Whole30 Resources

When Victoria did Whole30, I was FULL of skepticism...not that it would work, but that it was possible for someone who is no where near as dedicated as she is.

Amazingly, it wasn't hard. Once I made the decision, I only once or twice had the "ugh why I am doing this" feeling. Looking like this at the end was 100% worth it:

That red dress is tiny. I am wearing a slip under it, btw. And no, not spanx.

What I really DID love was all of the cooking. I recognize that I may be alone in loving cooking at night, but to me, there is nothing more wonderful than coming home, having nothing else on my plate to deal with, and spending time making a beautiful dinner. This is my recent, brag-worthy meal:

Seared halibut with broccoli, mango salsa, cauli-rice, and paleo aioli 

I am already a pretty good cook, at least, I like to think so. I've come a long way from making a too-lemony steak and only having about 2-3 staple dishes. Even better, I've gotten much faster in the kitchen. A good dinner doesn't take 2+ hours, and a quick dinner is sometimes the best food I can make. But even for those of you who are not yet amazing chefs, I think you'll find all of this to be pretty easy.

I rely on a few different cookbooks for inspiration. If you are interested in going Whole30, you should pick up the following resources:

Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat

If you follow that link, you can can a free 30 page PDF of the book. You can also check out the other recipes that Melissa has written. I love love love her cookbook and have made some of these dishes several times. Most of them reheat very well and make excellent lunches.

Paleo Cooking from Elena's Pantry

This cookbook has produced some of the best recipes (most notably the bacon quiche, the apple dessert, and the chicken "gumbo.") Again, very very easy. 

Primal Cravings

I've just gotten into this book and I already love it. I've had a miss or two, but some of the recipes are real winners.

Practical Paleo

My parents gave me this cookbook for Christmas and it is probably my most cherished cookbook. I have hoards of notes in it. This book convinced my that paleo was a) practical (ha) and b) delicious.

I'm still gathering and testing paleo cookbooks, so if you have one, please let me know!

Pantry Staples:

The stranger side of going paleo meant introducing new foods to my pantry as staples...things I figured I would NEVER use again. Wrong. 

1) Spices. I had a pretty serious stock of the normal spices, but halfway through Whole30, I found myself walking down to Georgetown to pick up almost $100 of spices from the Spice and Tea Exchange. I strongly recommend buying spices in bulk from a vendor like this (Central Market offers spices in bulk, which is very unfair for those of us living outside of Texas). 

Here are a few of the things I go through on a weekly basis:

- Cumin

- Paprika

- Chili Powder

- Cayenne Pepper

- Cinnamon

- Ginger

- Nutmeg

- Corriander

2) Non-Wheat Flours. I really like something sort of sweet after dinner. I love quiche. I want to bread things. Enter these new flours:

- Coconut flour

- Almond flour

- Potato flour

3) Coconut milk. This goes in so many things - from sauces and marinades to coconut whipped cream to...frankly, just eating the coconut fat out of the can. I have at least 4-6 cans of it at any time. Pro-tip: the blue can (I think goya?) SUCKS. Not nearly enough fat. Stick with the trader joes or whole foods brand.

4) Coconut oil. We'll never use butter or vegetable oil ever again. Seriously. Just go buy a jar at costco. It's all I cook with.

5) Produce. I go through onions, shallots, green onions, red onions, celery, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and spinach like no tomorrow. Onions especially. They seem to be the base in almost everything I make. I have also been buying an untold amount of cilantro and parsley. For fruit, we're a little light since we try to stay away from sugar in most forms, but we try to eat seasonally - berries and apples right now. And PEACHES.

6) MEAT. Just...go buy all of it. I go to Costco for things like pork tenderloin and ground beef, as well as chicken. I get sausage at WholeFoods, as well as lamb, ground bison (delicious), bacon, steak and fish. The better the quality, the better the result. Btw, please stop freezing your steak. Do not make the mistake I made.

A brief note on the "expense" of paleo. First, you need to be buying high quality food. Go organic (even if only for the dirty dozen), buy free range, antibiotic free, and vegetarian-fed protein. Do you want to eat a chicken that hasn't moved and has sat around only eating another bird's shit until their next grain serving? No? Me either.

I am not a vegetarian because...no thanks. But I do believe in the sanctity of living things. I do my best to honor the animal that I am eating by choosing protein from providers that treat animals well. It's cheap to treat things poorly. It is expensive to care for the life of this earth. Do your part. 

Also - I KNOW it is more expensive in some cases. But if you bought a really nice car that required premium fuel, but you only fueled it with cheap gas....what do you expect would happen? Your body is a pretty expensive car. Fuel it with the good stuff.

And finally. If you cook in bulk, buy intelligently and seasonally, you'll probably come out on top.

Going back around on Whole30 a week from today when I get home from Colorado! Do it with me.

How to Get a Sportz Job

So. You want a sportz job.

Most you probably don't know this, but I didn't. 

I grew up wanting to be many things, the list is painfully bizarre, ranging from writer to actor to publisher to stock broker to archeologist to accountant to god knows what else. But one thing I never mentioned was working in sportz.

When I was in middle school, I started a baking "company." I  baked a variety of goods, then dragged them around my neighborhood. I took cookie orders around holidays. I had honest to goodness business cards, care of my dad (they were seriously awesome, thanks again, Dad!)

The boring story of my life is how I wound up in communications and marketing strategy. The more interesting one is how I wound up working in in sportz.

After several years of teaching a variety of fitness classes, I wound up in love with running, but burning out in teaching and being a trainer. I theorized on new gyms - what that would look like - where fitness was the focus - not money. But, I knew I didn't have the capital for the overhead and I knew no savvy investor would trust a young 20 something with little to no gym management experience. Then, I built a race, down to the logo, obstacle design, and began on the cost analysis. That one is still simmering on the back burner of my mind, but I'm off track.

