Tech Nerd In Da House!!!

Okay so this is going to be short and sweet tonight because for some crazy reason the hubs thinks that I am on my "techy" stuff way too much, which I  AM NOT  by they way!!! Just because I like to browse pinterest and chat with my friends on my new iPhone (that hubs got for my birthday so he is obviously enabling my tech habit) while reality TV junky watches Jersey Shore and some other shows on MTV. I'm sorry but I feel dumber after sitting through 10 minutes and would much rather be productive pinning things to my boards, most of which I will probably never ever make :)

Okay on with the point. For some reason I agreed to go 5 weeks straight, gluten free and sugar free without cheats at all (Ragnar Las Vegas being the exception if needed)...call me crazy but I think it's going to be awesome. I'm coming to the conclusion that wheat is the devil and causes all sorts of issues with the body. I don't usually eat it anyway but this 5 weeks I'm going to be super strict. If you would like to join in on the fun let me know!!! I'm sure you're all just dying to be as awesome as I am!
 I'm 5 days into it and needed a little sweetness tonight (get your minds outta the gutter people) so I made a gluten free, sugar free apple crisp with all the apples Brooke the green thumb gave me. I tried a recipe from Caveman Strong, another great blog with really helpful recipes to get you eating paleo.
I think that next time I would rather have less almond flour and more crunch, maybe some sliced almonds, walnuts and flax seed in the crumble topping...don't get me wrong this recipe was GREAT!!!
And without further rambling here you go....

CAVEMAN STRONG APPLE CRISP

Ingredients
2 cups blanched almond flour

1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup coconut oil or butter
¼ cup honey
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
5 medium apples, peeled, sliced, then chopped in half width-wise
Instructions:
In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt, cinnamon.  In a smaller bowl, combine oil, honey and vanilla.  Stir wet ingredients into dry.  Place apples in a 8×8 pyrexbaking dish. Crumble topping over the apples.  Cover and bake at 350° for 50 minutes on low rack.  When apples are soft and their juices bubble, remove cover and bake 10 more minutes to brown crispy.  Serve warm

*NOTE* I added about 1 tbsp cinnamon and 1/4 cup maple syrup to the apples and I miss read the whole recipe and added 1/2 cup instead of 1/4 of honey...whoopsy! I also think that you could go 1/4 cup coconut oil instead of the 1/2 cup.

ENJOY!!!!

Super Duper Green Power Smoothie!!

I am in major need of a new smoothie, so last night was a scowering (is that even a word) Pinterest in search of something different and awesome, well I found it! The smoothie comes out looking about as green as an avocado but I do have to say it is delightful!
I would love to tell you more funny stories I have about my kids and my crazy life in general but Presley has transformed into a monkey over the last couple days, her favorite pass time being to dance on the island counter top and then scream at me until I get her down...I get screamed at a lot, including right this very second.

Okay here is the recipe....DO IT!

1/2 cup ice
1/2 cup orange juice (may need more later on so keep it out)
1/2 banana
1-2 handfuls of spinach, I go with 2
splash of vanilla
1 handful of frozen mixed fruit (mine has peaches, strawberries, pineapple and mango)

Throw that all in a blander and blend away, push down the sides until the spinach has disappeared.
If it's too thick to blend add a little more OJ.
If you want the POWER part of the smoothie add in 1 scoop vanilla protein powder at the very end so it doesn't make your smoothie frothy

Peach BBQ Sauce (GF and Paleo)

Put this over pork chops, ribs or any chicken part and you will LOVE!!! I always have a bottle of some sort of BBQ sauce on hand in the fridge for dipping.

3 large peaches peeled and pureed

1 tbsp olive oil

1 sweet onion diced

4 cloves garlic diced

½-1 can tomato sauce (I used ½ a regular sized can, just depends on how tomatoey you want it)

¾ cup beef stock

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp smoked paprika

1 Tbsp GF soy sauce

1 small can crushed pineapple (maybe ½ cup)

1 Tbsp chilli powder

¼-1/3 cup honey (add only ¼ at first and see how sweet it is)

salt and pepper to taste

In a sauce pan heat olive oil over med heat  add onion and garlic. Once the onions are translucent add everything else and bring just to a boil. Turn to low and let simmer for 20 minutes until it’s thick. Put it all in a blender and blend until smooth!

It Could Be Worse, Seriously Get Over Yourself!

