Sorry I haven’t posted for a few days. I’ve been a little busy, trying to help with the move to our new gym space, which is amazing by the way. I can definitely say I’m over painting for awhile…but man is that place looking sweet! I will post pics soon…
So today was a big day. Today I started OUTLAW! (if you don’t have nay idea what I’m talking about…you are lame….just kidding! It’s a crossfit thing) The link to the site is HERE. Pretty much it’s a strength program that ties in with crossfit to help you work more on your olympic lifts, gymnastics skills and conditioning. It’s something many of the peeps who have made it to the GAMES use. Since that’s my ultimate goal, I decided to get on board!
Obviously I can’t say much since it was my first day, but what I can say is the first day was tough, but I’m loving it already! I really enjoy the extra time I am spending working on my lifting techniques and think this will also help me become a better coach! One downside to it, which a lot of people have noted already, is that it is pretty time consuming. I probably spent at least an hour plus on just this stuff today, and that’s aside from my normal WOD. Sometimes I’ve seen it take people 2 hours…so if you don’t have a lot of time, this isn’t the program for you!
But man am I sore already, and I like being sore…yeah I’m one of THOSE people…I’m also feeling more hungry…even more than normal.(Note this is in the one day i’ve done this, so it could be in my head HAHA However, the smart exercise scientist in me knows if I am increasing my work load, I’m going to need more fuel-healthy choices of course!)
So that brings me to tonight’s dinner. It’s a crockpot meal, which I love because hello, convenient! But, I was a bit lazy today and decided to use a recipe from my girl JB over at PaleOMG because I love her and she totally rocks. Plus I’ve had a lot of luck with her recipes in the past. So I decided to make her stuffed peppers with spanish sticky rice. They sounded fabulous, but in execution they came out a bit dry and lacking of flavor 😦 This could have been my fault, but either way they were just OKAY. I did modify her recipe a bit, because I can’t help but throw in some extra spices here and there. I also ended up making some homemade enchilada sauce to pour over them and BOOM, party in my mouth!! Also, I didn’t love the spanish sticky rice, I actually prefer the cuban rice I made with my ropa vieja recipe. Anyway, you should still make these because they are a nice convenient paleo friendly meal and if you make the sauce they will make you happy. And if that’s not a good enough reason then just make them because I said so.
Crockpot Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients (For the peppers)
-2 lb beef of choice(I did 1lb ground beef and 1lb ground turkey)
-4 Bell Peppers
-1/3 head cauliflower
-1/2 yellow onion
-1 jalapeño
-2 garlic cloves
-1/2 cup beef broth
– 1 6 oz can tomato paste
-2 tablespoons garlic powder
-2 tablespoons onion powder
-3 teaspoons cumin
-1 teaspoon chili powder
-1/2 tsp cayenne
-1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce + extra sauce
Instructions:
- Pull out your handy dandy crockpot (lifesaver!) and your food processor (If you don’t have one of these yet, you should really get one. It has saved my life!!)
- Roughly chop your cauliflower, jalepeno, onion and garlic and throw into the food processor
- Pulse the food processor until everything is chopped to small pieces
- Next, add your cauliflower mixture to your meat and use your hands to blend it all together
- Add your tomato paste and spices and mix well
- Chop the tops off of your peppers and set aside. Clean out the inside of your pepper and set in your crockpot
- Stuff your peppers with your meat mixture, be generous!
- If there’s extra meat, stuff it in the crevices around the peppers
- Place the tops back on the peppers and pour your beef broth around the peppers.
- Set the crockpot on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours ( I did mine on low for 7 hours and then high for the last hour and they turned out great. The peppers were nice and soft and easy to cut!)
- Serve with cuban cauliflower rice and enchilada sauce!
Enchilada Sauce (Add this to your cooked peppers for a bit more flavor!)
Ingredients:
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 1-2 tbsp chipotle chilis in adobo sauce
- 1-1/2 cups tomato sauce
- 1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 3/4 cup fat free chicken broth
- kosher salt and fresh pepper to taste
Directions:
- Heat a skillet to medium and add 2 tbsp coconut oil
- Add in your garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute
- Add in all your other ingredients and bring to a boil
- Reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently
- Pour over cooked peppers!!