Turkey

TGIF: Thank Celestial Cycles Its AutumnTurkey is cheap, super cheap right now. If you have a Paleo Pantry/Freezer you have room to spare. This bird was $0.33/p. Or $5 total. I have two more in my freezer.

Take less than a 15p turkey, rub/ flavor up with fresh thyme, crushed red pepper, salt, pepper, and cram half of a huge onion inside. Binde tight, or cut off wings and legs, then roastisserrie for 12 min/p. Endulge.

Roastisserrie Chicken V1.0

When I was buying the rotisserie, the woman at the check out called it a roastisserrie. I wanted to talk to her manager...

This recipe was inspired from the lining notes of the roastisserrie package itself.

Lemon Herb Chicken
Peel rind off of lemon, mince finely. In a mortar and pestle, combine lemon rind, 1t dried thyme, 1/2t of ground sage, and dried rosemary. Add 1t crushed red pepper. For the chickens, cut off visible excess fat, and, this is a new technique thingy, pull skin up off breasts while remaining in tact; with a paring knife, cut all the stringy/ membrane things in-between the skin and carcase. Work your hands all the way into the chicken to loosen skin all through out the bird. Kinda graffic, right?

Take your rub, and work it all over the outside of the bird, and then rub in-between the skin and the flesh. Rub in the interior of the bird too. Season with salt and pepper, inside and out. Take remnants of lemon, cut in half, squeeze over birds, and place one half inside of each bird. Roastisserize for about 10-12 minutes per pound.

That lemon rind really makes this a stand out above and beyond typical lemon pepper seasoning (even without MSG).

Salmon Pancetta Soup

Ahh, seafood. This is super simple, fringe paleo (because of the canned products, not the ingredients), delicious start to any amazing seafood soup. I took the flavors from Aldo's on State in Santa Barbara, where they use swordfish and potatoes in their version. There was a time when this was the best soup I had ever had, so I figured out what to do to make it (and now over again to make it Paleo). This is faster to prepare than most dishes I post, and I made it when I thought I was fighting off a cold (one of my co-workers was sick, it was nothing; I must be a hypochondriac) two days ago.

Salmon Pancetta Soup

In a generous portion of olive oil, saute 7 minced garlic cloves. Add 1/4-1/3p of diced pancetta (in America we call this unsmoked, plain old bacon), and a finely diced small onion. Cook until pancetta is done, but not yet crispy. Add three whole, dried, red chilies. Add 1T dried basil. Add 1/2T dried thyme. Season to taste. Add to this a can of salmon, oil and all. Add 15oz cans of petite diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Add 3 cups of "Paleo Broth" (3c water, 3 bay leaves, 1t celery salt). Simmer until bubbling then serve hot.

Variations: The single biggest variation would be to swap out a cup of broth for white wine. Also, this is good with any white fish (talapia, cod, etc.), halibut, swordfish, and more pungant fish like salmon and cat fish. This takes well to shell fish too, so dont shy away from mussles, shrimp, crab, etc. Vegetables that can be added are potatoes, carrots, celery, larger pieces of onion, zucchini, summer squash, and on and on. This is just about the most basic seafood soup base with unlimited varieties that can be made, so use this as your launching point and be creative. Also, a more traditional approach to this dish does not use pancetta, but rather butter, FYI.

4 x 800m Repeats

4x 800m Sprints
Rest twice as long as your first effort between rounds. Try to hold your pace.

2.35(PR) (5.10m rest), 2.44, 2.45, 2.50

These were hard, but not bad efforts in my estimation. Makes me want to do a mile TT again soon.

Back Squat PR!

Back Squat
3-3-3

205-225-245(PR)

245 is also my ORM. I'm fairly geeked up about this. My form kinda broke down on the last rep, but I felt like it was worth pushing through. It was super tough.

Sit ups and Burpees

5RFT

25 Sit ups
25 Burpees to 1' over max reach
Rest Three Minutes

24.50 (Rx'd)

I dont want to say to much about this one: it sucked, but I really did poorly for my level of fitness on this one. I'll play my 'not enough pre-WOD fuel' card.

Pumpkin Basil Ham Curry Soup

This is not one for the faint of heart, or the person who has just simply stumbled upon this Paleo blog. This is extremely unique, delicious, and complicated.

You have to already have some Pineapple Clove Ham or equivalent on hand.
You have to already know how to make my Paleo Broth.
You should have an idea of what is going on with curries.
You need a very well stocked Paleo pantry.

