New England Chuck Roast

So I guess I kinda owe a few post since I really haven't done any new cooking lately. So taday I pulled out the crockpot and made New England Chuck Roast with Broccoli Ala Madrid. I'm really new to the whole roast thing, so the meat that I bought was not really that great, resulting in a not so tender chuck roast. It still tasted great, but I'll definitely buy a better roast next time I try this. Also I think I'll use vegetable broth instead of water since the vegetables in the dish became very bland. So this was definitely a do over. Here is a picture non the less. Today I also made my own meal plan (See under meal plans) with all the recipes I have been wanting to try, so hopefully there will be a few more posts this week than I managed last week. I still love paleoplan, but a lot of the recipes shows up rather often so I really wanted to try some of my own stuff.

Went for another great run in the snow today (still counts even though the roads are pretty much clear now) and topped it off by making a snow angel on my way back, sometimes it is just great to act like your 5, good for the spirit...

Pumpkin season

So now pumpkin is finally in season, and I absolutely love oven baked pumpkin. I know it's a very starchy vegetable, but hey as long as I am not eating grains and other stuff that is bad for my, I am going to eat my pumpkin while I can. Also it is really great post workout food and since I just got home from a great CrossFit workout it might actually make recovery a little easier.

I could easily just inhale an entire pumpkin (mind you they are not that big) and call it dinner, but I figured it would be a good idea to balance it out with some protein and other vegetables. So I made some sloppy joes to go along with it. I pretty much followed the recipe but since I had no tomato sauce I used a can of salsa and a can of tomatoes, which resulted in some rather spicy but great sloppy joes. The sloppy joes that I remember was served inside a bun, so I just baked some portobello mushrooms and used them instead of the bread. The hokkaido pumpkin was just cut into small pieces without the shell and then baked at 200C until they started to get dark edges.

Todays CrossFit workout was 3 rounds of:
800m run
20 clean squats (15kg)
20 burpees (hate hate hate those)

We had 26 minutes and I didn't make the last 3 burpees in that time frame, so plenty of reason to keep at it.

Taco Salad

So tonight I once again went to a intro crossfit lesson, and once again it was really great. I think I'll go to the normal one Thursday to see how it really is. We did a lot of introduction to new exercises and the 2 small circuit consisting of 4 rounds of:

10 Air squats
5 overhead pushes
5 box jumps
3 pull ups
10 sit ups

Afterwards we did 2 rounds of 8*8 of different bar lifts.

I'm pretty sure I'll be able to feel my upper body tomorrow, but the leg part of it was pretty easy today so that should be okay.

When I god home it was great to have pretty much all I needed to make a quick taco salad, which is just a green salad topped with taco seasoned meat, guacamole and salsa. Very easy, simple and delicious. I ate it cold, but it is just as good when the meat is still hot.

At the moment they are fixing the the toilets and the water in my building which means I have no running water. This is both good and bad. The bad thing is that I have to buy water for the cooking/drinking the next few days, which I of course forgot, and also I can't just go for a run since there is no shower. The good thing is that it forces me to go to the gym and it gives me an opportunity to stay a few days at my parents.

I'll be going home on Thursday and working from there until sometime next week. It is always great to go home but I really have to be on my toes with the food choices I make since my parents have a kitchen full of all kinds of things that I really should not eat if I wanna keep feeling good.

Primal Blueprint 30day challenge

So it's been a while since my last post but life just seem to get in the way. As I mentioned last week I am doing the primal blueprint 30 day challenge which started Monday. I actually meant to start a week early and that also went pretty well until I got hit by a car biking home from the movies Saturday (probably not a primal kinda guy ;-)) So even though nothing happened Saturday and Sunday was spend feeling like I had been hit by a mammoth and feeling pretty sorry for my self.

So after a weekend of not so clean eating I got back on track Monday ready to do the challenge. So far it is going pretty well, the eating part is so easy as long as you plan ahead and do the shopping to last a few nights. Due to soreness and stiffness I haven't done any exercise, but today I feel so much better so I'm looking forward to a nice and easy run this evening.

