January 7, Day 4

Post by Ashley

Ok, so you can make me an amazing dinner.  An amazing dinner that is also full of fat, empty calories, preservatives, gluten, etc.  Big deal. 

Anyone can make an amazing tasting meal.  Stoffers macaroni and cheese is a glorious example of the freezer section deliciousness many of us are familiar with.  I used to count down the days until Christmas dinner at Grandma’s house when I’d get to have my two heaping spoonfuls…yum.  If I looked at the nutrition label now, I’d probably never crave it again.  Well, maybe not as much.

If you love food as much as I do then you’ll be happy to know that it’s pretty simple to tweak some of your favorite recipes to fit your new way of eating. 

A little over a year ago, when I first decided to give up grains, I used to make spaghetti with whole-wheat pasta, with whole grain garlic bread once a week.  But when I changed my eating habits obviously these items were scratched from my dinner menu, right?  Not so much.  Well, the garlic bread was but that’s not my point. 

One of my favorite paleo adapted meals is spaghetti, only I use spaghetti squash instead of noodles, make my own sauce, and it’s awesome.  I don’t miss real spaghetti at all.  So here’s what you do.

Grocery List:

1 medium sized spaghetti squash

1 large can whole tomatoes

Dried basil, parsley, oregano, garlic powder, salt, pepper, red chili flakes* (*= optional)

1 smallish onion

½ pound ground turkey

Then…

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

With a large kitchen knife (you’ll have to use some muscle) cut the squash in half lengthwise and use a large spoon to scrape out the seeds

Place squash cut side down on a cookie sheet and bake for approximately 45 minutes at 350 degrees (you can test for doneness by pressing the skin with the back of a spoon.  If it gives then it’s done)

Let cool for a while; at least half an hour so that you can handle it without burning yourself. 

Use a fork to scrape across the inside of the squash.  Squash should come away from skin in strings (noodles)  Do this until all squash is removed from skin.

To make sauce:

Finely chop onion and sauté in frying pan with a little olive oil, coconut oil or butter until soft then add the ground turkey (seasoned however you want)

Use spatula to chop up the ground turkey and combine it with the onions.  This will take from 6 to 8 minutes to cook.  Remove from heat.

In your blender combine tomatoes (drained of as much liquid as possible), 1 tsp of basil, oregano, and parsley, 1 tbsp garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste, and as many chili flakes as you want (I use about a tbsp)  Then pulse until all the large chunks of tomato are gone.

Transfer mixture to a soup pot over low-medium heat and add turkey and onions.

Let simmer, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes

Serve over as much of the spaghetti squash as you like.  It’s really yummy, I promise.

Gerard asked me yesterday, “What’s going to happen when you start classes again on Monday?”  This came in reference to the culinary maniac I’ve been this week.  I thought this would be a great opportunity to reiterate that this lifestyle can absolutely be maintained on a busy schedule.  It might take some extra planning but being busy is no excuse to let your health suffer.  Writing down everything we eat has actually given me a much better idea of how much food I’ll need to buy and prepare each week.  I think my strategy will be to buy some more Tupperware and cook like a crazy person on Sunday so the fridge is stocked and we won’t have to think about it until the weekend.  Let’s also not forget about the crock pot (love that thing).

    

Meal Description	Ashley	Gerard
Breakfast/morning snack	-          2 eggs, 2 egg whites -          2 cups coffee -          1 apple	-          6 eggs scrambled -          1.5 oz almonds -          2 cups coffee
Lunch	-          1 cup curry spiced veggies -          1 cup hot and sour soup -          Green tea (it’s so stinking cold…)	-          1 ¾ baked chicken breast -          3 oz spaghetti meat sauce (made with can of tomatoes, spices, onion, ground turkey and turkey sausage) -          1 cup spaghetti squash (baked)
Snack	-          1 apple -          1.5 oz almonds -          7 cherries	-          6 oz baked chicken -          1.5 oz almonds
Dinner	-          Chicken fajitas/tacos on 4 romaine lettuce leaves -          Guacamole -          Sautéed onions and red, yellow and green peppers ·         Probably the equivalent of 1 1/3 chicken breast, 1 cup peppers and onions, ½ avocado, 2 tbsp salsa	-          Chicken fajitas/tacos on 4 romaine lettuce leaves -          Guacamole -          Sautéed onions and red, yellow and green peppers ·         Probably the equivalent of 1 ½ chicken breast, 1 ½ cup peppers and onions, ½ avocado, 2 tbsp salsa
Late night snack	-          ½ cucumber -          2 tbsp eggplant dip	-          4 pieces turkey bacon -          1 ½ cups cherries

Exercise

Ashley

Gerard

Warm up: Dynamic Stretching Stretched quads and calves more 10 walking lunges 10 pushups 10 burpees 10 air squats 60 second handstand hold 10 GHD situps 10 GHRs Workout from Crossfit Santa Clara – Thurs Jan 6 Worked up to 1 rep max dead lift @ 175# (new PR) -my weak little hamstrings are getting stronger :) WOD (modified – Gerard broke the pull up bar with his awesomeness and I was too pressed for time to fix it) 15-10-5 Handstand  pushups – limited range of motion (I suck at these) Power snatches #45 bar (I also suck at these) Box Jumps Time-6:20 Also, mopped the dust of the ceiling in the kitchen. (we're getting ready to paint today) It took me an hour, and was a hell of an upper body workout!

Rest Day Ran a few miles with the dog

Sleep from Thursday night: 10:40 pm - 6:30am

Sleep: 12:30am - 9:00am  (it's the weekend...love it) 

I’m feeling much better today.  I had to be somewhere at 11:00 this morning and forced myself to get my workout in before I left the house and honestly, I was feeling kind of blah until I got my blood pumping.  I’ve felt awesome ever since.  I think that was my problem yesterday, I should have done something active instead of shivering on the couch.

Also think I injured my wrist yesterday doing burpees.  This just rienforces the fact that warming up EVERY part of your body (even the ones you don't think about) is very important before working out.