This is what I tell myself whenever I am frustrated with the happenings in my life..."it could be worse, get over yourself" (or I call my mom and cry to her on the phone, either way I need to get over myself!)
I try to take a moment out of the drama and tell myself just be thankful that all your kids are healthy, that you have a husband who is around and has a steady job, that I am healthy and can do all this kick ass stuff I do, he have an amazing house, I have amazing friends (obviously) and for the freaking awesome family that I have!
I have a friend on facebook whose husband is gone to Iraq, I think they have like 5 or 6 kids...something like that, one is a newborn (crazy lady!). I tell her often that she is my hero and how amazing she is and you know what she says back to me? "He's the amazing one" OH MY HELL! Seriously how selfish am I? I think he has been gone the majority of this year and she is just hanging in there like a trooper. Kallie you rock!
I have another friend, a pretty close one as a matter of fact who is probably reading this right at this very moment. She lost her husband recently, they have one darling little girl and I want to cry every time I think of them. She is my age!!! I would be devastated to the point of not being able to function and she is being so strong! I can't even believe how great she is handling the whole ordeal, I'm seriously proud of her. She is dealing with it like a champ. Amazing...see how much worse it could be? Summer you are amazing and I love ya!
There is a little girl in our ward, 4 years old, she was just diagnosed with a Stage 4 Wilms Tumor the size of a softball growing around her kidney. They tried to do surgery to remove it but when they got inside the tumor was in such a bad position that they couldn't touch it and found out the cancer had spread to her lungs and lymph system. It's all happened so fast and she isn't doing very well after her first dose of chemo. They found all this out because she all the sudden was having severe stomach pains and had to be rushed to the ER. They are having a 5K to raise money and show support for McKayla, you can sign up HERE if you would like. So sad!
Seriously, I thought I was having a rough week with Jett having separation anxiety (that's what I'm calling it anyway) and having to take him out of pre-school. I just have to remind myself every once in a while that I have it pretty freakin good!
Seriously though (yes I know that I use that word quite often but seriously...) Jett wouldn't even get dressed in the morning to go to school, he would cry and shake and hide under his blankets...you would think they beat him there! I think he made it to 4 classes ($75 later) and I can't bring myself to force him to go back, he's just so scared and he just wants his mommy...how can I be mad about that?
Alright, time to wrap it up....Peace out friends :) Don't worry, be happy and all that stuff.

St. George Trip and A Kick A$$ Recipe!

I went to St. George a couple weekends ago with my twin sister for a MUCH needed girls weekend with the moms (okay that made it sound like I have lesbian moms, not the case, I just like to call my mom "moms").
Some mommies may hate to be away from their little ones and you would have to pry them away crying to get them to go away for a couple days...not me I skipped, hopped and did a happy dance all the way to St. George. I'm not too proud to admit I need a break every once in a while. Lets face it, we've all heard about Jett, if I didn't have these little get aways I would probably be locked in a white room with padded walls and a little window in the door so they could observe my behavior.
Girls weekend was a huge success, we had tons of fun hiking, shopping and golfing and absolutely no running what so ever...I was to a point in my training where I felt the need to vomit if I even though about going on a run.
My mom took us on the most amazing hike ever, I know I've been before in college but I had forgotten all about it, and lets be honest I was in college...we had a fun time, had some paleo treats and I about gave Brooke and mom a heart attack, see attached picture....

It wasn't even that far down..come on!

The Spartan WOD of the day was to stop and plank where ever you were, so plank we did :)....

and some more planking with some sort of orangutang pose, look at those buff twin sisters!

And here are the triplets all together...such a fun relaxing day! Sorry we made you sore mom (hehehe)!

What would girls weekend be without a little golf at Sand Hollow Resort and a overly priced $15 bunless burger (complete with no sides) from a little place called Baristas in Hurricane? Not complete, that's for sure! 
My twin and I got pair with Lyman and Phil (short for Phillis we assume) the ever so happy couple from here and there. They were quite the entertainment, full of dry humor and uncomfortable spats for all 18 holes, we were pretty sure they couldn't hear a word we said...We hope anyway.

Lyman took this wonderful photo of the twins..isn't it a beautiful course? Even though Brooke was having gas issues we had a lot of fun. We only wish our wonderful sister and sister-in-law could have been there with us...of course I would have put them down wind of Brooke just for fun :D
I'm not even going to tell you about our lunch, let me just say we had plenty of time to sit and chat with the moms while our lunch was being prepared....here is a link to my review on Urban Spoon...I felt the need to let everyone know how horrible this place was!  

Okay moving on....I dropped by my Aunt LaVerne's house the other night to say hi and visit and left with tons of food from their garden...LOVE IT! So as I was making dinner last night I used every little bit of what they gave me, this is what paleo cooking is all about!

Blackberry Glazed Chicken Legs: (You really gotta try this one!)

For the sauce:
2 TBSP coconut oil
1 medium size yellow onion diced
2-3 cloves garlic diced
1/2-1 TBSP red pepper flakes
2-3 cups fresh blackberries
1 can organic tomato sauce
1/4-1/2 cup raw honey (just depending on how sweet you want it, taste as you go)
2 TBSP GF soy sauce
1 TBSP Chili powder
2 TBSP apple cider vinegar

1. Heat oil in a med sauce pan and add onion, garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook for 5 minutes
2. Add fresh blackberries and cook down for about 8 minutes
3. Add in tomato sauce, honey, soy sauce and chili powder...bring to a boil turn heat down to low and let it cook away for about 20-30 minutes until it thickens up.
4. Once it's nice and thick add the vinegar and remove from the heat
5. Once it's cooled place in a blender and blend away until its nice and smooth

While your saucey stuff is simmering away place your chicken legs on a baking sheet and pre-heat your oven to 375.

Sprinkle over the legs:
Chili powder
garlic powder
smoked paprika
and salt
Turn the legs and sprinkle on the other side too, and then run some olive oil over the top and rub those legs up real nice.

Place them in the oven (I'm really not sure how long I cooked them) After about 15 minutes I turned the legs over and let them cook another 5-10. Then I started glazing them with the BBQ sauce. Every 5 minutes rotate and brush them with the sauce until they are cooked through....and obviously let them cool before you enjoy!

