c black beans, 0.5c quinoa, 0.25c cherry tomatoes, greek yogurt dressing) – C55, P29, F23

Dinner: Plated – Pine Nut Crusted Salmon – C44, P44, F-52 <– I will be using less oil than the recipe calls for, so this will be lower.

So, that’s my plan for the week.  Hope you enjoyed!  I’ve never tried any of these recipes before so hopefully they turn out well!

 

Shrimp Sheet Bake

I found this recipe on Pinterest and altered it to make it our own. The recipe comes from Damn Delicious, which is a site I LOVE for finding healthy, easy to make and yummy recipes.

The original recipe calls for corn, which, while I don’t mind it, adds another carb, so we subbed in yellow summer squash for something the same color. And since there is a general paucity of veggies in a lot of recipes, we added cauliflower, which, in my humble opinion is one of the best veggies on the planet and very versatile.

I did manage to find the andouille sausage and that does add bit of a bite to it. You could sub any type of summer sausage if you wanted.

So here is the recipe as altered by us:

1 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined, thawed

1 package andouille sausage (our store had 12.8oz packages)

1 pound baby Dutch yellow potatoes (we ended up cutting many of them in half)

1 yellow summer squash, chunked

1 head cauliflower, chopped into small pieces

4-6 cloves garlic, minced (we prefer 6 – we are garlic nuts)

1 lemon, wedged (for flavoring)

2 TBSP fresh parsley chopped

1/4 c unsalted butter

1 TBSP Old Bay Seasoning

 

Preheat oven to 400

Parboil potatoes (in their skin) for  10-13 minutes in boiling water to soften

In a large bowl, combine butter, garlic and Old Bay Seasoning. Toss in sausage, shrimp, squash, potatoes, and cauliflower and toss to coat

Place in single layer on a baking sheet, and bake for 12-15 minutes or until shrimp are opaque.

Squeeze lemon juice over and garnish with parsley

Makes 6 servings.

Macro breakdown: 333 calories per serving, 9g carbs, 22g fat (you could cut this back by using cooking oil and turkey sausage if you want) and 19g protein.

This is great for a higher fat day, or a lower carb day if you are cycling. It’s tastes like a cheat meal!!

 

 

Not Paleo (but no added gluten)

I want to share my favorite cookie recipe with the world.  Basically because they are delicious and they also make the perfect amount – 5 cookies.  Recipe courtesy of Plated.

No Added Gluten Peanut Butter Cookies

1/4c peanut butter (I use natural jif)

1/4c granulated sugar (once I tried stevia, it was a disaster, do not recommend)

1/4tsp baking soda

2tbsp chocolate chips

1/2 beaten egg (yeah, sorry about that but if you want to use the whole egg… Double everything else and you’ve got 10 cookies!)

Mix all ingredients.  Roll out 5 cookies on a nonstick pan (or use butter to to grease).  Bake 10-12 minutes at 350.

Enjoy!

Paleo Chili

Anyone who crossfits for more than a day comes across the Paleo Diet. Lots of protein, carbs from veggies and complex carbs, nuts and seeds and some fruit. There is a fantastic TED Talk about how this way of eating is in reality no where close to what prehistoric folks ate, but I understand the general concept is to get folks eating more real food, less processed food and more veggies so I am down with that in general.

My blogging partner and I generally claim we are paleo-ish because we haven’t eliminated all the grains and dairy (greatly reduced? yes, eliminated? no freaking way…). But I do love many of the paleo recipes and if there is one thing I love love love, it’s chili!  My work colleague and friend is very dedicated to her Paleo lifestyle and she found this recipe, so I can’t even claim its discovery. BUT, I’m going to claim getting it out there to you guys, because it’s far better than our turkey chili and we LOVE our turkey chili. I admit that adding cocoa powder was a bit of a mystery to me when I was reading the recipe, but it works, it really does. This has quickly become our ‘go-to’ chili recipe.

I will say, the recipe says to use 1/2 pound of ground sausage, but we never know what to do with the other 1/2 pound, so we just put the entire pound in the pot. We also just get the biggest peppers we can find and chop them up, not really worrying about if it’s a cup or not; the same goes for the onion.

I know some folks who aren’t big on peppers (my son for example). And you can either chop up the peppers into tiny bits that won’t really be noticed, or you could probably sub some other veggie that you prefer, but I’m not good enough in the kitchen to know what that would be!

You could also put sour cream and cheese on yours and use a few saltine crackers for scooping if you wanted to (I won’t tell). But it’s pretty darn tasty without them. The chipotle pepper lends a bit of heat and it’s tempered by the cocoa powder. You could add more peppers if you wanted; the recipe calls for one, we usually do 2-3. We also add more garlic to it, simply because we are garlic freaks and it’s almost impossible to have too much.

The recipe also claims 4 servings, we usually get five to six because we add more sausage and the biggest veggies we can find.

All Recipes has the recipe. HERE is your link. ENJOY!!

Mu Shu Pork Pancakes

One of the most delicious, protein rich meals around. If you need more carbs, wrap the entire thing in a tortilla! You can sub almond milk if desired! There are two challenging parts to this: 1. getting the thickness on the egg ‘pancake’ and 2. rolling the egg ‘pancake’ around all the stuff!

I generally just cut mine all apart and chow down.

32g of Protein, 13g carbs and 8g fat

1 pound boneless pork chops

1 c egg whites (egg substitute)

¼ cup milk

¼ tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

3 C broccoli slaw

¼ C plum sauce

2 tsp bragg aminos

 

Trim fat from pork and cut into ¼” strips. Mix egg whites, milk, salt and pepper.

Spray skillet with non-stick spray; heat over medium heat. For each pancake, pour 2-3 Tbsp egg mixture into skillet and quickly rotate to cover bottom to form a thin layer. Cook about 2 minutes until pancake is light golden brown around edge and center is almost set. Run wide spatula around edge to loosen, turn and cook on other side until center is set. Repeat until egg mixture is done (should make 4 pancakes). Stack between layers of wax paper to prevent sticking; keep warm.

Spray 12” skillet with non-stick spray; heat over medium-high heat. Cook port in skillet 2-4 minutes, stirring occasionally until no longer pink in center. Stir in remaining ingredients and cook 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally until slaw is tender. Spoon ¼ of pork mixture down center of pancake and roll up.