Walking Dead and PaleO'Bryan

Today is the season premiere of The Walking Dead. It is bittersweet for me because I love this show but have unsettled dreams the entire season. Give me werewolves, vampires, rabid hyenas I don't care they do not scare me, but a zombie...eff that.

For the next few months I will be afraid of the dark and take my 80lb German Shepherd with me outside at night. Haha I know, it is ridiculous but they freak me out. I am also guessing I will workout even harder because I will think if I kill this WOD I can kill a zombie. Think I am kidding, I had been running about 11:30-12 min mile on average and one night when I ran later than usual and it was getting darker earlier I ran 2 miles with an average pace of 10:27...yep I was trying to get home before the zombies came out, true story. So why don't I just not watch it you ask? Because I am bat s**t crazy I guess and it is a great show!!

Well the last two days I have spent most of me time not in the land of the living, I have walked my house like the walking dead. I have been passed out on the couch or bed in a nyquil coma after succumbing to my second illness of the year. The only good thing about this is I am praying this is making my immune system grow stronger. I have all but gone belly up on the challenge mainly due to a seriously lack of appetite and doing anything but sleep. I have also not been to a class or even exercised since Thursday. I have kept a tally of what food I have eaten and the small amount of points I have obtained (I know I was getting at least 8 hours of sleep haha) but other wise it has been oh I need to eat grab and eat.

Today I feel more rejuvenated and better, not 100% but better. Last night we took our little goblins to the zoo for some sugar laden, character sprinkled chaos, aka our Zoo's Halloween party. It was INsane, I might need therapy. So today I am going to spend all day cleaning and prepping for the week. Getting my emergency proteins cooked and in the fridge. I am even going to make some homemade mayo to go with my homemade chicken salad. I am thinking about squeezing in a run as well. We have a busy week coming up!

Snake Eyes & Spider Girl

I am really going to return to this challenge with new vigor and better organization. See the thing is I have been pretty critical of/harsh on this challenge. Every CrossFit box I have seen or explored online/social media/pinterest has had a Paleo seminar/potluck/challenge and to be honest I was disappointed. However, instead of being a big girl (good Christian) I have been the opposite. Besides bacon and butter most everything else was what I typically eat (- the starch category) and I should have just gone with that, losing points for not eating 6 times a day. I didn't...I found CrossFit through paleo (actually Robb Wolf to be specific) and it was one of the reasons I was attracted to it (there are lots) but the main reason I was into it, is the opposite of how I have been acting lately. I love my paleo lifestyle, for CrossFit athletes it is obviously a great diet because the CrossFit world promotes it, and we even had a lesson on their food philosophy which highly mimics paleo. So to have a challenge that is very close to the diet I was prescribed, the one and only time I had a consult with a personal trainer at a globo gym, was kind of a let down.

 

CrossFit Guidlines

I am not saying this because I think that my diet is better than others, honestly it was going to be a chance for 1. people to see how amazing this diet is 2. me to have a local community I could talk to about being a cave woman. Everywhere I go people go on about "how hard this must be, I could never give up bread, oh that is awfu"l yada yada, or I get comments like I am an elitist, "I eat bread and I am fine, I don't see anything wrong with beans". I was looking forward to being able to talk to people who (after that first week) would be like "man I feel amazing". But alas...I have my online community of people who can relate to me. And in case you are wondering, there are other CrossFit boxes out there locally who promote paleo lifestyles/pot lucks/seminars, but they aren't CrossFit Regeneration. While I have no doubt that they are all great places my box has what I need. It isn't perfect but it is perfect for me.

So enough about that...who wants a recipe!! You, alright here you go.

I have dubbed this recipe PaleO'Bryan. When it was just Daddy-O and me I would make potatoes O'Bryan all of the time, they are so tasty. It is basically diced potatoes, onions & green peppers. I have been seeing tons of sweet potato hashes out there in the Paleo Blogosphere but not one that really made me go mmm yummy!! Then I found this recipe from Undressed Skeleton and my mouth was watering. I love this blog, this young girl overcame so much and literally changed her life. She always has amazing recipes, most of which I can convert to my way of eating, just like this recipe. She is extremely upbeat and cute as hell.

Plan for this it takes some time!!!

PaleO'Bryan

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

1 lb breakfast sausage (use the sausage of your liking, turkey, vegetarian whatever, I used pork)

1 bell pepper, rough chop

1/2 large onion, rough chop (I used 9 pearl onions because I was out of onions...gasp!)

4 eggs, beat like a zombie trying to eat you

salt

pepper

garlic powder

olive oil

In a large pan start browning your sausage, while it is cooking peel and cube sweet potatoes...this should be listed as a WOD because this was a workout. Sharp knife is essential here, but even then prepare to work that arm muscle. Go ahead and also dice the onion and pepper. 

Brown Sausage

Peel and dice potatoes

Once your sweet potatoes are all cut up and you have worked you arm to fatigue...place them in a large glass microwave safe bowl (sorry got lost in the moment no pic). Drizzle olive oil over top then salt and pepper them. Toss to coat evenly and put in the microwave for 5-8 min. I started at 5:30 and had to nuke and additional 2 min and they were still a bit crunchy. I recommend taking it out in intervals and mixing up to get a more even cook. 

When your sausage is finished use a slotted spoon to remove and put in a bowl with a paper towel to drain excess fat. If you have more than say a tbsp of fat left in your pan drain that out as well. Add onions & peppers and cook stirring occasionally until soft. About half way through add a bit of garlic powder and pepper, you don't really need salt because the sausage has plenty. 

Onions & pepper...wish this was smellovision

Once your peppers are soft and your potatoes are too, add everything back to the pot and mix to combine, turn to low and let it all hang out and get to know each other. 

Social hour...

Take your eggs and beat like you mean business with a whisk so they will be yummy and frothy. Add to a separate pan and scramble until cooked through. 

Sorry got lost in the moment again and didn't get a pic of my frothy eggs

After your eggs are done add them to the pot and gently fold in. Serve yourself up a plate with some coffe, juice, breakfast beverage of choice. 

Good Eats right there!!!

This dish does take some time but makes a huge batch. It is also extremely filling, this is about 1.5 cups in my bowl and I almost couldn't eat the entire thing. Daddy-O ate about 2.5 cups because he said it was so good. Kids didn't eat any because a 40 min breakfast is too long for them, they are starving monkeys in the morning. Even though we ate about 4 cups of this mix there is still about another 4 or so leftover. It makes a lot, so I have breakfast for a couple of days. While this is a great mix of protein, carbs and veggies it is also a tasty party. You get the salty flavor of the sausage, the bitter of the peppers and then a pow of sweet with the potatoes. Potatoes O'Bryan is typically made with white potatoes but it is dang tasty with sweet ones. This is also a great post WOD meal. 

Just because I love this guy...