And that will be all for today folks, Jett has fallen down the stairs and I still haven't showered even though I returned for the gym about 2.5 hours ago...time for me to peace out fools!

Family Pictures Never Again....

It has been such a long time since I've blogged anything...been a busy busy summer (not really but I like to tell myself that because of the lack of things I have accomplished). I thought I would share this little gem with ya'll though and from this you will know why this will be the last family picture you will be getting from us for quite some time!

So last night we attempted family pictures (notice use of the word attempted)....I believe that trying to shovel my driveway in an effing blizzard would have been an easier task to accomplish. Seeing that it has been since I was pregnant with Presley last time we had a family photo taken it was definitely the time to get 'er done.
I was pretty sure I was well prepared for the task ahead of me....I had everyone's outfits picked out, ironed, kids were bathed and they were going to be perfect little angels (HAHAHA!)....soooooo far from the truth.....Bobby comes home from work at 5:45, we are supposed to be out to the marina at 6:30 to meet the photographer and my place is a freaking mad house because I have been left alone to get everyone ready (HOLY MOTHER).
Presley is following me around crying with snot running everywhere and I'll be darned if I'm going to put her brand new dress on her at that moment. Jett is running around in his underwear laughing at me because I can't catch him and Nico is being Nico and sitting on the couch picking his nose while simultaneously, with the same hand sucking his thumb and ruining his hair that I have managed to get some gel in to. Bobby was supposed to bring Nico the shirt I picked out from the golf shop home with him and when I put it on Nico it was DROWNING him...what the frick man!? It's a large...not the medium that I had suggested he get. By now and I am a friggin wreck and haven't found 2 seconds to get myself ready...in the mean time Presley is still bawling and snotting everywhere because I'm yelling at everyone and the chaos that follows is just mind blowing. In fact I'm getting stressed even thinking about it...moving on...
So some how we manage to tackle and wrestle some clothes on captain underpants, get bawl baby to stop screaming and cleaned up enough to do her hair (which is a whole other chore it's self...she despises having her hair did) This just leaves the issue with Nico's shirt and me...Bobby miraculously has someone deliver the shirt, amazing how that size medium fits perfectly, but has now told me he forgot to pick up the rocking chair we were supposed to bring as a prop. Great, whatever! I could care less except for I went around making sure everyone's shirts would go with the color of the rocking chair...obviously I put too much effort into that one!! We make it to the marina only 15 minutes late, it is a freaking miracle....I've threatened the children with their lives if they get dirty and what happens as soon as we step out of the truck? Nico pushes Jett and he falls face first into the asphalt parking lot...EFFING AWESOME!!! Then we head down to the beach where Nico heads straight to the mud I told him to stay away from, picks it up with both hands, squishes it and wipes it on his brand new size medium shirt....in the mean time Presley has started bawling....again....and Jett is being the best child ever (now what does that tell you?) Hopefully we were able to get in some good shots because I am NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER, you get the point, doing that EVER again. I was exhausted, not to mention there were giant spiders everywhere you looked...I mean come on! Can't I catch a freaking break? Needless to say I ate the other half of the carton of ice cream I had worked on 2 nights ago...it was that stressful!
Today is a new day and I was going to make the best of it and make everything real easy to accomplish and also take my children somewhere where they could run out all their energy, with little effort required on my part to keep an eye on them (don't judge me!).
I've got dinner all prepped, floors vacuumed, things that my kids and husband didn't pick up put away in my secret mommy stash (ala Brooke) and we've been to the park...mission accomplished. How was I able to get this all done you ask? Well Jett slept in until 10:30, Presley slept until 9, I let Nico lay around and watch Star Wars Clone Wars and I was up and at them at 8!
For dinner I am attempting a gluten free, paleo friendly teriyaki chicken marinade (in the fridge since noon) with squash and fruit...I came up with the marinade on my very own...I will share the recipe if it turns out wonderful, it has to be good though it's got soy sauce, honey, limes and pineapple juice..YUMMY!
I'm going to end this entry on a good note while my children are being nice for me and go enjoy my diet Dr. Pepper while I'm not stuck in a crazed mad house....and here they come...run for your lives!!!

Also the WOD for the day is to swim 1 mile...

200m Warm up

100m fast
200m slow (mix up the styles here)
repeat until you've reached a mile.

Holy Sweet Tooth Batman!!!

So yes, I am sitting here in my sweatshirt in the 80 degree weather...I'm cold...it looks all doom and gloomy outside and that makes me think it should be cold and raining...I'm sure the neighbors think I'm a little strange, they will get over it.
I also have a monster sweet tooth craving tonight. Banana and peanut butter was not going to hit the spot...I remembered a kick a$$ looking recipe from my favorite paleo treat gal PaleOMG for coconut pecan butter. HOLY JACKPOT!!!! It took all of 10 minutes to make (waaaay too long for my sweet tooth) and I could eat the entire jar...it is NOT healthy at all but you know what...I deserve it! Yes I do!!!!! (This is me convincing myself) I'll post the recipe down below so if my other fellow sugar junkies need a little hit.
I deserve it because I finally got up some motivation to get training again...sure sure, I have been working out all this week but today's workout just hit the spot. You know when your warming up for a workout and you know you are feeling it? That's what happened to me today. I felt so great and my legs were feeling strong again...LOVING IT!!!
Bobby got invited to go to Wendover with a friend for the friends birthday....the friend was paying for everything too..strange to be paying for everything at your own birthday? Yes,...yes it is! Anyway so he was gone all day, is still gone, and I wasn't about to pay a babysitter to come just so I could workout when I have a perfectly good treadmill in my basement. Problem is I was supposed to do bleacher stairs today....okay, problem solved I have a perfectly good set of 13 stairs leading up from the basement. BORING...but you gotta do what you gotta do right?
This is what I managed to get in while Presley was napping (bless her sweet little head for giving me a break from her screaming session):