So you want a sportz job. Here are a few things you should know:

1) Work for free.

I know a couple people who have stumbled into a job with a major race organization literally by accident, but most people with sportz jobs have worked their tails (and fingernails) off to get them, and here's the important part: they worked for free.

If you really believe in what a race is selling, volunteer for them. There are only three things that can come of that:

a) You will appreciate the race and it's core team

b) You will decide that this is not a job you want

c) You will have a better candidate to work with the organization

1b) Work for free - happily.

God help you if you complain about the work you're volunteering to do with the same mouth you're professing to love the organization. Seen it.

I'll humble brag and use myself as an example: when I worked as a major exchange manager for Ragnar DC, I had the mud pit field. Our generators were delivered to the wrong field (several miles away) and it was about 11pm when we started work. By the time the first 50 teams showed up, we were already losing shoes in the mud, and my tutu was dirty. I pushed 11 (ELEVEN!!!) vans out of the mud. We had to call AAA for a tow truck for another one. The coffee percolators stopped working, everything started to stink the way a bog does after a rain...But you know what? I was all smiles. You know why? Because I was working for my dream company. I was a part of the most amazing race experience and if I was a raving bitch, how would that affect people who were tired, muddy, and exhausted and PAYING for the experience?

I went home after our shift ended. Thanked each of my volunteers profusely. Then I cleaned myself up and went to the finish line to see where I could help out. Which leads me to...

1c) Work for free [happily] and add value.

Anyone can stuff flyers into a bag. My relationship with Ragnar started not when I became an Ambassador, but before, when I needed to find a way to fulfill our volunteer requirement for DC. I helped stuff all the goodie bags for DC before I'd even done the Ragnar. I saw a better way to get the bags done faster. I redirected other volunteers and Kent, the then-race director, now good friend, saw it.

The next year, I worked SWAT (muddy story above) and when I went to the finish line, I saw that things were getting hectic, so I jumped in where I could and made a better system for getting runners their gear, checking in safety flags, and cleaning the finish line. I proved I could add value, even when no one asked me to. 

2) Networking isn't just for corporate America

While volunteering at an expo for Ragnar one weekend, I struck up a conversation with some of the staff who was in town from race HQ. I didn't even drop hints. After having proven that I could work hard and happily (for free), I told him that I was willing to do anything to work for Ragnar, even learn to drive a truck, would he keep me in mind if something opened up in his department? Could I have his email address?

The next time a different staff member was in town, I went out of my way to meet up with them briefly and talk shop. That was the staff member who alerted me to a posting for a position in the company.

It didn't hurt that I'd tried to meet every race director at each event I did. I thanked them, asked them questions that were on my mind, and continued to be a brand ambassador - all for free, all happily.

I went through the interview process with Ragnar for a position that wound up not working out due to some organizational changes, but I had the chance to speak with everyone from the CMO to the CEO to the founder of the race while I was out there. The CEO called me the other week just to check in. When the part time position in DC opened, I was the first person they called (at least, I hope I was!).

I will admit, I was heart broken when I didn't get the dream job with them. But I didn't send a horrible email to them. I didn't burn my bridges because even though I didn't get the job, I still believed in the race, the experience, and couldn't turn my back on the one thing I love more than anything.

2a) Networking happens all the time

So, maybe you don't volunteer with a race. Maybe you just enjoy racing and find yourself at expos and events frequently. Do you know what makes my day when I'm working an expo? When someone stops to talk to me about working for Ragnar. If you're curious, start a conversation with someone at a booth, get their information, follow up.

I wound up as an ambassador for Pearl Izumi not because I am an amazing athlete (hint: I'm not), but because I'm passionate about my sportz, passionate about the community, and because I've networked myself into becoming a connector/influencer (oh my god, I hope so, because they think so).

Talk to people. Be passionate. Ask if you can help. In an industry in constant need of a set of hands, you will be surprised how well connected you can become.

3) Dream Bigger

When I met C.J., we were both ambassadors for Ragnar. We'd talked here and there, but at some point, god knows how, we wound up talking about improving the sportz community. I should really give C.J. all the credit here - he's a man of HUGE ideas. When he approached me about a business idea (now called The FitBase), I was interested. I went to a few meetings, but when push came to shove, most of our initial interested team couldn't see the big picture. But I saw the opportunity to take over the operations side (cue being a little a lot OCD and my project managent background).

Now, a few months later, we're in the initial stages of launching FitBase. I couldn't be more proud of our team and more excited about the future of our company. At our launch party last night, all I could think about was how amazing it was that we'd gotten this far and so soon.

Sportz is an industry rife with opportunity for change. If you can dream it up, start talking to people, get advice, share ideas, then roll up your sleeves and push vans out of the mud.

Mia Cooks (again) Pesto Shrimp

I'm a little (a lot) wound up over the amount of work I have to do (but thankfully, I'm actually excited about all of it) and what turned this fabulous energy from productive to #RAGE was when, as I was leaving from teaching #RAGE spin, I heard one of my participants say to the other "I'm so tired, I'm just going to go heat up a lean cuisine" and the other said "Oh that's a great idea! I love having healthy stuff in the freezer!"

Seriously. I was looking for the Punk'd crew to show up and be like LOL GOT YOU!

No such luck. So, while I went silently apoplectic in the elevator, I vowed to come home and make dinner in less than 15 minutes. I know, sorry, this is the time it takes to cook TWO lean cuisines, but it'll taste more than twice as good.