Lets start! You have to get two things going simultenaeously: first, begin the Sweet Paleo Braised Pumpkin recipe I just posted. When you start braising the pumpkin, add a large, coarsely cut onion. Second, get a 5qt pan going with:

• 2T Canola oil
• 1t Ginger powder
• 2 Cloves of finely minced garlic
• 1/2t ground Lemongrass
• 1 small very finely minced onion

Saute until the minced onion is translucent, but not carmelized. Add 1/2-1T ground paprika. Saute until a small portion of the onion carmelizes. Add 6 whole, dried red Thai chilies. Add about 1.2 pounds of diced ham: use about half from the skin portion with as much fat removed as possible, and the other half from the leaner leg section. Saute until most of the remaining fat is off of the meat. Add 3/4-1p of diced brown mushrooms. Saute on low until pumpkin in other pan is semi-firm.

Combine two pans into the 5qt pot (do not drain) remove bay leaf and stir. Add 3T of fish sauce. Add 1 can of coconut milk (13-14oz). Stir until combined. Add 2T almond flour and stir till desolved. Add 3-4 cups Paleo Broth. Bring to a boil, then simmer. Simmer till done, up to an hour.

Prior to serving, add bunch of sliced basil leaves to soup, and stir. Season to taste.

I must have eaten 5 bowls of this in a row. This dish has a lot going on in it, very complex flavors. I was super stoked at the "pumpkin" orange color it ended up being too!

Sweet Braised Paleo Pumpkin

I made this to be used straight away in the next post, but this is, in fact its own recipe and can be used as a side dish.

Sweet Braised Paleo Pumpkin

Take a pie pumpkin (a small pumpkin that you would never use for carving, it is what you are supposed to use for pies), remove stem and cut in half. Using your hands, pull out all seeds and retain in a colander to dry over night (I'll show you guys how to use these to make pumpkin seeds soon too). Then, with the two halves, take a spoon and scrape out all of the stringy things. Slice the halves into cresent shapes pieces. Then, cut those into little spoon sized pieces.

Meanwhile, in a shallow pan, bring a stick of cinnamon, 4T of unsweetened apple sauce, 1c of water, a bay leaf, some cracked black pepper, and 1/2t of celery salt to a simmer. Add pumpkin and simmer until soft (this will be a matter of taste, and whether or not you cover the pumpkin. I recommend simmering until the skin is easy to chew through). Season to taste.

You can add onions, garlic, or virtually anything else you think will go with this dish while simmering. With out explicitly trying it, I bet if you added cranberries and some ground clove this would be an awsome Paloe stand alone for your upcoming Paleo Thanksgiving.

Mixed Green Salad w/ Ham and Avocado

This is a "Fun with What We Have Learned" meal. Look up these two recipes:

• Pineapple Clove Ham
• Sesame Dressing

Now, take a bag of mixed greens, a good portion of ham (include some of the semi fatty burnt edges but remove all cloves), add diced avocado, and toss with sesame dressing (I remade the dressing with garlic instead of shallots and it was a good call for this recipe).

I had to stop after every bite to exclaim, outloud (to myself, no one else was around) at how much I was enjoying this salad. It was super fun to have that experience with something so effing simple.

Sunday WODs are Tough

Strength
Push Press
3-3-3

135-145(2)-140

Metcon
AMRAP in 4 Minutes
Kettle Bell Swings

Rest 5 minutes

AMRAPS in 4 Minutes
Knees to Elbows

95+48

Total: 140+95+48 = 283

Thanks to Benny for cuing me up on my breathing, I wish he would have said something way earlier so I could have gone for much heavier attempts. All of my weaknesses are because Ben doesn't tell me the right things all the time; its all his fault.

CrossFit Goodland: Opening Day

In three person teams:

AMRAP in 15 minutes

While one person rows 500m, a second team mate will perform as many burpee sqaut clean thrusters (25# dumbells), while the final member counts reps and recovers. When the rower reaches 500m, stations rotate in row-burpee-rest order. Count burpee squat clean thursters.

Team Mates: Ryan and Jeff
Starting Position: BSCT

7 Rounds, 106 total reps (unofficially, since I know I added them wrong at the gym by a lot, 20 I think, and that is something I normally dont fuck up or forget, weird)

Pineapple Clove Ham

Ro is for Rotisserie. I got the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie and I am super geeked up. Its turkey season, hooray!