2.5 mile warm up (I originally planned on just running 4 miles, this is why such a long warm up)
10x running up 13 stairs and down
50 body weight squats
10x stairs
50 mason twists
10x stairs
50 lunges
800m jog
repeated 4 times with a 800m cool down, so I did a total of 1560 stairs, 5 miles, 200 squats, twists and lunges. Not too shabby for a basement workout eh?
This is why I deserved to give in to my sweet tooth just a scoch (keep in mind I didn't cheat on my sugar detox because I rock)

Okay no time for copy and pasting the recipe, youre going to have to be cool with a link...BE COOL! I sure wish Presley would be cool, man is she kicking my trash today!!!
HERE is the Pecan Coconut Butter
MELT DOWN MODE.....all systems are shutting down, time for bed.

Two WODs Just For Fun (Popsicle Recipe!)

Alright I'm going to make this one a quick post because I NEED SLEEP! Tonight I made these to have for tomorrow after swim lessons...

Don't they look so amazing. I think I used too big of a can of pineapple but they will still be great. Here is the recipe and they are GF and Paleo friendly.

Pina Colada Pops:
1 can organic pineapple with juice
1 can organic coconut milk
1 banana
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Place in a blender and then freeze!
I just hope that I actually get one of these, my kiddos were super excited about them as am I!

Okay onto the WODs, the first one is EASY....

Swimming WOD
1 Lap is down and back, pools are usually 25m so to do 100m you will need 2 laps :)

4x 100m free style warm ups (if you are an experienced swimmer do your usual warm up drills)
2x 100m free style 20 second rest between
2x 200m free, 20 second rest
2x 300m free, 20-30 second rest
Cool down with the kick board for a couple laps

Bleacher WOD (I will be doing this some time tomorrow hopefully if you want to join in on the fun)
If you are just starting out doing these WODs please do what you can until you get the hang of it :)
1-2 mile warm up
1 set of bleachers (down to one end and back)
15-50 body weight squats
1 set of bleachers
15-50 mason twists
1 set of bleachers
15-50 traveling lunges
jog 1/2 mile and then repeat as many times as you can

Thanks for visiting my WOD :) G'night everyone!

Recover Is Over Baby! (recipe and WOD!)

I decided, after a few failed attempts at working out, to take a 2 week recovery period after The Spartan Beast. Today (Monday) begins a new cycle of training and I couldn't be more excited.
My body was so broke down I couldn't even do 50 push ups, when before I could bust out 50 at a time and get a couple hundred in, in one workout....OVER TRAINING SUCKS! What have we learned from this lesson? LISTEN TO YOUR BODY! Holy moley, PLEASE listen to what it's telling you! Mine was screaming at me to slow it down a little and I didn't listen...I've admitted my mistake and now it's time to move it right along to the next race...The Tough Mudder :) It's pretty much the same as the Spartan but I think they have a few more "interesting" obstacles. Annnnd maybe a triathlon somewhere in there, we will see what the hubs has to say about it.
Back to the game plan...this time around I will be including in my workouts: running, swimming, biking, weight lifting, body weight exercises and of course plyos, in an attempt to mix it up enough that I don't get worn out! This should be fun! I will include the WOD at the end of this post :)

So on to more important things like food. Brooke and I and some friends are in the middle of a sugar cleanse because some of us were getting a little out of hand with our sugar intake, don't know who that could have been (me, me, me!) but we decided to do it all together so we would have someone to report to if we cheated. This is our third round of a 21 day cleanse and this one seems to be much easier than the first and second....well considering the second was a complete bust about 5 days into it, I'm honestly not even sure if we officially finished that one.
Well today I come home from swimming lessons and the boys want a chocolate chip cookie and piece drops onto the counter..I'm talking like the size of the end of my pinky finger...so what do I do? I just pick it up and put it in my mouth without even thinking! What the crap! I was doing so darn good, but at least I didn't go crazy on the ice cream bar at Sizzler...*cough* Brooke *cough* HAHAHA! So I had a slip up..it happens and I've lost 3 pound since starting it just over a week ago....sugar is the devil!

Dinner for tonight is going to be Paleo Lasagna and I am supper excited to try out this recipe from Every Day Paleo. I will post pictures after it's done but here is the recipe I'm going to try...and again I call myself Paleo-ISH because I like my peanut butter and I can't afford to spend all our grocery money on grass fed meats...that stuff will kick your budgets butt, so when a recipe calls for grass-fed meat just do what you can!

