Recipe: Roasted Butternut Squash

Yum!

Roasting hard winter squashes whole makes them a lot easier to cut into.  You also need to cook them a bit longer, so you are trading the cutting into a hard squash for some extra time running the oven.

To do this, take a whole squash and score the outside by poking it with a fork or a knife a half a dozen times.  Place it on a cookie sheet (or not, but they drip sometimes), and put into the oven at 350 for an hour to an hour and a half.  It is done when it is soft for a fork.

If you let this cool, you can easily peel the skin and use it for such delisiousness as pancakes (here and here). You could even sub it for sweet potatoes in recipes like this.

Enjoy!

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30 Min Workout Blast

Pressed for time? Press this:

(3 rounds of each)

pull ups
dips

TGUs

sledgehammer on tire
push ups on tire
Tire flips


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Hot Peppers Part 3: Sweet Chili Garlic Sauce

Yesterday, you read about the Southeast Asian Chile-Garlic Relish, which is an ingredient in today's third and final installment of How to Eat Hot Peppers all Year.

This recipe is also from The Joy of Pickling and it is for Sweet Chile Garlic Sauce. I am looking forward to dipping grilled chicken breast in this sauce.  

If my hands weren't smelling like garlic before, they certainly were sticky and full of garlic after getting 1/4 cup of it for this recipe. 

I substituted honey at 1/2 the amount for the sugar in the recipe.  She is specific about the temperatures, and at one point even calls for a candy thermometer if you have it.  This recipe also differs from the others in that it is cooked.

Hot Peppers Part 1: Pique Sauce
Hot Peppers Part 2: Southeast Asian Chile Garlic Relish
Hot Peppers Part 3: Sweet Chili Garlic Sauce

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Hot Peppers Part 2: Southeast Asian Chile Garlic Relish

Part 2 of my Goodness That's a Lot of Peppers series is another sauce I found in The Joy of Pickling.  

This one is Southeast Asian Chile-Garlic Relish and I tasted it tonight with a sausage and MAN, it is spicy!  It was incredibly delicious, so I had about a teaspoon of it (hence the name "relish").  But then it had an afterburn on my tongue that required some milk swishing and a banana.  Then I got hot~ my whole body.  Suffice it to say, try this in moderation but it is worth trying.

I halved the recipe, which is hot peppers, garlic, salt, and cider vinegar. 

I made it in a jar so I could use the immersion blender.

She says to keep the chili seeds intact, and the immersion blender did a nice job of that.

This is an essential ingredient in the next recipe, sweet chili garlic sauce.

Hot Peppers Part 1: Pique Sauce
Hot Peppers Part 2: Southeast Asian Chile Garlic Relish
Hot Peppers Part 3: Sweet Chili Garlic Sauce

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Hot Peppers Part 1: Pique Sauce

What to do when life gives you peppers?

Make hot sauce, of course!

After staring at the pile of peppers for a day and deciding they weren't getting any fresher, I turned to The Joy of Pickling for some inspiration. This cookbook has been a great resource for creative and delicious recipes.   It didn't disappoint today.

I found three that looked good, and had enough hot peppers to make them all.

The first was a Pique, which was super easy to make and she describes it as an easy restaurant-style condiment.  It's basically hot pepper infused cider vinegar.

To make it, I used an old vinegar jar and sliced up the peppers and garlic, and added them and 12 peppercorns and some salt, then the cider vinegar.  It's on my counter for 2 days before I get to try it.

Hot Peppers Part 1: Pique Sauce
Hot Peppers Part 2: Southeast Asian Chile Garlic Relish
Hot Peppers Part 3: Sweet Chili Garlic Sauce




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Green Beans- Steamed with Olive Oil and Sea Salt

Sometimes it's the simplest things in life that are the best.

These green beans, for example, are so easy that I make them, or another veggie the exact same way, at least three times per week. You can easily substitute broccoli, cauliflower, or zucchini.

veggies to fit in your steamer basket

1-4 T good, real, local if possible olive oil

1/2-1 t. sea salt

Steam veggies until they are al dente.  For us, it used to take 12 minutes but with our new cooktop it only takes 7.  They should be bright in color but with an edge when you bite them.

Rinse in cool water.  This stops the cooking and also makes them cooler for little mouths.

Drizzle olive oil and sea salt over them.

Enjoy!