Pineapple Clove Ham
Take a 10 lb ham and cover with pineapple chunks attached by tooth picks. Plunge cloves into ham. Sprinkle with salt (not too much, these bad boys are already fairly salty), crushed red pepper and black pepper. Put on spit and let spin for two hours. The pineapple burns and falls off, but it give it the sweetness non-paleo eater enjoy from brown sugar.

The Old and The New

It took me less than 6 months to completely destroy my low-top Chuck Ts. They served me very well for doing CrossFit, so I figured, let's keep setting PRs with what worked so well before. The destruction, however, was profound and complete.

I ran these puppies into the ground and the only reason I have to hang them up is because when I lace them up tightly, they rip even more and feel unbalanced. They were excellent shoes to work out in, and in the spirit of mainstream fitness infidelity, I bought new ones to dominate future WODs.

Chuck Taylor's are great because they have virtually no heel, and no arch support so they force you to have strong feet, and run with decent Pose form. Also, they offer a stable (incompressible) base for lifting heavy (although the new high tops might reduce ankle mobility so they will need to be folded over, or not used for this purpose), they are light weight, and cheaper than most other shoes. And, you seem cooler being an infidel =P

Addendum: High top Chuck Ts suck for crossfit. FYI. I guess I can keep them for walking around in at least.

Row, Row, Row, Plus a Fourth Ro' TBA

3x 500m Row*

*Rest as needed, within reason, between efforts

1.32 (PR), 1.38.2(?), 1.43.X

[Previous best was 1.40, I can't believe I beat it twice]

I don't think I've felt such horrible pain during or after a 92 second effort, ever. Lets not also forget that the movements in a row are like combining a dead lift or squat with a pull up (i.e. why OPT's "the pull" was such a M Effer), exactly the two moves we did yesterday during Daniel.

For the PR effort, I just went balls out. Crashed into a heap on the floor because my butt was burnt out completely. Then I decided I would talk to KTB or Luke (I honestly cant remember what I was doing), so I got up and promptly collapsed because my hammies were shot too. Then, while writhing in pain on the ground my forearms and biceps started burning. I had no choice but to roll into the fetal position and stay there for much longer than I would have ever thought after only 92 effing seconds.

What is the fourth ro'? Guesses?

Farmer Fresh to You! 2009-11-11

Here is what was in this week's box:

• 5 triple kiwis (see supplemental picture, these are freakish kiwi)
• 2 baskets of strawberries (one pictured, one previously ate)
• Green beans
• Mushrooms
• 7 Tomatoes
• Bag of mixed greens
• Large spaghetti squash
• 3 sweet potatoes (yams)
• Onion
• Garlic
• Lemon
• Huge bunch of basil
• 6 cucumbers (given away, cukes are worthless in my opinion)

Check out these freak kiwis! Kiwi is a super food, get geeked up about freak fruit! <>!

There are super anti-inflammatory foods here too: sweet potatoes, green beans, garlic, kiwi, tomatoes... well virtually everything. Hooray!

Lisette and Carol
Farmer Fresh To You
805.469.7604
www.farmerfreshtoyou.net

The Highly Anti Inflamitory Meal Plan

Avid readers will know by reading today's multiple posts that my wrist is sprained, and that the crack-pot doctors I have seen seem incapable of understanding natural healing and nutritional benefits of natures bounty. I, fortunately, read and experiment a lot, and to treat my ailment have chosen natural methods of eating a highly anti inflammatory meal plan.

Breakfast

7 asparagus spears

2 cloves garlic

1/2 avocado

1t olive oil

1 large tomato

2 eggs

6 capsules of 684mg EPA+DHA n-3 fish oil

Snacks

5.2 cups of raw:

• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Orange bell peppers
• Green onions

2 clementines

Lunch

16 oz Paleo Beef Stew

1/2 avocado

20 minutes (in two sessions of ten minutes) of localized icing

Pre WOD Snack

Organic apple

2 clementines

Post WOD Nutrition

Most of a basket of locally grown organic Strawberries

12 minutes of localized icing

4 capsules 684mg EPA+DHA n-3 fish oil

Dinner

Paleo Garlic Mustard Chicken w and w/o coconut

Large sweet potato with:

• 3 cloves garlic
• 1t olive oil
• cinnamon
• paprika

7 capsules 684mg EPA+DHA n-3 fish oil
30 minutes of localized icing

What makes things anti-inflammatory? Double blind, controlled, clinical trials that show substantial reduction in inflammation. Barring that, I use this website: http://www.nutritiondata.com/

They generally have data that agrees with my experience and information that generally agrees with other experts that I trust. Fuck you NSNANSAIDS, I feel better already.