3 zucchini squash sliced thin length wise (you could use butternut squash also if you don't like zucchini)
3 yellow squash sliced thin length wise (same...just sub butternut if you don't like)
1-2 pounds grass fed beef (just depending on how meaty you want it!)
1 pound spicy italian sausage
1 red onion, diced
4 cloves crushed garlic
2 tbsp dried oregano
2 tbsp dried basil
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes, drained well
1 small can of tomato paste
1cup organic black olives sliced

 In a large soup pot saute onions and garlic in the olive oil for about 3 minutes.  Add ground beef and sausage and brown.  Season meat mixture with all dry ingredients and add drained diced tomatoes and tomato paste and mix well.  In a big lasagna baking dish place a layer of sliced zucchini and then ladle on a thick layer of the meat mixture and top with the sliced black olives.  Top meat and olive layer with another layer of sliced zucchini and top with a final layer of the remaining meat mixture.  Cover tightly with aluminum foil and back at 350 for 30 min.  Let sit for 10 min before serving.


WOD for today (or last night like I did)
30 Burpees
30 Bicycle kicks
30 Push up (boy or girl)
30 Jumping Lunges
100 Jump rope
10 Pull ups
30-50 Mason twists

Run 3-4 miles
cool down by stretching

We got attacked by a dog last night on our run...that was a nice little reminder that we all need to carry pepper spray on our runs!!!

Have fun everyone and as always if you have any questions ask in the comments section. OH AND IF YOU WANT TO BE ADDED TO THE WORKOUT OF THE DAY EMAIL LIST GIVE ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS!!!!!

I Haven't Even Tried It Yet But I Gotta Share...And A WOD!!!

So this recipe is in my dutch oven right now, I got it from Civilized Caveman and it is smelling delightful.
I can not wait to workout again now that I've taken a week off after the Spartan Beast and I've put together a good track workout for the day to kick start my workout week off! Enjoy!

Peach BBQ Short Ribs (Gluten free and Paleo friendly):

Peach BBQ sauce:
2 Tbsp organic coconut oil
3 large peaches
1/2 large yellow onion
2 cloves garlic minced
2 cups organic tomato sauce
1/2 cup raw organic honey
2 Tbsp Tamari or gluten free soy sauce
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Cut a small X at the base of each peach and drop into boiling water for about 30 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and plunge into an ice water bath. Once the peaches are completely cooled, remove from the ice bath and peel. Slice away from the pit and place into a food processor or blender; pulse until mostly smooth with a few solid bits and set aside. (I actually just peeled mine without boiling and it worked just fine)
Melt the coconut oil in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes.  Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute more. Add the tomato sauce, honey, peach puree, and soy sauce; bring just to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until sauce thickens slightly, about 20 minutes. Stir in the vinegar; season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

Short Ribs:
3lbs grass fed beef short ribs
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 batch peach BBQ sauce
1 orange cut in half

Heat the dutch oven over high heat and add the short ribs and sear both sides. Remove the ribs and turn the heat down to medium. Add you onions and scrape the bits off the bottom of the oven cook for 5 minutes, remove from heat and place the orange and the ribs on top of the onions. Place in 275 degree oven and cook for 4.5 to 5 hours....

I can't wait for this to be done!

Track WOD (I need to go get this done so I can eat tonight!)

10 minute jump rope
1-2 mile warm up (do less if you are just starting out. 1/2-1 mile will be fine)

Strength set:
50-100 pushups
100 sit ups (any kind you want)
100 body weight squats
15-30 burpees

and if you are feeling tough throw in a set of stadium stairs.

200, 400, 800, 1600, 800, 400, 200

repeat strength set between running and work your way up the ladder.

Get out there and get 'er done!

We Came...We Saw...We Were Only a Tiny Bit Scared and We CONQUERED!!!!

Bring it Spartan...Swoobs of Sparta is ready...we think!

So this last Saturday it was finally time to put on our big girl panties (or blinding pink zebra striped spandex) and put all of our crazy training to the test, it was time for the first ever Utah Spartan Beast. For those of you who do not know about the race I'll do a little explaining for you....
It takes place at Soldier Hollow, where the Olympic cross country course was way back when we had them here in Utah. No I'm not going to compare it to the Dirty Dash...other than the dirty part. It's 12+ miles and 25+ obstacles and very HILLY...I don't even know if hilly is the right word...it was a freaking mountain.
We started off in the mud right off the bat with about 50 other people, mostly half naked men, and a few girls that should put on a shirt and take off some makeup...right out of the starting gate the guy in front of me puked up his bottle of red Gatorade he had downed probably 20 minutes prior (I almost was in the line of fire..COME ON SHELLY!).
Bring on the walls....they started us off nice and easy with 3 or 4, 4 foot walls, pretty easy and very fun...just watch out and don't get kicked in the head by the overzealous guy next to you! Then the hills came, and came and came and it got hot....really HOT! about mile 1.5 they took pity on us and threw in a mud slide into a mud pit complete with a Spartan volunteer blasting us with freezing cold water from a fire hose...THANK YOU, it was much needed! I was hoping for more of those through out the course but unfortunately I think they decided to use the heat and the dry mud we were covered in as an obstacle, we did not have nearly enough mud and/or water about miles 8 through how ever far we ran.
Brooke (my partner in crime and BFF sister) must have been a mountain goat in another life time cause she was KILLING the hills...I'm pretty sure I slowed her down on that part, but since we made a promise to stick together she had to deal with my pansy ass having to walk/hike up some of the hills. Thanks Brookie :)
Other obstacles...lets see...there was carrying or dragging heavy things up steep hills such as sandbags...cinder blocks attached to chains and home depot buckets that we had to fill up with rocks. Lots of climbing over 8 foot walls at the top of hills and a rope out of a mud pit, which we ROCKED! We used some team work to get over the walls and we worked pretty great together if I do say so myself! Like maybe we need to do The Amazing Race or something....just a thought!
We also had target shooting, spear throwing (Brooke's first set of burpees), crawling under lots of barbed wire, tractor tire flipping, climbing up cargo nets, pulling up tires and cinder blocks on a rope and some spider man wall we had to cross.
Unfortunately there was no fire to jump over, apparently the entire state of Utah being on fire was enough to make them hold off on that. Oh well...we had so much fun anyway and guess what!? We are already signed up for next year! YAY!
As you can tell I'm wrapping this up quickly because the natives are getting restless...very restless.
All in all we learned that we are freaking tough, we are all caught up on our tetanus shots and it's really fun to get the crap beat out of you for 12+ miles!

