Saturday Eats

My Saturday eats.

About a month ago, I started experimenting with Intermittent Fasting (you can read about IF here, here and here).
Today I fasted for 17hrs and felt really good! I wasn't even all that hungry when I broke the fast, but after I made that zucchini bread, it was almost impossible not to have a slice!

And dinner was incredible! Elk roast with homemade gravy (my new favorite meal!) and beets!! Look how pretty those beets are! Lets have another look at them.

Aren't they beautiful?!

Nature is so perfect :)

Coconut oatmeal bars

UPDATE
***This recipe has been updated and posted on my new site http://www.ronilynnfitness.com/blog/recipe-homemade-coconut-bobos-bars****

As I promised, I have an awesome recipe finally!
For the past couple weeks, I have been experimenting with a particular oatmeal bar recipe; I've been trying to imitate Bobo's Oat Bars. 
If you've never tried these puppies, go get some NOW! They are by far my favorite oatmeal bar and they are made right next to my hometown in Boulder, CO! It can't get much better than that!
The bars are thick and chewy and incredibly satisfying. They also have a ridiculous amount of flavors, so you can choose the right one for your mood. From lemon poppy-seed, to strawberry, to chocolate!

The problem is, Bobo's Bars are kind of expensive for a girl on a tight budget, so I've been trying to make my own!
And I think I've done a pretty good job at creating something similar.

So without further adieu, here are my Imitation Coconut Bobo Bars.

Here's what you need (makes 6 bars):
2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
scant 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 scoop (12oz) vanilla protein powder (optional)
scant 2/3 cup brown rice syrup
1/4 cup coconut oil
3 Tbsp water (reduce to 2 Tbsp if not using protein)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
Mix all the ingredients together, starting with the dry and then adding the wet. Line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper (or oil VERY well) and press the mixture into the pan. Press it down very firmly! Bake for 25-30 minutes, but don't let the edges brown too much. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes, then take another sheet of parchment paper and press the mixture down again.
It's important to press the bars so that they stick together better.
Let the bars cool and harden COMPLETELY before cutting and removing. Otherwise, you will have a crumbly, sticky mess. Then wrap each bar individually and store in the fridge for best results.

Notes:
The signature taste of the Bobo Bars comes from the brown rice syrup, but if you prefer honey or agave, I'm sure either would work fine. With agave, you may need to reduce the amount because of the thinner texture.
Also, I choose to use coconut oil because I prefer it, but I'm sure any oil type would work, although they may contribute a different flavor.

These bars are really close to the real thing, although not quite as thick and there's maybe a little something missing, they are still very good and satisfying!

Enjoy!

Picture post

Here's a quick picture preview of what's been going on the past couple weeks! I went home for the past week and left my computer behind, so even with having free time from work, I wasn't able to be busy writing posts.
Sorry about that!!

A Durango sunset made extra pretty by the smoke from the Weber fire. 

My mom's 4th of July cake!

Puppies galore! One of my friends currently has a litter of nine! 

No, I did not bring a puppy home, sadly. 

Hopefully by tomorrow I will have a post about some grrrreat oatmeal bars that I made!

Have a great day!

ZWOW and gym goals

It's another beautiful Saturday morning in Colorado! We actually have some clouds for the first time in two weeks! But it would probably be too much to ask for some rain...

This morning I woke up and busted out a killer workout from Zuzana Light.

Her ZWOW #22 was intense! But I'm SO proud to say that I beat her time and got 15:35!
I felt pretty awesome after realizing I had beat her time, cause she's so fit! But I just wish my abs looked like hers... :)

I did finally cave and paid for a summer membership at the college's gym. They have strange hours and it will be a bit of a squeeze getting there after work and they aren't open on the weekends, unfortunately, but I'm glad I did it.

Right now my goals are that by the time I move to Fort Collins in late August, I would like to be able to deadlift at least 200lb, squat my body weight (140lb) and do 10 unassisted chin-ups.

Right now I can deadlift just above my body weight (145lb) and squat about 105lb. As I said before, I can do 2-3 unassisted chin-ups, but they aren't very good form, so I will need to work on that too.

I feel it's good to get my goals written down, so I can judge my progress and in the end see if I set my standards too high or too low.

I have about two months and one week to make that progression and I think with lifting at least four times a week, I will be able to gain quite a bit of strength and muscle.

Wish me luck!

Summer Spelt Pasta Salad

This weekend has been relaxing, I got to spend a lot of time cooking....I made an elk roast, whole wheat tortillas, hummus, pasta salad and that's just what I made for the upcoming week! I've been in the kitchen a lot! Which always makes me really happy :)
I've also been able to read quite a bit and I even sneaked into the gym the other day!!

