Cody’s Spicy Shrimp-n-Bacon Wraps

Ingredients:

Fresh jalapenos
Shrimp
bacon

Just cut the jalapeno in half lengthwise, scrape out the seeds and whatnot, throw a shrimp into each half, and then wrap em in bacon.
Then put those guys in the oven on a broiler pan or cookie sheet.(your oven should be on broil) turn them every couple of minutes until the meat is cooked, usually 10-15 minutes.
Then eat them.

Bison Chili by Chazzy D

I’ve combined two recipes to get this one.  Its a great meal to make on a Sunday and eat throughout the week.  I added more vegetables than what the original recipes called for because it makes it heartier, in my opinion.  Feel free to add or subtract vegetables and just a heads up: its VERY filling.

Ingredients:

*optional* 4-5 strips of bacon chopped
(if not using bacon) 1 Tablespoon coconut oil
2 pounds ground bison
1/2 onion chopped
1 bag of organic celery (usually a celery plant)
4 cloves garlic minced
4-5 carrots skinned and roughly chopped
1 1/2 cup beef broth or water
28oz can organic diced tomatoes
1.5 Tablespoons Chili powder
2 teaspoons thyme leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
1.  Cook bacon medium high in a large stock/crock pot or, if you’re not using bacon, heat the coconut oil on medium high heat
2.  Saute the garlic, onions, and celery for about 7 minutes
3.  Add bison, chili powder, and thyme and cook until all the meat is browned, stirring frequently
4.  Add tomatoes, and chicken broth.  Let simmer for 20 minutes
5.  Add carrots, stir, and let simmer for about 90 minutes
6.  Salt and pepper to taste

Makes: 5-6 Chaz servings, around 8 for everyone else

Tristy’s Sweet Potato Chips

Preheat your oven to 450
Peel your sweet potatoes and slice into thin slices
Put your potato slices in a large freezer back and pour in real olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh garlic (I usually mix this up really well in the bag and let it sit for about an hour, but you don’t have to let it sit)
Spread your chips out onto a cookie sheet (they can be overlapping)
Bake at 450 for 20 min or until brown and crispy (be sure to take the cookie sheet out of the oven every 5 min and stir/flip the chips)

Tristy’s Fried Paleo Chicken

(you can also use this recipe for fish or pork chops)

***I am not good at giving exact measurements, so my recipes are a little more obscure
Beat one egg in a bowl
In a separate bowl, mix Golden Ground Flaxseed/Flaxmeal and Tony’s Creole seasoning
Pour a good amount of real Olive Oil into a pan and put it on med to med/high heat and get it nice and hot
Roll your meat around in the egg, then roll it in the flax meal until it is fully covered and toss it into your frying pan of olive oil.  Flip after about 5-7 min and cook until it is golden brown on both sides (I don’t know the exact timing to cook this, but I usually just eyeball it.  I think 15-20 min should be enough)

Paleo Granola

  • 5 cups nuts and seeds (I used slivered almonds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, pecans, and sunflower seeds; you can use whatever you want, but make sure you use at least 2 – 3 cups slivered almonds, as these take the place of what is normally oats)
  • 1/3 cup honey (or maple syrup or any other Paleo-approved sweetener)
  • 1/3 cup Paleo-friendly oil (I used coconut and highly recommend it)
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

Mix honey, oil, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small saucepan and bring to a boil on the stove. Let it cool. Spread the nuts and seeds out on a greased baking sheet and pour the cooled honey mixture over the top. Mix it around to get everything covered, and bake for 30 minutes at 300 degrees. Allow the pan to cool slightly and then put the mixture into a bowl. Mix in raisins and coconut, and enjoy!

Your biggest key to success with this (and really any) recipe is to go a little crazy. Add your own twist to it or branch off in another crazy direction. The granola you see in the picture, for example, was mixed with almond butter, pressed into a brownie pan, and is now chilling in the freezer to make granola bars.

Egg Cupcakes Togo

(they are easy to make at the beginning of the week and pop in the microwave in the mornings-if time is an issue, this is a good solution!) (feel free to substitute veggies you prefer)

  • 10-12 eggs
  • 6-8 slices of cooked bacon, crumbled
  • 2 zucchinni/squash, grated
  • 1 red onion, grated
  • 1/4 cup sun dried tomato, diced
  • Salt and pepper, garlic salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease your muffin cups (the silicone type works best for me).  Using a box grater, grate the zuchinni and red onion (both of which came out of my CSA box this week!).  Whisk your eggs till blended and then add the grated veggies, bacon, and sun dried tomato. Season to your liking.  Using a measuring cup, scoop about 1/4 cup of the egg mixture into each prepared muffin cup.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until egg is set in middle. This batch made 18 Egg Cupcakes.  You can vary the ingredients to match what you have on hand…diced ham, ground beef, chicken sausage.