Pesto Shrimp over Spaghetti Squash

You need:

- pesto you made on Sunday

- shrimp

- grape tomatoes

- olive oil 

- 1 clove garlic

- spinach

- spaghetti squash

1) Clean shrimp.

2) Chop spaghetti squash in half, longways and clean out the crap in the middle.

3) Put spaghetti squash cut side down in a microwavable container with some water and cook in the microwave for 15-18 minutes.

4) Heat up a tiny bit of oil and some garlic on low/medium.

5) Add shrimp.

6) Add tomatoes once the shrimp is pinkish.

7) Give it another minute and add some chopped spinach.

8) Cover and steam until spinach is wilted and add a heaping tablespoon of the pesto.

9) Scoop out the spaghetti squash.

10) Mix shrimp stuff and spaghetti squash.

Stop it with the Lean Cuisine. Or at least, let's all admit that it's not healthy. It's just low calorie.

Now taking requests from the peanut gallery on what you want #miacooks to do next.

Mia Cooks: Moroccan Beef Lettuce Wraps

In lieu of talking about training (at all) because I'm not doing training in any form (I work out like a normal person these days and I'm feeling super sucky about it), here's another recipe from me to you.

Moroccan Beef Lettuce Wraps

You need:
3/4 lb ground beef
1 egg
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger

Sauce:
1 c. greek yogurt
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon rind
2 tsp tahini
salt
1 garlic clove

"Wrap" Ingredients:
- big leaf lettuce (I like iceburg for this)
- tomato
- onion

1) Mix all ingredients for the patties

2) No, I mean REALLY mix it.

Yes, use your hands.

3) Form 8 patties out of that meat

4) Cook the patties on medium heat on the stove, use non stick spray. About 2:30 on each side should do it.

5) Put the patties on an oven tray and pop into oven on 400 for 5-8 minutes.
6) Prep the sauce - just combine all ingredients and stir
7) Prep the fixin's
8) Wrap and eat!

And...I'm off to foam roll. F*cking ankle.

Mia Cooks: Sweet Potatoes, a Surprise Hit

I had Team RAGE over for dinner on Sunday and while we took video and I took tons of photos of the lamb, kale, couscous, etc. that I made, by far the biggest hit were the sweet potatoes! And in response to the latest spate of "healthy" frozen food delivery reviews, I'm teaching you how to make them.

It's crazy easy.

You need:
- Sweet Potatoes
- Coconut Oil
- Cayenne Pepper
- Salt

That's it. Literally. That's it.

1) Peel sweet potatoes.
2) Chop sweet potatoes into circles (about 1/2" thick)

3) Melt coconut oil

4) Toss potatoes with oil
5) Lay sweet potatoes out on baking sheet
6) Sprinkle with cayenne and salt

7) Bake at 400 for 15-18 minutes

I thought I had a photo of the finished product, but apparently not - we just ate them quickly because they're that good.

Leftovers (if you have them) make great pre-workout snacks. And good breakfast sides with eggs.

And yeah. Stop buying that frozen crap with additives.

Mia Cooks - Pork Tenderloin, Green Beans, Scalloped Potatoes, and Gravy!

Alright! I'm injured. Still injured. My ankle was swollen to the size of my biceps Saturday night (only slight exaggeration). Until my health insurance kicks in...Coach has mandated (wisely) that I am NOT allowed to run or do anything resembling impact. Blah blah blah, Coach is right, blah blah. Running resumes March 1.

In the mean time, I figured it was time to dedicate myself to some time in the kitchen! One of my goals for these two weeks with Christine has been to make a food plan at the beginning of the week and cook more of my meals. Normally, I'm really good at this, but probably one week a month, I fall totally off the wagon. We'll be out of food, I'll be too tired to go to the grocery, and face it, tomato soup from Cosi sounds SO good right now...

But this weekend, we hit up Costco and Safeway and Washington's Green Grocer delivered an abundance of beautiful produce. The freezer and fridge are PACKED, and mostly with produce!

And so, in the frustration of being off my ankle, I decided to cook! This episode of Mia Cooks focuses on how to cook a pork tenderloin. The best think about this dish is that the meat is craycray cheap. You can get a two pack at Costco for pennies.

Below, I've got my recipes and step by step for pork tenderloin, green beans, scalloped potatoes, and gravy. If you decide to make everything, here is a list of what you'll need in total:

Tenderloin:
- Pork tenderloin(s)
- soy sauce
- sherry cooking wine
- rice wine vinegar
- vegetable oil
- orange juice
- shallot
- fresh or ground ginger
- rosemary
- italian seasoning
- butter
- salt, pepper, garlic salt, seasoned salt
- garlic cloves

Green Beans:
- green beans
- onion
- powdered chicken bouillon

Scalloped Potatoes:
- 5-8 small potatoes (enough for 2-3 c. sliced)
- chives, bacon, cheese (optional)
- powdered mustard, paprika, salt
- 1 1/4 c. milk and cream

Gravy:
- broth (optional)
- flour
- left over juice from cooking tenderloins

1) Optional Trimming I thawed the tenderloin out over night and then, mid afternoon, I trimmed up the tenderloins. This is optional. I recently had the opportunity to observe an incredible chef cook - during this time, he demo'ed how to trim a tenderloin. I will admit, I am not nearly as adept at it, but here is the general gist, via video:
 (video coming shortly)

Basically, take off the fat and the tendons (anything white). You can do this with a sharp knife and some patience. If you're lazy/time crunched, don't bother...though I REALLY do recommend doing this.

2) Marinade. Then, I marinaded the meat for a couple hours. My marinade recipe is:
- 1/4 c. soy sauce
- 1/4 c. sherry
- 1/8 c. rice wine vinegar
- 1/8 c. veg oil
1 tbsp orange juice (or just a splash)
A couple dashes of rosemary
1 chopped shallot
Dash of powdered ginger (it's preferable to have about a tablespoon of chopped fresh ginger, but use what you've got.)

