Catching up 12/2010 to present!

Blessed Solstice! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Oh....wait a minute... Did I miss all of that? Yup. Sorry about that.
I guess I got so caught up in he season I just never had time to post here.

Where to begin? It's taken about a month to recover from the Thanksgiving gluten exposure. I'm just now starting to feel better. That Thanksgiving debacle really made the Big Guy and I much more conscious of our food choices over the rest of the holidays, so we had no more bad episodes. Even The Aunt-in law was supportive and cooked up a gluten free feast that rocked. In fact, she went gluten free for the month of January, just to try it out and see if it helps her out. Huzzah!

Our usual junk food infested New Year's Eve was replaced with all home cooked, paleo treats: beef meat balls with fresh basil, garlic and home made sauce; skinless gyoza (pork dumplings) a la Mark's Daily Apple (there's a video of the recipe on youtube, just seach for 'skinless gyoza') and bacon wrapped chicken thigh pieces with honey mustard dipping sauce. Some hard cider for me to wash it all down. The Big Guy had 1 can of Coca Cola. He gave that up entirely this past year, so that was a huge treat for him.

We both felt great the next day, instead of bloated, gassy, tired and achy. So we hit they gym together and had a fantastic training session.

Also, I reached my goal for the 2010. I had decided at the beginning of the year that I'd shoot for a 1,000 lb leg press. I did a 1,038 lb press on December 19th! Whoot! Actually, I did a set of 10 presses. So happy! Then the Big Guy decide he should do a set also, and he did! Amazing!

Coconut Pumpkin Soup

Here's one of my favorite soups. It's got sort of a Thai feeling to it. It's warming from the spices and if you make up a good sized batch, you can have a few meals out of it. Varying the add-ins will keep it interesting and keep food boredom at bay. Start with the basic ingredients (coconut milk, canned pumpkin, chicken stock) and add your own favorites as you see fit. I'm not one of those people who ever makes the same thing the same way twice. But that's what keeps life interesting, isn't it?

Start with:
1 can coconut milk (the real, full fat kind)
1 can pumpkin puree (do I need to say get the kind that it JUST pumpkin, not sweetened?)
2 to 4 cups of chicken stock, depending on how thick you like your soup. (Home made is best. Just save all your chicken bones in a bag in the freezer and make a batch of stock once a month. Your stomach and taste buds will thank you.)

Bring all that to a simmer and add some or all of the following:
Fish sauce, to taste
Diced red pepper

Fresh Ginger, diced finely
Tamarind Paste (unsweetened, adds a nice tart flavour. Optional, you can use lime juice instead. Or use them both.)
Lime Juice
Curry Leaves (if you can get these, they are divine! Located in the produce section of any good Indian grocer.)
Turmeric (adds an amazing yellow colour to the soup and is an anti-inflammatory in conjunction with the ginger!)

Simmer a bit longer. Adjust seasonings. Take off of the heat and add in some:
Scallions/green onions
Cilantro

If I'm making a big batch to eat later, I like to leave out the cilantro, scallions and lime. After I reheat whatever portion I am eating, I'll add those in to the individual serving. This keeps the soup from tasting flat and boring. Nothing like the pop from some freshly chopped herbs to make a meal sing!

You can add some shredded, cooked chicken or other meats to make a nice quick, vegetable filled meal. Makes a great breakfast on a chilly morning. Enjoy!

Ohhhhh! Grand Opening!

Well, this weekend was the grand opening of a gym in the old space that I used to train in. It used to be a NYSC, and considering how the different locations could vary so much, this one was a pretty hardcore gym. Much to my dismay, it closed about 2 years ago - leaving us with the option of switching to a different location (which had virtually no free weights!!!!) or changing to a different gym entirely. We ended up opting for Retro Fitness. Now, we've both been pretty happy there. The closest one to our house is REALLY small. But we work around that by going to another location on Saturdays and it all works out really well. (I actually use yet another location during the week since it's close to my job)
So, back to the grand opening of Club Metro USA. Weeks ago, we were promised 2 things by the sales staff. Bumper plates and lifting platforms. Really? When we heard that we were so happy. Bumper plates seem to be a mythical beast in the gyms around here. When we went to check out the brandy new gym did we get any of those things? Nope.
They did have a leg press machine that barely holds enough plates for me AND has the added benefit of having a start point that is too long for my legs AND is not adjustable. Nice, huh?
They're also missing a large number of plate loaded machines that we use at Retro Fitness. Large portions of my workouts would be missing. Could I work around it? Yes. If I came across this gym while on vacation or traveling, I'd be pretty happy, I guess. But for everyday? Nope. Not a good fit at all. I don't need a giant smoothie bar that takes up valuable space for equipment, I don't need a giant boxing ring (nice but not necessary.) I DEFINITELY don't need an "in the dark movie theater" cardio studio. (I friggin' hate those things. Waste of space)
Tomorrow, I will go to my local Retro Fitness, I will train my legs on machines that fit my average length body and I will not whine about the small size of the gym space because at least the have the equipment that I need/want/love.

858!!!

Whoot! smashed a 858 lb leg press today, 1 set of 20 reps. So Happy! The whole training session was really intense.
Sunday is usually a massive "cooking for the week" day to get all my meals in order, but i did so much cooking last week and packaged all the meals like a good thrifty gal should so i am covered for this upcoming week. In the bag for next week is: butternut squash with apples, roasted chicken, roasted pork shoulder, sweet potatoes, cauliflower curry with coconut milk. i'll mix that up those meal potentials with a ton of fresh greens, and the only thing i'll be cooking today is a pot of vegetable soup made with a fantastic home made stock.
The big guy, who is not paleo/primal, yet - will be cooking up a pot of brown rice for his lunches at work, a london broil (also for lunch) and a pile of chicken breast tenderloins for his mid-afternoon meals.
Off to eat my steak and sweet potato post training meal and then head off to my studio to get so Art made today.

Fun and FREE!

I ordered this logo on a shirt from Vista Prints today. I had a coupon code for a free shirt, and for postage I used money I got from doing s few online surveys, so net cost to me really was free! I like freebies.