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Leg Workout: Pistols, Front Squats, Front Lunge, Band Side Walks, Ball Slams, Jump Roping

• Bear crawls
• Pistol squats trx (you could do one legged box squats if you haven't done TRX pistols before)
• Barbell Front squat (you could do a kettlebell goblet or double rack squat if you wanted)
• Dumbbell Front lunge on step w pulse
• Band side walks
• Ball slams
• Ab hangs or ab hollows or TRX side and middle planks

option: mix in jump roping

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Upcycling: Too Long Crop Pants into Crops for me and Shorts for 4 Year Old

These soft and cozy crops were too long for me.  Like I-went-for-a-walk-in-them-and-had-to-fold-them-up too long.  So I took the scissors to them and cut them just around knee height.

What to do with the excess? 

Make little boy shorts, of course!  For my four year-old.

To make these, I measured the cut ends against his leg and determined the length was right but they would need an added waistband instead of a rolled-over one.

Then I cut the angled crotch seam and stitched the sides together, right sides together.  

Next, I measured his waist to a snug fit against some 4-way stretch fabric (you could always do any fabric and add a piece of elastic inside), and cut it about 4" wide.  I stitched it into a  loop.  Then I folded it over and put the right sides together around the waist.  The seams both face up, towards where the body goes, when you use this method.  Then I stitched it around once with a regular stitch and again with a wide zig zag (faux serge) next to the seam.

Viola!  Cutest shorts ever and a pair of crops that I can go use for walking.

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TRX/ Boot Camp Class Routine Group X for sharing TRXs in partners

This is for a class with half as many TRXs as participants.  They can share per grouping of exercises (half the class doing one exercise and the other half doing the other exercise).

Set interval timer for 45:15
Grab a TRX, DB you can press overhead and also row, and a set of sliders

Warm Up (10 min):
Bodyweight Squats
Inchworm
Bear crawls
Chicken pecks
Kick and reach
Bear Crawls
Jumping jacks
Low TRX Squats
TRX Lunges
Skaters

3 rounds (12 min):
TRX pull ups
TRX chest press
DB squat and press
DB Lateral hops over

2 rounds (8 min):
DB Renegade row
Push Ups
TRX pistol squat
Burpees

4 rounds (16 min):
TRX One arm row
Slider Mountain climbers/ Slider Pike (2 rounds each)
Walking plank
TRX Jump Squat

2 rounds (8 min):
TRX side plank
forearm plank/ DB plank pull throughs

Stretching/ Rolling if foam rollers -3 min Pin It

TRX/ Boot Camp Class Routine Group X

Grab a TRX, DB you can press overhead and also row, and a set of sliders

Warm Up (8-10 min):
Bodyweight Squats
Inchworm
Bear crawls
Chicken pecks
Kick and reach
Bear Crawls
Jumping jacks
Low TRX Squats
TRX Lunges
Skaters

3 rounds:
TRX pull ups
TRX chest press
DB squat and press
DB Lateral hops over

2 rounds:
DB Renegade row
Push Ups
TRX pistol squat
Burpees

2 rounds:
TRX One arm row
Slider Mountain climbers
Walking plank

2 rounds:
TRX Jump Squat
TRX reverse lunge or lunge to hop or knee up

2 rounds:
TRX Ab Rollout
TRX Triceps Press
TRX Biceps Curls

3 rounds:
TRX side plank
TRX or forearm plank/ DB plank pull throughs
TRX or slider pike or "running"

Stretching


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Homemade dinner rolls

We do like baking, and the kids eat bread.  My grandfather was a renowned baker, and my older son is named after him.  We used to make challahs often (as in this old photo), and stopped for a while.

Last week, my younger son and I made homemade dinner rolls with this recipe, and they were quite good (or so I hear).  It was fun for the kids to roll the dough into one inch balls, and stuff three per cup.  We changed the recipe by chopping fresh rosemary and putting it on top of the rolls before baking.  We also used coconut milk instead of cow's milk, and it turned out fine.

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Metabolic Circuit: Full Body with Ladder and Sled

bear crawl
windmills
farmer's carry
deadlift

pull ups
dips
ladder drills (jump in and out, run run in out, plank side to side)

KB swing
goblet squat and press (or rack)
goblet squat

trx pistol squat
trx push up or push up foam roller under shins
trx row
trx side plank

band side walks

sled or ball slams


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Kids' Projects: Science and Kitchen Supplies - Volcanoes

Baking soda and vinegar are cheap and entertaining.  

I prefer for them to experiment with these outside.  

Try having them put one then the other, then switch which goes in first.

Or how about re-using the materials~ then what happens?

Or have the kids experiment with quantities of each.  Does this make a difference?

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Two Kids without Training Wheels! Adventures in Biking

Look!  Two kids biking without training wheels!!

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