Fast Food Nation.....

Small rant here.....
So as my awesome husband and I were traveling over the past week I found out how hard it was to find HEALTHY options to eat. I am disgusted with all the fast food and processed options there are compared to something fresh and good for you. Do you know how hard it is to head on down the road and find something to eat that hasn't been pre-cooked, blasted with chemicals, frozen...cooked again (in a fryer most likely) and set aside in a heating drawer for who knows how long just waiting for the next sucker to come along. It's honestly eye opening to travel a freeway and see all the flashing signs that line the exits for miles and miles and miles trying to lure us into their greasy joints. What does that say for us that we have endless options of this crap and VERY limited options for good wholesome food?
I'm upset that our kids are growing up with all this processed crap being served to them on a silver platter...I mean have you seen how they make "chicken" nuggets? If there is more than an ounce of actual chicken meat in there I would be surprised. Nico asks me every day why I won't take him to McDonalds to eat...I tell him because it's not good for you to eat there every day...or once a week or pretty much EVER! Then he asks me is there any good for you places that have a play place in them and I couldn't think of one...what does that say about us? These places should be outlawed...they market to our children and teach them all the wrong things about healthy living. They put flammable chemicals into their so called food and give us the healthy option of sliced apples with our pink slime burger...sure your eating flammable chemicals and pink slime on a processed bread bun but hey! at least you are having their pre-sliced (cause they can't be bothered to slice you a fresh one), pre-packaged healthy option on the side with your gigantic (now called medium) Coke. COME ON!
While we were in Texas I was able to eat fairly healthy. We had continental breakfast every morning and even there you have to be careful what you choose. I mostly went with the fresh fruit option...tried the scrambled eggs but being able to taste that they were made from powder wasn't that appetizing. What would a vacation be without a little bit of splurging though? We got some Texas BBQ for dinner one night and the creamed corn was AWESOME, I mean creamed corn sounds gross even I was skeptical but the guy insisted we try it and I was glad we gave in. Theeeeennnnn we went to Cheese Cake Factory for dessert....not my greatest moment in self control...that was a lot of sugar, but I only had that and a small ice cream at the ball game alright?! 

Okay my kids are in melt down mode, it is 10 in the morning....oh and one is possibly stinky so I must be going now..rant over.

Ragnar Fun and Some Paleo Granola!

This past weekend I ran Ragnar for about the 7th or 8th time. I always have so much fun doing this race, I would suggest it as a must do for EVERYONE!!!! The key to having an awesome Ragnar experience is of course having the best van mates you can possibly find because you are going to be stuck in the car with their stinky sweaty behinds for 197 miles of pure fun!

This is our collection of Ragnar nuts and just plain crazy people....from left to right...Me (Busty), Finese (The Tight End), Tracy (Snooki), Brooke (B-WoWW), Coastie (D-Cat) and Desiree (D-Lish).

How much fun can that be you ask?....geez so much fun I can hardly even stand it! Can't you tell from the pictures?

There were high powered lazer lights, air horns,  a rave on the side of the road at 3am, my awesome van mates helping out Jeff from Alpine, brightly colored spandex, cowbell (who doesn't want more cowbell?) licking ass (inside joke), bull horns, who forgot the water?, flashy light bracelets, are we late again?, and lots and lots and lots of running.

I think that I could do a lot more Ragnar races with this exact van and be perfectly happy with it...they were amazing and so much fun to hang out with for 32 hours straight! I enjoyed every second of it.

These are the legs I ran:
Old Snowbasin Road
Leg 23 Some random lake
Deer Valley leg (this one put a hurtin on the thighs)

I made this amazing recipe to take a long with us and I was surprised to find a left over bag when I got home...it lasted about 5 seconds with my husband and kiddos. I have adapted the recipe from a blogger called PaleOMG she has some great recipes but I've found a lot of them have a lot of fat involved in them that don't need to be there.

