Pumpkin Turkey Chili

So number 65 on my list is to try one new recipe a month. I haven’t been so good about this, but I found this recipe for Pumpkin Turkey Chili and decided it sounded interesting, why not try it out. With the cooler weather hitting the east coast chili is always a favorite comfort food of mine in the fall.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped yellow bell pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound ground turkey
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 dash salt
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
Directions

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and sauté the onion, green bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, and garlic until tender. Stir in the turkey, and cook until evenly brown. Drain, and mix in tomatoes and pumpkin. Season with chili powder, pepper, and salt. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes. Serve topped with Cheddar cheese and sour cream.  Yields 6 servings.

Since I’ve been trying to eat paleo, I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil and did not use the cheddar cheese or sour cream. In my opinion this recipe was missing some flavor. I added extra salt, pepper and some garlic powder to the first bowl I ate. Since this recipe yields six servings, I definitely felt I needed to spice it up a bit. Tonight I plan on adding in some cayenne and red pepper flakes to hopefully give this chili the kick it needs.

Guerilla Fitness

On October 18, 2011 I did something I’ve been considering doing for, probably the better part of 2 years, but never had the courage to try. I finally tried a Crossfit gym. Guerilla Fitness in Montclair, NJ to be precise. I didn’t walk into this totally blind, however, I wasn’t 100% sure what exactly I was getting myself in to. My friend Bridget Murphy and her husband Ray own a Crossfit gym in Atlanta. I would always read about it on her facebook, blog, and read any and all articles she posted. I always felt crossfit was WAY out of my exercise league. I remember reading one article in particular about a guy who thought, what’s the big deal with Crossfit? It can’t be THAT hard. He went to his local Crossfit, did the workout…and promptly threw up at the end of it. I’m guessing he went in cold and did like a super intensive version of every workout and I’m also guessing the trainers were purposly trying to get him to that breaking point. However, as I walked into my first fundamentals class on October 18, looked around and realized I was the only chick with five pretty fit dudes, the only thing I could think was “DO NOT THROW UP CRYSTAL!”

The first thing I appreciated about Crossfit was, as opposed to a typical gym, they don’t just take your money and throw you out there to figure it out. They have you take a two week fundamentals class to teach you how to do everything they’re going to ask of you, and they teach you how to do it right. The second thing that struck me about Crossfit is the community. I have NEVER seen a group of strangers band together the way the Crossfit community does. For a while I thought, maybe Bridget & Ray just have a really awesome group of members at their location. But, the more I read about Crossfit, and after watching the class before my fundamentals class, the more I realize, this is who these guys are. They are a community that supports. They support one another, as well as support amazing causes such as cancer research and their popular Fight Gone Bad.

I’ll be honest, when I walked in to sign up last week, I didn’t go to the free trial class they offer. I didn’t ask, what do you do? I walked up and saw what looked like an open garage with gymnastics mats covering the floor, steel pipes running from one side of the gym to the other, gymnastics rings hanging down, and what I could only describe as odd torture chamber belts hanging off the steel pipes. I am guessing soon I’ll know what those are for. So, I walked in, and started talking to a coach, who as it turns out, was the owner. We discussed what I was looking for, the goals I wanted to accomplish and maybe I wouldn’t have been so quick to sign up had I never known about Bridget and Ray, but I said, let’s do it. I signed up right then and there. Should I have done more research? Maybe. But after two years of thinking about it, I was finally ready to just do it.

After my first class last night, let’s just say, score one for Crystal I didn’t throw up. Score another for Crystal: I figured I’d be last in the group and I was ok with that. I just kept telling myself do not let the guys blow you away too hard core. They didn’t. For that I was proud. I don’t expect to be able to keep up with dudes, however, I don’t want to get blown out of the water by them either. What can I say, I’m a competitive b*tch. So, that was fundamentals class one. Oct. 20, fundamentals class two. I have to say, it sure didn’t take me long to drink the Kool-Aid. I totally dig this place. It was hard, but I think what I liked about it was it reminded me of when I was playing softball. The workouts our coaches used to make us do didn’t always make sense to me but they always made us better softball players. And they made us closer because we were always pushing and supporting one another. For someone who’s so not a joiner, look at me, I joined.