NSNANSAIDs

So, I sprained my wrist at work over a month ago, and I have kinda ignored it until recently when my fingers started twitching. The twitching has since stopped, but my crack-pot doctors want me to go on NS/NA/NSAIDs (Non-selective, Non-aspirin, Non-steroidal anti-inflamitory drugs). These drugs basically block the formation of Cox-1 and Cox-2, which are precursors to other chemical formations that tell your body that your shit is fucked up.

When you have something like a sprain, you have significant damage to some tendon/ ligament/ muscle/ etc. When that happens you get a sensation of pain that is sent to your brain. Your body then releases (in this case) enzymes that causes the localized area to release other acids/enzymes/etc. that reinforce the pain you feel when you recreate the motion that caused the trauma. This manefests itself as swelling, throbing pain, tenderness, etc. Basically, it is your evolutionary way of smacking yourself in the head and saying "stop doing that!" Your body does this so that you do not continue to inflame your irritated area and form scar tissue where you dont need it, and hence, you recover completely. Have you ever seen a dog walking on three legs when one leg is injured? That is nature taking its healing course.

The problem with taking NSNANSAIDs is that while they might reduce pain and therefore inflamation globally (and to a lesser extent locally) is that they are completely unnecessary and come repleate with side affects like gastric bleeding, kidney failure, and, in the cases of drugs like Vioxx, death.

If you eat well, you do not need non-selective anti-inflamitory meds, you need only selective meds. The big problem? There is no such thing as "wrist sprain specific anti-inflamitories" in pharmecuticals. The best localized anti-inflammitory is ice. It numbs your nerves, stops the signal of a problem and lets your body heal naturally where is needs to. The other best remody is to completely reduce the primary causes of inflammation: poor diet.

Paleo does this well, but we can find Paleo foods that are naturally super anti-inflammitory and consume those foods when we need to geek our healing up when we have things like sprains. And that is what I need to do, and I'll post on it shortly. Natural healing, who would have figured? Oh yeah, evolutionary biology would have.

Daniel: Veterans Day Special

For Time:

50 Pull ups
400m Run
21 Thrusters (35# Dumbells)
800m Run
21 Thrusters
400m Run
50 Pull ups

20.51

Holy shit this was tough; after that last 400m I did 5 pull ups and my abs cramped super hard, it was unbelievable, I wanted to puke and I ate nearly perfectly today. I wanted to do this Rx'd with a 95# barbell, but this damn sprained wrist was fucking with my flexibility in my right arm so I had to switch to the dumbells and those might have been even harder. I did the first 25 pull ups in the first round with that silly wrist brace on, until I realized I wasnt really gripping the bar with that hand! Rather, I was just using my right hand to keep me from falling off the bar, my left arm was doing all the work!

Daniel is a Hero WOD, programmed by WBHH today becuase it is Armistice Day globally, recognizing the peace treaty that ended WWI, and honoring veterans of every conflict, every where. Lets just say I'm glad that treaties aren't signed everyday: heros might not suck, but the WODs for the fallen ones do.

Mustard Garlic Chicken, w or w/o Coconut

This was a "Which way to go?" dish. I went both ways and I personally think the anti-coconut way was better. Maybe I'm biased from the month long Thai food kick I went on.

Take two chickens and dismember (1.17+1.20 PR for two chickens in one dismembering session, back to back, sub or at 1.20s is ridiculous especially when they were $0.59/lb from Ralphs). Season with salt and pepper. Coat in 3/2T curry powder + 2T dijion mustard. Rub with 17+ completely minced garlic cloves. Seperate chickens. Keep one chicken this way, sprinkle with crushed red pepper and bake.


Take other chickens and add two T coconut shavings (unsweetened). Bake along with other chicken for 40+ minutes at 400F.

For my $3.70, the one without coconut was much better. FYI.

Garlic Mincing 101

People love garlic. I don't know why this is such a huge flavor, becuase surely there are other flavors out there that are equal/ superior to this singled out go-to flavor. Regardless, here is how you mince your way to more effective garlic flavoring. I personally think that dried garlic, and things like garlic salt and dehydrated garlic have led to this revolution, but it is unncessecary. Here is how you make useful garlic from fresh garlic.

Take your garlic and smash, in skin, with large knife. Mince to the best of your ability, it should look like this:

Add about a T of super coarse sea salt to your garlic.