You can put this in a big bowl or dish, but I prefer the "no clean" option of a plastic ziplock. Easier to move the meat around the marinade this way.

3. Wait. Let it sit in the fridge for however long, but 2+ hours is preferable. Overnight is even fine.

4. Crust. (ps. now is the time to preheat your oven to 400). I like seasoning the outside of the tenderloins in addition to the marinade. Here's the "no clean" way to do it. Pull out foil and grind a good layer of salt, pepper, seasoned salt, herbs (italian blend works fine), and garlic salt. Then roll your tenderloins over it (that's what she said). Then, I have slices of garlic cloves (thin) and put small knife cuts into the tenderloins and insert the garlic slices.

5. Sear. I like to sear the outside of the tenderloin to lock in the flavor. There are more technical terms for why this is a good idea, but I don't know enough to tell you why. Go with me, here.

Just melt about 2-3 tbsp butter in a skillet that can go into the oven (which should be preheated before you sear the meat.) Make sure the butter is hot enough that when you put the meat in, you hear a sizzle, but not too hot that the butter browns before you put the meat in. On my electric stove, this is a 5-6 on a scale of 1-10. You can test the butter by dripping a tiny bit of (like, a drop or two) of water or marinade.

Cook each side of the tenderloins for 1 minute - just enough to sear the outside.

Don't worry if some of the red at the ends isn't gone. It's thinner and will cook just fine in the oven.

6. Cook. This is a tricky one. If you get the normal sized tenderloins at costco or wherever, then this is a decent cooking time: 

• 8 minutes - mostly raw
• 6 minutes more - smaller tenderloin is done
• 3 more minutes - larger tenderloin is ready

These cooking times are for a "pink" tenderloin. If you prefer yours well done (???) or have family members or small children who can only eat well done meat, I would add another 3 minutes to these times. The key, really, is to have an instant read thermometer. I've seen a range of temperatures, so I may be wrong, but 155-160 appears to be the right internal temp. 

The biggest mistake I made when I was learning to cook was taking the meat off when it was exactly where I wanted it to be. WRONG. Meat doesn't stop cooking the second it is out of the heat, so make sure you take it off a few minutes before it appears "done" (whatever that "done-ness is to you.)

Here is what "done" is for me:

7. Rest. Yes, rest. Rest, for meat, is just as important as rest is for athletes. Take the meat out of the skillet (watch the handle, it IS hot and will sear your flesh off). For the no-clean method, put each tenderloin on it's own sheet of foil and loosely wrap the foil around it. This will keep it warm and allow the meat to cool, finish cooking, and have the juices set. This will keep the juices from spilling out all over everything (and drying your meat) when you cut it. I let this happen for about 10 minutes (or while I'm finishing making dinner.)

Sides

Yes, I know we can all live on meat alone, but it's SO much better with some sides. Normally, I'd make something a lot more healthy, but I was feeling indulgent. I added scalloped potatoes, green beans, and gravy.

Scalloped Potatoes

Recipe adapted from Joy of Cooking

I tend to make these when we have some potatoes have seen better days - usually, smaller potatoes. Some of them are starting to sprout and all that. No matter. Take enough to fill two cups with slices (this will be between 5-8 smaller potatoes).

1. Peel them. You can do this with a knife a little more effectively and easily than with a peeler, but it's chef's choice.

2. Slice them. The more thinly and evenly you slice them, the prettier and more evenly cooked your dish will be. I recommend going for something around an 1/8th of an inch.

3. Prep your secondary ingredients. And preheat your oven to 350. Chop up about 1-2 tbsp butter. You want smaller pieces you can "dot" around the layers of the potatoes. Grab about a 1/3 cup of flour and have that on the side. If you want to add some new flavors, grab some chives, a half an onion, or some bacon (or all of them!) Some people also use cheese. 

4. Layer. Cover the bottom of the pan with one layer of potatoes. Dust with flour and with a few pieces of butter and whatever extras you'd like to add. Keep layering until you're out of potatoes, but don't dust the top with flour or any extras. 

5. Mix liquid. Depending on your level of decadence, heat up a mixture of 1 1/4 c. milk and cream so that it's about bathwater temperature. Sometimes, I add more milk or more water to have more liquid. No more than an extra 1/4 cup, though. 

Mix in 1/2 tsp. of paprika and another of powdered mustard. I add salt in at this point (about a teaspoon). Make sure it's really mixed up or you just get a lump of seasonings in the bottom of the pan.

6. Pour liquid over the potatoes. 

7. Bake. Cover this bad boy with foil and pop it into the oven. In about a half hour, take off the foil. Cooking it with foil for the first half hour keeps it from drying out or burning on the top. Let it bake for another 45 minutes to an hour - but check it at a half hour. I just told Chadd to take it out after an hour while I was at a meeting, so ours came out a bit more "done" than normal. 

Green Beans

I assume most people know how to make green beans, but if you don't - or you want a new twist - here's how we make them in our house.

1. Heat water. Put about an inch and a half of water into the bottom of a larger pot. Add two heaping tablespoons of chicken bouillon and half of an onion, cut into large sections.   

2. Clean the green beans. Rise, then chop off the ends of each green bean. I'm not meticulous about it, don't let yourself spend way too much time doing this.

3. Cook. With about 6-8 minutes left on the rest of your meal, throw in the green beans and just keep an eye on them. Take them out when you can pierce them with a knife, but before they turn brown. They will look vibrantly green when they're done. If you like your green beans soggy - don't come over for dinner. 