Paleo Granola (Gluten free)

1 cup almonds, roughly chopped
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tbsp cup coconut oil (or other oil)
1/3 cup raw organic honey
1/4 cup organic maple syrup
Handful of flax seed
Small handful of sunflower seeds
1 cup non-sweetened golden raisins OR craisins OR what ever you have available
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt (I omit the salt when all I have is salted pumpkin seeds)

 Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Add all ingredients to a large microwavable bowl.
Mix well. If the honey is thick, heat up in the microwave for about 30 seconds and mix well.
Place on a baking sheet
Bake for about 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally to help it not burn. Try not to burn your tongue off cause it will smell so good you probably will want to taste it when you stir.
 When you pull it out of the oven, mix in dried fruit. Let cool.

ENJOY and here is a WOD in case you are not recovering from Ragnar.

Warm up 10 minutes
30 minutes cardio (swimming, biking, walking, running) anything for 30 minutes

15-30 burpees
20-50 Lunges
push ups until failure
400M run or jog or walk
repeat 4 times

Stretch and cool down

This Girl is Rockin June

Okay so I'm stealing a recipe from a guy called The Civilized Caveman but it is genius and I modified it to come up with a almond joy version also...YUM right? Seriously though, this guy has tons of great recipes and they are all pretty healthy. I mean I wouldn't make the Chocolate Avocado Cake every day but every once in a while a girl needs some cake yeah?
This week I am preparing for Wasatch Back, I hate tapering...I feel like I'm not doing enough but I know in my head that it's good for da body to cool it a little bit. I ran 3 miles today at an EASY 10 minute mile pace and couldn't help myself I had to do some push ups (100) and core (150 mason twists). Ragnar is going to be so much fun I can't even stand it! You are going to wish your little heart out that you could be part of our party van (or SUV since it's not technically a van). We are having a Jersey Shore theme complete with glow sticks, clubin' music and of course Snookie. Who wouldn't want to be part of that?
After Ragnar I have been informed by my most awesome, amazing, loving husband that we will be leaving for Dallas for 5 nights of golf and baseball for our 10 year anniversary :D WOOOOOOO! I freaking love me some Josh Hamilton and the Texas Rangers! How much fun is June going to be for this lucky girl? And to top it all off the Spartan Beast is June 30th....icing on the cake baby!
On to the recipes....
Apple Pie Bars Here  DELICIOUS!!!!!
Make sure you form these before you cool them, they will crumble if you try to cut them into bars after they are cooled.
I also like to throw a small handful of flax seed in there, because I love flax!

My Almond Joy Version
2 cups pitted dates
1/4 raw macadamia nuts
1/2 cup dried apples
1/3 cup raw almonds
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
small handful of flax seeds
1/4 cup sugar free chocolate chips (optional)
2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1-2 tbsp cocoa powder (depending on how chocolaty you want it)

Put all the ingredients in your food processor except oil and cocoa powder. Pulse until it's chopped into tiny bits. Put everything into a medium bowl add coconut oil and cocoa powder.
This is the messy part.... I press mine into a square or circle shaped cookie cutter (and really press!), make them about 1 inch thick, push them out on to a cookie sheet with parchment paper and put them in the fridge to cool and they will set up...store wrapped in parchment paper and in a zip lock bag.

That's it! ENJOY!!!

In The Words of Tony...BRING IT!

Utah Spartan Beast <---- watch this video!
I have no idea if I'm ready for this race. I've trained hard and I feel ready but in reality I really have no idea what to expect! I've never done anything like this before, but I hope to do a lot more of them cause it looks like a heck of a lot of fun. I know, I'm probably a little crazy in the head, a couple screws are loose...I've accepted it :) Lets do this! I've started asking around to see about borrowing one of those kick "A" cameras that can do mud, water and hopefully fire, wouldn't that be fun to watch? June 30th can't come soon enough...I'm oddly calm about it, almost Zen like...hopefully that is a good sign.

WOD for Sunday? Long run...whether it be 2 miles or 20 miles get out there and get it done! Take it nice and easy and oh yeah don't forget to do 10 or so burpees and/or pushups every mile!

Time for bed. I'm going to test out the "bad ass" socks tomorrow...I'll be sure to take a picture.

Green Chili Dutch Oven Ribs (Paleo and GF) No WOD

It was a great day today! No one threw up and Presley had semi solid poo...never thought I would be so excited about poo :) Also I got to pick up Nico from his Papa's house, it's nice to have him home again. Not a lot of activity going on at the Pagnani household today other than I officially put us on quarentine so we don't spread the "love" anywhere else. It might be too little too late seeing how we've spread it to Utah County and now that Nico threw up at Papa's house, Tintic will have the lovely experience of uncontrollable bowels. What can you do?!
Today's workout was no biggie, hence the no WOD for today....4 miles nice and slow 9 min miles...so begins the tapering for Ragnar (if I make it to next weekend), which leaves me plenty of time to post a delicious, EASY and Paleo/GF friendly recipe.....trust me you have got to try this NOW, try it now!
Shut up with your praises, I can't take all the credit for this recipe. The idea came from Bobby's bromance partner, but I've tweaked it and came up with a blow your mind recipe...BAM! Okay you can praise me...just a little.