What’s with all the Rx talk?

by Boone Putney

First let me say that I have a couple main goals when it comes to training you:  To make you a stronger, faster, healthier person… and, more importantly, to keep you safe.

Rx is a term from the medical world that stands for “Prescription” we use it in the CrossFit world to mean that you did a workout “as prescribed.”  So, the infamous Fran workout is 21-15-9 of 95lb Thrusters and Pull-ups.  Any scaling from there would mean the workout was not done Rx.

What must be realized is that the workout “as prescribed” is designed for top-level athletes, and will not and should not be the proper level for most of the people in the gym.

“My goal is to wear the same shoes as Shaquille O’Neal.”

What’s wrong with that statement?  Well… forget about Shaq’s horrible taste in footwear, with the noted exception of the neon-blue CO2 auto-pumps of ’94.  The shoes are designed to fit his specific feet, U.S. shoe size 23 (You know what that means… he has a REALLY big  …bill from the custom shoe store), and even though you can probably get your feet in them and hobble up and down the court, it won’t be pretty and you won’t get much out of it.

First the easy Topic: Safety

We can all understand that in any given movement, there will be a line where a movement becomes unsafe:  too much weight, too fast, for too long, etc.  Even though you MAY be able to pull a 500lb deadlift doing your constipated dog impression, it probably isn’t the best idea.

How’s my form?

If you really want to sit on the couch for the rest of your life, there are better ways to go about it than attempting to shoot your vertebrae out your ass.  If you guys don’t understand this, just ring your call button, and Tommy will come back there and hit you on the head with a tack hammer.

…and now Performance

a.k.a. Results a.k.a Why you guys are in here busting your asses

Wanting to do workouts Rx’d is the same as the Shaq situation.  Although our strength and conditioning programming may look more or less Random, there are set stimuli and responses that we’re trying to achieve through thorough and methodical planning.  These WODs (and strength sessions, skill sessions, movement preparation, and mobility work) are designed to maximize effective time in the gym, and more importantly… drive results (or as Kelly Starrett would say: “dirty sexy nasty performance increases”).

BEWARE: Science & Graphs follow…

There are three metabolic pathways that provide the energy for our movements. These “metabolic engines” are known as the phosphagen pathway, the glycolytic pathway, and the oxidative pathway. The energy production and time domains are displayed above.  The phosphagen pathway dominates intense movements that last less than about ten seconds. The glycolytic pathway, dominates moderate-powered activities that last up to several minutes. The oxidative pathway, dominates low-powered activities, those that last longer than several minutes.  Hint:  You’re probably in the oxidative pathway right now, unless you’re sitting at your preacher curl station reppin’ out sets of 10 while reading this (in which case you’re probably still in your oxidative pathway).  Each one of these metabolic engines will tax different systems and elicit a certain response.  We program for these specific responses.

So, if someone does Fran in 4 minutes, they will achieve the desired stimulus and the designed results.  If someone is stumbling through Fran for 15 minutes, do you see how they might not be getting the same stimulus?  While you will probably still get something out of lifting 95lbs overhead 45 times, if you scale to 65lb thrusters and band pull-ups, to a level where you can get the desired stimulus, you’ll see much better gains in the short and long term.

At the same time, maybe someday we will ask you to do Fran with 95lbs, even though it won’t be easy, and it may take you a little longer, because we’re trying to build your strength and mental capacity that day.  We do these things for a reason, not because we love torturing you, or making you look bad on the world wide internet by displaying your time with some scaling next to your name.  Chances are good that your grandma, or that cheerleader you dated in middle school, or your dog Duke won’t ever even read the results… but come pool-time, everyone will notice.

…So if someday you want to get to the place where you’re one of those top-level athletes who steals Mikko Salo’s milk-money on his way home from the gym… THAT’S AN AWESOME GOAL.  It’s our goal to get you there, but if we want you to do 75lb thrusters so you can stay in the desired metabolic pathways, and generate gains, realize it’s with good reason.  Take your 75lbs and run with it.  Bust out Fran in 2 minutes with perfect form.  Show us you deserve more weight, and keep grinding away.  You’ll get there!  Just understand if it’s not today.