Gravy

Recipe non existant, but mad props to my dad for teaching me how to make gravy.

When you took the tenderloins out of the oven and moved them to foil, I'm sure you noticed that you had a lot of extra juice and stuff floating around in the bottom of the pan. This is good. 

1. Thicken. Toss a tablespoon or so of flour into the juice in the pan on medium low heat. If this makes paste, add some water, broth (any kind, really), or left over marinade. Your choice. If you use the left over marinade - match that 1 for 1 with water since the marinade will be very strong in flavor. Don't over do it.

2. Simmer. Bring gravy to a simmer. Too thin? Add flour a spoonful at a time to avoid lumps. Too thick? Add water, marinade, or broth. Stir continuously so you don't burn the gravy.

3. Repeat. Until you have the consistency you like. A word on using the marinade - that has raw stuff floating around in it. Make sure your gravy simmers (bubbles) for a bit if you've decided to use that as a loosening agent. 

Timing

I think timing is probably the hardest thing for people to master as they are learning to cook. Here is my cheat sheet to make everything above and have it all finish at roughly the same time.

Earlier in the day: prep tenderloins and marinade them

2 hours before dinner: prep scalloped potatoes

1.5 hours before dinner: put in scalloped potatoes

1 hour before dinner: take foil off potatoes, prep green beans

30 minutes before dinner: sear tenderloins and place in oven

15 minutes before dinner: boil water for green beans

10 minutes before dinner: put on green beans, take out tenderloin and let rest

5 minutes before dinner: make gravy

And voila:

The meat is a little pink for my taste, but Chadd likes his tenderloin more rare than I do. 

Success!

Questions? Mia Cooks requests? Soup recipes coming soon!

Mia Cooks - Bolognese Sauce

If you didn't get a chance to watch me live-tweet my cooking adventure tonight, you can easily catch up on my twitter handle.

Here's my promised blog post!

I intended to make butternut squash soup tonight. I have all the ingredients sitting around and I love having the soup for lunch at work or as a quick snack after a workout. But I love cooking for Chadd and he needs more than soup for dinner and frankly, after a 95% fruit and vegetable set-up for my meals today, I was DYING for some meat. I find that when I'm really craving something (no, french fries don't count), I usually need it.

I made bolognese sauce tonight. Chadd still eats a lot of grains but I'm on a reduced grain diet (diet being lifestyle, not DIET). When I make things that usually go with pasta, I substitute spaghetti squash for my dish. The first time I tried it, I liked it, but I didn't love it. After several incidents with it, I've grown to like it MORE than pasta. Who knew.

I'll show how to make spaghetti squash another day, but I had some leftovers laying around.

I decided to double the recipe and make some modifications from the recipe that was shown in Practical Paleo. I should note that I almost never make a recipe out of a cook book exactly as listed - but that doesn't mean you can't. I just get bored and "want to see what will happen" - most of the time this works out...some of the time, it does not. But tonight! It worked!

Ingredients:

1 pound pork sausage

1 pound ground beef

8 strips bacon (optional, but really good)

2 onions

2 carrots

2 stalks celery

2 cloves garlic

6 oz. tomato paste

1 c. coconut milk

1 c. white wine (optional, but highly recommended)

2 TBSP butter

Seasonings (sage, fennel, garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper)

If you are just beginning to learn how to cook, the best advice I can give you about cooking is to have everything prepped beforehand. Chop, peel, thaw, and measure everything before you start. Pretend you're on a cooking show. It does mean more dishes, but it makes timing everything so much easier.

Want to see how to chop an onion? Here ya go:

1. MELT THE BUTTER. I melted 2 TBSP of butter over a medium heat (half of what was recommended) in a BIG skillet. I probably could have done with even less than that, but whatever. If you're making half this recipe, you don't need a HUGE skillet, but make sure it's deep so you can stir without spilling. If you want, go ahead and grab a big soup or pasta pot.

2. ADD THE VEGGIES. I threw all of the veggies that I'd chopped into a billion pieces into the butter and stirred around. When you're sauteeing veggies, just use a spatula to toss them around now and then so they don't burn or get soggy. Every 30 seconds is fine.

2 small onions (I prefer yellow onions), 2 carrots, 2 stalks celery, diced

3. ADD THE GARLIC. After a couple minutes (maybe 3?) check the onions. If they are becoming translucent, it's time to add the garlic - make sure it's chopping up pretty finely. You can use the same technique I showed on the onion above for tiny pieces. Just two cloves will do. Stir around, then let sit for a minute until you start to smell the garlic. And trust me, you will.

4. ADD THE MEAT.

That's 1 pound of beef, 1 pound of pork sausage, 8 strips of chopped bacon (I cooked the bacon earlier last week and drained off the extra fat). I stirred this every few minutes to make sure nothing burned. I broke up the meat as much as possible until it was browned (this means there isn't red left in the meat. Pink is ok.)

A note on the meat here. I tend to cook the meat first and drain off the extra fat, but since this is a sauce, some of that fat is a key component for keeping the sauce thick and delicious. And frankly, we all get too scared about FATOMGFATFATFAT. Fat is good for you. Calm down.

Browned meat

4. STIR IN THE LIQUIDS. Once the meat was browned, I added the coconut milk, tomato paste, and wine. The wine is optional, but I find that it adds a depth of flavor. Don't worry, the alcohol cooks out! 

Essentially, the tomato paste takes a while to incorporate - but I put it in the center, then use the back of my spoon to even it out. Instead of stirring around the pan (splashing happens a lot this way), I did more of an up and down stirring. Scoop some meat/veggies from the side of the pan and put into the middle, then push down with the spoon. Take your time. Another attractive option would have been to mix the coconut milk, paste, and wine ahead of time so the paste wasn't difficult to incorporate. 