Ingredients:
1 Pkg pork or beef country style ribs (roughly 8 ribs)
Chili powder
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Paprika
Cumin
Sea Salt
2 large white onions halved and sliced thin
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 beef bullion cube
1 Tbsp Oregano
2 to 3- 7oz cans of green chiles (depending on the spice level you want add more or less)
1- 7oz can green salsa

Pre-heat oven to 275
Break out the dutch oven (seriously you know its buried in a deep dark corner) and heat it up on your stove top over high heat.
Sprinkle the ribs with the seasonings, except Oregano (that comes in later) and brown both sides of the ribs in the dutch oven. Once they are browned turn the heat down to Med remove the ribs and add the onion with a sprinkling of salt, cook for 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook 5 more minutes. Put the browned ribs back in and spoon some of the sauce over the top. Put the lid on the dutch oven and cook in the oven for 4 hours.
Serve with baked sweet potatoes and you have a meal fit for a caveman!

ENJOY! :) and thanks for looking!

Week of Awesomeness.....

So today I decided I need to blog for some reason....maybe it's because Bobby is gone for the entire week and I'm bored out of my freaking mind OR maybe it's because I've got nothing better to do than tell random people how my day went.
Anyway, lots of people ask me about recipes and workouts and sewing (yes sewing, random...I know) so hopefully I can post some of that here. Here goes my rant about the AWESOME (note the sarcasm) week we have had here at the Pagnani household and my workouts that I have managed to get in despite the awesomeness going on, maybe even a recipe...we'll see.....

Saturday morning Bobby left for his yearly bear hunt, it sounds exciting? Well it's not. They lay out a bunch of donuts cover them in bacon grease, rotten fish and other disgusting things and sit in a tree stand ALL DAY and wait.....and wait....sounds fun right? NOT! Well at least he gets some man time.
Anyway he leaves and I get to wake up to Presley covered in poo...lots and lots of stinky nasty poo, she has the runs, AWESOME (sarcasm)! Long story short she's had the runs ever since and I've had to wash her sheets and blanket EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Monday we went to have lunch for my mom's birthday! YAY! We went to the splash park in Spanish Fork and let the kids run wild. After the park Presley had another blow out, YUCK, and Nico begged his way into Grandma letting him sleep over with the rest of the cousins, this was a big mistake and you'll soon hear why.
So I leave Spanish Fork one child short and two very tired little ones ready for bed at 7:00pm. Awesome (no sarcasm here, it really was awesome. I mean Jett went to bed on his own).
Tuesday, the day of never ending poo....Prelsey once again had a blow out in her crib, here I go washing sheets...again....then I notice Jett is wearing underwear. This is odd considering he NEVER wants to get himself dressed and I put him to bed in a pull up, so I decide to investigate. As soon as I open the door the smell of poo hits me like a freaking brick wall. Jett has pooped in his pull up, taken it off and wiped his butt with random things in his room...books, toys, blankets...you name it! AWESOME (sarcasm)! Then I get a phone call from Grandma, Nico was up all night throwing up, great! I bet you can guess how the rest of the day went?
Well I managed to get in a 45 minute workout, not good enough to post about but it worked well enough.
Wednesday, a little better just Presely poo to clean up and I decided to workout in the basement because I was obviously never going to make it to the gym...oh and today Grandma is sick, victim number 2 or 3 (we can't decide if Presley having the runs is from the 4 molars coming through or she is sick?)

Wed WOD:
Warm up-1 mile

 Strength set:
50 Lunge jumps
50 Mason twists
21's
50 Body weight jump squats
20 Boy pushups

Cardio pyramid:
1000m, 800m, 600m, 400m, 200m, 200m, 400m, 600m, 800m, 1000m
all ran between 7-8 min/mile pace

Between each cardio interval I did the strength set so it looks like this....
1000m, strength set, 800m, strength set, 600m, strength set.....and so on

GREAT WORKOUT!!!

Thursday, also known as today, I woke up to Jett puke. PUKE EVERYWHERE! I mean how are you supposed to get puke out of a mattress other than buying a carpet cleaning? So off I go to buy a cleaner, only I had to ask one of Bobby's friends to go to Walmart for me because I was afraid Jett would puke at the store. I'm lucky to have such helpful friends!  Thanks Jeff!
Now begins the cleaning spree, SO GLAD I bought the cleaner by the way, it was such a great help! Now my house doesn't smell like puke, I've wiped down every surface with Lysol wipes, washed everything Jett has touched...this included a LOT of laundry but now it's all done. And now my house is sparkly clean, my hands are raw from all the sanitizer, the kids are in bed and oh yeah...I got in another awesome workout. Spartan Beast here I come!!!
PS do you ever just wish you could legally run over those people that come door to door to sell crap like a bottle of natural cleaner for $90 (but it will change your life!) magazines...(honestly like I can just order those online myself instead of writing your shady butt a check) and of all things meat...yes MEAT, from a door to door salesman (these days? really? hmmmm) Oh yeah and now Macks (my nephew) is sick :( victim number 3 or 4.

Thursday WOD:
 400m (9ish min/mile pace the legs are TIRED)
2 burpees
400m
4 burpees
400m
6 burpees
and so on all the way up to 20 burpees then back down all the way to 2 burpees. This should give you 5 miles and very tired legs!

Now I'm very tired and off to bed...only 3 more days until Bobby comes home...I CAN DO THIS...right?