60 days

Two months into my 101 list and I finally did Paleo. Yay me! From the moment I woke up on Monday, September 26 to the moment I went to bed on Sunday, October 2, everything I ate and drank was in accordance with Paleo (I hope!).

So, here’s how my week of meals broke down:

September 26:

Breakfast:

2 eggs over hard

Coffee

Lunch:

Chef salad with olive oil

Water

Dinner:

Easy Mexi Chicken

Glass of red wine

September 27:

Breakfast:

2 eggs over hard

Coffee

Lunch:

Easy Mexi Chicken

Water

Dinner:

Grilled chicken kabobs with grilled veggies

Glass of red wine

September 28:

Breakfast:

2 eggs scrambled with green pepper and onion

Coffee

Lunch:

Grilled chicken kabobs with grilled veggies

Water

Dinner:

Hamburger (no bun) with lettuce and tomato; sweet potato fries

Water

September 29:

Breakfast:

2 eggs scrambled with green pepper and onion

Coffee

Lunch:

Grilled chicken; steamed broccoli and greenbeans

Water

Dinner:

Hamburger (no bun) with lettuce and tomato; sweet potato fries

September 30:

Breakfast:

2 eggs over hard

Coffee

Lunch:

Chef salad with olive oil

Water

Dinner:

Hamburger (no bun) with lettuce and tomato; sweet potato fries

2 glasses red wine

October 1:

Breakfast:

Coffee (forgive me I woke up late and didn’t see the point in eating breakfast!)

Lunch:

Chef salad with olive oil

Dinner:

Burger (no bun) with bacon on top and sweet potatoes

Water

October 2:

Breakfast:

2 eggs over hard

Coffee

Lunch:

Chicken salad with olive oil

Water

Dinner:

Tuna salad with carrots

Glass of red wine

 

I’m not going to lie, it was hard. Turns out I hate black coffee! I craved a soda at lunch. I didn’t pack myself any snacks for that 3 o’clock lull in the day because, well, partially I wasn’t thinking and partially I wasn’t sure what to pack. I’ve realized now I think a great 3 o’clock snack would be some fruits and veggies. I also struggled a bit with getting out of the habit of using certain oils to cook with (ex: canola oil). I found myself checking labels of things I thought would be ok and realized they were either made with gluten or I couldn’t believe how much sugar was in them. I had to think about every meal, what went into it and how I prepared it because this is new to me, but, the more I do it the more second nature it will become. I did it and I’m proud of myself for that and for being able to check something off my list. It took some planning. I had to sit down and come up with meals I wanted for the week. Being a single girl who lives alone, you may see a lot of repeats in my meals. This is partially because, well, I live alone so who else is going to eat all those left overs and shopping for one is hard. Remember the scene in Under the Tuscan Sun when Frances yells at the butcher because she only wants one chicken? Yep, that’s my life. I just want one chicken but I always end up walking away with five. This next coming week I will be in Toronto for work. I‘m going to do my best to stick to paleo this week while traveling, and going forward.

I have to give credit to my friend Bridget Murphy because without getting some tips and recipes from her, I’m not sure I would have been able to do this! So mucho thanks to her and for anyone in the San Francisco area check out her personal training Primal Fitness Bootcamp. If you’re in the Atlanta area, check out her gym Cross Fit Peachtree, and if you aren’t in any of those areas but want some yummy, healthy recipes, check out her blog Cross Fit Peachtree Recipes. And if anything on this list was wrong I’m sure (with love) Bridget will yell at me and I can correct it! J

As for a two month update on the rest of my list, I also now have a plant. I will not check that off my list as an accomplishment until I can say I did not kill it. My good friend Monica knew that owning a plant was on my list so she gave me one that she felt I couldn’t kill. Within two days my cat Zoe had nearly chewed off an entire leaf. I took the plant to work and here’s hoping I can keep it alive for the next under three years! Wish me luck. I’ve also placed a call into the local cross fit gym and after my Toronto trip will be checking them out and seeing about joining. And I’m in the process of saving for a down payment on my very first brand new car. Now, if only I had any clue what car I wanted.