5. SEASON AND SIMMER. Once everything is incorporated, add seasonings and simmer. 

I added salt, pepper, a smidgen of sage, oregano, parsley, some garlic powder and some onion powder, as well as some fennel. I highly recommend the fennel - that was a last minute addition. The recipe doesn't call for any seasonings other than salt and pepper, but I found it was a bit sweet for my liking.

That looks super gross, I'm sure, but it's awesome so far. Let it hang out on low-medium for 20 minutes or so. Stir every couple of minutes so it doesn't stick (I checked in ever 3-4 minutes). If it starts super bubbling (you know, BUBBLE BUBBLE SPLAT POP), turn it down. 

After twenty minutes, the sauce should be thick without a ton of liquid. The alcohol will have cooked off by this time as well. 

6. EAT. Now it's time to EAT. When the simmering started, I put water on the stove in a medium sized saucepan and bring to a boil. Add pasta. Cook.

When I was just about to finish up the pasta and the sauce, I threw my spaghetti squash in the microwave for a minute or so.

Here's how it turned out:

For Chadd - over pasta with some parmesan cheese

Over spaghetti squash!

Reheats well for lunch!

Looking back:
- I'd probably double the amount of carrots and celery in the sauce
- I'd mix the liquids and tomato paste before pouring into the sauce

Mia's Review:
I don't like a lot of meat in my foods anymore, but when I want it - I WANT it and this delivered (see: 3 types of meat). I'm glad I doubled the recipe because I feel like it will be a solid "go-to" for the next few days and also freeze well for future "oh crap I forgot to make dinner" meals. Put it on pasta, eat it straight, mix with veggies, add greens...the versatility is hard to beat.

Mia's Score: 90/100

Chadd's Review:
It had good flavor and was very satisfying and filling while avoiding the heaviness that characterizes many sauces of this kind.

I told him that was very formal and he said: "Fine. I liked it, would make it again, good flavor, light."

I disagree on the "light" description, but if he means light on grease and other heavier factors, then he's right. It eats clean to me.

Chadd's Score: 87/88 out of 100

I'll upload the videos tonight and I'll have another cook along (or possibly a lot of cook alongs) coming in the near future. After all, I did promise butternut squash soup.

Mia Cooks - Why?

I am not #fitfluential.

I won't ever apply. Not that I blog enough, though I certainly tweet enough. Regardless. Over the past few months, some of us have noticed that the "fit crowd" (my term to make sure I don't help their SEO), have been endorsing some not so "fit" options.

Thus was born #Fatfluential. I have no idea who is behind it, but I want to be their best friend forever (seriously, I love you guys). It started as a light-hearted, spoof account. It was the "Mean Girls" movie in the Twitterverse; it showed the fit crowd as larger-than-life, mostly-ridiculous. And then, buoyed by their no-bull followers (myself included), #Fatfluential started taking on it's superficial cousin instead of just spoofing them, and so did their followers.

What is Fatfluential?

Train hard, eat lots, laugh harder - we are athletes who eat - RTing the best of your #proof (this is a spoof of FitFluential)

Recently, our cousins got a little taste of some "food" and decided that it was blog worthy. I'm not without sin. I've eaten frozen stuff. I've indulged in pizza. I won't judge if you eat it. But I will judge if you dare tell me it's super healthy.

Because it's not.

Fatfluential responded with the following Tweets

And you know what was amazing? People started offering to teach others how to cook. For free. 

All over the country.

Because I once relied on losing weight as being calories in/calories out, I feel that I can speak with some authority on this topic. You can lose weight eating processed food. But you know what happens? You're miserable and everything tastes vaguely...fake. And when you want something real, it all goes to hell. At what price convenience? 

I started working with Christine (that link will take you to a limited time offer to work with her at a reduced rate). I learned that just because you love to cook does not mean you only have to cook unhealthy (but delicious) food. I also learned that healthy, home cooked food is...wait for it...amazing. I lost 12 pounds following this basic plan and it wasn't hard; in fact, it was easy.

And so I volunteered my kitchen to teach people how to cook.

I'm trying it out tonight through the hashtag #miacooks. I'll start at 8:30pm and [hopefully] upload a blog post with video, more pictures, and further directions.

Tonight, kids, we're making butternut squash soup. And you may get dragged along for the ride when I make homemade bolognese and mushroom caps. We'll see.

The Blue Terror

As many of you know, I am terrified of my bike.

The blue terror has earned its name pretty well. I bought the bike from a nice guy and his wife on Craigslist. I know, I know, I heard the lectures about buying a bike from some place other than a shop, but y'all, there was just no way I was going to afford a half IM worthy bike from a store. Even used.

I stalked Craigslist for a couple days, asked around about a couple bikes, but nothing was just right. I'd already gone down to a bike shop with the help of Blair, and learned roughly what I needed.

The post came up, a 52cm women's road bike. Hardly used. Upgraded brakes. Turns out the guy selling it bought it for his wife, she took it out for the first time clipped in...and then promptly ate it (as everyone does when they go clipless). She took the hit so hard that she bent the right side of the handle bar. Shortly thereafter, she got pregnant. You can imagine how the conversation went regarding the bike. Original owner: 0, Blue Terror: 1.

So, I took it for a ride and, knowing precisely 0 about bikes, bought it.

Second owner: 0, Blue Terror: 2

The first time I clipped in, I actually did not fall. I will admit that it was a terrifying day of being about 2-3 minutes behind my team at all times, and every time I had to clip out, I had a mild panic attack and jumped off my bike. Yup. You read that right. Jumped off of it.