It made me realize I'm a true gym rat at heart and will probably have to get a membership somewhere soon....
It just felt so good to deadlift again and I've been working on chin ups, so it was nice to actually have a real bar to do that on! I was successfully able to do four on my own and then about 16 more assisted. That's major progress for me! I'm gonna have to get a video of a couple soon, so I can prove to the world!

....And my back is still sore from it ;)

Okay, on to the yummy pasta salad.

Here's what you need:

2 cups spelt penne pasta (or whichever you prefer)
2 carrots, diced
1 medium zucchini, quartered
about 4 oz cheddar cheese (I used 2% mild), cubed
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed (or whichever you like best)

Dressing:
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 tsp parsley flakes (I'm sure fresh would be amazing!)
dash of black pepper and garlic powder


Cook the pasta according to directions so that it's al dente, drain and let cool. I like to rinse mine in cold water to immediately stop the cooking process and speed up the preparation. While the pasta cools, mix together the dressing ingredients and then throw it all in a large bowl and mix until it's all covered with dressing.
Simple.
Easy. 
Delicious.

I enjoyed mine with some iced blueberry tea :)

I really liked the variety of textures, from the crunchy veggies and then the softer pasta and beans.
Spelt pasta has a bit more protein than other pasta varieties and I think tastes better than whole wheat pasta! The beans add some extra fiber, more protein and a bit of iron. All good things to have in an active body! 

The dressing was not very strong for the amount of salad that it makes (about 4 servings), but I don't like it very heavy, so increase your amounts if you want to taste it more.
You could also add some chicken breast or salami to this recipe if you wanted some more protein. I personally would have added salami or summer sausage because of the flavors.

Enjoy!


Here's a picture of beautiful Vallecito Reservoir (about 20 miles away from here) and my friend's puppy Boba Fett :)

Brutal workout

Yesterday I tackled a brutal workout. Only 16 minutes long, but I was exhausted by the end of it.
I don't know if it was actually super hard, or maybe I just worked out too close to breakfast...but I was pretty close to losing my eggs at one point.

It was an interval workout, with longer than usual intervals: 1 minute work/ 20 seconds rest
It included four rounds of four different exercises (4x4):

-jump side lunge (58, 51, 48, 50)
-forward and backward jump burpee (8, 8, 9, 8)
-alternating curtsy squat with 25lb kettlebell (22, 22, 20, 22)
-alternating single leg pike press (18, 14, 14, 14)

In the parenthesis are my scores for each round of the exercise.

I personally think it was brutal! One full minute of effort is more than I usually do and it proved to make the workout extra tough!

Here are some examples of each exercise:

Jump side lunge (Zuzana Light in the picture)


Forward and backward jump burpee
 I don't think there's a good picture for it, but it's like a regular burpee with a pushup and instead of jumping upward at the end, you take two jumps: one forward and one backward.

Alt. curtsy squat (source)


Single leg pike press (Zuzana Light in the photo)

 

If you try the workout, let me know how you did!!

Pita Pizza & Pics

Today for lunch I had a wonderful little invention called the Pita Pizza!

Super simple concept and preparation! Inspired by Peas and Crayons and Cookie+kate.
Just make a pizza on a pita pocket! I used EVOO, herbs, mozzarella, spinach and left over chicken. 
Then cook it at 425 in a cast iron skillet for about 12 minutes and voila! A perfect personalized pizza!
I may be eating this for lunch and dinner for the next two days...or until I run out of pita bread! 

In other news, the past week has been lacking in the workout area because I sprained my ankle last weekend, a silly incident of being run over by a large man and falling into a flower bed during some weekend festivities.
This is what it looked like a couple days after:

Still very swollen and painful at that point. I had to take two days off work to help it heal. It's doing better now and closer to normal size again!
I think I will need to go easy on it for another week, but the past two days I've been able to get some great workouts in without hurting myself more.

Since I'm not a gym rat anymore, my workouts have been consisting of a lot of plyometrics and compound moves to work my muscles and get some cardio. But with a sprained ankle, the plyo part has been difficult because jumping on a weak ankle doesn't seem like the most productive thing for the healing process.
I've been making due and today managed some burpees again!

I'll post more about my "recovery" workouts soon, but I wanted to post a couple progress pics now that I've been done with Jamie Eason's 12 week program for about 6 weeks and on my own, doing mostly at-home-workouts.

 (May 19, 2012)

Yes, I do have motivational/inspirational quotes on my mirror!

 (and please excuse my messy bed!)

I can definitely see some improvements from what my arms looked like in February! 

That makes me very happy :)

What do you like on personalized pizzas?

Have you ever sprained your ankle? What did you do to recover well?