Smash that salt into your garlic. Take your knife and pound that into your garlic so that the granuals are intermingled into your garlic.

Mince again. This is where you see the garlic not stick to your knife. It is also when you see your previous 'mince' turn into 'chopped' becasue the fine cut is reduced substantially.
You can add oil, or salt, and refine, refine, refine. It just gets that much finer and more towards food proscessor level.

Get sick with it.

50+50+50+50, Filthy, but not The Filthy

4 RFT
20-15-10-5 reps of:
Kettle bell Swing (1.5p)
Push-ups

4.13 (first 4 rounds)

Rest exactly 3 minutes

4 RFT
20-15-10-5 reps of:
DB Push Press (35# dumb bells)
Box Jump (24")

14.28 (total with rest)

When I was warming up, I knew I didn't have my best in me and almost called off the dogs. But then I realized it was just 20 minutes of pain, so I figured WTF? Honestly though, I was gassed before this work out and whatever I have been doing to recover for two proper WODs (i.e. like in the affiliate gathering) in one day hasn't worked so I needed to tinker so I can push hard through two-a-days.

I'm shot though, rest tomorrow, back at it Wednesday. (Who knows, maybe the 1/2 marathon is still effing with me)

The San Francisco Crippler

For Time
30 Body Weight Back Squats
Run 1 mile

10.21 (Rx'd)

This was done at Globo and probably cost me 40+ seconds on the transition to treadmill/ treadmill coming up to speed. Maybe not the best idea after a 1/2 marathon.

Beef Stew

Beef stew is generally Paleo, but thickening the gravy normally takes wheat flour, here we sub almond flour. Enjoy.

Take 4.5p of lean beef roast. Trim of all visible fat and reserve. Cut beef into 1" cubes and season with salt and pepper. In a 5+q pan, brown beef cubes (if there are too many, which there will be if you have a pan like mine, do not overwhelm the pan, cook them in stages. It took me three stages). Add finely diced large onion and minced garlic clove. Saute until wilted. Add 3T (45g) almond flour to make roux. Simmer to thicken.

Meanwhile, take reserved beef fat and render in seperate 3q pan. Once completely rendered, remove excess beef/fat. Saute 2+p fingerling potatoes, 5 thickly sliced carrots, 3 sliced celery stocks, and another large onion, cut into large pieces. Cook low and slow for as long as needed.

To the beef concoction: add 1c of red wine, 1/2c of juice from 28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes. Take 1t of celery salt, 1/2t dried thyme, and grind smooth in a mortar and pestle. Add to beef mixture with 1q water with 2 bay leaves. Simmer for 3/2 hours. Add vegetables from other pan. Add drained whole stewed tomatoes. Remove bay leaves. Simmer for another 1/2 hour.

1/2 Marathon

Warm up
Some leg swings and squats and shit, not too much

WOD
For Time
Run 13.1 Miles (21.1k)

1.48.38 (official)

Cash Out
3 Rounds

10 GHDSUs
10 KBS (1.5p)
10 Push ups
10 Pull ups

Foam/ lacrose ball roll out

Not fun. I guess it was kinda fun for the first part, but then when my iPod shat all over me after 15 minutes, it just became a grind. I don't know if I'll ever do this retarded thing again, I bet this is horrible for GPP. What a stupid idea. I take that back, if I become more of an animal sometime in the future I might try this again.

Chocolate Chipotle Ribs

Think I like chipotle?

Chocolate Chipotle Ribs

Take two dried chipotle peppers, and a teaspoon of salt. Grind smooth in coffee grinder (I was using the M&P but the peppers aren't 100% dry, it would have taken me all night). Add back into mortar and pestle (M&P) and mix with ground black pepper, and crushed red pepper. Mix heaping T of cocoa powder. Rub liberally over 3 racks of Santa Barbara style ribs. Drizzle with chipotle oil, dust with cocoa powder. Roast at 300F for hours and hours.

I just threw this in post-nap, pre-sleep, so I am yet to give an appraisle. I ate all the beef ribs while napping (somehow), and we need cooked meat. ASAP. I have to have a stock of meat for breakfast tomorrow. This is it for me, I have to make them now. I woke up at 2:50am today, and I have to run the 1/2 marathon tomorrow morning. Ribs? Pre-WOD fat and protien filled nutrition (i.e 3+ hours prior). I bought a grip of clementines for real pre-WOD nutrition, and Craig hooked up the "Organic Gummy Bear Substitutes" for the race, its not a pizza or a double double, but chocolate ribs are funny enough, right?