Yesterday I did IMF and then I had Pepper steak with salsa salad . The combination of the warm meat and bell pepper combined with the cold shredded carrots was very interesting and surprisingly good, and any salsa kind of salad is so mych better than just a green side salad. Lunch today will be the left overs from yesterday, nice and easy.

I am definitely very psyched to continue this challenge and apologise to all the friends that I'm driving crazy talking about this.

Gingery Broccoli & Beef

So back from vacational eating which definitely did not go as planned. All the bad food just kinda threw itself at my every time I entered my parents kitchen making it very very difficult to escape. But whats done is done so yesterday I got back on track by pretty much never entering the evil kitchen between breakfast and dinner. My parents actually make it really easy to eat primal since they always make some great meat, lots of vegetables, a salad and then potatoes or bread on the side, so the bad eating is all on me. Today I went home to my own apartment and the first thing I did was to go grocery shopping to fill up the fridge with vegetables, fruit and meat. Now I'm seriously armed to do this whole primal challenge thing. Speaking off apparently Marks Daily Apple is having a challenge starting September 7th (I thought it was august) so even though I have made a head start, I might actually sign up on the site, just to be a bit more accountable...

Today has been okay as far as the eating thing goes, I have been doing okay, though probably a bit too heavy on the fruit and almonds. I'll definitely try to limit that in the next few days. For dinner today I made Gingery Broccoli & Beef. It is funny how a vegetable that I never really cared for can become a favorite just because you start preparing it differently.

I had prepared to go for a short sprint workout this evening, to get more primal stuff into my workout schedule but I didn't feel to great this evening so just stayed inside relaxing. I'll try to get the run done in the morning before work to get a great start to the day.

Good things comes to those who wait

So yesterday after my evening run I had planned to make paleo beef stew. But since I really didn't feel like eating at all, which is rather common after a run I decided not to force it and just eat something light later if I felt like it. But since the meat was already thawed and ready to use I kinda had to make the dish anyhow since I absolutely hate throwing away food.

So I prepped all the ingredients, threw them into the pot and let it simmer for a few hours until I had to go to bed. So when I warmed it up again this evening and served it with paleo rice (cauliflower) it was absolutely delicious. The meat was so tender that it almost fell apart and the wine/tomato flawor was just delish. As I have mentioned before I'm a rather impatient cook, but I'm definitely learning a thing or two about giving the food the time it needs. Since I'm not really a wine drinker (give me a mojito anytime) i froze the leftover wine into ice cubes to be used in dishes in the future. That way the fishes won't get drunk on my behalf. I made enough stew to last me through dinner tonight as well as lunch and dinner tomorrow.

For desert I had some unsweetened applesauce with coconut flour on top, very simple and very fresh tasting. Another great dessert that I also got from paleoplan.com is frozen blueberries with almond butter. The recipe actually calls for normal blueberries, but since it is summer the frozen version makes it an almost ice cream like treat. Unfortunately the berries I bought wasn't that sweet, but I fixed this by adding a few drops of sweatener (even though that probably isn't allowed).

Today's exercise was a 30min strength training routine carried out in the safety of mu own home. This way the only one looking was my cat and she doesn't make fun of me - that I know about anyway.

Intermittend Fasting day

So after some great days with friends from back home (and their small bundle of joy) not really thinking to much of food and exercise it is time to get back to reality. This has been hindered a little by the fact that I ended their visit by getting a tattoo on the hip, making the whole running thing a bit difficult until I can wear running tights again :-). But hey I needed my friend to hold my hand.

So yesterday I went for a long walk which definitely doesn't suit my temper, but I guess it was better than nothing. Should have been out walking today as well, but it has been pouring down all day, so just stayed inside relaxing on the couch underneath a warm blanket - life is good.

So since I new I couldn't run today I figured it was a good day to practice intermittent fasting. I have done this before and really like how it makes me feel, so as long as my training schedule doesn't interfere with this I am going incorporate this into my week.