I didn't fall that ride. Instead, my legs gave out while I was getting off my bike and talking to my coach and THEN I ate it.

Mia: 0, Blue Terror: 3

The next time I went out with my team, we were near traffic. This was a HUGE mental block for me. I'm really careful to notice bikes, but what about other people out enjoying their Saturdays? Fat chance. We actually did fairly well until a cop pulled over part of our team to scold us for slowing instead of stopping at a stop sign with no other traffic. She had the nerve to tell us that we were the reason motorists hated cyclists...

Honey, have you worked in Dupont?

Regardless, I was catching up with my team and went to stop, but left too much weight on my clipped foot and just went right over. It does feel just like slow motion. I left bloody palm prints on my handle bars that morning.

Mia: 0, Blue Terror: 4

When I got back from my group ride, my coach made me practice clipping in and out over and over and over again. I had a total freak out. God bless my coach she pulled a total parent move on me. I know that tone of voice. She held my bike upright and made me practice in out in out in out. I was shaking and she said "Calm down. You can do this." And she's right...I could! Tentative victory!

Then I had to clip in and ride a little in the grass, unclip and get off and do it again. I fell the second time. Ouch, but less painful on grass versus pavement. Slightly more tentative victory!

Thus was the pattern for several weeks.

And then, one miraculous morning, I got up, got my bike on the car and drove to Haines Point. The gates were still closed, so after I wobbled off, clipped in, I had to jump a small curb (ACK) and make a quick wiggle around a post (AAAHHHHH) and go back down a curb (UGCK). This started out nicely enough

Mia - .5, Blue Terror: 4

Somewhere around my second lap, my legs were crapping out. Everyone else looked like they were sailing past me. Well, not looked like...they WERE. So, I stopped, put air in my tires*, and continued. No dice. 12 miles ish in an hour.

(* wait for it...wait for it...scroll down...)

Two weeks ago, I go out for my first big brick workout. I am SO excited. I go for my 10 mile run, come back, all excited about a 30 mile bike. My plan was to do two out and backs on the Capital Crescent. 7 miles out, kids were passing me on bmx bikes. No joke.

I stopped, almost threw my bike over the trees and texted Alicia:

"Chadd doesn't have his phone, so I'm telling you this. I'm on the Capital Crescent Path, I'm about 7 miles into 30 and I feel like total shit. If I don't text you by noon, please call me."

To the credit of the amazing Alicia, she offered to come pick me up. 

I made my first 15 mile loop, swearing, huffing, puffing, and all but ready to give up. I rolled up to Coach and told her that I was going abysmally slow. Even for someone who just ran 10 miles. I had this mental image of being the last swimmer out of the water at Patriots and then having the sag wagon pick me and the Blue Terror up at mile 15 on the bike.

She squeezed my back tire.

"*That's flat."

"Oh."

Mia - 0, Blue Terror: 5 (See below on my critical mistake on how to inflate your tires)

Tire pumped, legs still on fire from my accidental 15 mile slog, Coach sent me back out for 5 miles, to Haines Point and back. Huzzah! I'm flying! Garmin is reading 17-19 miles an hour. WOOHOOO.

Annnnnd that was the last time I got out on the bike due to heat, fear of traffic, or that one time when I ate it on the pavement a mile into my run on my brick workout and had to call it a day.

The Blue Terror and I did sit on the demon trainer from hell yesterday and managed to put a nice black mark on the carpet (redecorating, the triathlete way!) but for now, we have a tentative agreement. If we stay off the demon trainer and keep air in the tires, we'll both be a lot happier.

Me and the Blue Terror

(:12 make sure you unscrew the valves!)

Ragnar 101

I recently wrote an email to my Ragnar New York Team about Ragnar and with a bunch of people asking me more and more about it (and why I love it) I figured I'd post the letter here, modified for general Ragnar. 

The Basics

Each Ragnar is a point-to-point race of roughly 200 miles. Teams can be comprised of either 6 runners (ultra) or 12 (regular). Most teams run as a regular team. 

Van 1 will have runners 1-6 and Van 2 will have runners 7-12. Both vans will meet at the start line where Van 1 will check in. Different teams start at different times, based on their estimated pace. My team usually has an early start time so we can take our time and enjoy ourselves down the course. People who take this race seriously (few and far between) tend to have start times later in the day. 

After runner 1 starts, Van 1 will drive to exchange 1 and wait for runner 1/drop off runner 2 and move along to exchange 2. Rinse and repeat through runner 6. While someone in your van is running, the van stops to support that runner, as long as it's allowed. Most legs allow for support - Ragnar will list the leg as "non-support" if vans cannot access the runner, or if it's unsafe for vans to pull over. Support means either stopping to give them water, food, gatorade, or just cheer and wave frantically while they run by. Ragnar even gives you nifty orange safety flags which make for excellent interpretive dancing.

While Van 1 is running, Van 2 drives from the start line to Major Exchange 6 where they will check in and wait for Van 1's runners to finish. Major Exchanges are the only places were both vans are allowed into the parking lot. These major exchanges are 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, and obviously the finish line.

Each van will be "running" 3 times - so everyone runs 3 legs. It's important to know, too, that if you are runner 4, you have to run legs 4, 16 and 28 (you can't pick and choose singular legs). 

The Running

Ragnar is largely on paved roads, so you don't need to worry about very technical trail running. Occasionally, runners will be on gravel roads and very rarely on trails. In the five I've done, I have yet to see a trail that was so difficult that I'd suggest wearing anything but basic running clothes/shoes. 

A note on difficulty: the Ragnar "difficult" descriptions are slightly misleading. They're done largely by distance. Look at the map for the elevation chart to get a better picture of how difficult the leg will actually be.

