Curry Ground Beef with Summer Squash

Yesterday was my first day of doing 2 crossfit workouts in a row. Not in a row, row...but I went on Monday and on Tuesday. My legs are sore, my arms are killing me, and I feel like I could sleep 10 more hours. Normal people would say that sounds awful and gyms are bad for you. I'm not a normal person..obvi by my posts.. and I don't think I'll stop crossfit for a very long time. Or until I run out of money...because that ish is EXPENSIVE. Especially when I already paid for a $600 gym membership somewhere else 8 months ago. Silly me...

So after workout last night I was so tired I kind of forgot what I put in my curry ground beef. Haha just kidding. I do remember. I really like curry and ground beef. There's something about ground beef that is such a comfort for me. Especially when I'm tired. I hate having to chew my meat for a long time. Ain't nobody got time for that! I usually call anything like ground beef, mashed sweet potato, butternut squash, soup...pre-chewed food. It sounds gross but I kinda like when my food looks like baby food...or throw up. Hopefully you won't think my picture looks like throw-up. It definitely doesn't taste like throw-up.  I'll stop saying throw up now.

As for my tiredness, I plan on taking the rest of the week off from crossfit. I have a half marathon on Saturday. Say what?!? I know..me too. Especially since I haven't ran more than 3 miles in like...6 months. So this is going to be more of a walk/run with drinks and snacks along the way. Except none of those drinks or snacks are very paleo. Gu packets will feel like cocaine. I've never done cocaine but I imagine it will be like cocaine. So I may avoid those at mile 7 or 8 when they pass them out. It's so tempting to take one because they are FREE! You know my love of free stuff. Maybe I'll take one and save it for later. #hoarder

Main Ingredients
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 onion
6 cloves minced garlic
3 medium summer squash
1/3 cup chicken broth
1 pound ground beef

Spice Mix
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garam masala

Steps
1. Sauté onion in coconut oil until translucent (on medium heat)
2. Add summer squash, garlic, chicken broth, and half of the dish of spices.
3. Cook for a couple of minutes covered.
4. Add ground beef and rest of the spices
5. Stir everything together uncovered until the meat has browned
6. Dish out and serve with a side salad or veggie of your choice

Strawberry Bacon Spinach Salad

So it's strawberry season in sunny Florida. This is the time when Publix has cartons of strawberries for cheap, like 2 for $4 or something like that. I love strawberries because I feel like I'm eating a dessert. For those on the sugar detox I'm not sure if you're able to eat strawberries. Sorry, I think you guys can only have like an apple a week or some crazyness like that. For us paleo folk they say moderate your fruit intake if you're trying to lean out. Which I am, so I only eat like half a carton of strawberries instead of a whole one. I'll talk to you later about why I want to lean out (Shhpiels).

Ugh you know what also may be good on this salad? Walnuts and hard boiled eggs! Dang, dang I should have done that...next time salad.

Anyways I was a huge fan of this salad. I say salad a lot. I've also said strawberries a lot. I'm not apologizing.

I've never been a huge fan of fruit in my salad but recently I've gotten into the sweet and savory combos. Like honey mustard, I used to hate that. I thought it tasted like sweet mayonnaise. Nasty. There's no honey mustard in this salad so no need to second guess the dressing. You know, is this paleo? Omg should I eat this? What about my blood sugar?! All the usual crazy paleo questions that come up when you're trying to eat. I used balsamic vinegar instead of an oil based dressing because I'm lean and mean like that. Most of the time I don't even notice the oil in the dressing so why add it, ya know? Instead I added bacon. Who am I kidding? I would have added bacon to it no matter what. Bacon is awesome that's why. This bacon was already cooked when I decided to make the salad. And NO I did not buy the pre-cooked junk bacon. Maybe it's not junk, but I'm calling that crap bacon junk. This bacon was cooked by me, in the oven, over the weekend. I have a super awesome way of cooking bacon that even I don't mind doing. I'll tell you my bacon secrets later. #teaser

So try out this salad, it's amazing and makes me smile.

Main Ingredients
8 strawberries cut into bite size pieces
1 handful grape tomatoes (cherry if you like em big)
4 deliciously crispy pre-cooked bacon strips
3 handfuls of raw spinach leaves
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Steps
1. Grab a big salad bowl and put your spinach in it
2. On top of the spinach add your cut strawberries and grape tomatoes
3. Crumble the crispy bacon by hand or cut up w/ a knife
4. Sprinkle bacon over the salad
4. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar over everything
5. Toss and enjoy (the good stuff likes to sink to the bottom so mix well)

Mustard Baked Chicken Thighs

Ok so these chicken thighs can pretty much be slathered and baked on top of anything and everything. That's what I like about chicken, you put stuff on it and throw it into the oven until you feel like taking it out. This recipe includes 15 chicken thighs, but feel free to cut it down to a normal size portion if you really want to. No one truly needs to eat 15 chicken thighs in one sitting but I like to make a crap ton for lunches during the week.

Anywho, I decided to bake the chicken thighs on top of a bed of broccoli and kale. The kale is there because it was about to go bad any day now. So I wanted to use that up stat. The broccoli was actually purchased by me (shocker, broccoli makes me gag). I know, I know, why would I buy broccoli if I hate it? I was feeling crazy and veggies are my "thing" this week. I've noticed I eat like a crap ton of protein and very little veggies and things need to change.

This is what I normally eat...
Eggs and bacon for breakfast and for lunch I eat meat. Sometimes I'm not even sure what kind of meat it is. Especially if it was cooked in the crockpot the night before. And all ya'll know what I'm talking about with the crockpot. You could put a pound of cat in there and it'll come out looking like pork mojo. I don't know why, magic.

As for the mustard sauce, that was my boyfriends doing. So if you don't like it you can send him your hate mail.

Mustard Baked Chicken Thighs
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Bake 30-35 min (smaller portion cook for 20-25 min)

Chicken/Veggie Steps
1. In a casserole dish (or 3) spread out your chopped broccoli and kale evenly
2. Salt & pepper your boneless/skinless chicken thighs (about 15 thighs)
3. Place chicken thighs over the veggies (leave a little room between each thigh)

Sauce Steps
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1tbsp apple cider vinegar
1tbsp chili powder
1 tsp powdered ginger
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp smoked paprika

Spread sauce evenly over chicken thighs
Bake for 30-35 minutes @ 375
Eat and enjoy!