I stopped eating yesterday at 6pm and then went 24 hours without eating until today at 6pm. I really haven't been hungry today, I guess the whole "doing nothing all day" might influence that. At 6pm I had Paleo meat loaf with roasted green beans.

In Denmark we normally make a variant of this dish by using ground pork and then wrapping it in bacon instead of topping it with barbecue sauce. Definitely two very different dishes, but both tastes really great. In the meal loaf I used coconot milk insted of almond milk since the latter is rather difficult to find in the danish stores.

So apparently stretching isn't for wimps...

So last week I got some rather crappy news. I went to my physiotherapist because my bag was making a fuss again, and apparently I should have been listening to the yelling a lot sooner. So the muscles in my bag are getting even more cramped up and I can't even go 40km on the bike without it hurting. So the triathlon is on hold for now, and so is the long bike rides until I get this sorted out. At least I can still run and swim, so it's not all rainy clouds. Speaking of I went for a 10km run this morning in pouring rain - which was great (yes I'm weird like that).

I'm still trying to eat paleo which will hopefully get a lot easier now when my training amount decreases. I havn't uploaded anything new the last few days but that because I have been eating a lot of the same things as I have already shown, and also just easy food that doesn't require much preparation.

But yesterday I had Zucchini and Beef-Mince which doesn't look like much but tasted great and was really easy and fast to make. Next time I make it I would probably add some more vegetables to spice it up a little.

Today I had Curry chicken for dinner which took a bit of preparation since you pretty much make the rice yourself, but it was totally worth it. I think it is so great that you can find substitutes for pasta, rice and potatoes - and by doing, at the same time you get a lot of vegetables. For those who are wondering by making the rice yourself I just meand chop up the cauliflower in the food processor and the frying it in a pan. I fried the "rice" in curry to spice the dish up even more, and next time I'll probably add an apple to the mix since curry and apple go great together.

So next week I'll have yet another visit from some great friends (hey they might be reading this) so the whole paleo will be depending on the food available where we go to eat and what they are up for. So I probably wont post again for a few days...

Being followed by rain clouds...

So today was a very long day, another twice a day of workout fun. Got up at 5am to bike 30km to the pool. Got a bit lost on the way - should definitely not be allowed to leave the house without satellite surveillance - so was a bit late and only had time for a 2km swim. After the swim I had a 10km ride to work, and the I had a 30km ride home at the end of the work day. Pretty much had blue skies to the left, right and behind me, while the ones above me weren't that nice. So had some very fun 20 km in pouring rain.

I didn't eat until I got to work, which was no problem at all since my body was pretty much still asleep and not really going into morning mode. At work I had a omelet muffin and two bananas for breakfast. Then 2 pieces of fruit before lunch where I had the leftovers from yesterday. After lunch I had some trail mix and that kept me going until I got home. My pre workout meal was one more omelet and a banana. For dinner today the plan said chili and roasted beans, which was pretty fantastic considering how cold I was after the bike ride. I normally don't have the patience to let my chili cook for very long, but since the recipe called for an hour of simmering I figured I should actually try following it. Great choise, this is definitely the best chili I have ever made, even though that might not really say much. The roasted beans are the same as I made a few days ago, but they are so good and so easy to make that they will definitely show up as a side very often.

Once again I have made enough to have for lunch and dinner tomorrow, making the day a bit easier.

A small taste of whats in store

So as promised in the post before I'll try to post what I eat without being completely meticulous. Since I have already done two days of eating like this by following a meal plan from www.paleoplan.com. I'm trying out their sample week to see how easy it is to incorporate when using the metric system, and since the sample week is made for February the dishes might be a bit wintry. I will just show you a few dishes.

At breakfast one day I had a shrimp omelet with avocado/tomato salsa and asparagus.

For dinner I had a steak with pineapple salsa and leftover salsa from breakfast.

Well just some inspiration for you guys out there!