Running/walking/skipping/crabwalking/etc. is all totally awesome. We'll settle for any type of forward locomotion, really. Ragnar is more of an experience, less of a race. If you want to train for it, I suggest becoming very comfortable with distances ranging between 3 and 6 miles. Once you have your leg assignment, work on being comfortable with doing those distances on no sleep. Kidding (ok, not kidding), but really, as long as you feel comfortable run/walking the distances associated with your runner number, you'll be awesome. You may or may not see a lot of runners on the course, it just depends on when we start and how fast or slow the people are around us. In my opinion, one of the best things about Ragnar is that you do get to see and interact with other runners, but mostly, it's a beautiful solo run through new territory. If you find that you are uncomfortable running at night, you do have the option to have one of your vanmates run with you (though, you need to have a willing vanmate for this one). This only applies during night hours - you cannot have a pacer during daylight hours. Ragnar does allow bikes on trails, during night hours only. We brought a bike our first year and it just wasn't worth it because we never used it and it was a hassle.

If you are picky about what you wear while running, I'd suggest getting used to wearing a reflective vest, a tail light (red LED) and a headlamp (or carrying a flashlight). These items are required by Ragnar during night hours (which are usually around 7-7, pending time of the year). If you are not in safety gear while running, the team is given one "strike." Three strikes - you're asked to leave the course. If you are NOT running during night hours, you are still required to wear a reflective vest. Tired people driving huge vans in the middle of the night + non reflective person = bad. Tip on the headlamp: wear it over a hat. Petzel sells pretty good ones for about $20 and it's always nice to have your own headlamp unless you like sharing sweaty headbands.

The Not Running

But what in the world do I do while my van is NOT running? First of all, probably eating. You'll eat a lot, though I advise against 3 sloppy joes (apparently outside of the south, these are called steamers?) and ice cream at the same time (now would be the time for an emoticon that barfs). There will also be some hanging out, talking with other teams, taking pictures, and sleeping. Sometimes a major exchange will have showers so you can be clean for at least a couple minutes. Major exchanges tend to be at high schools, churches, YMCAs, or other community based locations. These places go out of their way to be hospitable and often times sell food as fundraisers. Interacting with the local community is such a great part of Ragnar that I promise you won't be bored while you're hanging out and waiting for the other van.

The Creative Stuff

Ragnar encourages letting your [creative] juices flow. Team names are usually hilarious (there was a team in California of Indian guys who called their team "Curry in a Hurry"), inappropriate (DC has the "Sofa Kings"), or both...for example: Flaccid Placid would be totally expected in New York. The more creative, the better. Teams usually make team shirts, come up with nicknames, decorate their vans, have costumes, etc.. Ragnar facilitates best name/best costume/etc. voting among the teams at the end of the race and it's always fun to be a crowd favorite. 

Essentially: Ragnar is a crazy running party. What fun is a plain, white, 12-person van? (Don't answer that.) Decorating a van, even just with window paint, is super fun. (And it's easier to find your van at the major exchange - major bonus - there can literally be hundreds of vans at exchanges). 

And now, you are ready to Ragnar.

Collective Running Concerns, Part 2: Fear of Being Judged

The next installation of Running Fears is an important one to me...mostly because I just remembered how scary this fear can actually be as I was getting comfortable swimming with you semi-aquatic people out there. So, enjoy...

2) Are other runners are judging me? Will people laugh at me? I’m so slow, are the running articles/clothes/shoes/accessories/products even made for people like me? 

No. No. Yes.

This was basically the resounding follow up fear to problem one. I have a whole lot of theories on this, but I think the best and most simple way to say it is that this fear comes out for all of us whenever we do something new. Remember when I was learning to swim laps? I seriously over-analyzed my plain black bathing suit like it held the secret to life.

We’re afraid to be judged while we’re learning. It’s my opinion that a lot of runners are Type A personalities because we like to be in charge and in control…but we’re also intensely afraid of criticism. I’m a very outgoing person, but if you put me in a room with a new task or skill to learn, I’m a shrinking violet until I can “own” being a newbie (talk about managing expectations). Running is an easy activity to pick up because it requires a pair of shoes (and depending on who you are, those are optional). And body glide. Trust me on the body glide.

“Anybody can be a runner. We were meant to move. We were meant to run.” – Bill Rodgers

It’s easy to judge yourself when you see other people out on the road. When I started running, I taught myself. I mean, clearly I knew HOW to run, but I didn’t know pacing, or breathing, or form, or any of those Runner Insider Club secrets. I watched svelte, even-breathed people sail by me while I chugged, red-faced and panting down the road. It’s easy to belittle yourself when it comes to a task without a set goal. You can win a tennis match, but you’ll always be in pursuit of a faster mile/better form/new PR. It’s the beauty and the terror of running. There is no finish line.

I don’t know a single seasoned runner who has ever looked at a new runner with disdain. I usually can’t tell (unless your nipples are bleeding through your shirt – dead giveaway because you’ll only make that mistake once). If I do see someone chugging along, looking pained and out of breath, I mentally cheer them on.

Generally speaking, people aren’t going to laugh at you. Runner’s laugh WITH each other. Case in point – I have a tendency to barf during Ragnar. Might have something to do with the temptation to each 3 sloppy joes and ice cream THEN run 8 miles. While I was throwing up for the millionth time behind a dumpster, I couldn’t help but laugh with my teammates.

Even that famous photo of the runner literally crapping themselves…sure, maybe non runners are laughing, but actual runners are going “oh shit…” [literally]. Like I said, we talk about poop a lot.

And yes. All the fun gadgets, clothes, and accessories for runners are made for all entry levels. May I strongly recommend The Stick? And Body Glide.  A lot of Body Glide.